Too much used car stock was a ‘blessing in disguise’ for Autovillage

Paul Boyce of Autovillage commented that being overstocked going into lockdown turned out to be a ‘blessing in disguise’ for the SsangYong and Subaru dealership.

Director of the business, with two showrooms in Gloucestershire, was concerned about high stock levels as he closed the business just before the official Government instruction but is now worried about getting stock moving forward.

He explained on Car Dealer Live with James Batchelor that he’s positive about the future ‘assuming we can get the stock’.

Boyce said: ‘Going into lockdown I think we were probably overstocked and we were probably at one of the highest stock levels we’ve been at, which was a big concern on March 23.

‘We were thinking we were going to see a collapse in the used car market and lose loads of money but really it’s been a blessing in disguise.’

He also commented that new car sales hadn’t stopped for them either, despite the surge in used car interest, and said: ‘We’ve sold quite a few new SsangYongs in June as well to new customers. Not just satisfying ongoing business that we had pre-lockdown.’

Boyce said that selling cars under their new system meant there had been ‘a lot less faffing around’ and that they were going for a different system to most dealerships. However, even with this in place that haven’t seen customers not want to shop with them.

He said: ‘Currently we’re still running it in a slightly unusual way. Our doors are locked with a doorbell. We’re letting customers in but we’re controlling it significantly. We’re a smaller business so we want no more than two customers at a time.

‘We’re not really dealing with walk-ins at the moment. Phone and internet customers are the way forward for us.’

To watch the interview in full click play at the top of this page.