9:09 am, December 23, 2025
Motor industry veteran Peter Vardy believes dealers with a Chinese carmaker franchise have a ‘fantastic couple of years’ ahead of them, but warned they need to be careful working with these brands as the nature of business is ‘fundamentally different’.
Speaking on the latest Car Dealer Podcast, Vardy opened up about how he has diversified his business from motor retail, and gave his thoughts on the rise of the Chinese challenger brands.
‘The Chinese products are very good and very cheap – for the man on the street who wants a cheap car, they are the ones to buy at the moment,’ he said.
‘So, if you’ve got a Chinese franchise, next year is going to be fantastic. It’ll be two or three years of real growth I imagine, and then I think the margins might then be pulled as they can’t go on forever.’
Drawing on time spent living in China, Vardy said retailers must understand that ‘this is a different culture… it’s a different way of doing business.’
He said: ‘When I went to live in China, somebody said, “You got to take your goggles off because you’re looking at this as a Westerner, and it’s not your world, Peter. This is a different culture”.’
‘As I learned how to trade over there, I learned how to deal with people. They don’t perceive some things the way you do. So, when you said you would say, “I don’t agree with that, that’s wrong”, well, it’s not wrong in their culture. I’m not saying which one’s right, but it’s just a different way of doing business.’
Vardy explained that the Chinese franchise dealer contracts he saw were very different from European ones.
‘I was fortunate enough to have a commitment with BMW for a long time, and if you had a bad year quite often BMW would step in and do something about that. I think that’s a completely different culture for the Chinese brands. You’re on your own.’
He added: ‘The dealer contracts I saw [with Chinese carmakers] were a lot weaker than we would have with a European manufacturer. The Chinese have a lot more control.
‘We [the industry] always wanted to be like the American dealers, didn’t we? Having a lot more strength than the manufacturers, but we never quite got there. I think we’re even weaker with the Chinese brands, and I think that’s something to be very careful about.’
Four Chinese challenger brands will be appearing at Car Dealer Live on March 19. BYD, Geely, Omoda & Jaecoo and Chery will all be represented on a special panel at our event. Tickets are available now at early bird prices.
Elsewhere in the podcast, Vardy gave an update on the business’s transition from a mostly motor retail-focused business to a more diversified operation, and hosts James Baggott and Jon Reay chatted with Vardy about the Vardy Foundation and its charitable exploits.
Vardy also spoke in-depth about a new leadership conference he has created called TheCalling. Check back to Car Dealer soon to read more about this.
You can watch the full podcast above, or listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and all good podcast platforms.
