UK car sales February 2009 motor industry total registrations figures statistics SMMT manufacturers dealers
Posted on | March 6, 2009 | Comments Off
WOW! In Feb 2009, LINGsCARS delivered more new cars than ONE THIRD of the car companies in the UK motor industry did, according to the Society for Motor Manufacturers and Traders!
This shows the truly terrible state of car dealer sales in the UK. Morale in the manufacturers and franchised dealership groups is at an all time low and car salesmen up and down the UK in these dealer networks are twiddling their thumbs and crying over their self-induced depression.
My feeling is, this is about customers, engaging with real people who buy cars. The UK franchise car dealer model is broken. I beat Abarth, Aston Martin, Bentley, Cadillac, Chrysler, Corvette, Daihatsu, Dodge, Hummer, Jeep, Lotus, MG (joke), Perodua, Porsche, Proton, Ssangyong, Subaru. What on earth are these companies and their dealers playing at? There is a total lack of pro-activity and enthusiasm in UK car sales, and it shows! I came within a whisker of beating Lexus, Alfa Romeo and Mitsubishi.
Think about it! These companies have massive organisations and dealer chains, MDs who are paid a fortune, swanky offices, massive infrastructures and loads of staff to support. They spend £millions on advertising and marketing to consumers and almost give cars away to fleet buyers to try to drive up sales. Yet, I can beat them, a Chinese bird from Gateshead – primarily by talking to customers.
My thoughts are that their dealers are simply not working, trying or doing their jobs. They spend more time “building their brands” than satisfying consumers and talking and interacting with customers. It is nothing short of a scandal. Yet, at the same time, the manufacturers queue up to receive hand outs and “support” from the UK Government (our taxpayers money).
Manufacturers and dealers need a massive rethink about how to sell (good) products and how to communicate and interact with their wonderful customers. All they seem to do is moan, and dealers seem to sit in their multi-million pound showrooms waiting for something to happen. The industry bodies are next to useless, and just hold out a begging bowl for cash support and dubious scrapping schemes. You can’t just scrap perfectly good cars!! This is not environmental AT ALL!
I say: “get out there and talk to customers and you could reduce the car prices by HALF if you didn’t waste so much on worthless marketing and infrastructure”. One advertising campaign in a national newspaper or on TV will eat up WELL OVER £1000 per car of profit from each of these players, probably much more. What are they thinking of? Pass those savings to consumers! They need some high-profile sackings (and no pension settlements!). Jeez, thousands of jobs are at risk and they keep banging their heads on a broken, old-fashioned sales model.
I give credit to Ford for the new Fiesta, and to Toyota who try like hell, Mazda who have some good product and a pro-active new MD, Citroen are really active, Hyundai, Jaguar and Fiat are fighting (from low bases last year) and little Smartie cars with just one model now are being brave.
Some others, however, need taking out and shootng, particularly Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep group, Cadillac (just 1 car AGAIN – is that the MD’s car?). February 2009 UK Car Registration figures (left), the ones in green are the manufacturers that sell less than LINGsCARS.com.
My big question of the month, is who bought those 3 Corvettes? Hahahaha. They were probably for Dealers to drive around in, eh?
- Ling
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