Well, we are going into another whole era. That is “the battle of pre-owned, more so than new”. The reason for the competition becoming greater in not only independent retailers but in rental car companies retailing vehicles, the internet retailing vehicles but also our dealerships becoming more and more concentrated on their own product line rather than the abundance of trades they are offered that could make serious profit, we are solely trying to stick to pre-owned of our own make. Remember, you are in the car business and you are called the pre-owned manager. That means any make and model should be fair game to you.

The reason everybody is getting in the pre-owned game today, is the quality of the vehicles since 2006. The quality of these vehicles is absolutely the best we have seen in our industry. Personally, I would not be afraid to flush the transmission and do a fuel system clean on a 200 thousand mile car and not worry about it at all. As long as these vehicles start and stop and are serviced properly with fuel system cleanings behind ethanol gasoline and high mileage oils in these vehicles when we change the oil, we have good solid cars. Unfortunately managers are afraid to spend an extra hundred dollars on balancing tires, actually replacing shocks on pick-up trucks and investing in new tires, which is the number one thing the customer looks at when they look at a pre-owned vehicle. This makes no sense to me.

Tighten it down guys, you are pre-owned managers, you are the best in the business. You’re self made, you know what you’re doing, and it’s time to get serious, because the only reason you’ve got more competition than you have ever had is because people see the profit that’s out there and you’re letting it slip through your fingers.

Till next time.