Value of part-ex and profit margins

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Sun 21 Mar 2004 21:10
Value of part-ex and profit margins - catalyst
I have a Daewoo Lanos 1.6 to part-ex, good body etc. but a few engine problems. Worth £2000 tops, but I'd be lucky to get £1500 privately. What do dealers do with these cars that no-one will buy on the forecourt at a major dealer ? Do they all end up sold at auctions ? And when a Ford dealer sells, say, a on-the-road £10 000 Fiesta, what is his profit margin ? (Do they ever end up just breaking even/losing money on a sale ?)
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Sun 21 Mar 2004 22:18
Value of part-ex and profit margins - Marc
From speaking to a couple of main dealers whilst changing my cars - they are usually put out to auction.

Apparently they are now too risky even to sell on "out the back, sold as seen" to an interested punter - although this might have been sales patter.
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Sun 21 Mar 2004 22:46
Value of part-ex and profit margins - Blue {P}
A new Fiesta has about a 7% profit margin in it, I managed to negotiate most of this in my favour when I bought my Fiesta, and yes, main dealers *do* sometimes just break even and even make losses on some sales, especially the sale of some ex-demo cars.

Blue
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Mon 22 Mar 2004 08:05
Value of part-ex and profit margins - owen
Most main dealers will pass the cars on to other small dealers. Some will put cars through auction, and some will still sell them "out the back".
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Mon 22 Mar 2004 21:41
Value of part-ex and profit margins - catalyst
Interesting, but what do you mean exactly by: 'out the back' ?
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Tue 23 Mar 2004 08:10
Value of part-ex and profit margins - owen
"out the back" means that they will retail cars that they normally wouldn't be keen to, but no warranty, etc.
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Tue 23 Mar 2004 10:50
Value of part-ex and profit margins - stokie
A friend of mine was offered £1100 trade in price for his R reg 65k Astra when trade value was £1500. It did cross my mind that the salesman was allowed to buy and sell trade-ins as a form of commission. Does that happen?
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