If you could open your own car dealership

goochy

Hey as a car buff I have always dreamed of opening my own car dealership . with rents/ property cheap and with many urban areas lacking a franchise dealer due to closures , there are many opportunities if someone could get finance or had a few hundred grand lying around ! Have y seen empty showrooms in cork Dublin limerick or Galway etc and thought would be great to open say an Audi dealership there ? Purely dreaming !

A few hundred grand wouldn't keep the head over water for long.

Drummerboy08

I also wouldn't open an Audi dealer.

Hyundai or Kia for me.

smcgiff

I'd prefer a high volume plus premium mix - so, Audi and VW franchise please.

In fact I'll take Two. Can I have them wrapped

dahamsta

goochy wrote: »

Hey as a car buff I have always dreamed of opening my own car dealership . with rents/ property cheap and with many urban areas lacking a franchise dealer due to closures , there are many opportunities if someone could get finance or had a few hundred grand lying around ! Have y seen empty showrooms in cork Dublin limerick or Galway etc and thought would be great to open say an Audi dealership there ? Purely dreaming !

You know /why/ these things are the case, right? Tip of my tongue... begins with an R....

smcgiff

dahamsta wrote: »

You know /why/ these things are the case, right? Tip of my tongue... begins with an R....

Think it was more to do with the financing costs of million euro showrooms. Selling/servicing cars should still be a viable business.

goochy

Some. Businesses have closed due to bad management and owners be Involved in property etc and you could lease rather than spend millions on premises !

dahamsta

Ah right, i had forgotten that people are queueing around the block to buy new cars at the moment.

Wicklowandy

Its not the time to open ANY business that depends on irish consumers right now. The exceptions are few and far between. The only garages that will survive this have an established customer base for sales AND service, are not indebted and have a low cost base eg own premises and family staff.

ninty9er

There are empty showrooms in Limerick that are not Audi dealerships for the simple fact they're not "brand consistent", and a former Audi dealer not willing to spend a million quid on a showroom when there's plenty around.

As mentioned, it'd be a few million you would need if you wanted to start up now, not a few hundred grand. That said I don't buy into the argument that it's a bad time to open a consumer business, and if I had a few million lying around I would certainly consider a multi-franchise dealership.

Henry Ford III

You want to be a bit touched to open a new franchised car dealership inthe present climate.

New car sales are a headache, and profitable used car sales are very tough work.

Wicklowandy

If you had a couple million lying i can think of many more profitable ways to invest it and see return. Sales are going to be on the floor, and the ones that survive will have loyal established customers for sales and service, no debt and owned premises.

They can survive with reduced turnover. And banks have been so stung by the motor trade, for them to provide finance to new dealers, there going to want people with an incredibley strong (and clean) business background. And to be fair, if you wish to run a multi franchiship dealer, you are going to need the support of a bank in addition to a couple of million.

I think were going to go forward with more, small independent car sellers and mechanics. And it mightened be so bad a thing.

Eric Cartman

Open one and only sell cars with every possible option / extras , con poverty spec paddy into going all out so i may buy his leftovers a few years after

Syllabus

smcgiff wrote: »

Think it was more to do with the financing costs of million euro showrooms. Selling/servicing cars should still be a viable business.

not with every tom, dick and harry doing it all for half what u would have to do it for to keep the fancy showroom open

RidleyRider

I think if money were no object and people were willing to spend I'd open a garage just for supercars and vintage classics.

Supergurrier

Online Forecourt, cars in storage.

Less overheads and more profit, it's the future people

PauloMN

A used premium German car supermarket for me.... all Audi/BMW/Merc cars up to 5 years old, with a service centre specialising in these marques also. Somewhere just off the M50. I think there's a pretty healthy market for quality used cars like these in Ireland.

monkeysnapper

I wonder if there would be money in opening a classic car garage. You basically import classics. A bit of a wheeler dealer .

I'm thinking all the people in there 40s 50s who still have money wanting some nostalgia.

Plus you'd probably male more money out of servicing as these classics tend to break down more often.