Impact of COVID-19 on motor industry?

jmreire

Do the fandango wrote: »

No — The 18th is for service & repair departments to get back. The likelihood is that showrooms and sales can reopen to the public in Phase2 on June 8th, but that’s provided there is no upsurges in Covid cases.

I’m not sure of the legalities but if garages are chancing their arm, doing deals and having people collect their new/used cars before June 8th then I wouldn’t put much trust into their practices elsewhere. Nothing wrong with taking deposits, but interacting with members of the public before then is bad form. You won’t see any of the larger groups or reputable, established dealers doing it anyway.

May be bad form as you say, nevertheless, here are the figures from the CSO:
Quote:
Just 10,239 new private cars were licensed for the first time in March, down 28.9% compared to the figure of 14,404 in March 2019.
The CSO also said that a total of 5,582 used (imported) private cars were licensed, a fall of 38.7% on the same month last year. " Unquote.
.

ELM327

Cyrus wrote: »

Folks do you think dealers will be opening for collection of new cars from the 18th?

I doubt there will be collections but if the dealer did delivery as opposed to collection, it would be fine.


This is what Tesla are doing now. Order and pay online and get the new car contactlessly delivered to your house.

jmreire

ELM327 wrote: »

I doubt there will be collections but if the dealer did delivery as opposed to collection, it would be fine.


This is what Tesla are doing now. Order and pay online and get the new car contactlessly delivered to your house.

It will have to be done, simple as that, if the trade is to survive......adapt to the new reality.

Rows Grower

jmreire wrote: »

It will have to be done, simple as that, if the trade is to survive......adapt to the new reality.

Shares in Tesla are the most traded in a lot of countries in the last month and are on a steady climb.

jmreire

Rows Grower wrote: »

Shares in Tesla are the most traded in a lot of countries in the last month and are on a steady climb.

Covid-19 has caused the business world to come to, if not to a shuddering halt, then to a massive reduction in production. It will take some time ( quite how long remains to be seen at this stage) but already the power's that be, Industrialist's, Manufacturers etc are planning how to manage the new reality. So the money is moving toward's the "smart" options.

Toyotafanboi

Dont think collect and deliver is practical from a sales point of view for the long run, but businesses may have to persevere with it for a while.

Read this yarn on a car sales facebook page the other day dont know if it's truth or fiction but it's definitely plausible.

Firstly, I’ve not done any retail business since lockdown.
I’ve traded a couple and taken a few deposits for completion afterwards but not actually sold a car.

Since it was officially announced that we definitely are allowed to deliver, I decided to do a deal yesterday with a chap in Plymouth (about 130 miles away) on an Evoque I’ve got with an Mercedes A180 coming in PX.
Lovely jubbly, drive one down, drive one back.

As I arrive, the guy’s already sat on his garden wall dressed in his fluorescent orange overalls waiting for me (he’s a tarmac layer, not a mechanic).

By the time I’ve wiped all the interior over with anti-bac spray and got out, he’s already on the floor under the back end.

He gets up after about a minute and declares he’s not happy about the exhaust heat shield being rusty and how he’ll need some money off to replace it 🙄.
Next, he’s under the bonnet, prodding and poking about and decides it must have had a smack in the front because a couple of the plastic clips that hold a trim panel on looked as though they’d been changed. “Not the end of the world” he says, but we’ll have to have another chat about the price.

He jumps in and drives it to the end of his road and back, gets out and tells me there’s a suspension knock.
Bollocks is there.
I’ve just driven 130 miles and it’s absolutely faultless. He insists it’s there and that I should drive it down the road to check.

So to pacify him, I get back in and drive it.

I’ve just pulled up outside my unit 2 1/4 hours and 130 miles later and I still can’t hear anything 😂

Judging by the missed calls, it took him 47 minutes before he realised I wasn’t coming back 🖕

greasepalm

I take it that the ordinary garage for repairs might be reopening on the 18th may hopefully.Be back to a quiet place if no one is on the road and still at home.

Rows Grower

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

Dont think collect and deliver is practical from a sales point of view for the long run, but businesses may have to persevere with it for a while.

Read this yarn on a car sales facebook page the other day dont know if it's truth or fiction but it's definitely plausible.

The point was deliver instead of collect and was in relation to new cars.

Toyotafanboi

greasepalm wrote: »

I take it that the ordinary garage for repairs might be reopening on the 18th may hopefully.Be back to a quiet place if no one is on the road and still at home.

I don't think many will be going back to a quiet place, fortunately.

Theres been a lot of enquiries. Particularly last week but particularly particularly yesterday and today, people nearly pleading that they need work done.

The beauty of aftersales work is it's more of a necessity or a need for people. If the car is broken down you need it fixed, if you have a puncture or a warning light you need it sorted. People may be sheepish about spending money and maybe servicing will fall to an even lower priority for people but if the car is broken it generally has to be fixed and nobody in the country has been fixing cars for almost two months now so theres plenty of problems out there.

jmreire

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

Dont think collect and deliver is practical from a sales point of view for the long run, but businesses may have to persevere with it for a while.

Read this yarn on a car sales facebook page the other day dont know if it's truth or fiction but it's definitely plausible.

And that in a nutshell, is going to be one of the main problems when ii comes to working in the new reality! Deals done over the phone / internet. The trade was always open to this kind of skulduggery,,,You will always hear about the "crooked Garages, selling mileage doctored or badly repaired crashed vehicles" but on the other side, you have the criminally inclined "Customer's", but at least, Covid-19 did not have to be factored in.

Toyotafanboi

Rows Grower wrote: »

The point was deliver instead of collect and was in relation to new cars.

I'll just dhún mo bhéal so

Rows Grower

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

I'll just dhún mo bhéal so

Tóg go bog é.

benny79

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

I don't think many will be going back to a quiet place, fortunately.

Theres been a lot of enquiries. Particularly last week but particularly particularly yesterday and today, people nearly pleading that they need work done.

The beauty of aftersales work is it's more of a necessity or a need for people. If the car is broken down you need it fixed, if you have a puncture or a warning light you need it sorted. People may be sheepish about spending money and maybe servicing will fall to an even lower priority for people but if the car is broken it generally has to be fixed and nobody in the country has been fixing cars for almost two months now so theres plenty of problems out there.

All the garages I know of haven't closed. Maybe car sales places that have a garage and carry out work (main dealers) but that it. Sure a garage is an emergency service. Im getting a cv joint and timing belt done tomorrow. I have also collected parts for my mate a couple of weeks ago. Even advanced tyres on the naas road has been open but I think on reduced hours.

Toyotafanboi

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

............

The beauty of aftersales work is it's more of a necessity or a need for people. If the car is broken down you need it fixed, if you have a puncture or a warning light you need it sorted. People may be sheepish about spending money and maybe servicing will fall to an even lower priority for people but if the car is broken it generally has to be fixed and nobody in the country has been fixing cars for almost two months now so theres plenty of problems out there.

Surely once that backlog is cleared the fact that loads of folk are doing next to no miles in their cars for that same two months and the next few months in lots of cases will have an impact.

Also, the bit in bold is not true, a local motor factors has looked plenty busy to me anytime I've passed it. And the likes of BestDrive have been pottering away also, quite openly too.

fabsoul

LIGHTNING wrote: »

I have emailed four dealers looking for to purchase a new yoke. Not a single one bothered replying to me. Hit them up on Facebook as well, no reply either. They are obviously all too busy for a sale...

what make are you interested in?

ELM327

I'd say dealers never reply to emails.
The only time dealers ever replied to my emails was when I was emailing about a high spec high price car (eg Tesla) and they sniffed the commission.

If I were a dealer with a load of yariseseses outside I wouldnt bother with emails.

jmreire

Augeo wrote: »

Surely once that backlog is cleared the fact that loads of folk are doing next to no miles in their cars for that same two months and the next few months in lots of cases will have an impact.

Also, the bit in bold is not true, a local motor factors has looked plenty busy to me anytime I've passed it. And the likes of BestDrive have been pottering away also, quite openly too.

Yes, and plenty of Mechanics out there doing "Nixer's" too. They have bills to pay, and so the life goes on, even if it's restricted and breaking the health and safety rules.

LIGHTNING

LIGHTNING wrote: »

I have emailed four dealers looking for to purchase a new yoke. Not a single one bothered replying to me. Hit them up on Facebook as well, no reply either. They are obviously all too busy for a sale...

Many dealers lack professionalism and sales skills. They just want folk to almost self serve, lads in Harvey Norman selling washing machines put most car sales folk to shame.

ednwireland

car in to get fixed on monday, main dealer open for a couple days for repairs

my own car is in for servicing on 18th may. it was overdue when cancelled on april 6th

i do find it amazing that car dealers cant respond to emails though

SummerK

Augeo wrote: »

Many dealers lack professionalism and sales skills. They just want folk to almost self serve, lads in Harvey Norman selling washing machines put most car sales folk to shame.

Very true. I had been to a cork main dealer last year and I was there for like 10 mins, checked few cars, came out and no one was bothered to ask why I was there.

Couple of months ago had been to JP Mahon and upon enquiring used cars, front desk lady advised me to visit their website and come back if I like any thing.

sk8board

I’ve one remaining large service due next month under my bmw 5 year service pack.

I’ve been thinking I might email them and book it in before July 1, but I assume they’ll still honour the service pack after the expiry date, given the circumstances?

whippet

SummerK wrote: »

Very true. I had been to a cork main dealer last year and I was there for like 10 mins, checked few cars, came out and no one was bothered to ask why I was there.

Couple of months ago had been to JP Mahon and upon enquiring used cars, front desk lady advised me to visit their website and come back if I like any thing.

I did a trawl of BMW dealers earlier in the year - in the market for a new car and the difference in knowledge of sales staff across the few dealers was bonkers.

I had done my homework in relation to options and specs that I wanted - grant it i was obsessive at that stage but the knowledge gap with the sales staff was obvious. The amount of times I had to get them to re-do quotes as they had the wrong options included or didn't understand what was included in standard BMW packs.

carsfan2

sk8board wrote: »

I’ve one remaining large service due next month under my bmw 5 year service pack.

I’ve been thinking I might email them and book it in before July 1, but I assume they’ll still honour the service pack after the expiry date, given the circumstances?

It’s on BMW.ie website that they are extending Warranty and services ok for three months

pacman1989

Does anyone have any idea on when the NCT might reopen .
I have a Celica I'm looking to put back on the road but the NCT is out since 11/19 so I'm not sure what would happen in regards to checkpoints ect if I was to start driving it again .
You can tell the car is in good condition and it's only done maybe 500km since the last NCT but I couldn't afford to get 5 penalty points with my job.
Surely the NCT could allow bookings online for a few months down the line just so people in my predicament have something to show .

Montage of Feck

LIGHTNING wrote: »

I have emailed four dealers looking for to purchase a new yoke. Not a single one bothered replying to me. Hit them up on Facebook as well, no reply either. They are obviously all too busy for a sale...

Not responding to email, Facebook etc. is the easiest way to avoid spoofers.

Rows Grower

LIGHTNING wrote: »

Well the one that actually responded got my sale, dropped the deposit on Friday.

Headshot.

Cyrus

LIGHTNING wrote: »

Well the one that actually responded got my sale, dropped the deposit on Friday.

much of a covid deal going ?

jmreire

Hertz advertising 250 cars for sale at the moment,,,different models and years, but mainly from 2018 on. Full credit facilities offered too, and a "Can I assist you?" pop up Lady.

LIGHTNING

LIGHTNING wrote: »

Got a really good deal on my trade in, a shed load more than I was expecting.

What are you buying if that's not overly nosey of me of course.

jmreire

jmreire wrote: »

Hertz advertising 250 cars for sale at the moment,,,different models and years, but mainly from 2018 on. Full credit facilities offered too, and a "Can I assist you?" pop up Lady.

I find their asking prices are deliriously high and they often include a srappage discount.
There's a 171 Octavia 1.6 diesel with 120k kms asking €16.5k for instance..... https://www.hertzcarsales.ie/used-cars/11132160-skoda-octavia-85-per-week-with-zero-deposit/