Out with the Old, In with the New

As children, during an annual spring-cleaning exercise, we were conditioned to give our old toys away in preparation for the new gifts bound to be given come Christmas time. This ensured that by the time the holiday season rolled around, our family homes weren’t flooded with stray Lego pieces, and forgotten Barbie dolls. It made sense: if you were no longer going to play with these toys, why not pass them onto someone who could appreciate and love them better?

Every year dealerships are introduced to the newest versions of vehicles coming into the market; upgraded tech features, exterior facelifts, new engines, slick bodykits, the list goes on. When something shiny drives through the perfectly cleaned glass doors, dealers aren’t going to hide these ‘new toys’ away at the back - everyone knows that they belong centre-stage. But cars are not toys and dealerships are not kids. Whilst dealers do have to clear the way for new stock, it doesn’t work exactly the same as our youthful spring cleaning antics did.

In amongst the excitement and preparation for the arrival of these new vehicle models, dealerships are simultaneously preparing the rest of their business for the arrival of trade-ins.

Most people who want the newest version of a car, have to first step out of the one they’re currently driving.

This means that it’s time to filter through, re-price, recondition and repair these used cars for sale. So, what happens when the new cars do arrive?

Long before this, dealerships begin analysing the building excitement and demand amongst consumers for these vehicle versions. If they find that it there’s a lot of interest, they’ll work on lowering the sale prices of the vehicles they already have on their floors as a way of widening their net for potential sales of that current stock and clearing the space for what’s incoming.

Naturally, if they find that there isn’t much buzz surrounding newer models, dealerships tend to leave the prices of their current stock as is, so to avoid any losses that may occur upon the arrival of the new toys.

So what does this all mean?

For the dealers, they know that they have attractive stock about to hit their floors. With new stock comes new excitement, and following that usually comes new sales. These periods can be manic for the dealerships, but ones that tend to be lucrative too.

For consumers, they now have more options. New models will attract a certain type of buyer, and so for other consumers whose budgets don’t meet the requirements of these new toys - and like we mentioned before car buying starts with car selling - great new stock also becomes available on the used-car showroom floor for them to drive away in. No toys get thrown in the trash - everyone has the chance to go to a new home.

With the current market’s standing, the introduction of new vehicle models is a good thing for the trade. The chip shortage causing the stock shortages will eventually subside, and things will return to a calmer state in whatever the “new normal” might be.

But if we’ve learnt anything, we know that one thing is for sure; the value of a dealership’s used car department won’t diminish.