What happens to new cars that don't sell?

Dinarius · 05-01-2022 11:22am #1

X number of new cars are imported into Ireland every year.

X minus Y of those cars sell.

What happens to the balance that never leave the forecourt?

D.

pcardin · 05-01-2022 11:28am

Like Brennans bread ad but opposite - they will sell yesterdays car today

goochy · 05-01-2022 4:28pm

Pre reg and sell at discounted price that guarantees a sale or maybe use as staff / courtesy car .

L1011 · 05-01-2022 4:31pm

Sell at a discount. If its a low seller and was imported on spec, that can be a big discount and take a long time.

goochy · 05-01-2022 5:05pm

But more likely to pre . Reg as advertising a new unregistered car at low price would upset importer and make similar cars hard to sell at higher price.

Charles Babbage · 05-01-2022 5:15pm

Some new cars brought in January that we not selling in the Spring could end up in summer car rental market, which would conceal the discount provided.

Toyotafanboi · 05-01-2022 6:45pm

Everything sells, eventually.

Some distributor stock does sit for months or occasionally.

Dealer stock doesn't usually sit too long but there are lots of avenues to getting the price down and getting rid; use as a demo, reg it, courtesy car, rental fleet etc.

Unless you work for Opel or Nissan or something like that i'd say there isn't too much truly unsellable stock out there though.

colm_mcm · 05-01-2022 6:53pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118422901#Comment_118422901

Ssangyong, Subaru.

not doing anywhere near the volume of your examples though

goochy · 05-01-2022 7:12pm

Looking at subaru dealers and their stock you would think they were selling a decent amount of cars . Dan seamans in Cork have a decent showroom stock of cars but only about 30 cars sold in Ireland last year

For Forks Sake · 05-01-2022 7:15pm

Plenty of them seem to end up under the arse of GAA players as "sponsored cars"

Stallingrad · 05-01-2022 7:20pm

Time it right, end of quarter and Ssangyong pay you to take the car.

mickdw · 05-01-2022 7:21pm

You would have to wonder about some used stock though.

I still remember a 2006 cls Mercedes that sat on local Merc dealer forecourt back in 08. It was priced about 10k over what it would have sold at at the time.

I saw it remain there for at least 18 months and after all that time, it had dropped in price but was still about 10k more than it should have been.

goochy · 05-01-2022 7:51pm

You can write off as depreciation . But yes some dealers are very stubborn with stick

colm_mcm · 05-01-2022 8:04pm

What happened some unused Fiats that didn’t sell is a mobile crusher came to Baldonnell, and in the presence of Revenue crushed a bunch of unregistered Puntos and Stilos. Apparently Fiat could write the cost of production off against their tax bill. Cars had to be completely intact to qualify.

this was around 2005 or 2006 IIRC.

AMKC · 05-01-2022 9:05pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118423058#Comment_118423058

Nothing wrong with that. I would take one. There is an electric Korando now and it's supposed to be very good. No idea if it is coming here do

AMKC · 05-01-2022 9:08pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118423278#Comment_118423278

Disgracefull but that is the World we lived in back then I suppose.

Sexual Chocolate · 05-01-2022 9:43pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118423278#Comment_118423278

That happens in my company but we deal in food ( theres best before/use by date and date of when it can't be shipped into shops, even if there's like 14 or 30 days left on it, manufacturer claims the tax back). Didn't think it could happen with cars though.😱

Sexual Chocolate · 05-01-2022 9:47pm

The MK1 Octavia would be a perfect example of this no ? The Mk2 came out in 04/05 but there's still the off 08 MK1 about. Or was there another reason to that ?

goochy · 05-01-2022 11:10pm

Would have thought they would have exported the fiat's to UK or some other rhd country.

Regarding ssangyong their financial situation is very poor could easily go bellys up

colm_mcm · 05-01-2022 11:30pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118423922#Comment_118423922

That’s because they built the 2 models at the same time for years so they could sell at different price points. The old model sold then was called the Octavia Tour. They made them up til 2010 (originally came out in 1996)

mickdw · 06-01-2022 12:12am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118423278#Comment_118423278

Surely it must have been at the introduction of CO2 based tax in 08 as this may have made them sale proof. Before that, surely they could have sold them for more than cost unless rust was an issue or something.

colm_mcm · 06-01-2022 9:45am

No, this was before 08.

They would have been selling to rental companies at cost anyway so there isn’t much you can do without losing money.

Things were a lot different back then in terms of depreciation. Less popular brands and models used to lose so much money second hand compared to now.

Del2005 · 06-01-2022 10:45am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118423653#Comment_118423653

That's how most commercial vehicles are made from the dealers here. I remember hearing how Toyota Ireland had to hide all their commercial conversions when a senior person from Japan came over, they fitted top quality leathers seats and equipment to their vehicles which the Irish took out and destroyed.

We live in the same world. Online returns are nearly all dumped.

Atlantic Dawn · 06-01-2022 10:52am

I remember Toyota were stuck with lots of petrol Corolla's that were not selling following the CC to CO2 motor tax switch in 2008, they ended up giving buyers 10% off, €10k in Prize Bonds for a year and free motor tax for a year, then were all sold.

Here's a mention of it in a press release around that time...

https://www.tonyburkemotors.ie/pages/news/local-article/tony-burke-motors-ltd.-appointed-new-toyota-and-lexus-dealer-in-galway

Stallingrad · 06-01-2022 4:33pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118423278#Comment_118423278

I remember going out to NVD years ago to meet a Fiat friend of the family as my mother-in-law was one looking for a Punto. There were row upon row of nearly new Puntos, Stillos, 147's, the guy couldn't give them away. How times have changed.

Sexual Chocolate · 06-01-2022 4:59pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118428146#Comment_118428146

Probably wouldn't be any different today, especially with the strong presence of Hyundai and Dacia ect. There was always fiats in my house years ago. Easily 7 over 10 years, puntos and bravas. Then it shifted to a Megane and Fiesta. My aul lad always maintains the Brava was the best car he bought until he got an e90.

ForestFire · 06-01-2022 5:25pm

Let Y = 0

colm_mcm · 06-01-2022 5:46pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118428310#Comment_118428310

I had a few new/newish Italian cars around 20 years ago. Big issue was that non Fiat dealers didn’t really want them as trade ins, so you could either lose your shirt now or kick the can down the road.

I really enjoyed them, they were well equipped and fun to drive - but in hindsight they were not good cars when I consider the amount of warranty work and out of warranty repairs I went through.

The Brava - like for like was a little over half the price of a mk4 Golf. You don’t see that either nowadays, most stuff is similarly priced to rivals.

mailforkev · 06-01-2022 6:03pm

Ah the good old days of FIAT. I learned to drive in my mum's 1994 Punto, absolute cracker of a little car. Looked good, was totally reliable, had around 75 bhp but weighed about half of a modern car.

goochy · 06-01-2022 11:14pm

Remember a cousin got a new stilo hard not to be underwhelmed

zinzan · 06-01-2022 11:29pm

In 2016 my folks got a decent chunk off a 2014 Mark IV Subaru Outback that had sat unregistered - it's pretty worthless now though a) because it's a Subaru Diesel and b) dealers still see it as 2014 model even though it has 2016 reg as the Mark V came out 2015/16 so it's an obvious difference. It wasn't bought to trade in anyway so will be kept until it goes no more.

It was an interesting purchase - the auld lad found out it was in stock from one dealer but they wouldn't do a deal on it so he rang around the other Subaru dealers asking the same questions until one was prepared to negotiate to get the sale.