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E CREDIT CRUNCH
Page 53
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Volvo dealership Thomas Hardie's used vehicle sales division is defying the credit crunch by offering a 2.9% flat HP deal on any truck bought and paid for during August.
"Customers have to find a 10% deposit and pay all the VAT upfront," says used sales executive, Jonathan Bownes. The package is backed by Volvo Finance and should help the Middlewich, Cheshire-based operation generate extra business.
It has received a positive reaction to its initiative, despite so many prospective customers being away on holiday. Even if hauliers do not sign up to it, it has at least prompted them to get in contact, says Bownes, if only out of curiosity; and if they do not buy now, then they might ring up in two or three months' time when they are ready to purchase.
"What the offer is doing is getting us talked about, and that's got to be good news," he says. "If you do nothing, then you get nothing.'' A concern that existing customers are unable to secure funding is not the reason why the dealership is promoting the package.
"Most of the people we deal with run well-established firms with solid links with their own customers and have had the good sense to build a fuel price escalator into their contracts," he says. They tend not to find it difficult to obtain finance."
Bownes believes that some dealers could generate more business if they improved the way they present their vehicles.
"It always helps if the yard isn't strewn with litter and if the trucks aren't filthy inside and out," he observes. They should at least start first time and have enough fuel in them to take them up the road if the customer wants a test drive."
Many dealers meet these standards, and far higher ones, as a matter of course; but there are some, unfortunately, that do not.