Discount scheme needed
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IVECO IS the latest manufacturer to openly declare it is opting out of the discount war. Its new managing director Giorgio Garruzo has clearly stated that IVECO will not buy market share through suicidal discounts.
We want to believe this latest declaration, but having heard it all before we declare a large degree of sceptiscm. Market forces prevail.
Gone are the days when operators standardised on a particular make and model. The financial climate over the past decade has made them extremely price conscious. To all but a few a "good deal" now is more important than after-sales service.
It will always be a matter for regret that the Fleet Users Discount agreement was abandoned. This ensured that standard discounts were allowed for various sizes of fleet.
Operators then purchased the vehicle of their choice with quality of product and after-sales service the main considerations. Manufacturers retained enough of a profit margin to support their dealer network and everyone enjoyed the benefit of sensible trading.
Why the discount scheme was abandoned is obscure and lost in the mists of time. Many of today's operators will not have heard of it.
Perhaps now is the time for manufacturers, through the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, to introduce a new scheme.
We are not at all opposed to free trading. The discount scheme would not interfere with the individual list prices which individual manufacturers would control. It may well reduce basic prices.
We suspect that those manufacturers who are offering 25 and 33 per cent discounts have already built these into their price lists before the horse trading starts. If not, they are committing suicide the slow way.