An online car selling platform claims that inconsistent prices paid by dealers when buying used cars leaves many buyers feeling that they have been ‘ripped off’.
Tootle surveyed 1,000 people and found that more than six out of 10 dreaded selling their car to a dealer when they were buying a new model, and around a third were afraid they would be ripped off during the transaction.
Building customer loyalty with fair dealing and good customer care is vital in the motor industry. It’s important to ensure your clients feel that they are being fairly treated when they visit the showroom. It’s also important to make sure you have the right levels of motor trade insurance to cover both your own and your customers’ cars on the premises, and you should regularly look at this if you are bringing more stock into the business.
Tootle said that dealers tended to offer more for used vehicles if they were ones in particular demand with their customer base. This was one of the reasons that sellers felt they were not being treated fairly.
Tootle CEO Al Taylor told AM-Online: “Our research also suggests that sellers get a below market price from car buying services or part-exchanging with a single dealer because the car will end up being put through auction — the cost of which is deducted from the offer price.”
The research discovered that women often found selling their used car to a dealer more stressful than men did. Nearly seven in 10 women said they dreaded the interaction compared to 53 per cent of men. The gender divide was also apparent in people’s concerns about being ripped off, with 40 per cent of women stating they feared this compared to 28 per cent of men.
A quarter of the survey said they hated haggling over price and the same proportion had suffered a bad experience doing so in the past.
