What's going to happen to the car market?

[Fusion]

Wonder if @Gibbo will fancy a reduced McLaren instead, following the latest news? Build volumes are down. Both them and Aston could be in a fair bit of bother. McLaren really haven't made enough of an effort to differentiate their offerings. It's only recently that the Speedtail and Elva have come along, and they are limited run models. Can't understand why they didn't try a Cayman rival. People will probably scream that it would bring their image downmarket, but it hasn't affected Porsche in that manner!

If all you sell is a bunch of V8 supercars, should it be a surprise that you end up tapping every avenue for funding and swinging the axe on the workforce when times get hard, irrespective of how good your niche products are?

 

[Gibbo]

Wonder if @Gibbo will fancy a reduced McLaren instead, following the latest news? Build volumes are down. Both them and Aston could be in a fair bit of bother. McLaren really haven't made enough of an effort to differentiate their offerings. It's only recently that the Speedtail and Elva have come along, and they are limited run models. Can't understand why they didn't try a Cayman rival. People will probably scream that it would bring their image downmarket, but it hasn't affected Porsche in that manner!

If all you sell is a bunch of V8 supercars, should it be a surprise that you end up tapping every avenue for funding and swinging the axe on the workforce when times get hard, irrespective of how good your niche products are?

A 570S is the Mclaren I'd buy and out of the bunch 600LT is my favourite but with this market and Mclaren in general I'd only buy a 570S for 50-60k and a 600LT for 90-100k otherwise I just feel they are too risky as its not just depreciation with Mclaren but running cost also and reliability is hit and miss with them.

My ideal purchase for me is to aim for a 991.1 GT3 for around 75k, enjoy it and if I really love the GT3 in a year or so I can trade it in for a 991.2 GT3 manual. Am just watching the market if I buy anything I simply want a proper recession epic deal that stands to lose me very little or nothing and with Porsche I know running cost are more reasonable and warranty that is good is possible plus all 991.1 GT3 have a ten year engine warranty at standard so all are warrantied in that aspect until around 2024 it is after this time where the 991.1 GT3's will become cheap due to the engine issues.

GT4's are also now 60k and though they are awesome I'd always wish I'd got the GT3 and to be honest when it comes to just driving a car like I stole it and enjoying the twisties the S2000 is so much fun, I am so glad I revisited it because compared to my 99 car this one is in a different league but I've learnt a lot about cars so its had its suspension setup and its got decent tyres.

 

[ShiWarrior]

dealers are reopening on 1 June

 

[Gibbo]

dealers are reopening on 1 June

Most are already open, but for appointments and car hand overs.

 

[Jonnycoupe]

Yeah. So sales open 1st June. Like he said

 

[Gibbo]

Yeah. So sales open 1st June. Like he said

What I was pointing out is that several are already open, including sales departments and allowing solo test drives etc. I guess a few of them decided it was in their best interest to get selling again ASAP and not just be a lemming and wait for the government to give the go ahead.

Just all will be open including showrooms for visits and not by appointment only from June 1st but it has been possible to view cars and buy them previous to June 1st if your keen enough.

 

[Jonnycoupe]

Yeah but we are talking about the generic car market in this thread - most main dealers have been closed. Everysingle JLR retailer in the UK has been closed (not because lemmings) and it’s new cars tht drive the whole market.

I’m afraid it’s not about extreme bookend of a uk car buyer after specialist vehicles. But then I didn’t drive for hours “to look for supermarkets that had no queues” as I’m a lemming.

 

[Joe T]

/ removed. No point winding up a mod.

 

[ShiWarrior]

Not sure why encouraging breaking the lockdown is being promoted in this thread, but I guess that's the mod's prerogative.

im not sure how you came to that conclusion

 

[Joe T]

im not sure how you came to that conclusion

Sales departments / showrooms were explicitly identified of being required to close, so having them open is contrary to government guidelines. Service departments were allowed to be open, but that's it.

That did change slightly with click and collect. But that does not allow customers onto premises to sites to view cars and test drive them.

Even Gibbo's post suggested it was against government guidelines.

 

[Gibbo]

Sales departments / showrooms were explicitly identified of being required to close, so having them open is contrary to government guidelines. Service departments were allowed to be open, but that's it.

That did change slightly with click and collect. But that does not allow customers onto premises to sites to view cars and test drive them.

Even Gibbo's post suggested it was against government guidelines.

Well, I guess a few dealerships have either found loopholes or have found ways to operate and not just specialist dealerships either. I looked at a few S2000's and about three weeks ago one came back offering me a solo test drive if I was interested, of course, I have a car now but this dealership (Fiat) was operating whilst maintaining social distancing and cleansing cars down etc. I know a few others were open too but as I said by appointment only for viewings or collections/handovers.

So I guess a few are either breaking the government rules or just trying to be creative to keep their business going.

Yeah but we are talking about the generic car market in this thread - most main dealers have been closed. Everysingle JLR retailer in the UK has been closed (not because lemmings) and it’s new cars tht drive the whole market.

I’m afraid it’s not about extreme bookend of a uk car buyer after specialist vehicles. But then I didn’t drive for hours “to look for supermarkets that had no queues” as I’m a lemming.

Well it was not extreme end of car market. I dislike queuing and I have a nice car so enjoy driving to find a less crowded place to shop.

 

[Jonnycoupe]

Okay Dom with the VTEC they heard you Cummings.

 

[Gibbo]

Okay Dom with the VTEC they heard you Cummings.

They most certainly do.

 

[vanpeebles]

Are you trying to take acme’s whopper crown?

 

[Amos91]

I've been speaking to a BMW dealer about an auc purchase. If you put down a refundable deposit they would let you have an unattended test drive etc, plus the car would be ready to go if you wanted to purchase.

 

[Scania]

I've been speaking to a BMW dealer about an auc purchase. If you put down a refundable deposit they would let you have an unattended test drive etc, plus the car would be ready to go if you wanted to purchase.

That's got me thinking about an hour in an M4 or something - especially given that they've mailed me countless times during this lockdown period.... Hmm...

 

[Regy53]

I can confirm I have both visited a Ferrari dealership by appt and test driven a car in the last few weeks. Loopholed indeed

that said one of them is flat out closed still, so much so even after the 1st they do not plan to man the showroom

 

[Nasher]

The whole thing is full of loopholes. Just drive around with a shopping bag and you can go wherever you like

 

[Russinating]

Trying to sell my car at the moment, currently on Gumtree for I think a more than fair price, but only had 35 views (1039 search appearances) and 1 message offering me £1,500 less than asking...

Not sure how long to leave it before listing on Autotrader? It's a Kia Sportage (so no, not Piston Heads).

 

[Chris1712]

I would guess the private market for a Sportage is pretty small, so I'd say you need to get it on AutoTrader to get as many eyeballs on it as possible. It's pretty cheap in the grand scheme of things.