NEWS

Renault UK has appointed Autorola UK to support its national dealer network in buying and selling used Renault vehicles and unwanted, part exchange “stock.”

The partnership allows Renault UK’s 160 dealers to trade stock between each other, search for used Renault cars that will help to replenish used stock back into dealerships, while also making its used vehicles available to over 2,000 active buyers. Used stock can be easily uploaded to Autorola’s online remarketing portal, Autofind, by the dealers to view and buy.

Approved Used Renault

Renault UK has approximately 15,000 used cars in its network, including a comprehensive selection of electric and traditionally-fuelled cars and MPVs under the Approved Used Renault banner, which offers a 12 month warranty as standard on all vehicles.

Matt Downing, Renault UK’s TCO and Remarketing Manager, said: “Our partnership with Autorola gives our national network of used dealers improved access to used vehicles both internally and externally, while helping them to quickly sell unwanted stock to the trade.

Autofind portal provides peace of mind for Renault dealers

“The Autofind online portal provides complete peace of mind for our dealers, who can focus solely on selling used cars to the widest possible retail audience, while maximising profitability through reduced stocking days and improving vehicle turnover.”

Jon Mitchell, Autorola UK’s Group Sales Director, added: “Demand for Renault’s used range has always been high with buyers on our portal; the early reaction from Renault dealers to buying and selling has been positive. We look forward to helping the Renault dealer network maximise efficiency and achieve further growth in their used car businesses.”

The Spanish new car market ended 2016 in a much healthy state with all the major sectors – leasing and companies, rental and private all increasing in size.

Rental and leasing reported double digit new car growth, while the private sector lagged behind slightly, still hindered by the reluctance of some banks to lend consumers money.


Spanish new car market hits 1.15m

The final new car market was 1.15m, which is still some way from the height of the 2007-08 market when 1.7m new cars were sold in Spain.

Currently the used car sector is booming with around 1.8 million annual transactions, but due to the low new car sales volumes experienced in 2008-12 there is still a major shortage of used stock in the country.

20% of used cars coming from imports

The resulting growth in imports comprised around 20% of the used market with dealers being forced to source cars from abroad just to satisfy demand.

“Our pan European online remarketing portal has seen record levels of activity from Spanish dealers looking to import used cars,” explained Lohaus.

6,000 active buyers source cars through Autorola Spain

“We have 6,000 active buyers sourcing cars on our Spanish platform who are after three to eight year old cars that cost under 10,000 Euros.”

“That compares to the sub-two year old market where ex-OEM cars and the growing volume of ex-rental cars on the back of a buoyant tourist industry are in an over stock situation. Typically this accounts for cars between 10,000 and 18,000 Euros,” he added.

New CO2 regulations set to penalise aging cars

In some areas of Spain like Barcelona and Madrid private motorists and businesses will be forced to sell their aging used car and used vans to meet strict new CO2 regulations. Used car and vans not meeting these regulations will not be allowed into the city centres.

“This may cause further used car and van shortages in the future as many older vehicles will have to be scrapped,” said Lohaus.

More OEMs and dealers are embracing digitalisation

The quest for increased efficiencies within the asset management and vehicle remarketing industry over the past few years has meant the market has embraced digitalisation. More processes and used vehicle selling now happens online which is why the INDICATA used vehicle business intelligence platform has been embraced by OEMs and dealer groups alike.

INDICATA reduces stocking days and protect residual values

“Manufacturers realise that if they can help their dealers generate more used car sales then there will be more scope for their network to buy more cars from both the manufacturer and rental buy back schemes. Through using INDICATA dealers know the exact pricing of a used car to sell it in the fastest possible time which is allowing them to stock more cars over a period. This helps protect residual values as dealers aren’t forced to heavily discount stock to generate sales,” explained Lohaus.