An opinion needed from the car salesman out there?

[pops and bangs]

Would love some outsiders opinions. Basically I've had a few second interviews recently and been offered jobs at Honda and Vauxhall.

I have second interviews at Kia and Ford.

Just curious for opinions on what dealership you'd be inclined to aim towards, obviously I'm aware that the actual dealer will play a part e.g good franchise, etc

But purely on the manufacturers which would you be leaning towards and why?

I might not even be offered jobs at Ford and Kia which would obviously make my choice easier.

Any opinions would be appreciated.

I was thinking Vauxhall and ford are good bets, but a friend at current dealer said he'd go for Honda.

Thanks.

Edited by pops and bangs on Wednesday 31st July 16:06

[rehab71]

Here's my insight (11 years in the trade).

Ford are the market leader, so a good place to start (I've worked at a Ford dealer for over 4 years now and am very happy to stick with them as I like the cars as do the public, press etc.)

Kia, very up and coming and going places, I'm sure it would be good a move. (We have a Kia franchise and they are doing very well)

Honda is struggling at the mo in the UK, product line up not very strong IMO and expensive. (Plus not exactly a line of gorgeous 21 year old blondes wanting to buy them ;o). We also have Honda franchises so I have a good idea.

I personally don't like Vauxhall and they're always second best to Ford, market share, reviews everything. Although they have some strong 0% offers which is helping hem out at the moment.

[Myc]

I'm not a salesman but spent a several months in an environment that saw a very high volume of new car sales.

Ford and Kia absolutely obliterated the other manufacturers being sold so from an achieving sales and commission point of view thats the two to go with in my opinion.

[pops and bangs]

Thanks a lot rehab. That's exactly the kind of advice I was after.

I'll obviously see what happens at ford and Kia and go from there.

I'm moving from a car supermarket which I used as a stepping stone into the industry. I'm making a good living so far with consistent performance, good ppu and want to make sure I go for the right brand.

To be fair I did have slight reservations about Honda anyway, their current new car range just isn't that inspiring, I could say the same about Kia from a personal point of view but Kia are a brand that is currently experience growth at the moment.

Also as you said (in a lighthearted way) about the blonde, you're bang on in my opinion. Honda doesn't even really have a range that attracts a variety of customers, whereas even using Vauxhall as a comparison they have a range of cars that attracts to a bigger market, young people, first time drivers, older people etc, and the more people products attract, the more cars you're going to sell

[pops and bangs]

Myc said:

I'm not a salesman but spent a several months in an environment that saw a very high volume of new car sales.

Ford and Kia absolutely obliterated the other manufacturers being sold so from an achieving sales and commission point of view thats the two to go with in my opinion.

Kia are definitely a brand growing and that attracts me to them. I'm just not overly inspired by their cars on a personal level. Although that's not overly important in the grand scheme of things.

And as you say i fyou're working for a manufacturer that sells a lot of cars, you're going to potentially make a lot of money.

Just hope I get to have that choice between them....

The stage I'm at right now is as well as obviously focusing on the "best" manufacturer to work for with a bigger potential for sales, I'm weighing up the usual job related things e.g distance, location etc

And then the franchises themselves, the Vauxhall one for example is not a very well respected franchise (very bad reviews on them)

Edited by pops and bangs on Wednesday 31st July 20:57

[Myc]

pops and bangs said:

Myc said:

I'm not a salesman but spent a several months in an environment that saw a very high volume of new car sales.

Ford and Kia absolutely obliterated the other manufacturers being sold so from an achieving sales and commission point of view thats the two to go with in my opinion.

Kia are definitely a brand growing and that attracts me to them. I'm just not overly inspired by their cars on a personal level. Although that's not overly important in the grand scheme of things.

And as you say i fyou're working for a manufacturer that sells a lot of cars, you're going to potentially make a lot of money.

Just hope I get to have that choice between them....

The stage I'm at right now is as well as obviously focusing on the "best" manufacturer to work for with a bigger potential for sales, I'm weighing up the usual job related things e.g distance, location etc

And then the franchises themselves, the Vauxhall one for example is not a very well respected franchise (very bad reviews on them)

Edited by pops and bangs on Wednesday 31st July 20:57

Ford Fiestas and Kia Picanto's are what people are buying brand new these days, noone was interested in the vauxhall corsa.

It was the same with the Focus over the Astra and when people ran the numbers the Cee'd became very popular too. We also found Kias aftersales service the best as well. I had a Cee'd for a couple of days as a hire car and it was a really comfy place to be and well equipped with Nav, Bluetooth and reversing camera. We also had tons of enquiries for the Sportage but that wasn't available through us at the time.

Kia has a car that will meet anybody's requirement from the Picanto to the Sorento so from a salesman perspective you should be able to supply a car that fits rather than trying to persuade people there requirements are different to fit your product range. Plus the warranty package is going to help you as well.

[pops and bangs]

Thanks a lot for your post Myc, you've definitely given me food for thought.

[bugmenot]

Myc said:

Ford Fiestas and Kia Picanto's are what people are buying brand new these days, noone was interested in the vauxhall corsa.

It was the same with the Focus over the Astra and when people ran the numbers the Cee'd became very popular too. We also found Kias aftersales service the best as well. I had a Cee'd for a couple of days as a hire car and it was a really comfy place to be and well equipped with Nav, Bluetooth and reversing camera. We also had tons of enquiries for the Sportage but that wasn't available through us at the time.

Kia has a car that will meet anybody's requirement from the Picanto to the Sorento so from a salesman perspective you should be able to supply a car that fits rather than trying to persuade people there requirements are different to fit your product range. Plus the warranty package is going to help you as well.

Interesting. Just by going on what I see on the roads I would've said I see more Corsas than Fiestas, more Astras than Focuses and more Insignias than Mondeos.

[Myc]

We were supplying a new kind of car scheme to the employee of a very large bank and a few other large organisations so large cross section of people from the low paid Bank branch staff all the way up to the Chairman (Audi A6 with towbar for his bikerack so it could carry his bike when his chauffeur picked him up from the house of commons) along with guys from the factory floor etc.

Ford Fiestas were probably selling at a rate of 40 a month, Corsa can't of been more than 5 a month at the very maximum. The Fiesta had much more contemporary styling and was popular with both the young customers and the older customers downsizing.

Insignia was quite popular (I drive one myself at the moment) but the Mondeo wasn't on the scheme because of CO2 so had little in the way of competition.

A few people had Astra's as hire cars and complained there was a problem with their pushchairs fitting in the boot so that hit its reputation with family buyers as you felt obliged to get them to go check the boot for size if someone was enquiring about one. I actually had to write a report for Vauxhall after they were questioning why the Astra GTC wasn't selling as well as the Scirocco as they believed the GTC and Scirocco were direct competitors.

Kia joined the scheme late but the Picanto was tremendous value and had the funky styling that made it very popular with the young buyers so that quickly ramped up to 30 a month. Lots of middle aged women were harassing us for the Sportage but wasn't available because of CO2 ratings.

These were all sales to private customers, I'm sure when you look at manufacturers supplying the large fleet customers you could get a different picture but the OP is going to be in a retail to private buyers environment so thought the info could be relevant.

[Myc]

You'd also be amazed how big an impact the non-cost paints had on people.

The fiesta came in white for no extra cost which was definitely picked up on by a lot of customers.

[ajf]

White is a cost option on all fords

[Myc]

ajf said:

White is a cost option on all fords

It is now, wasn't when I was involved in this late 2011 early 2012 or if it was, Ford weren't charging our customers for it.

It started to become an issue when people where ordering poverty-spec Fiestas in White as the resale team were very worried that in three years time they'd have a load of White Fiestas to shift that would look like they were straight from a meter reading fleet or similar.

Apologies, I fear I've taken this thread a bit of topic, I'll hand back to the real salesmen.

[Engineer1]

pops and bangs said:

Kia are definitely a brand growing and that attracts me to them. I'm just not overly inspired by their cars on a personal level. Although that's not overly important in the grand scheme of things.

Edited by pops and bangs on Wednesday 31st July 20:57

Kia may have been growing but they are no longer the cheap alternatve manufacturer they were, so a 7 year warantee becomes the USP. People may have flocked to them when a top of the range car could be had for less than the price of a bottom end "competitior's" vehicle.

[waterwonder]

Put on the hat of several different customers and then think about what they would most likely buy.

Then go and have a look at the smmt registration figures for any given period. (retail only if they're available).

More cars sold = more commission.

[burriana]

And, check the dealership commission structure as that can make a huge difference. I work for EH and the pay us dreadful. All based per unit rather than profit. I'm lucky if I make £40 a unit, in fact, I don 't think I have yet. Hence I need to find a company that pays a decent wage.

[GhiaX]

burriana said:

And, check the dealership commission structure as that can make a huge difference. I work for EH and the pay us dreadful. All based per unit rather than profit. I'm lucky if I make £40 a unit, in fact, I don 't think I have yet. Hence I need to find a company that pays a decent wage.

Very valid point.

Whilst franchise volume is very important, commission structure and anything that will infulence you pay needs to be considered. Like use of a company car outside of work, do they expect you to pay for all the fuel or do you get an allowance.

Also I'd be more inclined to stay away from large PLC's and find a smaller company that has the franchise as they tend to see their staff as people rather than just as numbers which is what PLC tend to do.