Ex Motability cars

zaksmum

BoGoF wrote: »

Suggest you Google 'motability profits' then say they are not a business.

Anyhow, as said above it's far more efficient for them to sell them in bulk to dealers. And frankly, why you feel they need to justify their policy to you bemuses me.

I was just wondering why their policy had changed to exclude the public, that's why. So sorry if it bemuses you!

AdrianC

zaksmum wrote: »

But Motability is not a business, it's a charity

It's both.

Any half-way decent charity needs to be run as the business it is.

motorguy

Car_54 wrote: »

Not all decisions by businesses are very good. Otherwise none would ever go bust ...

And likewise, its easy to criticise a decision made by a business when you've no idea about their market or their reasons.

I would say motability have been around long enough to know what they're doing with regards to car disposal.

It wouldnt be hard to statistically see the impact of sending all their cars to closed dealer group auctions, rather than to public auction. I'd say a lot of traders wont even bother attending those if they know the public are going to be there bidding them up.

And i've no doubt they've done that. Perhaps closed dealer auctions on average yield better prices overall, quicker average payment times and less comeback / risk of bad press?

motorguy

Car_54 wrote: »

Indeed. Such agreements are probably illegal if they "have as their object or effect the prevention, restriction or distortion of competition within the United Kingdom". It's difficult to see what other object they'd have.

If all trade buyers can attend, hows it preventing competition?

Applying your logic, we should all be able to go to the Heinz factory and buy a can of beans cheaper than Tesco will sell them to us, because otherwise they're infringing anti-competition law?

motorguy

zaksmum wrote: »

But Motability is not a business, it's a charity, and as such should attempt to obtain the highest price for it's ex Motability cars? And a private buyer is likely to pay more than a dealer as he won't have to factor in a potential profit.

How do you know that is the net effect?

If trade buyers - the guys who maybe buy 500 cars at a time and will buy a good spread of cars for stock - stop coming to these auctions because the public are there cherry picking the nicest cars then maybe the net overall effect is lower returned prices?

Joe Public may bid an extra £100 on some low miles, mint, three year old Fiesta but if the trade stop attending to buy up those cars AND the ones that need a bit of work or are in a less popular spec, the average price could be lower.

Please dont underestimate the size of Motability, their fleet and the size of auctions and auction houses they work with. They will have prices and statistics down to the penny. There will have been a very compelling reason or reasons why they have done this. It is not just one person sitting in a portacabin somewhere thinking "oh lets stop selling to Joe Public".

motorguy

Shaun_of_the_Dead wrote: »

Dealers probably offer motability a better return. Sell the cars off a bulk sales instead of showing them individually to a number of tyre kickers.

Yup. A dealer group turning up and buying 100 VW Golfs and paying by bank transfer the same day is i'm sure a lot more palatable than 100 individuals buying, tyre kicking, complaining, paying by cheque, not paying, etc etc.

motorguy

Heres another couple of potentially compelling reasons -

Private individuals will pay a massive amount in fees compared to trade buyers - perhaps £700-£1000 - to buy a single car. Trade buyers it could be £100. So having all the private buyers could literally just be clogging up the auctions whilst not paying an awful lot more overall for the cars because they will have to factor in high fees.

Auction houses may well charge Motability a lot less per unit sold to trade rather than to the public. The trade will turn up with their own transporters and take 100 cars away, 100 private buyers will mess about, tyre kick and be effort intensive. Trade buyers will also want to move the cars out ASAP, private sellers may take longer on average, thus using up valuable storage space.

motorguy

zaksmum wrote: »

I was just wondering why their policy had changed to exclude the public, that's why. So sorry if it bemuses you!

I'm ex motor trade. Did it for years - decades in fact.

Personally i used to avoid public auctions as they were more hassle than they were worth. I was in the grand scheme of things small fry and my non attendance at the auction was of no impact to the auction house / sellers. Imagine though dealer groups not attending who maybe take 1,000 cars a year? THAT has impact. Maybe thats the reason why.

I've given you other various reasons why i believe motability could have done this. Thats based on motor trade experience. Others with experience have agreed or said similar.

Those reasons are as close to a definitive answer as you're going to get.

Ignoring the responses does not make them less valid.

Car_54

motorguy wrote: »

If all trade buyers can attend, hows it preventing competition?

Applying your logic, we should all be able to go to the Heinz factory and buy a can of beans cheaper than Tesco will sell them to us, because otherwise they're infringing anti-competition law?

The law refers to restriction as well as prevention.


As for Heinz, they're not breaking the law. Unless their refusal to sell to the public is a result of an agreement with Tesco (or whoever).

AdrianC

Car_54 wrote: »

As for Heinz, they're not breaking the law. Unless their refusal to sell to the public is a result of an agreement with Tesco (or whoever).

By your logic, a foreign manufacturer would be breaking the law by only selling to a sole concessionaire/importer, who would be breaking the law by only selling to authorised dealers.