Profits could be in the detailing for car dealers

There is no doubt that car dealers in the coming years (make that months) will be looking even harder for extra income streams and profit opportunities. Ten years ago we would really only have had the metal, perhaps some finance and payment protection – which due to some high profile miss-selling cases has been somewhat discredited in the eyes of the buying public – and an upgraded warranty to try and make a car sale a bit more profitable.

In recent times, as we mentioned yesterday, a whole range of products have come to the market which can be both beneficial for customers and profitable for car dealers. The statistics tell us that customers are increasingly looking for value for money packages rather than just a chunk of money off a car, so dealers will inevitably look to other avenues to offer customers some extra value products.

Any car driver will have experienced some kind of mishap at some time regarding their car, whether it be a simple chipped windscreen or a bumper scuff and the earlier this happens in a cars life the more painful it can be. Let’s face it, in some more built up areas, any car at any time could pick up a grazed alloy, a scuffed wheel arch, stone chipped bodywork or even some damage to the vinyl or seat cloth or leather.

At present most customers will only be aware of how this could affect the re-sale value of their car when they either try to sell it or trade it in. The cost of some of repairing these items in isolation is anywhere between £25 to £200 and sometimes more depending on the severity. Customers will often take their vehicle to a bodyshop because they may not realise that a scuff or scrape could be repaired by other less expensive techniques.

Car dealers will shortly start to offer “Auto-detailing” services in order to cater for these requirements and customers will be able to bring their car in and have the car valeted, treated, have all the minor imperfections sorted out at the same time as a service. As a result this will hopefully save money both in the short term and protecting the long term value of their car.

There are some specialist companies already offering this kind of service but by car dealers adding this kind of resource to their own list of services, the added traffic this route provides will offer increased profit opportunities for the dealership and a valuable facility to their customers.