High mileage car headaches explored in latest AM News Show podcast

25 September 2023

When the battle for used car stock led national motor retailer CarShop to shift its stocking profile to embrace older, higher mileage pre-owned cars it wasn't quite the antidote to empty forecourt spaces that many motor retailers might imagine.

Nigel Hurley, chief executive of the car supermarket group joined AM in the podcast studio recently to discuss his business and share thoughts on some of the major industry issues, including the blood, sweat and tears needed to steer a retail business when the figurative supermarket shelves aren't fully stocked.

The group quickly found the older stock caused delays and blockages in its PDI centres due to the longer rectification work required, and it hadn't anticipated the level of post-purchase issues these cars would cause, as it discovered it had to handle more breakdowns and out-of-warranty work for goodwill than the senior management was comfortable with.

"The aftermath of those older cars made us rethink the whole strategy," he told the AM News Show podcast. "So (in June 2022) we changed our strategy again, and we went from retailing anything under 10yrs and 100,000 miles back to only stocking five years and 50,000 miles if it was bought in from a third party or auction, or if it was from internal sources and we could inspect the quality of that car we go to eight years and 80,000 miles."

Automotive expert Jim Saker, emeritus professor of Loughborough University and president of the Institute of the Motor Industry, also joined AM's editor Tim Rose and deputy editor Aimée Turner for the recording, when Saker highlighted that too many young people who enter the automotive industry leave it within six months.

He knows of one company that has a turnover at almost 70% of people who leave within less than a year.

"It's how you onboard people, how the manager works with and alongside them," Saker said.

"One group I spoke with, they said 'We're family here, we have this family feel'. I said 'But you basically orphan so many people before they get into the family'. It was basically sink or swim."