I, like most business owners, am optimistic by nature. We tend to see the glass as half full and always claim to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Over the past weeks and months, many have asked me what I think of the economy, particularly the car business. My reply is always to the point and brutally honest.
Car dealerships are folding in record numbers. The industry has dropped from selling 16 million units a year to about 10 million currently. The bad news is I don’t see it getting better anytime soon. In fact, I think 2009 will be as tough or tougher.
The bad news for the average dealer is he is stuck with old, undesirable used vehicle inventory that has dropped in price quicker than he is able to sell it. Deflation has eaten away at his bottom line. As values drop, the ability to get the banks to loan money on those assets also dissipates. The banks now want to protect themselves from future defaults.
I’m not saying I’m smarter than my competition. What I am saying is my timing was perfect. I bought into John Marazzi Nissan in October ’08, just as the credit markets were imploding. In fact, during my first week we had the derivatives market, the car industry, the stock markets, and the credit markets crashing at the same time. Needless to say, the first 30 days were rather interesting.
When I arrived at the Nissan dealership there was very little used vehicle inventory in stock. Just a few old age vehicles, but very little in depreciating assets. Previously, the store only sold 20-30 used vehicles per month. When I bought the store, I knew the future of our industry was going to be late model, pre-owned vehicles. I believe it’s going to become in vogue to SAVE money again. A pre-owned vehicle a couple years old can literally save you 50 percent off the original new car price.
My goal from day one was to be the #1 pre-owned dealer in all of Southwest Florida. For those who don’t know my history, for the past 17 years my team and I built and managed the #1 pre-owned operation in the country. Well, now that I OWN my own store, I’m going to work my tail off to repeat our past success in Naples. I’m excited because I’m now in a position where I can go out and buy late model pre-owned vehicles during the biggest “buyers market” of all time.
In my first two weeks, I reached a deal to buy and process ALL of the pre-owned vehicles from some of Florida’s largest lease companies and banks. I get to buy at 60 to 80 cents on the dollar. We wholesale the edgy vehicles and only keep the very best. At any one time, we have 400 late model used vehicles running through our books.
The vehicles we keep must have a clean CARFAX report, and they go through an extensive 120-point service inspection. Then we back it up with our exclusive Nationwide Lifetime Warranty. You get all this and a “wholesale”
In just our first 60 days, we became the documented #2 volume used car dealer in Southwest Florida. What makes that amazing is the fact that the store previously didn’t even rank in the Top 25. Going forward, I think we will become #1 and remain there. I’m confident because, in my 25 years in the car business, I’ve never seen the kind of buys we are making. Absolutely gorgeous, one, two, and three year old domestics, but mostly Hondas, Toyotas, Infiniti’
Plus, I have the same banks that I’ve done business with for the past 17 years stepping up with very competitive finance terms with little or no money down. In my opinion, you will never see a better pre-owned buying opportunity than we have RIGHT NOW!
Please remember as you search our website http://www.marazzinissan.com vehicles are coming and going so quickly that most don’t even appear on our website yet. So, please call my Internet Wholesale team at 1-888-Wholesale (1-888-946-5372)
Thanks for reading my note. I’d be honored to have the opportunity to earn your business.
John Marazzi
