Recession

[eugene]

Having been told today of 2 local garages gonebankrupt,i am wondering whats the story in other countries
One garage is a main VW delarship which has been in business for 25yrs and the other one is a4X4 delarship which has been operating for 6yrs.
Another main Opel main delarship is on a 3 day week and is over 60yrs in existance.
From what i am told is that garages just can't sell cars due to the economic downturn.
This situtation will also affect the sale of beloved classics.
What i mean is,that the seller will not get much demand for sales+will have to sell for less money.
Would love to hear your coments and views .Eugene

[sid131]

My mate used to change his car for a new one every 18 months but not this time as they are looking 12/15k with his old car which is 2007 also a vw, scandelous, the illegal vrt strikes again when will they learn, go to uk & buy a good used vw & import.

[chris131]

Yes I agree that people needing to sell their cars at the minute will have to take a drop in price to sell. However I think with classics it is a little different, and I say that because, generally the people who own classic cars are reasonably well off, and so they don't need the money that badly and don't have to sell in such times as a recession.

Just my opinion.

[bellamacchina]

I am selling cars myself and yes there are much less people in our showroom. Problem is that people don't get credits quite easy and they are also afraid to spend what they have. We have the luck that we also do a lot in repairs and maintenance. You always see that when the repairshop is full, you sell less and v.v.!

One other thing I want to say. Carbusiness is almost the only business where you can trade in your old stuff(a car here) When you buy a television you accept that it is almost worthless when you are outside the shop. When the dealer offers you a bid far lower as you expected that dealer is an asshole. . And the dealer who gives the highest trade-in price has right,what you only can say after the deal is finished till the end! I would like to say it this way. I trade the car in for the price you want and we talk when it is sold. Is it less, you pay the difference, is it more you get a premium.Is that fair You know one very simple rule. A car is worth what it brings in the sale,that means also that a 1 year old Bentley Continental GT is worthless when there are no customers!

The situation at the moment(I don't wanna use the c word) is that dealers completely don't know what they can pay for a trade-in, or even they don't know if they can pay their workers at the end of this month.

[sid131]

agreed the problem here is that you just cannot sell your second hand car because there are lots of cheaper cars the same vintage being sourced in the Uk & imported say BMW 520 diesel & VW passats diesel, they now come into a lot lower tax bracket & import duty has lowered since july 2008 so why pay tops for a 2008 here when you can get a lot cheaper in the Uk,its going to get worse i know of a large toyota garage that toyota itself took over garages are going to go bust all over Ireland.

[bellamacchina]

The same kind of problems everywhere Sid!

[theredx19]

Sure Eugene why if you people love their beloved classics would they worry if they can sell them and my other pet hate worry how much their worth' does it matter

[sid131]

well none of my cars are for sale & i dont care what they are worth or what other people think of them, they after mine!! forever. that goes for my CB900fa also!