Any market for a new Supra dealer?

Just having a think about what I'm going to do work wise, and I'm just contemplating / thinking aloud if here's any room in the market for another Supra dealer.

We have a fantastic fresh importer on this forum (Jurgen) who sells the best cars, and with this obviously comes strong prices.

The other Supra dealers just seem to buy UK cars and add a huge markup to the price, after tarting them up a bit. The impression I get is these dealers don't offer a great customer service, and these cars are often overpriced.

So what I'm wondering is, is there demand for a dealer who gives great service, doesn't resort to cheap business tactics (such as cluttering PH classifieds), has a showroom you can easily visit and sells straight stock and is forthcoming with any work that has been done to improve the car?

Just having a think about what I'm going to do work wise, and I'm just contemplating / thinking aloud if here's any room in the market for another Supra dealer.

 

We have a fantastic fresh importer on this forum (Jurgen) who sells the best cars, and with this obviously comes strong prices.

 

The other Supra dealers just seem to buy UK cars and add a huge markup to the price, after tarting them up a bit. The impression I get is these dealers don't offer a great customer service, and these cars are often overpriced.

 

So what I'm wondering is, is there demand for a dealer who gives great service, doesn't resort to cheap business tactics (such as cluttering PH classifieds), has a showroom you can easily visit and sells straight stock and is forthcoming with any work that has been done to improve the car?

Seems like a good idea there's always new member signing up saying there on the search for a new car. And not all are willing to wait for an import to come in and often prefer to see the car in person.

Would this be a result of the rude car dealer thread by any chance? I think there is always room for more dealers who have good stock at fair and competitive prices while selling good examples as there are many floating about, The idea of paying 5k for a NA makes me shiver and having a place to go and have a look for yourself would work as many people would come to have a look and tempt themselves and for myself when I was looking I would of preferred this method.

Would be even better if this was in the south as well

There's always room for specialist dealers with a good reputation in my opinion mate. The only drawback would be the costs involved. Unless you're going to fill the forecourt with NA's, you'll need quite a bit of start up capital. You would rip through 60-100k with stock and a decent showroom.

I don't know your current financial position, but with banks simply refusing to give credit lines to existing businesses, never mind start ups, you may find it very difficult to get started.

All the best with it mate, would be a dream to work with something you're passionate about

Just having a think about what I'm going to do work wise, and I'm just contemplating / thinking aloud if here's any room in the market for another Supra dealer.

 

We have a fantastic fresh importer on this forum (Jurgen) who sells the best cars, and with this obviously comes strong prices.

 

The other Supra dealers just seem to buy UK cars and add a huge markup to the price, after tarting them up a bit. The impression I get is these dealers don't offer a great customer service, and these cars are often overpriced.

 

So what I'm wondering is, is there demand for a dealer who gives great service, doesn't resort to cheap business tactics (such as cluttering PH classifieds), has a showroom you can easily visit and sells straight stock and is forthcoming with any work that has been done to improve the car?

Jurgen does all of the above that your asking and wouldn't be where he is today if he didn't so.... Look no further.

IMO no there isnt any room and you'd be wasting money.

Jurgen also imports cars for a showroom as such.

With his reputation there aint much point if you ask me.

I know that I would only ever goto Jurgen for a new car if it had to come from a garage as opposed to a private sale. That's nothing against you either

I think just selling supra wouldnt be much custom or maybe not enough to make a living.

The Mickey Mouse outfits like Jus Sport, Paul Brown etc look to have the Jap scene covered on PH with advertising the same car 2 or 3 times. Like you say they seem to be heavily priced.

Jurgen has some great cars, good aftersales and offers the garage side of it for any work you my require but again I think the prices are o little on the rich side but then again its a business.

There's always room for specialist dealers with a good reputation in my opinion mate. The only drawback would be the costs involved. Unless you're going to fill the forecourt with NA's, you'll need quite a bit of start up capital. You would rip through 60-100k with stock and a decent showroom.

 

I don't know your current financial position, but with banks simply refusing to give credit lines to existing businesses, never mind start ups, you may find it very difficult to get started.

 

All the best with it mate, would be a dream to work with something you're passionate about

To be honest, raising funds to start a business will not be an issue for me. I was thinking well over £100k to be honest, and that startup cost also requires a significant amount of running capital to keep things sweet (many profitable companies have gone under due to cash flow issues)

It's just something for me to ponder, I have an excellent business partner, and in a year an excellent and trustworthy mechanic i know will be looking for work. I have a fair amount of business experience myself, and the success of my previous sales career was based on offering TOP customer service, and being 100% honest with customers.

York also lends itself fairly well, being halfway up the mainland, having easy access to the M1 and A1, reasonable business rates on the outskirts, and having Elvington air field just up the road (where '10 of the best' is hosted)

I think just selling supra wouldnt be much custom or maybe not enough to make a living.

 

The Mickey Mouse outfits like Jus Sport, Paul Brown etc look to have the Jap scene covered on PH with advertising the same car 2 or 3 times. Like you say they seem to be heavily priced.

 

Jurgen has some great cars, good aftersales and offers the garage side of it for any work you my require but again I think the prices are o little on the rich side but then again its a business.

Jurgens stock is priced very well for what he sells. I wouldn't want to slurry his good name by mentioning it in the same sentence as the other UK Supra dealers.

I wouldn't be exclusively selling Supras, I was thinking sports cars, mainly in the £3k to £9k price range. Specialised stuff that I'm experienced with, including older Audi S models, VWs, DC2 Integras, 200sx's etc.

IMO no there isnt any room and you'd be wasting money.

 

Jurgen also imports cars for a showroom as such.

 

With his reputation there aint much point if you ask me.

 

I know that I would only ever goto Jurgen for a new car if it had to come from a garage as opposed to a private sale. That's nothing against you either

No offence taken, I've bought from Jurgen before and he deserves his excellent reputation. I was really aiming lower in the market, not importing fresh cars. I was thinking reasonably priced NAs and lower end TT autos and 6 speeds.

Jurgens stock is priced very well for what he sells. I wouldn't want to slurry his good name by mentioning it in the same sentence as the other UK Supra dealers.

Amen.

It's a nice thought but I think it would be hard to make it profitable. The internet-only dealers have low overheads and could undercut a dealer who has a showroom to drive them out of business, unless that showroom dealer has a strong established reputation (e.g. Jurgen). Good for driving costs down (temporarily at least), but bad for the dealer who is sacrificed in this way.

Like others said, yout couldn't really specialise in supras: target market not big enough IMO. You'd get plenty of pats on the back from people on here, but that doesn't pay the mortgage.

For me, the business model of buying and then selling old gas guzzlers, ie Supras, in this economy is not really doable.

As I understand it, Jurgen doen't just hold all his stock in the UK, therefore his capital is not all tied up in that.

He also has diversity. (not that dance band) - he sells others makes and models of cars too.

On top of that he does car repairs etc...so he has multiple income streams.

Ps This is just as I see it Jurgen

I wonder if he was just selling supras and bought all the stock in advance, how many years ago he would have gone out of business?

I think there is definitely a place in the market for sensibly priced UK sourced cars. When I was selling them I found that a lot of people were not able to pay premium prices for fresh imports and were looking for (what they considered) better value cars that had already been driven over here.

Now, whether there is enough of a market for Supra's alone is another thing but I think it would certainly be worth looking into more detail.

It's a nice thought but I think it would be hard to make it profitable. The internet-only dealers have low overheads and could undercut a dealer who has a showroom to drive them out of business, unless that showroom dealer has a strong established reputation (e.g. Jurgen). Good for driving costs down (temporarily at least), but bad for the dealer who is sacrificed in this way.

 

Like others said, yout couldn't really specialise in supras: target market not big enough IMO. You'd get plenty of pats on the back from people on here, but that doesn't pay the mortgage.

Absoloutely. I've edited a post above to mention that it wouldn't be exclusively Supras, it would be fairly affordable '90s sports cars.

I'm only really thinking out loud for the time being, I appreciate everyone's views and opinions.

For me, the business model of buying and then selling old gas guzzlers, ie Supras, in this economy is not really doable.

 

As I understand it, Jurgen doen't just hold all his stock in the UK, therefore his capital is not all tied up in that.

 

He also has diversity. (not that dance band) - he sells others makes and models of cars too.

 

On top of that he does car repairs etc...so he has multiple income streams.

 

Ps This is just as I see it Jurgen

 

I wonder if he was just selling supras and bought all the stock in advance, how many years ago he would have gone out of business?

Thanks LBM. You brought up a very good point with Diversity, IMO it's absoloutely key for success.

I know what you're saying about gas guzzlers, but there are exceptions. Supras have a certain amount of desirability because of there looks, but other cars (such as E30 BMWs, Sierra Cosworths etc) have seen an increase in demand for good examples, due to many being keen on more tangible investments.

I have often dreamed of opening a car sales place that looks a little bit like Ace Cafe, selling food, quality meeting place and a strict rule that all the cars have quirkyness, US muscle, rare cars, classics, high power or big modification etc

I have often dreamed of opening a car sales place that looks a little bit like Ace Cafe, selling food, quality meeting place and a strict rule that all the cars have quirkyness, US muscle, rare cars, classics, high power or big modification etc

I've also dreamed of exactly the same thing, I was imagining a garage with a Hooters franchise

I've also dreamed of exactly the same thing, I was imagining a garage with a Hooters franchise

Let's do it then, I have half the stock on my blinking drive at the moment !

Let's do it then, I have half the stock on my blinking drive at the moment !

I will come and work there too. If the sale is stumbling I will play the cancer card - much stronger than even the race card

Let's do it then, I have half the stock on my blinking drive at the moment !

And I the other half (also a mk1 Golf )

 

I will come and work there too. If the sale is stumbling I will play the cancer card - much stronger than even the race card

You can tell people it's caused you to lose your hair .... No hang on ..... :-)

i think its doable mate, if you aim for classics and old 90s cars too..

some people dont want to travel, some people want to buy now.

we stock around 8-10 cars of my own then maybe some customers cars too.

we also import on order aswell..

last few months we were fortunate to get a new hig profile client on baord from overseas that will enable us to change slighty so, our aim now has moved slightly as from June 2012 we are moving to bigger premises 30-35 cars basically x2 workshops joint together, one will be car servicing x3 x4 ramps and tuning,dignostiscs and repairs and the other will be to store stock cars and offer a full valet service for JDM and exotic cars.

along with new services in the parts section and also a new website will be available.

recently we have been servicing and maintaining plus tuning a lot of R35 GTRS..

we been doing this 10 years now and its not easy work, there will be big pluses and also bad times too - (but what i found is the way to deal with problems and resolve them).

(btw did i mention we also supply and sell old BMWs mercs and prosches in LHD format to overseas trade people (as the ones in japan albeit much more expensive the condition is far superior).. so if you need stock ;-)

i think its doable mate, if you aim for classics and old 90s cars too..

 

some people dont want to travel, some people want to buy now.

 

we stock around 8-10 cars of my own then maybe some customers cars too.

 

we also import on order aswell..

 

last few months we were fortunate to get a new hig profile client on baord from overseas that will enable us to change slighty so, our aim now has moved slightly as from June 2012 we are moving to bigger premises 30-35 cars basically x2 workshops joint together, one will be car servicing x3 x4 ramps and tuning,dignostiscs and repairs and the other will be to store stock cars and offer a full valet service for JDM and exotic cars.

 

along with new services in the parts section and also a new website will be available.

 

recently we have been servicing and maintaining plus tuning a lot of R35 GTRS..

 

we been doing this 10 years now and its not easy work, there will be big pluses and also bad times too - (but what i found is the way to deal with problems and resolve them).

 

(btw did i mention we also supply and sell old BMWs mercs and prosches in LHD format to overseas trade people (as the ones in japan albeit much more expensive the condition is far superior).. so if you need stock ;-)

I've often looked at the German cars on the Japanese sites, many of them were available in RHD and I always wondered why they wanted them in LHD (I've heard it's a status thing)

Sounds like things are going well for you Jurgen, which you deserve as you obviously work very hard and you run the best importer in the UK (and possibly Europe, you seem to be popular with our continental friends too )

I think that no garage can supply the whole of the country. And people are always less interested to travel.

I was prepared to travel from the southwest to the top of scotland when I was once looking for my Supra, if you hold an item someone is truely keen on buying your location isn't as important.

The only worry is NA prices are dropping. I was tempted to buy another purely for drifting. They are very cheap. But as you probably know the profit percentage isn't as important if you are able to sell more of your product.

A huge amount of car buyers don't use forum's to buy their cars. This forum often has new members stating they have just bought a Supra or have owned one for a while before joining. If they don't come across JM Imports advertising and do not know anyone then how will they know. You can hit a large area of the market without being in direct competition due to the location I think, as long as you don't park yourself directly next to another company obviously

I think it's worth a go. You seem to have the motivation and a good strategy, I think you would have a good chance if you hit the older quality car market. Starting your own business is something most people would love to do. If you do, give me a shout when you get some NA's, I don't want to trash mine forever and definitely will be buying another one day