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Old 04-03-2014, 05:03 PM   #8
Flybrian
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Join Date: Apr 2013
Posts: 9
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You really have to tailor yourself to your market. Find your niche and exploit it.

My store is a suburban lot in an upper-middle-class part of a dense urban area (Tampa Bay, Florida) with a strong internet presence and both prime and subprime finance sources. I hold about 30-40 in inventory at any one time, plus access to another 10-15 units my partner/principle has for wholesale (mostly very late-model FoMoCo).

After experimenting with an economically-depressed area north of us (lots of traffic, just ZERO money), we've found this is a great little area.

My nearest competition is a <$4000 cash lot with ~12 units, a ~60 unit store that does BHPH I guess but is stocked with absolutely mediocre inventory (SWB Caravans? 7 to choose from!) and restrictive hours (10-4PM, no weekends), another ~20 unit store south of me with <$8k cars but looks very disorganized, and an 'indoor showroom' with ~40 high-line units (mostly European and traditional domestics i.e. Cadillac/Lincoln) - a very clean operation, but he asks ALL the money for his stuff.

My niche is in between - $4,000-$25,000 clean, late-model vehicles with a mix of...
Impulse cars - Corvettes, Convertibles, Kappa roadsters, Genesis Coupes, Mustangs, etc.
SUVs
Late-model millennial-cars - 3 years old or newer, subcompact or compact, under factory warranty, under $13k. A lot of people come in with 'first-time buyer' drafts from credit unions capped at $12k. This way, I can negotiate and get them out the door sometimes with $0 down. "Wait...I can drive away with no cash out of pocket on this '12 Mazda3?" Never gets a "no!"
Euro Luxury Cars - mid-range mid-mileage Audi/BMW/Merz and VWs
Jeeps
Diesel pickups - lot of retirees, contractors, and urban cowboys.
$5000-under - a couple decent cheapies (usually recon'd trades) for cash buyers.

I can't give away a minivan for the life of me and family non-luxury fullsize SUVs are hard to move, too.

Sorry for the rambling, but my point is to try to carve out your own niche based on the area you're in. And if you don't/can't deal with that type of inventory that meets your market, consider moving to one conducive to the products you want to carry.
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