The dialogue took place a few days ago between the sales manager of an official dealership and a used car dealer. It was for an advertisement for the Mercado Libre, where an already patented Toyota Corolla XEI model 2022, with 30,000 kilometers, was offered for seven million pesos. The dealer had an identical unit in his possession to sell and asked the dealer if it was justifiedto ask for that price.
Look, that model It is at 5,485,000 pesos, the list price“, The dealer replied, via a Whastapp audio.” Put it on you add 5%, which is what the lists are increasing every month. It used to be sold with a 10% mark-up, but today you start getting them with a 5% mark-up. Because you see a lot of cars published, but the idea is that it is sold and not that you have it as a vase “.
What was implicit in that conversation was a situation that has only been seen on the market in the last few weeks: car dealerships they are braking with prices. There are exceptions, of course, that occur in model cases expensive and rare. But the perception among those in the trenches is that the public is no longer willing to pay any price to secure a unit.
It is not just a question of perception. There are also concrete signs: one of the best-selling brands in the country, of European origin, increased its list prices by 5% at the beginning of the month. October average, reversed that increasewhich was 2% from the previous month.
Two Far Eastern brands did the same, but with specific models, which had grown by 5% and are ending the month with an increase of 2%.
Infoauto magazine, considered by most dealers and retailers as an essential reference for the quotation of used vehicles, records low list prices for the models of Volkswagen, Honda, Chevrolet and Toyota. He also revised the prices of some of the used units back this month, from 2016 onwards.
These are loose data that go in the same direction: there are still price increases, but at a different pace. As if waiting for the units to approach the purchasing power of an audience whose income is losing month after month against inflation.
“Some Peugeot and General Motors dealers they are delivering zero kilometer units at list priceand therefore those used, in some cases, begin to decrease“, She said Ricardo Mastrangelo, high-end used seller. “There aren’t as many contacts as before and people are waiting. And as for the excessive prices, He doesn’t pay them anymore. “
Alessandro LamaSecretary of the Automobile Chamber of Commerce (CCA), agreed.
“Used is a product of the inertia with which the market has arrived in the last two months, because people wanted to get rid of the pesos. Now a limit has been reached. One of the reasons is that there is a little more supply of zero-kilometer unitsdomestic production is relatively normalized, “he said.
The owner of this body, Alberto Principepointed out that the sale of used cars is in decline and that it is a market in which transactions between individuals they represent 40% of total transactions. For the entrepreneur it is that market segment in which today there is still a demand for used cars prices above zero kilometer.
“The most important fall occurs between individuals, who They continue to offer their cars without adjusting their prices. In dealerships, on the other hand, values are much faster, when conditions justify it, such as a decline in the blue dollar or a greater offer at 0 km in the most requested products and segments, “he said.
Now there is also a situation of surveillance in social networks which is new. This was reported by the owner of a major Toyota dealer.
“A few weeks ago a man came and showed us five cars, at 100,000 pesos each. We told him there was a six month delay. When he pulled out the first car, he patented it and published it at two million pesos above the list priceat a dealer who is also close to our dealership, “he said.” We have already told him we will not sell the other four, we have returned the deposit. We don’t want to be useful idiots. In fact, we may already have some conflict with the brand because of that unit that went on sale as soon as it was patented, “he said.
What is the exception to this state of affairs? For Lamas, high-end pick-ups, and among these a model in particular: the Toyota SW4a model that has a list price of around 12 million pesos, but for which there are buyers willing to pay 17 or 18 million.
“There were always a few units, it’s not just a problem now, because Toyota exports 90% of SW4 to Brazil “said the seller, based in Palermo. “But the average used is at calm prices. And in some cases, in October they went down “.
Source: Clarin
