In the past two years, consumers have started to arrive at dealerships knowing exactly what type of vehicle they want, not simply looking out of boredom or curiosity, said Tom Castriota, owner of Castriota Chevrolet in Hudson, Fla. He expects that to continue this spring.
“They say, ‘I need an SUV that could carry six people’ or ‘I need a truck that could tow X pounds,’ ” Castriota said. “We just don’t see the person come in and say, ‘Oh, show me what you have in a used pickup truck.’ ”
As consumers begin spending their tax refunds on used vehicles, dealers’ days’ supply could potentially decline, said Dale Pollak, executive vice president of Cox Automotive.
Castriota said his store’s days’ supply might not rapidly shrink in the spring because his dealership caters to a community of mostly retirees. But when General Motors’ new-vehicle production grows, that will help drive trade-ins at his store and put used models back in the pipeline, he said.
Binder said he doesn’t expect a large dip in used-vehicle days’ supply at Len Stoler Automotive Group this spring.
“We’re obviously running very lean on the new-car side with day supply,” Binder said. “On the used-car side, we prepare for it. We plan. We’re buying cars now.”
Dillard, at Team Auto Group, said her group will keep getting inventory from a variety of sources — auction sites, the service drive, customer databases and off the street. She “totally” expects wholesale used-vehicle prices to remain high.
Team Auto Group marketing will stay completely digital and data-driven in the coming months, Dillard said. The group is only going after buyers they know to be in the market to purchase a vehicle.
“We still want to be incredibly supportive of the manufacturer,” she said, “but there’s just not a need to advertise as heavily on new cars now, so we put more of an emphasis on our used cars until the inventory improves.”
