Good concept, it’s already here.
The Mercedes MBUX dashboards have a store page, where you can purchase extra functions, like Apple car play/Android auto for £299, tracking app for £79 and many others.
There we go, subscription society.
It’s not exactly new.
Back in 1996 my Sun workstation needed a memory upgrade to double the amount.
Sun sent out an engineer on a routine visit to our server farm, and in passing she took the back off my machine and operated a switch. The memory was already installed when the machine was built. She then ran a bit of software to unlock it. Ten minutes was all it took.
Now as you say it would be even quicker, a radio link and a credit card scan.
Toilet rolls?
How would bog roll work?
I feel certain the far east would come up with a pay-per ‘solution’.
Jet wash and blow-dry; no roll, no paper, no forest cut down, less water in the jet wash than in making paper…
Pay extra for it to be soft water and warm…
Oops sorry drifting off topic, my last post on this.
2 Likes
1 Like
The dealer makes £100 admin fee for doing all the finance paperwork, so hardly a fortune. Most dealers are operating with a 8-10% profit margin. Out of that comes PDI costs, the salesman’s bonus, and whatever they have negotiated away in discount or over allowance. Recently manufactures including Mazda have swapped profit margin for a fixed handling fee taking away the extra dealers had to play with. When Tesco looked at selling cars back in the 90’s they concluded there were better profit margins on a tin of beans, and no come backs!
1 Like
As far as subscription services are concerned, Volvo now do this. You pay a monthly fee (no deposit) and you get everything apart from fuel. It includes servicing road tax, insurance. You can give 3 months notice and either stop having the car/paying or decide you want a different car. The monthly payment will change, but it is pure subscription - you will never have any ownership of the car.
As far as PCP is concerned, I did it with my new N. I paid £5k deposit and zero finance charges. So going back to NDER’s post earlier, if I was to put aside £400 per month in a savings plan, I am doing (less than that) now. but I have the benefit of driving the car. I have savings, but I also get a monthly car allowance from work and I use some of that to pay for the car. all cars will depreciate and if you want a new car, you either have to save up, or use a finance package. Either way there is a monthly cost. The only thing I object to is an additional interest cost added on. If there is zero interest, then it makes sense to use it. My savings are invested and I get “profits” paid to me. However the value of your investment can go up as well as down…
As far as a new ND is concerned - just get it if you can afford it!! If you cannot afford a new one, get an older one. But an older one may cost more in upkeep/repairs etc, but should be less than any depreciation on a new car.
Yes, my heart goes out with such sympathy to car dealerships. Such kind souls.
It’s a bit like what has happened to the High street, use it or lose it.
We all shop around for the cheapest price, so Amazon and eBay and other online retailers get our purchases, the effect of that is the little local shop can’t discount that much and closes.
Car retailing is going the same way.
So use your dealer or lose it.
No worries to me. I didn’t use it as i refused to pay huge prices which I could get cheaper elsewhere. And I’ve no regret not being able to go to the ‘high street’
Same deal. Manufacturers will always need people to sell/service cars. And outlets can be used to get cars at far cheaper prices than dealerships. The beauty of the private sector.
Not used a Main Dealer in around 40 years for either repairs, servicing, or parts bar the odd filter.
Last time was buying my wife’s Sport in 2006, which had to go back for the infamous warranty recall of duff Mk2.5 clutches if anyone remembers that. Took them 3 attempts to get the PPF right…sort of.
Main reason I do not use them is simply parts prices & extortionate labour rates.
It’s not Joe Public’s making a concerted effort to wipe them out it’s Joe’s wallet cannot afford to patronise them on a regular basis.
Not as if we run complex V12 AM Lagondas after all.
Agreed. The labour rates are phenomenal at times. And everyone has some nightmare dealership car service story over the years, of which they probably paid £150 or so an hour for the privilege.
Drop links, rear only, £160 at the main dealer. £35 MX5 City. For me the decision was straight forward. Main dealers are for new car three year servicing and/or warranty work only…
3 Likes