Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-12-15

value In one city dealer
was compelled to discontinue the agency
for his new car and the following year
did nothing but sell the secondhand cars
which he had on hand. This condition is
one which is absolutely wrong from a
commercial standpoint and the dealers
realize that something must be done to
prevent it.
Secondhand Situation Startles.
Eat a meeting held last week in New
York there was brought out condition
startled the dealers themselves. None of
them realized to what an extent it had
grown.
"A plan was discussed which. it is be-
heved. will relieve the situation: after
carefully going over the plan Ill of the
dealers agreed to put 1t in operation.
1t is a very simple one and consists in
taking the customers car In, placing 1t
on the floor. advertising it and endeav-
at the best price possible. In the mean
time. the customer. having signed an
order for the new car, when the old one
is sold the proceeds are credited on the
new car. In case the customer demands
an immediate delivery of his new car.
he is to pay cash for it. and when the
old car is sold the money is sent him
without any charge for disposing of his
secondhand car. In this way the
dealer makes a clean sale and, except
ers car. receives the profit on the new
car which he is entitled to. and does
not find himself confronted with the
situation of having sold new machine
a secondhand car. which he may have
to keep for six months or a year and
then sell at loss in order to dispose
of it.
Under this plan the dealer can make
a fair margin of profit, and with this
profit can give his customer better serv.
ice. which in the end will be of greater
satisfaction to the customer than the Sc.
curing of a few dollars more than the
value of his secondhand car. The deal.
condition will have ceased to exist thai
has been menace to the entire indus.
try"
Discuss Selling Problems.
The president of a large motor cal
company of Detroit. in an address OF
Some Selling Problems" before a gath
ering Of manufacturers touching on sec
ond-hand cars. said:
Another OF the great problems Of ou
business Is that of handling secondhand
cars. No doubt 1t is a common occur
renee with all of you to have Your deal
ers complaining that an ever-increasinl
percentage of their sales involve trades
You all know what this means. 1t mean
usually the making Of two sales in Orde
to earn one profit, and unless q dealer Il
very careful and a shrewd trader 1t i
apt to mean two sales without any profit
No end of automobile dealers have trade,
themselves out Of business. AUTOMOBILE
selling very often just gets down to
question Of whether the man with a use,
car Is a better salesman than the deale
who is trying to sell him q new car, ant
ii not infrequently happens that the own
er proves to be the better salesman, sell
ing his old car to the dealer at a bette
profit than the dealer makes in sellin,
the new car to the owner.
Au dealers say that this trading ant
secondhand problem is one OF their big
gest ones and that 1t is getting bigge
all the time. Yet when you ask then
what can be done about IL, or what sug
gestions they have. most of them ar,
unable to offer anything encouraging On,
| man will tell you that the only thing n.
| sees that could be done is to establish
some such system as is said to prevail II
the typewriter business-tust arrange q,
that lot of machines could be returned
| to the factory each year and broken up
But, OF course, we know this could not b.
done in the automobile business. Their,
is too much value In used cars, and tn,
waste In tunking any considerable mum
Der that are still In shape to give service
would be entirely too great. Another maj
| tells you that all he knows is to hav,
! a good warehouse fire once in while