Opening a Car Dealership

[dpaanlka]

How does one go about this? It seems like this would be different from the typical small business owner. Are any of you MacRumors members in the car sales industry?

How do these dealerships initially open? Do people get huge bank loans, or just the lucky ones with big bank accounts have the opportunity to start these things?

How do you get rights to sell a specific brand? Does it function like a franchise? Do the manufacturers assist you in any way?

How do you pick location? How important is the location in relationship to the brand?

I think it would be something I would be very good at, and enjoy doing. I just wouldn't know where to get started.

 

[Counterfit]

Just don't be like this place.

 

[strider42]

I don't any specifics about this really, but I know manufacturers are very involved in dealerships. They often mandate upgrades at dealerships to present a common look across the country. They often help finance big upgrades like that in the form of loans. I could see them possibly helping with new dealerships too if it was in a strategic location where they wanted a presence. If you're going to be a new car dealer, you'll be working closely with whatever manufacturers you carry.

Have you worked in a dealership before. It would probably be worth doing so you can get exposed to all the different aspects of it (selling cars, financing, etc).

Opening a dealership would be a hugely expensive proposition (huge amount of space needed, numerous and expensive inventory, lots of facilities to build), so you'll want to do a lot of research before you go down this road.

I hope to open my own business in the future, and one thing I've learned so far is that there's way more to these things than you imagine at the outset.

 

[Sun Baked]

In some places the land and buildings alone can be multiples of $10-20 million dollars, which is why you see a few more of the automalls going up with the cities kicking in some "incentives" to get developers to build them.

The automakers now also plan on dealerships in a some of these automalls, and may actually start the process before a local dealer network has been chosen to run it.

Right now we have a local Saturn dealership being built, with no local dealership network to run it -- seems somebody got themselves killed on vacation and messed up Saturns plans for placing his dealership in the location.

 

[jeremy.king]

I think it would be something I would be very good at, and enjoy doing. I just wouldn't know where to get started.

You might be better off selling cars for someone else to start, warm up to the owner and learn the ins and outs of the business. Can I suggest Ray's Suzuki in Fox Lake, so you can hook me up?

Also, start here as you will need to be licensed in order to even sell cars under your own dealership. http://www.dmv.org/il-illinois/dealer-licensing.php - usually once you get this, you will have rights to buy at auction like the real big one up North, you know, eh?

 

[ErikCLDR]

It seems like it would be very expensive to start a car dealership selling new cars. I know when they were building New Country Motor Cars Mercedes in Hartford, CT they had to separate it from the BMW dealer.

I would suggest starting a used car lot. There is one in town- they usually sell very low milage cars that are generally no more than a few years old. They usually have some sort of minor damage to them which makes their cost lower than others. I suppose there are different approaches you can take.

Becoming a dealer also means you probably need a service department. That means mechanics, tools ($nap-on ), lifts, garages, etc. Also, cars these days have computer systems beyond OBDII. That means you'll need specalty diagnostic equipment, which I know can be very pricey. The Rovacom scanner for Land Rovers is over $10,000.

Starting a dealer seems like a pretty expensive endeavor

 

[kalisphoenix]

Just don't be like this place.

Three pages and no pictures?

 

[Counterfit]

Of Carla? I saw some of them, and I don't think she's quite as hot as everyone in that thread makes her out to be. Not ugly by any means, but, you know.
I actually live not too far from that place, and it's only a block or two away from Hasbro's world HQ.