Boosting Vehicle Sales in the Face of an Uncertain Economy

In today's market, selling cars can be a real hassle with little rewards other than to just break even. If you don't know how to spread the word about your dealership or you don't know what is hot and what is not, you'll most likely go the way of the dinosaurs in the car selling business. In desperate times dealerships, especially smaller ones, need to be flexible to sell cars. Being flexible on pricing isn't so much of an issue if you have the right kind of car to sell for the proper clientele. The three main tips for making your dealership grow and sell cars are good advertising, an inventory full of imports and sports cars, and knowing what prospective buyers are looking for in today's market.

Advertising is one of the key elements to any business, especially selling cars. A dealership should advertise everywhere in order to take potential advantage of every possible buyer, in order to maximize car sales. Craigslist, EBay, Autotrader (for sure), Local Classifieds, and television advertising are some of the most popular ways for selling cars. When selling cars you need to think about what medium people are most likely going to pick up on. The internet is probably the biggest contributor to selling cars; if your dealership doesn't have a website then you need to build one fast. Having a website isn't going to automatically help you in selling your cars, but having a wealth of information about each particular car your selling will. Make sure that you take plenty of pictures of the cars your selling and don't forget those engine shots as many dealers do. The quality of your photos is also important, you need a professional camera; not a point and shoot to sell cars. The more pictures the better. A customer can get attached to a car you're selling if there are plenty of pictures for them to use their imagination to envision themselves in it. Be different, try and get some history on the vehicles you're selling; try and make it as if your dealership has a personal connection with every vehicle.

Changing your inventory to imports and sports cars could be the wisest thing you do with your dealership in these desperate times for selling more cars. You need to not look at the economy as a whole, you need to look at it in segments in the who's who of having money for buying cars. People still have money, but you need to pay attention to the groups that do and that the ones you'll most likely be selling your cars to. Many families are going through tough financial times and are in credit crisis, so you need to focus your attention on the twenty to early thirty something's and military folks. Your older customers are most likely not going to trust a smaller dealership and would rather spend and waste their money at a manufacturer dealership for either an inspected pre-owned vehicle or a new one, besides this group of customers doesn't buy very often so selling to them is normally a waste of valuable dollars. The younger crowd goes through vehicles like underwear and are easy to coax into buying, either they get sick of the same old car, they total it, or they want to trade it in before the mileage devaluates it. All of these chances are opportunities for your dealer ship to shine and be more productive in selling cars if you have the right vehicles their looking for.

Not all imports are created equally when selling cars, although Korean made cars such as Daewoo, Hyundai, and Kia may have an appealing price at the auction house they are not going to move off your lot any time soon. People are learning that these are not quality built imports nor will they hold any value over time, so selling them these kinds of cars will not be easy. Stay true to the Japanese; you can't go wrong when selling cars from the land of the rising sun. Toyota, Lexus, Nissan, Infiniti, Honda, Acura, and Subaru should be the only imports you're selling; as far as domestics go...Stick to what America builds best, sports cars. Even though times are tough and gas is expensive there is still a niche market out there for American V8's. Selling tuner cars will also give you good business as long as they aren't already tuned. The tuner crowd hates nothing more than buying a vehicle that has already been modified, they think of it as their blank canvas. Besides, if you're selling a car that has already been modified then it has most likely been abused and won't be an easy sale. Below I have included a list of good selling cars and trucks for this younger market.

General Market: Toyota Camry, Honda Accord, Nissan Titan, Toyota Tacoma, and Tundra.

Performance Market: Subaru WRX, Mitsubishi Lancer Evo, Chevrolet Cobalt SS, 03-04 Ford SVT Cobra, 99-04 Corvette Z06, Ford Lightning, Dodge Ram SRT-10, Dodge Charger/ Magnum SRT-8, Dodge Neon SRT-4, Acura TL Type-S, Honda S2000, Acura RSX and Type S, and older Acura Integra's always sell.

**Stay away from SUV's and mini vans unless they are Toyota or Honda made mini vans. People are beginning to realize that even import SUV's get horrible gas mileage.