Overpricing cars ‘delays sales’

A South Island dealership was the best performing in the country last week after selling 53 cars and having 91 per cent of its stock priced “on market”.

The latest figures from Apexdealerdata.com also show the worst performer had none of its cars in the same price category and only achieved one sale in the same period.

The online platform rates the pricing of vehicles as higher, on market or lower based on what its AI-driven decision engine works out as the best price for the fastest return and most value for a car.

Matt Grant, chief executive officer of Apexdealerdata.com, says: “There is a strong feeling from dealers that they should always overprice a car and if it doesn't sell then drop the price but all that does is delay the sale and increase holding costs.

“The average car that isn't priced right is $1,362 off the on-market price. This is margin that dealers are just giving up with the data showing you have an 82 per cent less chance of selling a car if it's under-priced.”

The latest market statistics also show the average number of days to sell a car remained stable at 66 last week but is getting close to 65, “which shows the market is getting better”.

Data from the platform reveals 809 dealers sold cars last week, with the average number of weekly sales per dealer hitting 15.

The figures are part of the first Apexdealerdata.com market report, which appears every Monday on Autofile Online.