Special rates and competitive package prices as bait
The brand dealer also wants to have the driver of an older car as a customer in the workshop again. Longer maintenance intervals for modern cars and the rise of electric cars mean less work. Special rates and package prices tempt customers for older cars. That seems to work.
The lifespan of the car is becoming longer, the build quality is improving and manufacturers are using increasingly longer intervals for regular maintenance. Nowadays it is no longer an exception that you only have to go to the garage for service once every 30,000 kilometers.
The rise of the electric car puts even more pressure on the workshop workflow. Brand dealers have therefore become increasingly dependent on customer retention. Customers who used to disappear to the universal village garage after the manufacturer’s warranty expired now notice that the brand dealers are doing more to keep you on board, for example by significantly extending the warranty periods.
According to schedule
Toyota and Lexus now even offer their customers a ten-year (transferable) manufacturer’s warranty, provided that the car is regularly maintained by the brand dealer. However, the brand dealers do not only try to retain customers with an older car with attractive warranty conditions. You also increasingly see that certain brands offer an attractively priced maintenance package especially for older models. This is to compete fiercely with quickfitters and universal garages ‘around the corner’.
Five years or older
At Volkswagen, for example, they call this Economy Service. Customers with a car that is five years or older receive a fifteen percent discount on regular maintenance, as well as on replacing the brakes, timing belt, multi-belts, battery, windshield wipers and water pump. Original Volkswagen parts are used. “We are currently seeing a clear growth in the number of maintenance packages sold for older years of construction compared to the period before Covid-19,” said Huib de Vries, PR manager of Volkswagen and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles. “We also see growth in brake maintenance, for example.”
Seventy percent cheaper
The Stellantis brands are also increasingly in favor of the owner who wants to keep an older car on the road. “At Peugeot, Citroën and DS Automobiles we work with the so-called economy service,” says PR manager Jeroen Maas. “This is based as much as possible on our second parts line: Eurorepar. Parts from this line are generally about seventy percent cheaper than original parts. In addition, the dealer, for example, applies a smaller margin on maintenance, making the price of the entire ‘package’ more attractive for the customer with an older car.” A similar course will be implemented in 2024 at Opel, Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Fiat and Jeep.
More older cars at the brand dealer
A strategy that seems to work. According to the RAI Association’s ‘Mobility in Figures 2023’ report, fifty percent of all cars that brand dealers could welcome into their workshops in 2022 were aged seven years or older. Quite a difference compared to the independent garage, where on average no less than 84 percent of all cars in the workshop were seven years or older.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl