Testing Tesco Times

On behalf of women drivers I welcome Tesco’s entry into the car sales market because they cannot afford to get this wrong  and they know what we want. This gives them a distinct edge over many dealerships.

But if Tesco does get it wrong they will pay the price. Let’s not forget, this is the much complained about motor industry where used car quality can be a hit and miss affair and customer service is all too often an oxymoron.

To perform to Tesco standards, we can expect a tight contract to cover industry ethics as well as customer service, sales performance and commission levels. They want to sell Tesco car insurance and finance products too. So all cars must be HPI checked (easy) and inspected (RAC, sounds trustworthy) and costed competitively. All this needs to be 100% watertight because their stock of used cars includes fleet cars, ex rentals and Motability car returns which may or may not have been well cared for during their pre MOT years.

Fortunately they are leaving a big gap in the market by not offering a part exchange service; providing those that fill it don’t do what webuyanycar.com did by quoting a price online and then dropping this significantly when they came to collect the car.

And it’s relevant that Tesco’s cars are in Birmingham which means that you can’t always ‘see before you buy.’

The good news is that this is surely the time for car dealers to up their game with women in mind; it’s us that influence c80% of all car buying decisions and local dealers have the advantage here of being local and knowing cars.

My point is that because Tesco is a female friendly brand, I’d expect more dealership groups to think long and hard about their ‘marketing to women’ strategy.

Wake up guys. Selling cars isn’t the only way to sell cars…

Sell her female friendly garage services for starters, know what she wants, spoil her, prove she can trust you and she’ll look to you for advice when she’s next car shopping.

Why is this so hard for so many male dominated and car-sales-oriented franchised dealerships to understand?

FOXY

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