one price used car reconditioning?

[darrenfein]

I would like to know if anyone out there has been in a dealership where the service dept was paid a flat price to perform an inspection AND complete the repairs. If so, please tell me a little about your dealerships philosophy towards used cars and how much money you get per car. you can e-mail me if you want to keep the dollar amount confidential.
Thanks

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[Doug]

I can't imagine this. The exposure is too great, IMHO.

Do they sell 'em all at once price?

Cheers
Doug

[robc]

A typical charge I see for a inspection on used is in the $75 - $100 range. There are some shops that increase this and do a certain amount of repairs - often times this is based on the age of the vehicle.

For instance, a three-old vehicle automatically gets tires, brakes, basic 30K service, wipers, complete detail and inspection. They might charge used cars $600 straight for the service. I think it is fair for the used guys to know that if hey take in a 3-year-old that they are looking at a minimum of $600 to put it on the line.

But to say for a grand we'll take care of whatever is wrong with the car would scare me. It would almost be like the service department becoming an extended service contract company for used cars. That would seem to me that service is underwriting any mistakes that used would make and it wouldn't encourage used to carefully evaluate the vehicle's condition.

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** Rob, Editor WD&S **
Help is only a message post away!
robc@dealersedge.com

[This message has been edited by robc (edited 01-21-2003).]

[mikolw]

We tried this with vehicle reconditioning and found it appeared economical on paper, however, the quality of the work deterioted. Something to consider.

[sallen1]

I think you are nuts.

We charge a flat (actually a pack) to do the inspection, work estimate and polish (if we keep the car). Then an estimate is given to the UC manager for his approval before any work is done.

If it's too expensive to keep the car, it's wholesaled prior to spending any money on it.

Flats work well for things like inspections, polish/detail, etc. but when you introduce the need for parts (even with smog checks) the flat fee won't cover the costs.

Treat the used car like a service dept. customer.

scott

[ssoper]

We did this for a about 2 years....as my dealer did not like the "conflict" between sales/service and figured Sales would be happy......
We billed $400 labor and they paid for any necessary parts.......
I set up "sub accounts" in our Reynolds system and did a seperate P&L spreadsheet every month and provided it to the dealer......
Service for the most part made the calls - or at least the first call on vehicles that were purchased by used cars that needed to be wholesaled as they were in toooo bad of shape to recon....
It worked ok - but finally the dealer realized it didn't stop the griping from Sales Management and in reality they were paying more than handling the vehicles individually and accurately.....

We have a salaried consultant (high paid I might add) that is the Fleet Consultant.....
He handles all dealer owned vehicles and large fleet and commercial customers (the new and used car department being his largest and best customer - like Service to Parts) and is expected to turn the cars in 48 hours.
Works well and is process mapped etc.......Service even adds the pack money to the vehicle thru the RO and inserts the new "cost" into the Sales "DA" screens so used cars knows what they have in the car including packs and service work immediately when the RO closes........
We also monitor the used inventory to assure all units go thru service prior to sale........If not - we make them get them back for inspection.....after the sale.