Automotive Authorized Dealers Association (OYDER) President Dr. Altug Ercis said that while second-hand vehicles represent 48% of the total sales of dealers in Europe, this rate remains only at the level of 2 in Turkey.
Ercis met with journalists for the first time after being elected as the chairman at the OYDER Ordinary Board meeting.
Ercis, who made evaluations about the future vision of OYDER and the automotive sector at the meeting, said that OYDER has great duties and responsibilities in this period and that they will make efforts for the sector to grow even more by cooperating closely with other associations such as ODD, TAYSAD, OSD, TOKKDER, which are the stakeholder associations in the sector.
Stating that the industry is faced with many negative developments today, Ercis said, “We are faced with a series of negative issues such as availability, SCT bases, taxation, high exchange rates, high inflation and a decrease in purchasing power that started with the pandemic. All these developments reveal the necessity of dealers to turn to second-hand vehicle sales.”
Pointing out that second-hand vehicles represent 48% of the dealers’ total sales in Europe, Ercis continued as follows:
“We see that there is a high potential here and we should separate the second hand and see it as the main engine of our business with specially trained employment. This is the biggest key to success in the dealership system. In order to keep the authorized dealership system alive, it will be the most important factor to make second-hand sales within our own structure, just like in the USA and Europe. Currently, there is no obstacle in front of authorized dealers for this. Together with the trained personnel, it will enable them to evaluate their current investments more efficiently.”
“We expect 40-45% of turnover to come from second-hand vehicles”
Stating that the authorized dealers are concentrating on new vehicle investments in the current situation, Ercis said, “Looking at the general picture, this will be one of the most important topics of the coming period, even though the dealers have skipped second-hand investments in Turkey so far. Dealers currently have the potential to sell 1.5 million vehicles, and current conditions do not allow authorized dealers to sell that many new vehicles. However, this shows how important it is for dealers to use their potential second-hand. We expect the turnover of authorized dealers to come from second-hand at a rate of 40-45% in the future. That’s why we need to give importance to the second hand.”
“It will have positive reflections on the second-hand market”
Emphasizing that the focus of authorized dealers on second-hand vehicle sales will have positive reflections on the market, Ercis said:
“There is a second-hand market of nearly 7 million in Turkey. It will be welcomed both by the market and the consumer if authorized dealers demonstrate their expertise in the second-hand market as well. It will be preferable for a consumer who wants a second-hand vehicle to buy it from an authorized dealer that sells that brand of vehicle. At the same time, more reliable information about the sales figure will be obtained and speculative pricing will be prevented. As automotive retailers, who see the second-hand market as an opportunity, we aim to bring the second-hand sales ratio to at least the European level.”
“No decrease in retail sales”
OYDER President Dr. Ercis said that there is no decrease in retail customer demand under current conditions.
Ercis said, “Currently, there is a pending fleet demand, but there is also a pending retail demand. The supply problem after the pandemic continues. When the vehicle arrives, it is first sold to retail. Because the profitability here is higher. Therefore, first the retail demand and then the fleet demand are trying to be satisfied. However, there is not enough vehicle supply to satisfy the retail demand yet. Although it varies from brand to brand, we can say that the majority of sales belong to the retail market. The overall picture is predominantly retail.”
“Digital transformation is an opportunity for resellers, not a threat”
Touching on the issue of digitalization, which is one of the most important topics of the last period, Ercis stated that they do not consider digital transformation as a threat to be faced by authorized dealers, they see it as an opportunity, and that the dealership organization will definitely be digitalized, but the dealer concept will not change much in this context.
Emphasizing the importance of the Z generation in digitalization, especially in authorized dealers, Ercis said, “There is a Z generation coming from behind. It is really nice to see their interest and perspective on the father-grandfather profession at the age of 25-30. At this point, a generation is coming at a level that will change the way of doing business and lead digital transformation with the trainings it receives. Thanks to digital transformation, things will not progress as slowly as before and brand loyalty will be increased by increasing the satisfaction of the end consumer.
Evaluating the situation of authorized services, Ercis stated that there is no shift from authorized services to private services and said, “There is inflation in the market at the moment. Even though the prices of authorized services increase in this environment, private services have to increase their prices in order to continue their work. Therefore, I do not foresee any decrease in authorized service entries.”
“We expect a change in the tax system”
Altug Ercis stated that there is an expectation of change in the tax system and SCT bases, and concluded his words as follows:
“We express the tax issue very clearly in every environment. We will have joint work on this in the upcoming period. There is a very disadvantageous situation for the automotive sector and vehicle owners in our country. There is no tax similar to SCT in the tax system in EU countries with which we are close in terms of laws. A taxation system is applied, which is equivalent to our VAT only.
At the same time, updating the excise tax bases is the biggest expectation of both authorized dealers and our people. Especially at the point where the prices have come due to the exchange rates, we have an expectation that the base amounts will be updated, since almost all models are in the 80% segment. The stability and predictability of the exchange rates maintains its importance for our sector stakeholders. Our expectation from our government regarding the updating of the base amounts still continues. We hope that a step will be taken in this regard in the near future.”
Source: Trthaber / Translated by Irem Yildiz