Disappearing Dealers

Checking MG's website this week I notice they are now down to 37 UK dealers doing 'sales' compared to 41 when I last looked in February. Given that only three new ones have joined this year, they appear to have been more than offset by those who have given up or moved to 'aftersales only'. On the face of it, a pretty dire situation for a company with a target of 50 dealers by the end of 2012. Does anyone know what the mood is among dealers at the moment?

My closest dealer used to be in Croyden (I forget their name) but they've given up.

Now my closest is a new franchise at Rivervale near Brighton. They do other makes including Mazda, which might make for a bit of confusion over the model called '6'!

ZTsteve wrote:My closest dealer used to be in Croyden (I forget their name) but they've given up.

EMG - let me check their website:

http://www.emglondon.co.uk/new-cars/mg/

yep, the website hasn't heard.

There is now a massive black hole for MG dealers for the literally millions of prospective punters in South London and Surrey. When I input my address, I hear my nearest dealer is in Totteridge! (wherever that is lol).

I also note that the dealer announced for Nottingham has not stuck with it. Mind you, waiting till October/November 2012(?) for an MG6 diesel is a long wait. And when do you get the MG3?

Lets hope they attract some new ones at the dealer show in May where they are apparently showing off the MG3 albiet in Chinese spec. Hopefully they will also give prospective dealers some pics of the new 'Redline' and BTCC spec cars that they are showing in China this week - getting these more sporty spec'd versions of the 6 over here PDQ has got to be their aim now, as I dont think we are going to see the UK spec 3 here until early 2013.

Strange how some of the original MG dealers have stayed with the new MG through thin and thin whilst some of the others have joined and gone. In a recession though tough business decision have to be made I guess and some just can't keep in business on the promise of jam tomorrow.

I'm sure in the long term it will be a profitable brand for dealers as the old MGR was.

IMO MG will find more success with family owned dealerships with great customer service than the corporate chains. I buy my LanrRovers from a family owned dealership network rather than from a local conglomerate.

Yes, I think their dealer development people are actually saying that they are looking for dealers with other income streams or muli franchises so they are not solely relying on MG whilst the model range develops. My nearest dealer in Yeovil, appointed last November, is also a Mazda specialist, Isuzu and Proton dealer all on the same site, but he has allocated his main sales area to MG so I hope he hangs on until I can buy that MG3 from him!

That makes sense dealers need something to sell to keep going

Dealer map updated - Deleted more than I added - but I'm sure more will come v soon

http://www.mguk.org/t55-mg-dealers-in-the-british-isles

I fear you will be making more deletions to the list soon. Spoke to a dealer recently who is apparently seeking legal advice to help release him from his contract with MG. No cars sold for 6 months and 'concerns about the product' have led him to this..

Well at least MG registered 49 cars in May 2012. Not bad based on past form (excluding Avis of course).

Following on from my earlier comments the MG site now only appears to list 35 dealers doing sales (as of 15 June 2012). The dealer in Plymouth has gone completely and recent addition Finchley and Totterage and long standing west country dealers Staddons both appear to have moved to 'aftersales only'. They will soon be back to fewer dealers than they had when the TF was re launched in 2008!

Dorset Rocket wrote:Following on from my earlier comments the MG site now only appears to list 35 dealers doing sales (as of 15 June 2012). The dealer in Plymouth has gone completely and recent addition Finchley and Totterage and long standing west country dealers Staddons both appear to have moved to 'aftersales only'. They will soon be back to fewer dealers than they had when the TF was re launched in 2008!

Staddons had a showroom full of MGs a few days ago - MG6, MG TF, MGB and MG Midget.
http://www.staddons.co.uk/new-vehicles/mg/mg6/cat_10.html

I fear more will abandon ship unless there are some more variants/models soon - but I suspect MG are prepared for that

Dorset Rocket wrote:...recent addition Finchley and Totteridge...appears to have moved to 'aftersales only'.

richardk wrote:I fear more will abandon ship unless there are some more variants/models soon - but I suspect MG are prepared for that

Yes, MG Motor's own dealer locator used optimistically to suggest that my nearest dealer was somewhere round Stansted Airport (i.e. North East London) lol. I hadn't realised that the new Totteridge crew had jumped ship, joining Spur and EMC, but it is confirmed by the dealer locator, meaning easily 10% of the entire population of England is now without a local dealer before looking at the rest of the country.

What do I want to sell as a dealer? MG6 petrol and diesel, MG3 and MG5... so how long do I wait? Before November is stupid and even then I can only sell two kinds of the same thing!

patpending wrote:What do I want to sell as a dealer? MG6 petrol and diesel, MG3 and MG5... so how long do I wait? Before November is stupid and even then I can only sell two kinds of the same thing!

But remember that the big plan still says:

"SAIC plans to strive to overseas vehicle sales reached 800,000 in 2015"

Windy wrote:But remember that the big plan still says:

"SAIC plans to strive to overseas vehicle sales reached 800,000 in 2015"

how much of that could possibly be UK? 8,000 or 1% seems high and 1,000 each in the 30ish other countries would leave a massive gap.

As would 10,000.

Windy wrote:

patpending wrote:What do I want to sell as a dealer? MG6 petrol and diesel, MG3 and MG5... so how long do I wait? Before November is stupid and even then I can only sell two kinds of the same thing!

But remember that the big plan still says:

"SAIC plans to strive to overseas vehicle sales reached 800,000 in 2015"

I'm sure the dealers that had signed up to MG were told of bold plans of sales and new models - the exodus now happening would seem to imply the hoped for sales/plans are not happening any time soon. Re-branding your forecourt and showroom, training sales staff, merchanidise, buying in demo stock is not cheap - the dealers need something to sell or more will leave won't they? I'm sure more will come on board/return when there is a wider range of models but for the time being I'm expecting more dealers to leave the marque than join it this year.

richardk wrote:I'm sure the dealers that had signed up to MG were told of bold plans of sales and new models - the exodus now happening would seem to imply the hoped for sales/plans are not happening any time soon. Re-branding your forecourt and showroom, training sales staff, merchanidise, buying in demo stock is not cheap - the dealers need something to sell or more will leave won't they? I'm sure more will come on board/return when there is a wider range of models but for the time being I'm expecting more dealers to leave the marque than join it this year.

Yes, Spur Garage invested wonga. So did EMC and the new North London people. It's all been wasted somehow!

patpending wrote:

Windy wrote:But remember that the big plan still says:

"SAIC plans to strive to overseas vehicle sales reached 800,000 in 2015"

how much of that could possibly be UK? 8,000 or 1% seems high and 1,000 each in the 30ish other countries would leave a massive gap.

As would 10,000.

It doesn't seem to make much sense if you try and tie it in with current sales, so I assume that something big is going to happen. The 800,000 is only a target not an expectation but still something big will be needed to get even 10% and they normally get a lot closer to their targets than that.

I assume that includes all vehicles so Maxus may make up a significant amount of it as they do with current exports.

I think that current UK sales are not a good guide to future sales and the current dealer list is probably not a good guide to future dealer lists.

Windy wrote:

patpending wrote:

Windy wrote:But remember that the big plan still says:

"SAIC plans to strive to overseas vehicle sales reached 800,000 in 2015"

how much of that could possibly be UK? 8,000 or 1% seems high and 1,000 each in the 30ish other countries would leave a massive gap.

As would 10,000.

It doesn't seem to make much sense if you try and tie it in with current sales, so I assume that something big is going to happen. The 800,000 is only a target not an expectation but still something big will be needed to get even 10% and they normally get a lot closer to their targets than that.

I assume that includes all vehicles so Maxus may make up a significant amount of it as they do with current exports.

I think that current UK sales are not a good guide to future sales and the current dealer list is probably not a good guide to future dealer lists.

That has to be right. 800,000 sales is not a step change, it's a 41st-floor elevator change!

patpending wrote:That has to be right. 800,000 sales is not a step change, it's a 41st-floor elevator change!

Exactly!

Maybe the expectation is half that target, that is 400,000 from two factories - UK and Thailand, that is 200,000 per factory - the standard size of a chinese factory - Pukou started at 200,000 then got expanded by another 200,000, Lingang started at 200,000. This would mean full assembly of the MG3 at Longbridge instead of just completion like the MG6 - might explain why it is taking a while to get it set up, followed by full assembly of the MG5 to go online in 2015.

Then as I said, Maxus may add significantly to the figure.

Then the only problem is selling them but I don't think the current UK situation is a good guide to what is possible, in Chile last month they outsold Skoda, Land Rover and Mini but then judging from their website the dealers are a little more enthusiastic than the UK ones: http://www.mgmotors.cl/index.asp - Nice yellow uniform, "Born in England"!!!

Windy wrote:

patpending wrote:That has to be right. 800,000 sales is not a step change, it's a 41st-floor elevator change!

Exactly!

Maybe the expectation is half that target, that is 400,000 from two factories - UK and Thailand, that is 200,000 per factory - the standard size of a chinese factory - Pukou started at 200,000 then got expanded by another 200,000, Lingang started at 200,000. This would mean full assembly of the MG3 at Longbridge instead of just completion like the MG6 - might explain why it is taking a while to get it set up, followed by full assembly of the MG5 to go online in 2015.

Then as I said, Maxus may add significantly to the figure.

Then the only problem is selling them but I don't think the current UK situation is a good guide to what is possible, in Chile last month they outsold Skoda, Land Rover and Mini but then judging from their website the dealers are a little more enthusiastic than the UK ones: http://www.mgmotors.cl/index.asp - Nice yellow uniform, "Born in England"!!!

Yes, if you were a business looking to up sales by a factor of let's say 50, you would be looking at acquisition or JVs. I thought "Thailand" - is there an obvious brand that SAIC could incorporate into its overseas markets???

patpending wrote:
Yes, if you were a business looking to up sales by a factor of let's say 50, you would be looking at acquisition or JVs. I thought "Thailand" - is there an obvious brand that SAIC could incorporate into its overseas markets???

Thailand is already being sorted: http://www.mguk.org/t714-thailand-mg-factory-possibility

It's still quite hard to add the numbers up and get 800,000 though

But it must be right because it is information given to the shareholders and it would be illegal to mislead.

Windy wrote:

patpending wrote:
Yes, if you were a business looking to up sales by a factor of let's say 50, you would be looking at acquisition or JVs. I thought "Thailand" - is there an obvious brand that SAIC could incorporate into its overseas markets???

Thailand is already being sorted: http://www.mguk.org/t714-thailand-mg-factory-possibility

It's still quite hard to add the numbers up and get 800,000 though

But it must be right because it is information given to the shareholders and it would be illegal to mislead.

That step is a "greenfield site" one rather than latching onto a brand if I read that correctly, although Hondas and Fords are made in Thailand. But, although 50,000 is TONS more than we are seeing from Longbridge, it's a drop in the ocean compared with 800,000 and loads more such deals would be needed to reach that figure. Or even 400,000. Where else could production take place? South Africa? Korea? Mexico? The risk of planning expansion in the current difficult global market is high. Massive expansion = massive risk.

Well it will be interesting to see how they plan to deliver that quantity of sales/production by 2015. Their entry into the european market so far has been well below target and no real signs of any improvement on the horizon. I guess they know what they are doing - but it is beginning to escape me why, if they wanted to, they could get other models/versions available which are available elsewhere in the world. If you think back to how long it took MGR to design and productionise the zed range how can that be dissimilar to eurofying the 3 and 5.

I think I'm now at the point I'll believe it when I see it with MG!

patpending wrote:Where else could production take place? South Africa? Korea? Mexico? The risk of planning expansion in the current difficult global market is high. Massive expansion = massive risk.

Another UK factory with 200,000 capacity would make sense...

...well it would if you believe in the 800,000 target!

richardk wrote:...I think I'm now at the point I'll believe it when I see it with MG!

I'm sure they could have got the 3 and 5 on sale in the UK by now if they had wanted to, obviously they decided not to, but that doesn't mean that they are not going to, in some ways a big expensive launch of the whole range aimed at lots of sales makes more sense than lots of little events that hardly get noticed by the general public, especially now they have the systems in place through the limited MG6 launch.

I think the question is 'when', not 'if'.

Going back to earlier posts my real concern is the rate at which MG are now loosing dealers in the UK (10 lost so far in 2012 with only 4 new ones appoined) and the reputation this is giving them with the motor trade.

There is a real risk in my view that we are close to a tipping point with the UK dealer network - the number of departures increasing month on month and MG's reputation damaged to a point that the trade will simply not take them on and new appointments dry up.

In product terms with the 3 still over a year away a relaunch of the MG6 in the UK with the deisel and 'Redline' versions is essential this autumn before there is nobody left to sell them..

Dorset Rocket wrote:Going back to earlier posts my real concern is the rate at which MG are now loosing dealers in the UK (10 lost so far in 2012 with only 4 new ones appoined) and the reputation this is giving them with the motor trade.

There is a real risk in my view that we are close to a tipping point with the UK dealer network - the number of departures increasing month on month and MG's reputation damaged to a point that the trade will simply not take them on and new appointments dry up.

In product terms with the 3 still over a year away a relaunch of the MG6 in the UK with the deisel and 'Redline' versions is essential this autumn before there is nobody left to sell them..

Loosing a dealer that is selling 1000 cars a year would be a disaster but does it matter if they loose the dealers that are selling zero cars a year? Presumably loosing one allows them to sign up another local dealer that might actually sell some cars.

I know it's not entirely the dealers fault that they aren't selling many cars but surely the ones selling zero are not actually trying?

Fair point Windy. I am perhaps getting too jittery having spoken to one dealer recently who was considering legal action to remove him from his contract.

As others have said, Staddons in Exmouth are still promoting MG and have cars in stock (although they appear to be the same ones they had when I visited them a year ago!) and perhaps they are now listed on the MG website as 'aftersales only' because they are not prepared to invest futher in the new MG sigange etc. to be an official MG sales outlet.

Also, on an even more positive point, as MG have identified Exeter as a 'major open point' for some time, perhaps we are about to see new a dealer for Exeter, further explaining Staddons change of website status..

I must stop getting so involved in all this - it is like watching England play football. All too much for my fragile health!

We have a situation where a tiny, but mouthy, minority of about five internet users is claiming to speak for everyone else in seeing the SAIC MG operation as an EPIC FAIL on the one hand, and very gung-ho views on the other (is Gung Ho the chairman?) coming from China about how SAIC MG is an EPIC WIN.

It's important to say that business is not good in Britain and it is not a good time to launch a new range through new dealers - if we had not had the Hyundai range at all and it had just been launched, we would not now be buying as many Hyundais.

However, how many dealers would have signed up just to sell the i40? and if they had launched with one model, by when would the other models and dealers come on stream?

However, leaving it all to next year can't get anything done either, not if an infrastructure has to be built up.

I hope so much that the extra dealers we have heard about will be around soon. Even if I buy an MG3 from a dealer 100 miles away, I am going to want my free servicing a bit nearer than Cowley (Middlesex) lol!

Dorset Rocket wrote:Fair point Windy. I am perhaps getting too jittery having spoken to one dealer recently who was considering legal action to remove him from his contract.

As others have said, Staddons in Exmouth are still promoting MG and have cars in stock (although they appear to be the same ones they had when I visited them a year ago!) and perhaps they are now listed on the MG website as 'aftersales only' because they are not prepared to invest futher in the new MG sigange etc. to be an official MG sales outlet.

Also, on an even more positive point, as MG have identified Exeter as a 'major open point' for some time, perhaps we are about to see new a dealer for Exeter, further explaining Staddons change of website status..

I must stop getting so involved in all this - it is like watching England play football. All too much for my fragile health!

Maybe Staddons in Exmouth are aftersales only because the showroom is in Budleigh Salterton? The Budleigh dealership certainly looks like an MG dealer. (I'm not sure where to find the info.) It would make some sense for Staddons to sell something different from their second location - they must have been the two closest MG dealers in the country!