What do you mean miserable? 83.7% of the price is upside down, and car dealers try their best to explain.

At noon on August 25th, Li Shuzhen (pseudonym) received a phone call from Hainan Zhongqi Southern Land Rover 4S Store and asked her to go to the store the next morning.

After arriving at the store, Li Shuzhen found that there were more than a dozen consumers who paid for the car with her, but they didn't mention the car. The manager apologized to them and explained the reason.

"At that time, I was shocked ..." Three months ago, Li Shuzhen bought a new car in full in the store, and now the car has arrived at the store, but the manager told her that there was a problem with the capital turnover of the company headquarters, and the vehicle certificate could not be redeemed in the bank, so the time to pick up the car needed to be delayed.

More than a dozen consumers present were very angry and finally chose to complain to the local market supervision administration.

At present, the High-tech Development Zone Branch has officially issued a consumption warning.

The author learned from the website of Haikou Municipal Market Supervision Administration that the law enforcement officers found that every afternoon, the funds in the owner's account of Hainan Zhongqi Southern Land Rover will be automatically transferred to the account of Zheng Tong Automobile Group. Due to the tight capital chain of Zheng Tong Automobile Group, it is impossible to transfer the car pick-up money to the 4S store on schedule, which makes it impossible for the 4S store to deliver the car pick-up money from the bank to the consumers and refund it to them.

The same problem also occurred in many 4S stores under the Zheng Tong Automobile Group, such as Foshan Baoyun BMW 4S store, Foshan Ding Baoxing BMW 4S store and Guangzhou Zhongqi Nanfang Shengwo 4S store, all of which were exposed as unable to pick up the car.

Li Shuzhen said he just wanted his car back as soon as possible. He was happy to buy a car, but now he is not in the mood.

A few days ago, Volvo announced that it had officially terminated its cooperation with a number of 4S stores under the Zheng Tong Automobile Group.

10 Seven of the automobile dealer groups saw their income decrease.

Zheng Tong has not attracted people's attention among nearly 30,000 car dealers if it is not because many of its 4S stores can't deliver cars on time.

In fact, it's not just Zheng Tong that is unlucky because of the COVID-19 epidemic this year. The data shows that in 2020, the performance of 10 mainstream listed automobile dealer groups in the first half of the year (including 3 A-share listed dealers and 7 Hong Kong-share listed dealer groups), 8 sales collectively declined, and 7 incomes and profits declined.

This is just a microcosm of the survival of tens of thousands of domestic car dealers in the first half of the year. According to the report released by china automobile dealers association on August 3rd, in the first half of 2020, only 265,438+0.5% dealers sold more new cars than the same period of last year, and 38.3% dealers suffered losses.

In the first half of the year, the number of automobile dealers' network also ended the growth momentum maintained for many years. 10 19 4S stores withdrew from the network, and the number of newly added 4S stores was only 824.

From the publicly compiled data, it is not difficult to see that in the first half of this year, the operating pressure of automobile dealers has further intensified, and the profit situation is worrying.

According to industry insiders, 2020 may be the worst day for car dealers.

Pressing the warehouse is the root of all evil.

Originally, in the dealer system, the group company's ability to resist risks was much stronger than that of a single store. A single store only represents one brand, and the intentional customers are lost, and the related sales revenue and after-sales output value no longer exist. The group company can greatly reduce the customer churn rate, especially when its brand coverage in a city or even the whole country is high enough, no matter what car customers buy, it may be the agent brand of the same group.

But now the automobile dealer group is also facing a huge test.

In September, the national survey on the inventory early warning index of automobile dealers showed that the inventory early warning index of automobile dealers was 54%, up by 1.2% from the previous month and down by 4.6% year-on-year. The inventory early warning index is still above the threshold.

For a long time, domestic OEMs have adopted the production and marketing mode of "pressing tasks" and "heavy inventory", which directly leads to the fact that most 4S shops sell cars without making money, and the capital chain is still very tight.

▲ Suppose that the main engine factory presses 100 vehicles to a shop in 4S every month, and each vehicle is calculated according to the car price150,000, then the shop in 4S will pay150,000 this month. Many 4S stores don't have such big funds. They gave the certificate of mortgage to the bank and borrowed money to pick up the car.

In order to sell cars quickly, car dealers withdraw funds and repay bank loans as soon as possible. The price of some new cars is often lower than that of goods.

In a Jaguar Land Rover 4S store in Guangzhou, the author learned that Jaguar XEL (manufacturer's guide price is 2.898-3.806 million yuan) is now selling cars with a discount of 200,000 yuan. As a luxury brand medium-sized car, this price is unprecedented.

In a large shopping mall, the author saw that the medium-sized Chevrolet Mai Rui Bao (manufacturer's guide price15.49-210.99 million yuan) has fallen to 99,900 yuan, and the price is beyond imagination.

When the price of cars is reduced, consumers are very happy, but in the eyes of investor Huang Guobin, the business of car 4S stores is becoming more and more difficult.

According to the investigation report on the living conditions of automobile dealers, the gross profit margin of dealers' new cars dropped to -3.5% in the first half of 2020, and the price inversion rose from 79.9% in 20 19 to 83.7%, among which the price inversion of joint venture brands was more serious.

"Now, except for some Japanese brands and luxury brands such as Porsche and Ferrari, it is very common for the terminal price to be 15% off the guide price. If you sell a car, you will lose one. The more you sell, the more you gain. " Speaking of which, Huang Guobin complained bitterly.

There are many reasons why prices are upside down. First, manufacturers use rebate subsidies to suppress inventory. For example, for a new car, the profit 15%, only 6% will be transferred to the dealer when the car is picked up, and the remaining 9% must pass various assessments and be refunded monthly, quarterly and annually. It means that the dealer puts part of the profits in the manufacturer, and the dealer can only get the rebate if he completes the annual sales task set by the main engine factory. In order to complete the assessment, dealers generally sell cars at a reduced price.

Second, manufacturers misjudged the market. For example, before the Volvo XC90 went on the market, the manufacturers thought that the middle-low version would be popular, so they produced it in large quantities. As a result, after listing, they found that consumers are more keen on the middle and high version, and the middle and low version has not been sought after by consumers. The model has been produced and can only be forced to sell to dealers, who can't move at the original price, but only sell at a reduced price, which will cause the price system of manufacturer's guide price to collapse and eventually lead to price inversion.

Third, when choosing dealers, manufacturers only consider the quantity, ignoring the mutual competition between dealers of the same brand in the same region. Now the price war is fierce.

Huang Guobin said that although the 4S store model can create some income in after-sales, auto finance, fine products and used cars, the main profit point is the sales of new cars. In the past, the gross profit of a new car could reach 1 10,000 yuan, but now each car loses about 1- 1 10,000 yuan, and some unpopular models even lose 30,000 yuan. This loss will take a long time to earn back after the sale.

A senior media person in the automobile industry told the author, "You can't put the blame on the manufacturers, because selling cars is a very threshold thing. It used to be an incremental market, and investors rushed in when they saw business opportunities. In fact, most people don't know how to sell cars. Dealers should reflect on themselves, is it really professional, and is the service really in place? "

▲ A few days ago, the Beijing News revealed that there were maintenance chaos in SAIC Volkswagen Beijing Hengxing Tiancheng 4S store and Dongfeng Nissan Shengtong franchise store in Fangshan District, Beijing. Some analysts pointed out that chaos in 4S shops has always existed, mainly because car dealers have almost no brand effect, and the purpose of selling car brands is to make money. If something goes wrong, it is the manufacturer who bears the responsibility.

After six years as a car salesman, I resigned.

The upside-down price of new cars has also affected the sales revenue of automobiles.

Xin Li is a sales manager who has worked for six years. Three months ago, she left Lexus 4S store and worked as a sales manager in Audi 4S store. But it was not enough for her to work for two months, and she left again.

Xin Li told me that three years ago, she worked as a salesman in a Lexus 4S shop with a basic salary of 2,000 yuan, and she could sell about 12 cars a month. Counting the sales commission, she can earn about 30 thousand yuan or more a month.

This income level is not lower than that of ordinary Guangzhou citizens. In that year, job seekers had to rely on connections and even spend money to sell in Lexus 4S stores.

However, such a scene is gone forever around 20 17. In the past two years, the commission on automobile sales has dropped again and again.

"I have to work overtime until 9 o'clock in the evening every day to call back customers. Although we can still sell 12 cars every month, the money we can get is less than half that of three years ago. Investors' demands are getting higher and higher, wages are not increasing, and the commission on new car sales is declining. " After job-hopping, Xin Li found that other brands' dealerships were also in this situation, and felt that automobile sales had become a sunset industry.

Affected by the market saturation, the price of new cars upside down, rising labor costs and other factors, selling cars is no longer a good job.

Save yourself or fall down?

However, the overall environment is not good, and not every dealer group can't open the pot. Compared with Zheng Tong, Mei Dong and Zhongsheng, two dealer groups that also focus on luxury car brands, are growing against the trend and living well.

In 20 19, the total automobile revenue of Mei Dong reached16.2 billion yuan, up 46% year-on-year; The net profit reached 560 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 53%; The number of 4S stores has also increased by nearly 10. In terms of Zhongsheng Group, in 20 19, there were 360 stores with a total sales volume of 450,000 vehicles, and the sales of new cars exceeded10 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14%.

Mei Dong Automobile's performance growth is mainly due to its further optimized brand mix. Although the COVID-19 epidemic has brought a huge impact on the automobile market in the first half of 2020, luxury brands will recover faster in the first half of 2020.

The semi-annual report of Mei Dong Automobile shows that the sales revenue of luxury brand new cars accounts for 84.3% of all new car sales revenue. Among them, the sales revenue of luxury brand new cars increased by 365,438+0% year-on-year, and the middle and high-end cars decreased by 2% year-on-year; Luxury brands' after-sales revenue increased by 22% year-on-year, while high-end brands decreased by 9%.

According to the data provided by Passenger Car Association, in the first half of 2020, the retail growth rate of passenger car market in China was only -23%, while the sales volume of luxury car market reached 6.5438+0.04 million, achieving a positive growth rate of 654.38+0% year-on-year, forming a unique growth feature of luxury cars. In terms of market share, the luxury car market accounted for 13. 1% in the first quarter of this year and 13.9% in the second quarter. The average share in the first half of this year increased by 7.5 percentage points compared with the same period of 20 15.

Xia Kai, an industry analyst, believes that the automobile market has entered the stage of consumption upgrading mainly based on redemption, and the sales of luxury cars in China will continue to rise in the future, but this does not mean that luxury brands are the life-saving medicine for all dealers. There are also some luxury brand 4S stores in Zheng Tong, but there are still cases where funds are broken. Only a reasonable brand structure is a necessary condition to improve the enterprise's ability to resist risks.

At the same time, Xia Kai also said that the reshuffle of the automobile industry has begun and the war is raging. If car dealers don't follow the right brand, they will only be eliminated.

Why are car dealers so miserable this year?

An important reason is that the entire auto market has entered the stock market. Gone are the days when dealers can "lie down and earn money" through the agency control channel, but the production capacity previously laid out by manufacturers is still being released. There is no sustainable business model in the transition from incremental market to stock market. Under the pressure of sales assessment and payment, dealers can only be forced to take price reduction promotions to compete for customers.

Fierce price competition brings about the upside-down wholesale and retail prices in the market, so there is a strange phenomenon that the more cars are sold, the more money dealers lose. For dealers, it is helpful to promote business types and businesses that can attract customers and go hand in hand on the basis of improving their service level.

Words? |? Lu Xiaofeng

This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.