Automotive industry This article is more than 15 years oldBuy one car, get one free: dealer's offer as desperation takes hold in showrooms
This article is more than 15 years oldA car dealer desperate to shift stock has stunned the motor industry with an extraordinary offer: buy one car - and get another one free.
The Colchester-based online car broker Broadspeed.com said yesterday it had just sold the last of its Dodge Avenger saloons after launching the offer more usually seen on washing powder or packets of bacon.
Buyers were able to buy two Dodge Avenger SXT 2.4i models, with leather seats and air conditioning, for £20,000. Demand for the cars was so high the company website crashed. Simon Empson, the managing director, said he was planning to offer more "Bogof" deals in the future.
Car industry experts described the offer as "almost unbelievable" and said it was a sign that the car market was in crisis.
New car sales in the UK were down by 23% last month, the biggest fall for 17 years. In August the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said car sales were at their lowest level since 1966.
Struggling consumers fearful for their jobs have been deciding to hold on to their existing vehicles. This week alone four big car dealerships called in the administrators, with the loss of more than 400 jobs. More are predicted to fail over the next few months.
Empson said: "It was amazing. We had been trying to sell those cars online at half price for nearly a month and they were selling, but it was nothing special. But when we made the deal two-for-one, we got 22,000 customers. It's the power of marketing, I suppose. The very first call I had was from a father who was going to buy the two cars, have one himself and give the other to his son."
His company, a partner with the BBC's Top Gear magazine, is negotiating the same offer with two more mainstream manufacturers, but declined to name which ones. "If you've got the money there has never been a better time to buy a car," he said.
"Cars are in some cases literally half-price. Some manufacturers have got five to six months of unsold stock. The motor trade is beyond desperate - it's in crisis."
He said 4x4s and prestige makes such as Mercedes had been hardest hit by the drop in demand and were now being offered at heavy discounts. "We have Mercedes-Benzes available. The repayments were £800 a month - that's now down to £399. Some BMWs that list at £39,000 can now be bought for £22,000.
"Every day I'm getting sent lists of unsold stock with thousands of cars, all at discounts that were previously unimaginable," Empson added.
Motor Trader magazine deputy editor James Dallas said dealers have been really suffering. "Although this month's sales figures were bad, the real blow to the industry came last month when the nomally busy period that usually surrounds the [new] number plate failed to materialise Two cars for the price of one shows just how desperate things have become."
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