Your next car deal could come with an AI upgrade you’ll appreciate
Artificial Intelligence (AI) can play a vital role for customers to make the right choice when hunting for a pre-owned vehicle.
- Industry News
- 5 November 2026
A few small ideas to help you add to your bottom line and enhance your balance sheet:
Go into your parts warehouse area and turn all the empty bins upside down and pull them partially off the shelf so that if you look down the aisle between the bins, you can see all the empty bins sticking out into the aisle.
It is an effective way to get a visual of your stock management. Discuss your findings with your parts manager and see if the logic of your findings make sense for your business model. You should only create "bins" for parts that meet your stocking criteria.
If you sell 40 new vehicles a month, then you must PDI 40 a month, which is two PDIs per working day. Consider moving your PDIs to “after hours” and keep your working hours for retail and warranty work. Take two extra retail jobs a day to replace the PDI jobs. The financial effect could be meaningful over time despite having to pay overtime to the staff who perform the PDIs after hours.
Examine your retail vehicle sales over the last year to see who you have sold to and what your anticipated service retention should be. People will either service close to their place employment or close to where they live. If you have good data, you should be able to estimate your retention from purchase to workshop. Additionally, try and produce a strategy to target buyers who are more likely to service with your dealership – the overall GP generated by a vehicle and workshop client is probably double the GP of the vehicle sale alone.
Examine your switchboard records to determine who spends time on the phone and which phone numbers are the most frequently dialled. In addition, look at the numbers that have longest call duration – my bet is that it will be the maintenance providers who have a habit of keeping dealers on hold waiting for authorisation for workshop jobs. Certain maintenance providers are better than others but make sure that you do not have vehicles on the lift that cannot be worked on until authorisation is obtained. The lost labour sales can be substantial.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) can play a vital role for customers to make the right choice when hunting for a pre-owned vehicle.
The South African motor industry has lost one of its longstanding business figures following the passing of Jebb McIntosh, the group chief executive of Combined Motor Holdings (CMH), on Monday, 2 November 2026.
“South Africa’s automotive industry has been AGOA’s largest user, but for the sector the preference has already been largely overridden by the 25% Section 232 tariffs applied on vehicles and components. Losing AGOA adds a further cost to an industry that has already absorbed a significant shock.”
Advertisement
Advertisement
Cars are the ultimate symbol of freedom, independence and individualism. They offer the freedom to ‘go anywhere,’ whenever it suits and with whom one chooses.
Sarah Redshaw
Ford South Africa employees and dealer partners contributed more than 8 000 volunteer hours to 29 community projects during its 2026 Global Caring Month programme.
Generating an AI description for an ad quickly is useful, but the real test is whether it makes the whole process of preparing an advert easier. In this article, sponsored by AutoTrader, we look at behind the vehicle listings, tools that simplify everyday tasks could make a meaningful difference to how sales teams spend their time.
Imperial Motors Zambia, part of Motus Africa, has added UD Trucks to its dealership offering following an official launch in Lusaka on 1 October. The brand will be represented at three operational locations in Lusaka, Kitwe and Solwezi.