Electric Volvo ES90 arrives in South Africa
Volvo Cars has introduced the new ES90 in South Africa, positioning it as the brand’s fully electric flagship sedan.
- New Energy Vehicles
- 13 March 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.
Volvo Cars has introduced the new ES90 in South Africa, positioning it as the brand’s fully electric flagship sedan.
DFSK introduced what it describes as the ‘Ultimate Staff and Equipment Transport’, to its current range in South Africa that so far consisted of a panel van and a bakkie.
Toyota South Africa Motors (TSAM) returns as sponsor of the Absa Cape Epic for the fourth consecutive year, standing alongside Absa, which celebrates 20 years as title sponsor of the world’s toughest mountain bike stage race.
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I have bad reflexes. I was once run over by a car being pushed by two guys
Woody Allen
At the NADA Connect 2026 conference, the Deputy CEO of WeBuyCars, Dr Wynand Beukes, took the stage to share what he called “our story, not the right story or the wrong story, just ours”.
Rola Toyota Somerset West picked up the top award as Dealer of the Year at the manufacture’s awards held last under the theme, Challenge and Innovate.
Toyota South Africa Motors (TSAM) recently hosted its national Dealer Network for the annual Dealer of the Year (DOTY) awards where Hino Isando scooped up the silverware as top Hino dealer.