31 May 2011

Despite interviewing the management of Tesco Cars in an exclusive interview for Auto Retail Bulletin, I’m still none the wiser as to why the retailing giant actually went into used rather than new car sales, which to many, would have made more sense.

The reason new cars would have made more sense is the uniformity of product. Everything would have been the same. In the used car market nothing is the same. Even the same make and model with identical mileage could be very different vehicles with different values depending on condition.

For a brand that’s stated aim is to offer a better service with better levels of trust, offering used cars doesn’t make sense.

With new cars the quality can be guaranteed.

What’s also odd is that despite saying they’ll offer a better quality service, some of the stock available isn’t very high quality as Tesco admits with its “warts and all” line.

Why wouldn’t Tesco put a higher level of minimum standards in place for its stock? It’s all very well having an RAC inspection, but if that reveals the car’s got minimal tread left and warning lights on, doesn’t that dilute some of that trust in the Tesco brand?

Tesco must know what it’s doing, right? After all, it’s the UK’s biggest supermarket brand, so it must have thought this through. Either way, we’ll keep asking them questions whenever we get the chance to see if there is something the rest of the auto retail industry could learn from.

Tristan Young

Tags: Agenda, Tesco, Tescocars.com, This Week