Wheeler Dealers Mike Brewer forced to accept 'horrible' reality ahead of new series

Wheeler Dealers TV host Mike Brewer has admitted he has been forced to accept a “horrible” reality about used car owners. 

The host of the classic car restoration show revealed he has realised second-hand dealers still have a “bad name” among customers with a lack of trust still an issue.

He admitted there was still a “stigma” attached to dealers with motorists assuming used car forecourts are ripping them off.

Mike admitted it can be “difficult” for second-hand sellers to operate in that environment and appeared to point the blame at TV shows for exaggerating the caricature.

Although famous for his TV work, Mike is still very much in the second-hand car trade and co-owns the One Automotive dealership in Leamington Spa.

He told Car Dealer Podcast Live: “It is difficult for us, particularly in the used car trade, to get rid of that bad name. That name does follow you around like a sticky bogey. It does, it’s just horrible. It won’t come off.

“Often because I do speeches on it and do the [Car Dealer Magazine] Award every year and I look across the room at the wonderful people there who are a shining light on our industry.

“I think to myself why do people still have this stigma attached to the used car industry. Go back to Arthur Daley, all those dodgy car sales, or Frank Butcher selling cars on Eastenders.

“When 20 million people a night are watching it and he’s doing these dodgy deals.”

A previous study from AutoTrader, the leading marketplace for new and used car sales, found only seven percent of UK consumers trust second-hand car dealerships.

One-fifth of car buyers said they found vague, hard-to-find or misleading information during the car-buying process.

For 76 percent of respondents, transparency on price was the most important factor when buying a second-hand model.

Despite the concerns, motorists are still overwhelmingly opting for second-hand vehicles over brand new.

In 2023, there were 7.2 million used car sales processed compared to 1.9 million new transactions.

Mike also stressed that second-hand dealers are often targeted by customers unhappy with problems that arise with their used vehicles later down the line.

However, he said most of this criticism is “unfair” with the previous owners or manufacturers likely to blame for defects.

He added: “It is us that feels the brunt of that as the used car dealer when it does go wrong. It’s ‘you sold me a dodgy car, you’re a dodgy car dealer’. I think it's really unfair but I can't think of a magic way we can paint that out. It's just always going to be there.”

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