+ A
A -
Tribune News Network
Doha
Used car showrooms in Qatar are facing a tough time if reports and monthly sales figures of these outlets are to be believed.
About 30 percent of the used car dealers are facing possible closure due to the economic situation in the region and slowdown in domestic markets, according to a survey conducted by Q Motor, a local company.
Substantial drop in the prices of new cars has also led to lower sales figures for used cars in Qatar.
The prices of new cars have seen a drop of over 15 percent when compared with the figures of 2015.
New car dealers are also dishing out offers such as drive-now- and-pay-next-year, or pay installments with zero percent interest rate.
Approximately 40 percent of the used car dealers are expected to close down by the end of 2017 if they do not make any changes in their business strategy.
Some of the mistakes used car dealers are making include full dependance on the domestic market (buying and selling cars in Qatar), working with the same business model since 2006, lack of efficient management, delaying new services and lack of spending on advertisement and marketing.
With the emergence of a number of online and off-line portals for selling cars, many end users have stopped displaying their cars at showrooms, hence the need for showrooms has reduced drastically.
Many of the car dealers who are now hit by low sales are neither making basic investments in technology such as building a website for their business, nor making any effort to build a customer database, the survey report said.
