TORONTO -

Mercedes-Benz Canada said it has put a stronger emphasis on its pre-owned business — ramping up everything from wholesale management to facility space to training — and it has resulted in dynamic growth in pre-owned sales the past two years.

Auto Remarketing Canada reached out to Mercedes-Benz Canada’s leadership to figure out what exactly drove these pre-owned gains, which recently resulted in the best August the company has ever had in pre-owned.

To differentiate between the two, pre-owned comprises both certified pre-owned and non-CPO at Mercedes-Benz Canada.

Company president and chief executive officer Tim Reuss attributed the climb to a widespread and enhanced focus on the pre-owned side of the business.

“We now have fully integrated remarketing and pre-owned teams in place. We also improved the wholesale management process,” Reuss said. “We have dedicated pre-owned sales consultants as well as dedicated showroom space or stand-alone pre-owned centers.

“We now have a cohesive pre-owned training program in place at the national level. Overall, there is simply more dealer focus on the pre-owned business,” he added. “As a result, Mercedes-Benz Canada has been experiencing double-digit increments in pre-owned sales.”

In fact, sales in 2010 — when the company moved 10,430 pre-owned units — were about 27 percent higher than the sum for 2009, when Mercedes-Benz Canada sold 8,219 pre-owned vehicles.

What’s more, through August, there have been 8,705 pre-owned vehicles sold, a 26.3-percent hike over the first eight months of 2010.
August itself was record-breaking for the company.

Moving 1,313 vehicles, the month was “by far their best August ever” for pre-owned sales, Mercedes stated.

“We are currently in the process of transitioning our inventory as the 2012 models are beginning to arrive at our dealerships from coast-to-coast,” Reuss said when August results were released.

“While new-vehicle inventory levels may be slightly lower than usual during this interim period, especially for our luxury light trucks, it is extremely rewarding to see continued exponential growth of our pre-owned sales in Canada,” he added. “This demonstrates that the significant investments in our pre- owned processes and infrastructure have most definitely translated into incremental sales, allowing us to expand the Mercedes-Benz family in record numbers.”

And, apparently, dealers have responded quite well to the changes in the pre-owned program.

“Our dealers are now fully engaged in the pre-owned business and in turn, this has generated good profitability and strong resale values. We are attracting many new first-time customers to the brand,” Reuss shared.

“They now have a strong and efficient process in place which works well. Together, we have raised the level of professionalism across the board,” he continued. “They fully recognize and understand the overall importance of pre-owned car sales for our brand as well as the opportunities to increase profitability.”