Autoguard Group’s Group Commercial Director, Ali May-Khalil is one of the latest judges on Car Dealer Magazines’ podcast Car Dealer Podcast.

 Ali is the 52^nd judge to appear on the infamous podcast where host, Rebecca Chaplin invites an industry guest to discuss the news of the week. Topics featuring on Ali’s show included Cazoo shares, Lotus’ agency sales and over 65s buying electric cars.

Speaking against the opinion of many dealers who have a distaste for agency sales, Ali explains how this could be a good thing for many car dealers.

“I think it’s probably a good thing. I know a lot of people get bent out of shape about it but I think it probably is.”

“I think for the consumer it’s way better. There’s nothing worse than lying on a sun lounger next to someone on holiday and them telling you they paid £500 less than you. It’s the same with cars.”

“I think when they standardise the pricing then dealers can focus on the experience, the consumer experience is enhanced, the pressure is off the dealer to retain margin and leads coming into the business are managed better.”

“I don’t think there’s anything to be feared as long as they understand and own the used car piece around it.”

Ali appeared the week Lotus announced it had it had an agency sales restructure with all 13 UK dealerships.

“You’re only ever going to sell a vehicle like that with an agency model, let’s be honest, because then you take away the need of the retailer to stress about the deal or the price.”

“When you think about a car like a Lotus it’s not like you’re thinking about it – you buy a Lotus or you don’t buy a Lotus. With an agency model on that sort of vehicle it allows the retailer to focus primarily on the experience. Not margin, not selling it, just saying this is the Emira, giving the customer a fabulous experience and then getting paid for doing it.”

He added: “The manufacturer owns the data, owns the journey and I can see why they would do that. Probably less so for the volume brands but having worked for some volume brands in the past, the agency style model where we were given a handling fee for hitting a unit target is nothing new.”

You can listen to what Ali had to say in full by heading to the Car Dealer Podcast on most podcast platforms including Spotify and Apple Podcasts.