Audi Centre Perth predicts growth

A commitment of $17 million and two years construction has realised a new Audi Centre Perth that owners and joint dealer principals David Collins and Peter James expect will help sell up to 1800 new Audis a year.

Audi sales lag behind BMW in WA though nationally, it outsells BMW. Audi Australia said about $250 million has been spent on new and refurbished showrooms for the brand around Australia over the past two years.

A similar amount is estimated to be spent by competitors BMW and Mercedes-Benz to retain - or gain - prestige-car market share. Collins and James took on the first Audi centre on an adjoining property in 1999, selling less than 20 cars a month. In the start of their seventh year as WA's sole Audi agents, they now sell about 100 a month.

In WA, Audi sales in 2012 year-to-date are 186 units, behind BMW's state figure of 226 for the same period. Nationally, however, Audi is 100 units ahead of BMW with 2534 sales in the same period. James says that sales position in WA will change.

He says the investment in the building is "absolutely necessary'' to make the business more efficient and increase sales. "It's built to grow. We see a lot of growth in our market share in WA, especially with the launch of models such as the Q3 and the five-door A1. We see 200-plus sales in those two for the year and future models - including electric cars - just add incremental growth.''

"We ran out of space,'' he says of the need to upgrade. "People probably don't realise that our business is all about space - we service 50 cars a day, for example, so we need 50 parking bays. The need for space continues to the showroom, the admin area and so on.''

The 8000sq.m rectangle - boxed in Audi's patented brushed aluminium, folded honeycomb cladding - includes a 20-car showroom, expansive training rooms and a 15-hoist service centre that is double the old - and now adjoining - building.

"The new service centre will halve previous customer waiting times and we expect throughput to increase by 40 per cent,'' James says. Collins says the industry continues to change, both from the inside and from outside influences.

"Dealers have a lot more work to do on compliance - taxes, customs and excise, licenses and so on - which take more time than before,'' he says."We have four people who just work on compliance issues. One of the biggest changes is people's understanding of cars.

"We have to get better and better at knowing our products because prospective buyers now have the ability - through the internet, newspaper motoring articles and so on - to research cars. ``We are much better at understanding our products because of that.''

The owners will now modify the old building to become a prestige used car showroom, housing 16 cars under cover and about 100 in a dedicated yard. "The point of difference is that we will give used-car customers the same level of attention as new-car buyers,'' Collins says. "That includes a similar warranty to a new car.''