A combination of vehicle shortages and high prices in the second-hand car market have led to people buying supply-restricted cars and reselling them at a markup.
Toyota Australia vice-president of sales, marketing and franchise operations, Sean Hanley has spoken against this behaviour, questioning the trust between brand and consumers.
“Our issue is resellers short-cycling, scalping.”
“Trust is everything right now. And the only thing that got us through COVID and the reason we’re sitting here enjoying what we’re enjoying in the Toyota brand right now is trust that was built up not over two years, but built up over decades.
“We’ve seen behaviours, some out of our control, some within our control, that don’t necessarily align with the values that we’ve learned.
“Five years ago, we wouldn’t have had that discussion with anyone. [Now] I’m happy to have that discussion. And I want it changed. I want this situation changed where customers are paying a fair and reasonable price based on the manufacturer’s retail price position.
“Used cars are a different matter, but for a new car, I don’t want customers paying over the odds and we intend to investigate everything we can within the legalities of Australian Consumer Competition rules to try to bring that together.
“And I urge governments and authorities to please consider this proposition and what’s happening in the market now because we’re all about protecting consumers, yet this is going on. We’ve have got to work together to say ‘hey, this has got to stop’.”
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