As we enter the second year of new car availability being limited in certain areas, we are delighted to report that this has driven activity in the specialist second-hand car market, resulting in solid growth and delivering our busiest 12 months since we moved into specialist car sales.
APS Specialist Vehicles’ total sales to the end of February 2022 were £2.3m, with over 150 cars sold. Among those going through our showroom in the past year, in addition to a wide variety of conventional high-performance cars, were some very rare collector models, including two Nogaro Edition RS4s, a number of Golf Clubsport S variants and two special Audi R8 models.
The decision to add the Specialist Vehicles department was made back in 2019, when additional space opposite our workshop in Brackley became available. Every vehicle we deal with is among the best in its class. There’s no restriction on the size of vehicle, but they’re always hand-picked by us to meet our criteria rather than simply being second-hand vehicles.
Only vehicles that are well maintained, have some unique quality or are high spec for that particular model are chosen, and we have no more than 10 or so vehicles in stock at any one time. A lot of our stock will be vehicles that the on-site workshop has maintained over the years for clients, giving the team the comfort of knowing in detail the history of the vehicle – and providing a clear background to the vehicle to our customers, who want to know as much as possible about the car they are buying.
My fellow director Nathan Sammons and I made a conscious decision in 2019 to invest additional finance into the sales business. That not only gave us more buying power, it gave customers more choice and it took the pressure off the sales team, who knew they didn’t have to do a deal simply to keep things turning over. Our passion is specialist vehicles and we understand their value – we’re not just selling cars, we’re finding something special that customers are truly excited by.
And I think that approach was borne out by the fact that rather than see a downturn when we had to close during the pandemic, we actually saw sales double. We adapted our online offering so that there was more photography for each model, so customers could get a better, all-round idea of the car, and we increased the use of videography, so customers can take a virtual tour of both the outside and inside. Because most customers know the kind of thing they’re looking for when buying a specialist car, the sales continued throughout that challenging time.
Backed up by a specialist team
While APS Specialist Vehicles is still relatively new, one of the key factors that helps our customers choose APS is that they have the reassurance of knowing that everything we do is backed up by a highly skilled team in a specialised workshop, which has been established for over 15 years, and where every vehicle will be checked before it is sold and where MOTs and servicing will be carried out where required.
As we began to return to normality following two years of restrictions, and we saw an upturn in car use as people return to the office, the volume of work in our on-site bodyshop increased. Firstly, the increased amount of driving will inevitably result in a higher chance of a car being damaged, needing a bodywork repair. Secondly, a lot of customers are reporting that lack of availability means they are keeping their car for longer than planned rather than trading it in for a new model, so are spending money having the bodywork kept in mint condition.
There has also been a positive increase in the demand for our specialist workshop skill set in undertaking restoration and recommission works for customers both old and new. This is a new area of business for us that we have been steadily growing over the last few years and now we are fully expanding this and are recruiting more workshop staff.
We currently have a number of restoration and recommission projects ongoing, including two Volkswagen Golf R32s, a limited edition Peugeot 205 GTI, a Volkswagen MK2 Golf GTI and a Lotus Elan. As we progress this side of the business we are also actively looking to expand our workshop space into a second building here at our current location in Brackley in due course.
Find out more about APS Specialist Vehicles on 01280 840491
