Leaderboard

November performance & forthcoming December - January demand As November approaches yet another month-end, how has the market changed for you? Reports that demand has slowed during the first half; however, remaining just ahead of November 2012. Is stock becoming more plentiful and has the quality improved at all? The usual demand for the '4 x 4' seems to be taking hold, as reports of the first snow hit the weather reports. What are your views on November for your business, and how do you feel the market will develop through December, and will there be enough stock for the usual January sales planned by many? Views on a post card :-)

Think we keep going around in circles and beat ourselves up ! I am still with AT ..Just about having cancelled once and get enticed back with their retentions team! Like everyone else I keep looking at the invoices that keep coming in for advertising.. AT the biggest one for only 12 cars ! I do sell cars off it but its a very close call amount sold to amount spent ! ( I'm NOT the cheapest and never will be - don't want to be!) Motors simply doesn't bring in enough leads in , eBay I've trialled it a few times - doesn't work for me! We also have to think , when we ask customers where they saw the advert, they cannot always remember or do they simply say AT Due to 'brand' memory/ recall ? A few years ago there were two very similar 'free car mags' in the area , so very difficult to always get the right feedback as both were similar name 'Auto- Exchange' ' Auto-weekly' so when you asked they would say 90% of the time " the free one I picked up at the supermarket. Auto something" Not good to get accurate feedback - so I had a green & blue ad - I would simply ask after them saying the above - what colour please ! I got my information! and it was surprising how many times after saying i.e. auto-exchange - it was actually auto-weekly ! So who's going to have the best platform that offers real value, lots of leads at that price that will stop us moaning but actually shouting how good it is!

Great points guys....GreenGiant, what if the Beano started asking so much for their advertising space that no one advertised in there anymore, does that mean that people would continue to read the Beano or would they have a glimpse at the Dandy or may even somewhere else? The advantage of having a large number of car dealers and cars for sale on one website is weighted heavily towards the customer, it makes it easy for them to compare cars like for like, side by side without even leaving their house, the problem is that if you car is identical to the car advertised next to it on AT but £500 more what chance have you got of selling it until the cheaper one is sold? and often the one thats £500 cheaper is being sold by a private, which means they have not only paid less for the advert but also don't have to HPi, mileage check or even give a warranty, but it's for sale right next to your car, £500 cheaper (sounds fair????NOT) Gavin, thank you for the compliment, we have been in business for just over 10 years and pride ourselves in providing the very best in customer care and due to this, between 60-70% of our sales each month are a mixture of repeat and referral business, the other sales & enquiries come from local people normally who can see the physical building and pitch, and a mixture of local advertising , sponsorship and social media, not only this but our website is very strong with most website referrals coming from Google, AA Cars(formerly V cars) & Motors.co.uk. Now if you total ALL my advertising activity during a month I bet it's still less than you advertising 15 cars with AutoTrader! As I say I'm NOT anti-AT i just think that the MotorTrade have to look at things differently before it's too late! As an analogy, if the price of petrol went up to £2.00 per litre , the country would come to a standstill, people would refuse to buy petrol until the price came down, there would be a major outcry, now we can't do without petrol, I agree,because there is no alternative, however you have just stated that your business cannot survive without AutoTrader, so what happens when they increase your price to an unacceptable amount? We all need an alternative, we cannot continue to have all our eggs in one basket! Things must change!

We are VERY proud to announce that we have been Shortlisted for an Award at this year's Car Dealer Magazine Used Car Awards 2013 held at The Brewery, Central London on the 2nd of December. If you are going along to the awards be sure to swing round past our table, you won't be able to miss us, we will be wearing the kilts! We are delighted to be shortlisted for these national awards as it reflects the dedication,commitment & hard work from the whole team at Jim Reid Vehicle Sales. Congratulations to Team Reid for their inclusion and fingers crossed we can come home with an award this year. We will keep you posted. Tickets ordered, flights & hotel booked, bring it on!

Gavin Always a difficult one, on telephone or e-mail. We try very hard not to give a price without seeing the car, but have found in the past that the best way to deal with this is......you can either offer a range of price from £x to £y OR explain that it is difficult to offer without seeing a car and that naturally most other dealers will either 'HIGH BALL' you by giving a high valuation only to knock your part ex price diown when you arrive at their dealership or 'UNDER VALUE' to be safe which means that you will not even visit their dealership, which means that you may miss out on the cleaner of the two cars for sale. Alos we often ask if we do offer them an acceptable price for part exchange over the phone are they in a position to buy the car you have for sale without seeing it or test driving it? The answer is envitably NO!