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Five days ago, i sold my last car, monday, i was days off self isolating anyway, i saw, on monday, that the pm was going to be on at 8.30, so for him to be on at that time i knew this was going to be a big one, on closing monday night, i half heartedly put my business into lockdown, leaving some handbrakes off, putting the cheapest car in front of the more expensive for safety,but not doing anything drastic, hoping for the best, thinking, like you all probably have, there may be some cheap cars out there to put to one side for a month [ now you can't even buy them ]. At just gone 8.30, my arse fell out [ sorry, that means gobsmacked ! ] realising straight away that non essential, means me ! All this week has been spent following the news, catching up on gov websites [ changing hourly so constantly refreshing] and coming on here to see other peoples plans. Fast forward to tonight, friday, and reflecting on the week, the government has worked so dam hard to keep some hope up, and money in peoples pockets, whilst still reminding us to isolate, all credit to them, they must be shattered, and of course the nhs. Tonight, a thing i did half heartedly on monday, i have wrote down a plan for a full lockdown on my business, there will be a visit tomorrow to put this plan into action, it covers security, vermin, full lock up of all tools where i can, handbrakes off, batteries off [ except the later stuff, dont want ecu's loosing the plot] and taking essential paperwork home,even draining compressor, it's like xmas, but at least with xmas, you knew when you were back in ! Have to look into maybe post redirection too, a relation was going to come and help me but latest is do not socialise, well, five days hey ? very very strange days, stay safe people

How right you are! Seriously? Poor salespeople struggling by on £12K before commission. How much sympathy do you honestly think you’re going to get from millions of shop workers and zero hour contracted staff? Bearing in mind the pandemic that’s sweeping the world, are you seriously suggesting the star seller at a Land Rover dealership, who’s taken home an £80K user for the next few weeks, is topped up to their usual level? If so I’ll put this in easy to understand terms; You are an idiot. I think you’ve seriously misjudged the mood of the nation and the seriousness of current world events. If some have to struggle by on £800pm HARD LUCK - there are people dying. You need to give your head a shake.

Without the vermin who would we sell cars too?

I have in the past They bug you the next year at renewal though some of them

We get 50p a brake disc usually, think the guy gets a pretty good deal out of us with that considering most of the discs have are fairly big ones off hot hatches etc

You can imagine the quality of customer from cf247, coming up with a fault after a few days then going off on one as workshops are shut so hard to get parts. I hate cf247 and the majority of their council scheme scumbag punters, On a more positive note we managed a sale today. The way we are doing it is by appointment only. In order to get an appointment you have to pay £100 (inspired by the late great ad) which is refundable if you don’t like the car aslong as you show up when your meant to. Only the person buying the car is allowed on our premises. We simply hand them the keys and leave them to it. If they want a test drive as it can’t be accompanied they forfeit the return of their £100 whether the buy it or not and they can take it round the block aslong as they leave the keys for their car and ID on the desk. So one sold and a decent cheap swapper for £300, will keep the wolves away from the door aslong as we can still manage one every fortnight or so.

No where to go , Nothing to see , No one to talk to , Cant even have a barbie on the garden with friends . We call it smiling at them , he raises his lip if anyone comes near my wife , they instantly retreat

I saw an episode where is was going out in his transporter and just thought there was more life in some boiled crabs

Daksh Gupta’s comment about one year’s profit being one month’s operating costs rams home how bad this will hit the big boys. How refreshing to hear a major player taking in such forthright & straightforward manner. Can you imagine such an interview with a couple of the auction houses finest & a city analyst? I obviously don’t need to point this out to you but if I had a unit to let I’d have absolutely f.a. to do with letting it to this trade. I bought my current house about 4 years ago so I can accurately note the machinations of the local traders over 4 years. If I either pointed to any number of particular pitch locations OR a number of particular people I can honestly say MANY pitches have had 2 or 3 changes of business tenant AND many of the people in this trade have had 2 or 3 different locations and/or different trading names. Quite frankly this industry attracts some of the biggest fly by night bullshitters going.

Great interview and great insight, Daksh is always very open and good to listen to.

My mate sold a few of the various models back in the day was just talking the other week about what the xr4x4s are going for now on ebay as well as the rs cosworth models if only he had them now my elderly dad often says the same thing about the jag mk2 and cars he owned years ago

May I take this opportunity to say please stay safe and take care I'm hoping and praying we all comeback from this myself included not only in business but in health not only with the covid 19 virus but also general health it going to cripple some peoples mental health Everyone sitting around looking at and currently thinking of trying to climb the 4 walls Best wishes and good luck remember we are all in this together

He knows the franchise job inside out.The directors of Lookers could not do any better than tempt him with a big parachute deal.

Very good, covered a great deal, makes you consider if your own plans match, [ a few less million here ! ] looked in the past month, this month, how things have been changing hourly this week, and, thankyou for asking about the future, looking forward to the upcoming ones.

Absolutely first class,really enjoyed listening to someone who really has a grasp of this situation,his attitude was brilliant Thanks james

Jesus trade vet, you are the most depressing person ever

You need to keep that going aslong as possible. Instruct him to collect it from your storage compound and give the address of a lr main dealer

Today is your lucky day my friend! I’ve always admired 15yr old CRVs, 10yr old Galaxies & battered Corsa p/xs. As luck might have it I have an example of each in stock ready for your purchase.

Best looking into see if wedding is still going to happen with uk lockdown ..

Also doesn’t apply if you are a director or a Ltd company unfortunately which I guess applies to a lot of us. My hope is we can be trading in 8 weeks again but what will business be like when we go back?

People need assistance by the end of April not June. This really isn’t right.

Not always, Of late the stupid ones we get are reasonably normal middle management or retired types who probably do have the money but they think they know best as they have read Honest John.

Friends and fellow traders on the forum please may all you and your family's stay safe and take care during these tough times with your health with the corona virus pandemic Hopefully all our business can all come back from it also in time wish everyone all the best .

Interesting how we have two threads, one showing what we are doing for our community and the other showing how our community are doing us!

We are offering free delivery within 50 miles for customers apprehensive about leaving the house, reassuring them all our cars are fully valeted and sanitised. Prior to delivery they will receive a video call showing them every little blemish or stone chip etc so they can be assured of the product they will receive.