trade vet

Go for it Mr C.I once rented a pitch off a guy who was retiring.He had a camper van hire business which he had built up over years.He had about 50 of them,owned the pitch and a small block of flats ........in central London !

Camper rentals,I think that is an excellent idea Mr C.

That’s OK guys,I am used to being accused of ‘ not knowing what I was doing ‘.Back in 93 started The Ex Police Department retailing ex Police stuff from a unit on a trading estate.( How mad was that ).95 started doing our own warranties ( you don’t want to do that they said ).2001 discounted stuff by £500 to nearly cost for finance customers and discouraged cash sales.( how stupid was that ) 2002 introduced and advertised Free 7 day Money Back Guarantees ( must have been mad by then ) ,we also introduced Customer Care Packs at £300 about then but they were discontinued after a few years. So it all adds up,I must be mad !

Like doing our own warranty agreements,there are T@C’s involved to help prevent any abuse. I recall one dealer many years ago who bought stuff needing work.He would buy a Cortina with damaged synchros,then hire one for the weekend and swap the box.

What if I said we had been doing that for nearly 20 years !

Some very interesting tales from the rostrum !

If you are just starting up ‘ doorstepping ‘ ,prep your stock to death and offer a 7 day money back guarantee.Without a doubt,that will help.

I think he said he had ditched AT ?

Great offer ( not).What about removing the misleading price markers,how dim are these people running AT.If they want to maintain their market share,the discount should be at least 30% and with the double stock offer lasting until next year.I think greedy Auto Trader has peaked as a business and dealers with pitches ( as opposed to doorsteppers ) and who have supported them for many years have now learnt to rely on them a lot less.

I see one of their companies ( they have several) did £100m T/O net profit £6m last year.Never mind celebrities and footballers,can you imagine some of the unsavoury people wanting to buy this stuff... Has anyone read his book yet,we need a review.I might invest a tenner myself but I am thinking it will not be full of interesting anecdotes.

Don’t think so,DK group net assets about £2m,Hartley Group ( Tom + sons etc ) net assets a lot more from what I can see.

In between watching Dominic Cummings statement,I have checked out the financials of these Tom Hartley competitors.Apart from William Loughran and Romans most of those mentioned appear to be ‘non league players‘ asset wise compared to Tom Hartley and sons.So it appears to me that Tom Hartley and the founder of The Great Trade Centre are the top car dealers in the U.K.

Excellent AWC,as I don’t follow novelty cars,I will check them out.

Are there plenty doing the job better than him. ? I cannot think of anyone.

No ,BCA or ADT whatever it was called bought out Beiths and set up in Royston Road.I think they are still there.

I. the 70s I used to go to the Meat Market on a Wednesday when it became about 6 different car auctions for the day.I think it was Graham Square ,Gallowgate.Intercity was there,it was about 30 cars,mostly traders painted up stuff in those days.I only bought from Beith’s back then.After that,we used Newmains,Wishaw,then Shotts,CMA Glasgow,great memories and some amazing characters. Also,Royston Road on a Friday !

I think a Range Rover then cost about 2 grand.I think he said he started in Glasgow auctions.If you could be successfull as a teenager using Glasgow Meat Market car auctions,he was going to be a star player.It was unbelievable.

I think he said he is prepared to blow a 7 figure sum on his present stock when the virus is over !

I don’t think he was from a wealthy family.I will get the book,but the kindle edition is a tenner at the moment,so being tight I will wait for it to drop.

Hi You will get plenty of good advice on here especially if you get into the private lounge.You will need that because you might face problems you had never thought about. If you have a good source of stock ( other than auctions ),friendly workshop and paintshop,that would be a good start. Also,noting you are in fleet management,if you get the opportunity to buy ex fleet stuff,that would be good.

That is the best yet.What a character,makes the other interviewees look like amateurs,works round the clock,doesn’t sleep much,these type of guys are very brave and they have rhino skin.What impressed me is that he does all that and he is off 5. !

Out of interest,in the distant past,I used to underwrite stuff from franchised dealers.It was getting out of hand,all these sales managers having to be wined and dined and the bungs were getting rediculous.You would be constantly underwriting stuff including the crap and only getting a few good ones.The sales managers would often trade the best stuff you had valued out the back door for a higher bung.Sometimes they they got caught out and sacked but their replacements were often more bent,so I used auctions from then on. Fast forward 30 years and the bungs must be far worse.I know someone who still underwrites,he also swaps quality heavy stuff with over age stock to make the sales manager look like a hero.The last time I saw him,he was also complaining about the current price of bungs !

I think when this is over,there might now be a better case for more parking in city centres or they could become ghost towns. There could be a huge cost both in lost business rates and job losses caused by emission zones.These well paid left wing councillors don’t understand that a large proportion of car owning commuters and shoppers will never walk,pushbike,taxi or use public transport.Post Coved ,those large department stores ( some paying £1m business rates ) and then closed down by online competition could be converted into car parks to encourage business and create/retain jobs in city centres.A few years ago some councils were proposing taxing businesses who had their own parking places.!!

I tried this 2 years ago,it is not easy.I found that all these digital/web people talk a good game and then want to lock you into long term contracts.Then you find out they can’t deliver unless you pay them more money.Even HPI offered a great discount contract for X number of searches and valuations per month so I went along with it.I had another account with them for 40 years so compared statements and discovered that the new account was costing far more than the old one.Click Dealer promised that they employed the best SEO code guys,it took nearly 6 months to make the site work.I think they may have been subcontracting the coding stuff to somewhere far off. So good luck.

Self employed scheme ,the point being if freelance zero hours contract workers are eligible for help,people operating from premises and paying business rate inclusive rents should be more than eligible.