trade vet

You think it’s bad,can you imagine having a car sales and mot station business in Northern Ireland over the last 4 months.May I enquire what area you operate in.

It’s all spin.Yesterday they were claiming tests had increased to 100,000 per day.Do you believe that when the chemicals to do the tests are in short supply ( quote Gov.Como New York State ) We now have a big virus testing centre and a hospital 4 miles away have now got the equipment to anylise 6000 tests per day.Where are they being done,240 miles away in Milton Keynes by a private company.The explanation given,De Loitte are advising the government on carrying out tests. On Thursday,the chancellor said there were now more than 25% of businesses on lock down ( sounds better than 70% ) and 4 million workers were now furloughed ( sounds better than 15 million). A local company on telly were complaining that NHS were messing them about regarding buying their protective visors and they had made thousands.So they were now just selling them to the US who wanted them yesterday. I think it might be better if the army were put in control.

You will be popular with your ‘client’ then.Expecting a main dealer to do everything right,that is very unprofessional if you don’t mind me saying. I think you should do the proper thing and refund your ‘client’........ha ha !

If you are talking about the lockdown,factors will be down a lot more than 50%.Not many Euros vans about.Also,I have an involvement with a usually busy car sales and workshop business,it’s closed up.Unlike restaurants and gyms,when it reopens it will be OK,like the other workshops nearbye. What about garden nurseries,they invest a load of money in stock ( often borrowed ) ,work like hell to get it ready and only have 3 months to sell it to cover 12 months expenses.They are closed up and will be dumping stock and many will go bust . One thing with this lockdown,small businesses in future will have learnt to have a cash reserve rather than operate on the edge. Rant Over !

More bullshit.I do not know any good workshops who were down 50% before lockdown.The problem I constantly hear is that they cannot get good all round mechanics anymore.There must be thousands of vacancies.I know one place who recently employed a good all round mechanic,overall it took 6 months to get him.It is probably easier to sign an out of contract top premier league striker.

The good small Indy garage repair shops will always be busy whether they do MOT’s or not.

Most of the guys quoted are not car dealers like us,they are just rotating employees with no skin in the game and bullshit theories.It is easy for them to say ‘hold your nerve’.You have to factor in what happens if prices at the block plummet for similar stock to yours ( like 08 ).A competitor near bye might be buying them and knocking them out a grand or more cheaper.So what do you do,you can’t just sit still with £x grand p/w overheads doing zero business and guess when things might return to normal.I may be wrong,but I don’t think Car Giant did that after 08 and no one is better than them.

It is all right saying hold your nerve,but what happens if values take a big drop.After the 08 crisis we were forced to mark up a lot of stock £2000 cheaper to stay in the game.We took a big hit but then we restocked quickly,were not greedy and were knocking stuff out.

I have told you what do Taz.I should know.In the 90’s we were the biggest ex Police retailer in the U.K.

Definateley Brightwells but also Wolverhampton.Best bet is to contact the Met Fleet Dept with your credentials and they should confirm which auctions they use.Met X5’s will be as good as you can get.

Excellent choice,those McLarens are really good.We could only afford a Silver Cross,paid in readies.

Also in case you accountant hasn’t mentioned,you can charge the company 45p per mile expenses for business journeys providing you keep records. ( unless you are an MP )

The way I translate that is.You we’re going to buy a daft car for yourself with your own money at retail from a main dealer.Please tell me I am wrong . I don’t understand PCP chucky agreements that much but will hirers not be offered extended deals at cheaper rentals to protect residual values..................oh and I agree it would be great for the economy up there if tuna arrived in Scottish waters !!!!

Will it not be the usual story with Copart.The guys who do well using them will have ‘inside information’.It was the same with finance repos at the block,if you knew the repo guy.There will be less risk and quicker turn around time buying Fiestas and Polos etc but complicated big stuff must be a different matter.Why would you !

Good post Paul.It is difficult to call how punters will react.When I got my first pitch in 73 within 2 months we had an oil crisis.Opec raised the price 400% and there was an embargo and ration books were issued.The ‘experts’advocated only selling stuff below 2 litre which most dealers followed.What happened ,big stuff plunged in value and became attractive to the usual bread and butter buyers.Punters suddenly realised they could own a nice Jag or a Rover for the price of a Cortina which they had only dreamed about.If big stuff drops in value again,similar could happen.

I was interested to read the comments by some of the ‘experts ‘. CarWow’s survey that 70% of Londoners would reconsider using public transport suggesting a boost in sales.How reliable is that,where are they going to park. The Hey Car girl thinks people in cities will go out and buy electric cars.She appears to think they are good value. I think the only one worth taking notice of is Mr Gupta who will have had first hand experience of the effects on trade after extraordinary events . I think trade could take off with people missing out on holidays,getting refunds and the like.The might think that they deserve another car. Whatever happens,switched on traders will usually adjust to the market.

Can he still put the dashboards back together

We used to get Police stuff from all over the UK.The only ones we would mainly avoid were from Strathclyde and South Wales Police.

Absolutely.

We all made money on them.I also did very well with Wedges ( that’s Princesses to millenials ) they all got slated in the press but they were so cheap the punters loved them. BTW I used to run 827’s as my motorway smokers,they were really good but they were Honda powered of course.

Love it.Reliable wheels and Metro ,is that an oxymoron ? Can you imagine selling Metros now,they would all come back under CRA 15. I can remember telling punters ‘ those oil leaks are supposed to be there,it is the latest technology ‘.

I think it was Vardy’s who pulled off a master stroke a few years before they sold out.They had thousands of customers who were in big negative equity with finance deals.I often heard our guys describe some punter that we couldn’t deal because they had been ‘Vardy’d’.Legend has it that Vardy’s contacted all their punters who were halfway into their finance agreement.They apparently sent them a template letter for them to sign ,voluntary terminating their finance agreement.Halfway through an agreement you are entitled to do that but it had passed us by.The punters then just bought another car from Vardy’s .If it was true,I thought it was brilliant.

1.7d Cavaliers were bombproof.I remember one we sold several times,the last time it had done 350k ,same engine . Got it.

Can’t remember a Vauxhall Dealer in Stanley.Good punters from Stanley,Craghead and even South Moor ( I wonder if they still eat raw meat up there )

I used to know Big Ian going back to Newmains days.I heard he had passed away last summer.