trade vet

Brokered an old Daimler XJ Double Six resurrection job deal the other day.Only a ‘cheapie ‘ though 5 grand.Some would say a scrapper.I do call in to the pitch and they are still very busy.

OK but I think most traders would still describe downing a cheapie as having no warranty and no prep.I’m out.

Ha Ha ,well in Newcastle you can’t do a £3500 deal and tell the punter it must be trailered away.If you don’t want to tell us the area you operate in,that’s OK.

Where is your pitch is it in Mayfair.

Recently a regular called in to the pitch with his just delivered Merc from Cacinch or whatever to have a quick check over.It was a good one and the price was right.However the rear foot wells were flooded because the delivery truck driver had failed to notice the back windows had been left open.Our guy told him that the carpet would have to come out to dry it out properly.So he phoned the supplier and they directed him to a local Bosche garage.The supplier told the garage they would only pay to have the carpets dried out in place.So the punter asked for a refund and got one..So the cost of collecting it might have exceeded the cost of drying the carpet.

Thank you MFR for your contribution,when I refer to cheapies I mean £1500 and under.Please try again.

Great post FC,main dealers workshop related income.Buried in Vertu Motors /Bristol Street recent accounts ( I like reading accounts ? ),it is stated that 40% of their profit comes from just 8% of their £2.5b turnover.I read somewhere they had 100 thousand service contracts in place so they might be keeping them afloat.They probably need to expand to survive ( I do want them to survive BTW they employ 1000’s ). Alternatively,Marshall’s are doing so well they are repaying £4m they have received in Pandemic Help and 100% of the main shareholders have again voted to extend Mr Gupta’s contract as CEO.where he earns about £500k plus bonuses.He receives about £2m in bonuses ! ,how good is that.

Ultimate risk taker,you must be exceptional DH retailing cheapies,I don’t know any quality pitches retailing cheapies these days.You must have a good system in place although plenty of Doorsteppers appear to still do OK with them without comebacks.I thought CRA 15 and ‘ fit for purpose etc ‘ put paid to proper pitches doing them.In the distant past I used to get excited taking in good cheapies and retailing them without touching them.Now cheapie punters expect a fresh ticket,pay by credit card and know all about CRA 15.

It’s now reported that BCA subsidiary Cinch have borrowed £1 billion to expand into Europe ? They have only been trading a few months.Any of us trying to borrow £100k from a bank and you need to sign a personal guarantee and show 2 years trading accounts.It might all end in tears,the prep and the subcontract warranty claims could kill them.Also if the likes of Lloyds ( Autolease ,Lex ,Black Horse etc ) decide to follow suit and have a go,that might cock things up for them.

Block of flats or whatever,I hope so.They must have put up with a lot of crap from manufactures for years.

Cap is more wrong than ever.The conspiracy theory of course is that the major auction groups are not correctly reporting their results to Cap because a lot of major vendors have contracts hedged with them at guaranteed 95% of C/clean.So keeping Cap values lower would be in an auction groups better interests if they get to keep above Cap proceeds.

It could happen.Look at Jeremy Corbyn who became leader helped by membership of the Labour Party being reduced to a quid or whatever which gave people the right to vote in a leader election.So thousands of Tory’s signed up and voted for Corbyn.

There was someone on here awhile ago who said he bought stock off Evans Halshaw forecourts as they would price them up cheaply because they needed paintwork.

Young people appear to live by social media and the level of anti vaccine messages they receive causes many to fail to turn up for jabs.The worrying increase in the Indian variant appears to be in areas with a lower vaccination uptake.A doctor friend of mine does the jabs and he was telling me that he found schoolteachers took the longest because they ask so many questions about risks and after effects.I did tell him the trade has similar problems with teachers.However he did point out that Maths teachers were easy because they could calculate the risk. All the Covid money is likely to create inflation next year followed by higher interest rates although it cannot be as bad as 89/90 when inflation and base rate mortgages were 15%.Back then the banks cut back and so did the finance companies who then pulled the rug on smaller dealers.So don’t be surprised if debt is called in and also the Poundshop rebrands as the 2 Poundshop.

It’s certainly dire if you have a Stellantis franchise and today you have been terminated with 2 years notice.Some of these will be smaller long established family owned dealerships ( especially in rural areas) who have put their neck on the line and loyally stuck with Vauxhall,Citroen Peugeot through thick and thin for generation’s.Then with this Stellantis merger creation and new management they have terminated every dealer and want to renegotiate. I would hope there will be those who just decide to tell them to stuff it and pack in now.

Ha Ha,Sounds like the old days.Huge Bung Motor Company

No repeat punter deals in the last 5 weeks ? may I enquire how long have you had your pitch.My old pitch still gets them every day.( except during lock down) Mind it took me 20 years to get the flow going.Trade Survivor may have a similar experience.With the exception of those dealing heavy tackle,I think it is better to keep your best stock for your local punters and pick and choose retail swappers.Everyone to their own !

I can think of dozens of Labour MP’s who would find it difficult to hold down any job in the private sector.Mind Dennis Skinner although a bit tall might have been a good valeter.Ex Miners were usually good valeters,they never stopped working in all weather.If I went on holiday I think I would prefer to leave the pitch with Kier Starmer in charge rather than Boris.

When or if we get over the pandemic,there could be many enquiries set up.Of course enquiries can take years and the general rule appears to be that you carefully choose a judge and water down the brief.WMD springs to mind.Boris appears to thrive on chaos,being PM is hard enough but can you imagine his personal and financial problems.Parliamentary rules are not top of his agenda.He is paying for ex wives,apparently at least 6 kids which we are not allowed to know about and he might have to pay off his American ex girl friend to stop her writing a book.She has a short window to get maximum sales and financial impact. Can you imagine employing Boris,he would probably be your top sales guy but he would leave havoc.Forget to get docs signed,forget to get MOT’s for swappers,do HPI’s,misplace deposits etc.I have seen sales guys like that and the best solution was to employ a minder who did all the paperwork and the handovers.

Excellent,you need to get fast tracked into the Private Lounge.

Hi TS,great posts.We need more pros on here.Keep posting please.

I bet the camper van conversion guy who comes on here would like his vans back to rent them out.

Apparently it’s a correctly submitted claim but it appears No 10 spinners have chosen to ignore it.Some unnamed mail office minion in no10 will probably get the blame.If Labour were streetwise they should start a trend.

For the long established pitches,the loyal repeat punters are the backbone of the business and they are back after being missing for a long time.These punters who generally buy bread and butter stock don’t like click and collect.They want to come in and have some banter,try it out after usually saying they are buying it.They are straight forward and tend to rely on you and you can get their swappers in ‘right’.Living in the past,I still think that the local punters are the best.

It appears Boris is now classed as a ‘Chucky Duffer’ as he has had a County Cap for £500 registered at Downing Street.A bailiff could turn up and take the new curtains.You cannot make it up.