trade vet

Ben Take note,you are getting valuable advice.A lot of us had to find stuff out with trial and error.

Punters have never changed,they never annoyed me as much as smarmy main dealer sales managers and occasional auction managers (who were usually on the bung),bullshitting traders who let you down with bad descriptions or bouncing cheques.

And when you add on the charges....

If you are doing 3 or 4 per week outsourcing work makes sense.( at the moment).However,if you have a reasonably priced repairer,look after them,they are hard to replace.If you can do some of the work yourself,the savings now are considerable.I used to outsource everything and when weekly repair bills reached 4 grand,my time was up.Our guys run a proper workshop now and without that they might struggle.The next step.....a paint booth because £150-£200 for a small local is too much.

What a ‘starpost’ from BHM......Mr Northard has walked straight in to that one.As head of ‘external affairs’ for Manheim ( great title ) ,I look forward to his reply.I see he is also a founder of IMDA,so I hope that means Manheim are funding them...Traders are fed up with these rediculous auction fees and charges,dealer groups are being squeezed,leasing companies are going to be hit with diesel and PCP residuals........something has got to give !

I think you will see main dealers in future running their own auctions of P/Xs and overage stock on their premises.When you see the high cost of buyers fees being factored in to final bids,if it was done properly,main dealers could be better off.

Brilliant.....Out of interest we did that in the 70s.One of the vinyl roof guys was a singer in a local band.He then joined another band as frontman ....AC/DC. I think he did OK.

If there was a Cambria rep on the rostrum,the sale may have been showing a good surplus so the auctioneer has been allowed to sell it.....As for over age stock,sales managers at dealer groups can get their knuckles rapped by the bean counters.I know a trader who for years has made main dealer sales managers a hero by swapping their overage stock by inflating invoices......... I used to keep stock for months,there was always one or two. Where’s M S P on this one,was he not claiming to take 4 grand out of a ninety dayer last week !

Has anyone ever had a punter ask to get a Dacia for them.

Dacia should have been well over book...?

When you are starting out,it can be a good idea to have a partner.I did when I was 23,we pooled our resources and contacts and it worked for 4 years then we split.I cannot think of any car dealer partnerships that have lasted.

If you pay Ltd company takings into your personal bank account,if HMRC spot this,they will do you and tax you.It does not matter that the takings are then being forwarded to the company bank account......It could trigger an enquiry and you don’t want one of them.....ask your accountant.

I can think of occasions when we have been dropped in by our bank and it would have been good to have had an account elsewhere to turn to.

I could probably write a book on cock ups and bad decisions.

Thank you Umesh,I think in 35 years you must have better stories than that,..........no hurry.

Offering....should be insisting.....if it is the town centre ,she would be safer in south central LA

I think if you start the thread,you should contribute.......Decisions,I have admitted to 2 bad ones,here is an unintentional good one ( sorry if it goes on a bit).When PPI started before the millennium,we thought it was crap and sidestepped it despite the big commission you could get from finance companies for selling it.Our finance rep was under pressure to get us to offer it so I said we might try and do a few.I then heard about some dealer being fined by the FSA or whatever for not offering PPI to his customer,who had later got made redundant and had his car repossessed.So that made my mind up,we would offer it but I still thought it was crap and expensive and punters would not bother.So we knocked up a ‘ Notice of Understanding’,which explained to punters that they were being given the opportunity to make their own mind up about taking out PPI to run alongside their finance agreement. They had to sign our notice confirming acceptance or rejection after reading the PPI leaflet.What happened....70% of the punters taking out finance opted for PPI.,which was unheard of and we were not actively selling it.The average dealer conversion rate apparently was 20%.,so we got paid huge advance commission and our sales guys were also paid direct by the finance company.Even our finance rep was winning holidays to the US for smashing targets because of our conversion rate.............Anyway,fast forward 5 or 6 years and the PPI misselling scandal breaks.We were inundated by claims companies for alleged misselling.Luckily we had kept copies of our signed notices so we could prove we did not missell,otherwise we would have been done for a lot of money or even wiped out with legal fees......past glories!

They were always cheap as chips.Good for doing min.p/x chucky deals.Proper punters never bought them as far as I can remember.

You are right,I should have said when I decided to close on Sundays,we then had 5 salesmen,how stupid was that.Mind if you are a one man business and you are having a purple patch and knocking them out,who takes a day off because you know it is not going to last.

So they are open for walk in enquiries,that is good news !

Nice one....We do 7 day money back guarantees....nobody copies us !

There has always been DVLA problems.We had sold something and the punters complained when the doc came back stating it was a lawn mower.I can’t remember whether we had to swap the car to keep them happy.It would be nice to have an insider in DVLA to quickly resolve problems,I don’t think it is open to the public.

That’s interesting,I recall when we decided to close Sunday’s.It then became evident that it was costing at least 12 deals per month plus the Sunday punters who returned days later......and would have had a material effect on our bottom line.I think Sunday punters are easier anyway...If you have a pitch,this is a 7 day job.

Your turn Umesh......bad decisions please ( major ones )....thank you.

If you are doing over 5 per week,do your own warranties.It works,you are in control and the punters appreciate the service.It is not as if in a year you will spend £20k on claims.....unless you don’t know what you are doing.