TRADE SURVIVOR

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Posts posted by TRADE SURVIVOR

  1. Posted

    On 5/15/2021 at 12:00 AM, DCS01 said:

    Hmm.  Someone doing their best in the circumstances wouldn’t have spent the 1st few months of the pandemic not bothering to turn up to cobra meetings and not knowing about the impending disaster we were about to get shafted by, he was taking weekend breaks and didn’t want to be bothered by details and warnings. 

    During the middle he took the option of  the economy over the scientific advice and helped give us a second wave as bad as the 1st.

    Even now at the tail end when he said he is doing all he can he spent a day personally ringing newspaper editors to try and brief them against Cummings to cover his own dodgy flat dealings and shouting ‘let the bodies plié up’

    Everyone is saying how bad the Indian situation is now,  they have 17 deaths per 100k of population, we have 191.

    I will give credit that the vaccine roll out h as been a success, but guess what you give it to NHS to roll it out and don’t hand it to someone like Serco you get a better result.

    The only people Boris has given a flying f about are himself and his donors through all of this.  
     

     

    Doing his best did not mean that I thought he and his cabinet had it right yes, there are shortcomings and failings that will come out in a later public enquiry, Which is inevitable. As will be the case for many countries whose governments struggled to deal with this terrible contagion. Regarding the Cobra meetings do you think Boris was chilling in Costa with a flat white? Think not. Weekend breaks? Maybe he was still working? Perhaps you are privy to what goes on in the prime ministers life and have more knowledge than I. As for India which sadly will probably turn out to catastrophic loss of life for some time to come I think your numbers my be off as the true figures are unreported. 1,366 billion souls in India compared to around 66 million in the UK not sure the death ratio you suggest adds up (ratio and death is an uncomfortable subject as we are talking about people and family's here) . Covid vaccine seems to have been a success in our country so far. Our government ordered millions of doses of vaccine for which they should be credited for and of course this vaccine is being administered by our fantastic NHS along with volunteers who continue to do so. I for one support a further increase in pay for our NHS. In order to do this we will all have to pay more into the pot, nothing comes for free whatever government we have!  

  2. Posted

    12 hours ago, Frank Cannon said:

    Local reputation counts for SFA, price is everything to the vast majority of customers. 

     

    They know the cost of everything but, the value of nothing. 

     

    12 hours ago, Frank Cannon said:

    Local reputation counts for SFA, price is everything to the vast majority of customers. 

     

    They know the cost of everything but, the value of nothing. 

    Really? Once again I have learned something, not. Reduce my prices .No Sell a car for what the customer demands No. So pleased we don't have your customer experience fella, Thankfully our customers appreciate the value of well prepared cars and good service for which they are happily willing to pay.  

  3. Posted

    10 hours ago, It's me said:

    I'm sorry to say that this is not true

    You are ignoring the inevitable if you still believe this a year since ockdown. 

    We have been 5 weeks back and not one sale has been made by walk ins or telephone calls

    Its all been done online then they turn up see and do a transfer

    This last year has changed the game out of all recognition

    I'm not getting any locals apart from those with problems that reckon I will fix for peanuts because we've been here longer than they were born

    You are only as good as your last sale

    Loyalty from customers is getting less as your customers from 30 years ago die and their sprogs are indeed buying via tab as they are not interested in kicking tyres

    I defer to your greater knowledge of my customer base I learn something every day despite being in the motor trade since I was washing cars at 13 years of age I'm now in late 60's so thank you for your advice. My support of trade Vet's post was to endorse the importance of a good local reputation, solely online is some years away yet . Your council is valued however, I think on balance we shall carry on with our current business model. During this last lockdown as a small independent we sold 150 cars all online and compliant with distance selling rules. Since 5 weeks back we have had excellent footfall onsite and sold plenty of cars thank you, my last three sales onsite were today so I'm as good as those last sales and looking forward to test drives booked by physical and online customers tomorrow and completion of more sales. Thankfully our workshop is busy with loyal and many new recommended customers who are happy to pay for good honest service.    

    • Like 1

  4. Posted

    1 hour ago, David Horgan said:

    Couple insisted on emailing me about a Golf GTI last Friday , £16,995 Nice thing full spec, Fully Serviced .

    Whats the price we would go to for cash . 16995 

    Could we pay actual cash , No 

    Would you accept a px , What have you got ?

    SEAT  "ok " can i have the reg  number ,  She said no GDPR  :rolleyes:

    I cant value it without the reg . 

    Oh well if you promise not to pass it on to anyone :rolleyes:

    She probably hasnt noticed its on both ends of her car for the world to see . :lol:

    car comes in as an Ibiza 110,890 miles , 05 plate , battered . no service , two weeks MOT . 

    £100 I say . 

    delay mmmmmmmmmm dont like £100 I thinks :lol:

    can you get to £500 she asks this morning . 

    NO its going to the Scrap yard , 

    Oh . whats the best price then , " £100 " its not fixable I say .

    DELAY till now .

    Ok we will take £100 if you take £16,795 for the GTI 

     

    Lady its sold this afternoon :lol:

    No answer yet :rolleyes:

     

    Any public reading this , the MORAL is RING US , email is too slow in this sales environment. YOU will MISS the CAR  YOU are Looking at  

     

     

    We do have a similar model due in madam although it will be £17995 and unfortunately your Seat will still only be worth £100. So many people think there are plenty of nice cars with good spec out there in this climate and dealers are desperate. Wrong! There is a new car supply hiatus which may last for quite some time, therefore good quality used cars are in short supply. Seeing disappointed customers on a daily basis as they did not believe that we had other interested parties on the car they were interested in.   

  6. Posted · Edited by TRADE SURVIVOR
    added text

    On 4/6/2021 at 2:45 PM, trade vet said:

    Also,what Cazoo and Cinch BCA don’t understand is that there is still a high per cent of punters who when buying their next used car,stay loyal to one dealer,get servicing done and see the same guy who looks after them.These sensible people can’t be bothered with apps,pass words,automated phone systems,far away call centres,security questions,texted back messages etc.when contacting their garage.

    Given any opportunity I am making sure people get to know about the downside when buying from the online only operators.

    Totally agree, Local reputation really counts and is paramount. We are fortunate to have a base of loyal customers who will never go elsewhere even to save a few quid, they buy from us based on long standing relationships and trust. In particular when they have had a problem with a vehicle and we step up to resolve the issue whatever it takes. No matter how many overproduced flashy ads are on tv or online. A hard earned reputation built on trust over many years through dealing with integrity pays its dividend, pleased to say many of our customers also drag their millennial offspring to ourselves for their first car. Cazwhooever will never get those customers.      

    • Like 1

  7. Posted

    11 hours ago, trade vet said:

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

    I have been a member of the forum for some years however, having taken a break from posting for some time it seems I'm relegated to newbie status, no worries see you in the lounge soon TV  

  8. Posted

    Autotrader debate again, we tracked our leads as well as we possibly could from prospects upshot was multiple sites and google, used to spend £50,000 a year with Autotrader quit two years ago and never looked back! Only way to solve Trader monopoly is for trade to migrate on mass to one of the other offerings, sadly don’t think that will ever happen as we talk about standing together but do not have the conviction. Shame could all save a fortune and silence the corporate vampire 

  10. Posted

    On 4/18/2021 at 11:56 AM, David Horgan said:

    We spent 150k at BCA last week alone ,Probably  it helps  , plus my daughter is more on fire with the T&C's they the assured team  are .

    We used to spend a similar amount David prior to the online team. Never a problem we would sort any issues satisfactorily with the people we had a great relationship onsite at BCA. Online arrived and the "team" wanting to deal us on undisclosed damage. Suffice to say we have not bought from BCA for around ten years, they are still there as are we. Really good to hear that your daughter is so on it. It's a fight that I'm too old for :) 

  11. Posted

    On 5/13/2021 at 1:54 PM, metcars said:

    Nothing surprises me with the sleazy bullingdon  boy?

    On the plus side his government has chucked a few quid into the pot for us car dealers, for which we as a business are very much appreciative. Nothing surprises me in terms of so called sleaze or errors made by politicians of all parties, Tony Blair took our young men and women into a war they did not want, and he is doing just fine now. Unlike many of those brave young people who have life changing injuries as a result . This so called claim against Bozza is small beer in comparison to errors that politicians in office make. Leave the guy alone he is doing a half decent job in extreme circumstances, what sane person would want his job right now.

  12. Posted

    On 5/5/2021 at 5:29 PM, DCS01 said:

    Afternoon,  hope you are all doing well.

    Still trying to find my feet with a few bits.   
     

    I am still not 100% sure of when to service cars before delivery.   Most of my stock is up to 10 years max 100k miles.   I am used to JLR/Audi standards of minimum 3 months/3k miles until service.  

    For example I have an 11 plate Ibiza with 80k miles someone viewing tomorrow. Service due 30th July, my gut feeling is to get it done but wanted some opinions.

    Thanks in advance for any replies.

     

    I have not read the thread of replies to your question therefore I may be repeating what other members have said. Say this was you buying the car for you to transport your family around safely? It should be serviced and MOT tested as a duty of care to the customer, regardless this an older car it should be safe and serviceable to the best of our knowledge. Exceed the customers expectations  within reasonable parameters and that customer could become a customer for life.      

    • Like 1

  15. Posted · Edited by NEMESIS7
    Amended text

    Nice one Autotrader your latest price increase made us focus on our business costs particularly our spend on A/T net result we shaved £1500 off our monthly spend with A/T without any reduction in sales for May. We shall see how it goes and consider reducing our spend with them further. In the meantime we shall be advising members of the public via our garage facebook page to select lowest price first when using A/T. After all A/T are keen to preach transparency to dealers for the consumer, therefore its a two way street, sponsored ads first is not necessarily the best deal for the consumer.