Earunder

100 % Another day, another 6 pages of A4 made worthless. Not even 1 provisional today and I had around 40+ vehicles watched and bid upon. The double hall bid was out in force today. How can the auctioneer see my 2 bids on the bounce while seeing 2 people in the hall? If he's watching the screen for my bid he's not watching the hall., it's impossible. Derby and Nottingham were unreal today.

Today has been one of the most expensive, well "run" days, I've ever seen. Was watching BB, PeterB, Bedford and all made silly crazy. Over CAP clean without fees. Only had 7 vehicles on my lists today but didn't even get second bidder on one of them! Wouldn't mind so much, but now I have about 25 spaces. Been a crazy start to the year with some of these prices. Don't particularly want to go back to Manheim but it's looking more and more likely. Jag XF - 2011, 35k, White, V6 Premium Lux, CAP £12,200 - Made £12,750 - Retails on AT @ £14,260... It's a crazy game right now.

No problem at all, and congrats on the sale! All the best for your future deals!

All +1! Your advise is pretty much there in these 3 posts. We travel 10 minutes away and use 3 different locations for photo's. My guys know what I expect from photo's as that's on of the KEY elements in selling a vehicle in this day and age. I go through all our photo's (we do around 30-40 per vehicle) and I am very thorough about what and how they do photo's. I have 2 guys here that do them now and I probably spent 3/4 days going over cars showing them how I want them to be taken. Your price is dead on the money, but at that turn around time I'd go in at £3,260. Get some Tyre paint / sheen, messy stuff but look at those wheels!! O.o I'd be screaming at my valeter if they said that car was done. Take Diesel out the window and make sure nothing is in the car when it;s being photo'd. Windows, Door pockets, everything clear.

Paddock Wood always running me up !!! Fu#kers Keep your poxy Evoque then!! 3 times in a sodding row. I will not be even opening that auction again

Didn't really use it. Kind of depressing place where everyone moans about silly things, moaning about new products from AT, moaning about Bethany's replies or just in general adults being sulky children. I'm not one to bang AT's practice as many of you know, but they have a business model that works well for some dealers. If it doesn't work for you, don't pay it and use your money more wisely elsewhere. I can see why they closed the forum.

Not quite sure how a clutch can be intermittent. Only thing we would do in that circumstance is to ask the customer to leave the vehicle with us a few days while we use it and see if we can encounter the problem. If they are genuinely worried they do this, if they are just moaning for the sake of it they will come out with some excuse or be offended you're going to be driving their car. When they do leave it with you, take a note of these when it's dropped off and then when they collect the vehicle: Picture of Milometer Picture of all 4 angles of the vehicle with 3 pics of the inside (Front area, Back area, Boot) Only reason as above, is because we've had a few customers say that we damaged their quarter panel, interior, etc. Even though we have CCTV onsite (pretty much everywhere) some still fancy their chances of getting something out of us. Obviously for standard repair and servicing jobs we don't, but when it's a customer being funny, go all out and cover yourself.

Majority of all Large 4x4 are flops now. X5's R/R Sports Discovery Sports GLC's Mokka's all hanging around for over 100 days encounting. Luckily we've sold most only 1/2 now hanging about but we took a hit on about 5 of them. Top sellers... Well, that's down to your area and if your buying well for your area and advertising without being greedy you should have these in stock anyway and treat the heavy stuff as bonus cars.

Speak to Evolution Funding if you getting less than 30% through on prime.

Never heard of anything like that, but I don't give Zuto anything, they come to us. Why do you prop to Zuto? Why not to a good broker that actually pays commision instead of a referral fee?

Never found a broker / lender that offer commission on just a lead. Years ago that was normal practice for lead generating brokers, but I've never seen or heard of it from a car dealer point of view.

Must admit, we've dealt with First Response for a number of years with our "not so good clientele" and can say they do try their best on your behalf and have never had any issues with them. Completely recommended. ------ On a side note, most if not all finance brokers / sub-prime lenders will move a customer (Your original customer) to another dealer if you are unable to completely sell your car.

Movex We use movex most of the time if it's too far away from us. Only had 1 issue but I didn't use the 5 star company.

Yup, 100% agree! Had 2 back tracks last year as customers swapped in their piles of **** as one of my salesmen didn't do their sodding job properly and didn't do a bloody road test. Luckily we have a Part Exchange disclaimer the customer signs. It still costs us money though as we've prepared the sales car then have to do the swap of the cars (collect and drop). =============== Back on topic - We go by HPi then AutoTrader Retail Check. We used to use iControl but we have too many main dealers near us so it throws out nonsense data. Usually offer Retail Check Value if in ready to retail condition or a few hundred less if ok. If in terrible, we offer a few hundred less than Cap Below to ensure we get out money back from the AH. 1 tip - Be confident in what you're selling and ensure you know you have your price right on the money. If it's something you don't want, be honest, we tell customers they're vehicles are going to auction. At the end of the day they are there on your site so they have done their research and are with you that very moment for a reason. Don't get me wrong, don't rip customers off, you want them to return, but don't over value Part Exchanges.

We've been having this same discussion over December and we still couldn't come up with a resolution. As from today, after a lot of Christmas thinking (The Sherry Helped!), we're stopping accepting payments of over £250 to be paid by Credit Card. What you have to understand is the Credit Card generation like the cover the credit card companies offer so it is a tough call to stop accepting them totally. It is fading though as last year we sold 17 vehicles on Credit Card payments of over £5,000 (out of over 600 sold, so not really affecting us a great deal but nobody likes to lose a sale). Since 2015 we've only charged a customer what fees we were charged as we foresaw the PPi snakes to jump all over this. =========================== The cashless society propaganda bandwagon or what ever it is they are trying to push through is a weird concept that has already been subconsciously taking place over the last 10 years so moving to a totally cashless society wouldn't surprise me. I very seldom have any cash on me nowadays, can't remember the last time I actually paid for anything using cash. I feel kinda bad at times as I don't even have cash to tip take away delivery drivers O.o

If you're in a good catchment area with low competition (as suggested below) you're buying the wrong stock for your local consumers. It's like opening a pub outside a nursery and driving school. IMO forget London as the rent and business rates are too high and let's be honest people with good credit, good pay packets will always tend to go to the more established and reputable London showrooms and pay that extra for the courtesy. The highly intuitive London consumer is fickle, but they aren't worried about splashing an extra few thousand if they feel comfortable.

Ah ok. It's all about TCF. Customers have 10 days to pay the balance and collect the car or they forfeit the deposit, again stated on the deposit sheet. If they have the courtesy of letting us know they don't want the car, for what ever reason, we'll just refund less costs. Maybe we've gone to the extreme and are possibly 'too nice' about how we operate with deposits but it just cuts out arguments. We rarely have any customers pull out (maybe 3 a year?) but I don't see the point in arguing over £40-50, just give it back as a gesture of goodwill even though the customer is the one at fault. It just looks good on the company as a whole to anyone questioning anything.

? Sorry, maybe I didn't explain it well. We take a deposit of £250 on every car to cover our service and MoT charges. In the event of customers that go through on Zero deposit finance we charge them the £250 still, just in case they decide to pull out of the deal, prior to sign up. When they come back to collect the vehicle and sign up, they are then given they're deposit back.

Refund less prep costs, re-advertise it and put it to bed. Always the best way to go from my experience. Why cling on to bad vibes and surround yourself with negative thoughts and worry, unless you're THAT in need of a sale. We always take a minimum deposit of £250 even if the vehicle is full on finance. We refund when the customer signs up. If the buyer pulls out after paying the deposit, we refund minus any prep costs. Our prep costs are MoT and Full Service charges and is clearly stated on our deposit sheets and we always point this out to the customer at the deposit stage. Is it worth the worry, hassle and negativity to pursue a sale? Not for me it's not.

Abarths are good at under £6k for us. We've found it hard to sell any of them over that mark though, usually sit for a good few 2-4 months. Always, ALWAYS check the bloody clutch! Amount of 500's we've have (auto/manual) and the clutch has gone / slipping is stupid! Doesn't matter if it's 70k or 10k in mileage, I'm always expecting to do the clutch. Saying that, our local Fiat only charge us £385 to do the job (£50 extra for auto, program or reset or something).

If you don't know the ins and outs of finance or any of the FCA rules and regulations you shouldn't be doing finance. Simple. If you're only interested in commission, you shouldn't be doing finance. Simple. Read up on the Rules and Regulations on the FCA website. You need to know this if you're going to be doing finance! ==================================================================================================== Leeds Trader. Yes you can do finance on those cars. If they are your ideal cars, by that I mean cars you are known to have they are great to start with. On those cars though, everyone is right and you will be getting a majority of sub prime. Look at brokers for sub prime: Evolution Finance Mann Island Finance First Response Finance Close Motor Brothers As my post above though, read up on the Rules and Regulations. Can it take you to the next level you're looking for? Depends on your competitors, location and advertising. At the stock level you have, you should be offering finance to be honest. It's not for every dealer, but look into it.

Do as what the advice was given by your local Trading Standards. They are not all scary beasts, take on board what they tell you and ask for any confirmation should you get confused. Most (touch wood) I've dealt with are very very helpful. Do things YOU can do... Surely by getting into this industry you know roughly what sounds right / wrong? Here's what I would do if I didn't have any mechanics. Engine Noise? Turbo Noise? Steering Noise? Brake Noise? Leaks? Water / Oil Mixture? Lubricant Levels? Overall Exterior Condition? Overall Interior Condition? Any Lights On Dash? End with any overall notes on a 5 mile drive Back in the startup days I still sold over 100 vehicles per year so my judgement or experience could never be shone upon. There is no exact cover method for when you get an absolute turnip of a customer though, who simply refuses to believe there is nothing wrong with their car due to them either not liking it, didn't realize the cost of it, or is just an absolute lemon that is just kicking up a fuss for money off or a freebie

It's actually part of the consumers legal obligation under rights of refusal. A dealer must be given a chance to repair the vehicle but it doesn't specify how the vehicle is to be returned. It can be added within a documented invoice but should be set aside / apart from the detailed invoice so the customer is aware of what he is signing. If it is not added within a documentation I wouldn't worry too much as it would be viewed that the customer did their research on how far away the garage was from them and took on the responsibility of returning the vehicle said distance should any faults arise. Unless the deal was done by DSR? If so, provide him a refund on his deposit when he collects the vehicle and make him pay the full amount on site. Even if it is being sold abroad. Selling abroad we ALWAYS state on the invoice it is being sold to TRADE - WITHOUT WARRANTY and include the original price and sale discount. If no discount - SOLD AS SPARES OR REPAIR. Must be bold and obvious on the invoice.

I agree that there is a GAP in this industry and maybe an association could be the way forward although dealers are very very skeptical, myself included, about anything relating to this industry. I have found some of the responses vague, the information about the actual services / products available hidden but I did find a welcome video which shows to me that the IMDA doesn't offer anything useful for my business. I agree the power is in the numbers. A simple and I do mean simple association with no gimmicks, no promises of `we can offer this and that` but just a simple association to simply say enough is enough and it's time dealers had a voice. I think you've made something which should be so simple, into something more complicated and skeptical. If you're doing something like an association then you shouldn't need to have a membership system for payment. You need voices to be heard but you're putting a hand over the voices you want to speak. You should get the numbers first then start with offers. Many dealers have their own lawyers in place, they have suppliers, good insurers, good accountants, etc. Once you have the numbers then you can say ok, if you want to benefit from XYZ then it's XYZ per annum to those who want it. Most just want to be heard. Just my 2 cents, wish you all the best with it.

Had that twice. I just laugh at them. Bloody idiots. Also had the ones where they've mis-read or do not understand the window signs of p/m over 36 months. Or 36 months @ £x. Thinking the X is the total price of the vehicle in 1 sum. Also when we were doing our Minimum Part Exchange deal of £1,000. Had some absolute lemon who wanted to give us his old Onion and £1,000 for a £23,400 Masa. I just stood there shacking my head. Then just a few months ago, a customer talking to my finance manager doing a demands and needs I overhead them: Finance Manager : "What's your monthly electricity bill?... Customer : "I don't have electricity" FM : "You don't have electricity in your home? Cus : "Nope" FM : "How do you run the kettle, TV, etc?" Cus : "Oh you mean Leccy" I actually face palmed myself.