James Baggott

I think these video overviews of what has been done during a service or what needs to be rectified are a great idea. They open up the professionalism of dealership's engineers and show customers there's nothing to hide. As a consumer I would believe a dealer a lot more of I was shown the wear of my brake pads before they were replaced or the wear of my tyres. I think it's a brilliant idea and one that needs to be rolled out across the industry to improve transparency. In the end, customers who trust you are customers who are likely to return, surely?

That's great John - thanks for sharing. Glad to know it works for you. Smartphones work a treat and it's a nice personal touch.

Nice videos guys! Impressive stuff.

I think they're more likely to be challenging Ford in the not too distant future than Vauxhall will. Their products are more innovative, more exciting, their dealers better and their drive and desire greater. I think the automotive landscape will look very different in the next 10 years.

Do you know what, I don't like the update. Rather annoying! Preferred me news feed the way it was. Plus now with auto updates on my phone I didn't even realise it was changing! Grrr!

A superb result for the charity! Well done to all involved. Another brilliant year for our Bangers4BEN event. Here's to the next one!

We're wondering whether local newspapers still make up a large chunk of your marketing spend. Do you still spend most of your money with your local paper? Or is radio more important? Have you dabbled in TV? Or does your spend all of to online portals and ad words these days? I'd love to hear how things are changing for you. Let me know.

Was this inevitable? After BCA shelled out on WBAC, Manheim had to move? Or did they? What are your thoughts on this? Will it affect dealers? We'd love to know your thoughts.

What's your side of the story? We'd love to hear it. Do you agree with what was said?

We hold a number of Car Dealer based conferences. The Car Dealer Conference, held in May, got a lot of suppliers and dealers together and we're looking to build that for the future. What would you like to see from a UK dealer conference William?

I know. That was pretty scary face fuzz. We have an office emergency razor now for such occasions!

Brilliant story! 'Developed by Honda'. Love it.

That's really interesting to know. It's a concern here that's for sure. I know when Batch was planning this feature a representative from Proton was due to talk to him but cancelled the interview at the last minute - that seems very strange to me as you'd think they would want to put their side of the story across. Why wouldn't they want to explain what's gone wrong and inspire those dealers that are left holding the franchise? Bad form if you ask me.

Thanks for that Phil. I've had some interesting comment back from contacts via email too and twitter on this subject. Should make an interesting feature.

We've all recently started Google+ pages because of the importance Google places on these for SEO reasons. Personally I struggle to use it, but have been trying hard to engage there if only for the benefits it has in SEO for our site and those we work on. https://plus.google.com/113834956404528828369/posts

I'm planning a feature on the importance of video to dealers in a forthcoming issue of Car Dealer. I'd love to hear how you use video in your business. Have you got a video introduction to your showroom on your website? Do you use video to showcase your cars? Do you have a YouTube channel and is it important to drive traffic to your site? How do you think dealers should be using video now and in the future? I'll be interested to hear your thoughts and will use the best comments as part of my feature. Thanks for your input!

We want your help finding out which car finance products should win in our Used Car Awards? Get nominating now - you can do so on the nominations form (click on the link in the post above) or let us know by posting a comment here.

A passionate post Jim. Your comments are duly noted. Thanks for contributing.

You might like to check out our new CarDealerClub.com website which is fully responsive too... http://cardealerclub.com

Thanks Umesh - we'll have a think!

Oh dear, that is rather old. Thanks for reminding me. It even had Batch down as an editor and he's been in charge of Car Dealer since January! Doh! http://nissaninsider.co.uk/contact-us/ Ps - I take it that means you agree with all my other points, though? That's good to know...

You're wrong 'Chris', but I appreciate your comments. There's no bias here - just a serious concern that Vauxhall is digging itself even deeper into a hole it won't be able to climb out of. MDs can't make such bizarre and outrageous comments and not be called into question. Ask any journalist which they'd buy between a Fiesta and a Corsa and I doubt they'd be many that would suggest the Vauxhall is the one to pick. It's the same with the Kuga, Mondeo, Focus and most of the rest of the respective ranges. There's no doubt Vauxhall sells many cars - where, exactly, is a grey area - but I've certainly seen a fair few rentals around. There's negativity around Vauxhall because their products lack excitement, innovation and they're frankly dull. Dull like clouds: You know they're there, but you don't really notice them. The ridiculously named Adam is probably the only exception. It's true the sister company to Blackball Media, of which I am also MD, edits Nissan Insider. But I am not the editor. There's no axe to grind here. I like to support British manufacturers - but when they lose their way and make outlandish claims, as Vauxhall have done here, it makes sense to question them. No one from the manufacturer has contacted me, but then I suspect you are, in some way, connected...

Vauxhall wasn't too happy about my column this month. But I still stand by what I said. Do you think Vauxhall could ever take the number one spot from Ford? With the current line up of cars I don't think they ever can - and neither did the dealers I spoke to. What do you think?

Is it any surprise that Lotus tops our Most Influential Car Makers poll? Or that Aston Martin comes a close second? Are you shocked Britain's biggest selling maker Ford is outside of the top 10? What do you think of the results? The Car Dealer team would be interested to hear your thoughts...

We don't publish the shortlist Jim but we do contact those who are in with a chance of winning before the big night, so if you get a call it's well worth booking a table! Entries close on October 31.