Nick M.K.

Many thanks! I thought I should be able to. Should've started this thread before I typed up three ads... Tony, having looked at it again you seem to still have the older style Dealer Portal. Was there a way to keep it instead of switching to new style?

So having come back from a couple of nice breaks and completed a couple of sales to waiting customers I fire up my Dealer Portal and look at some of the new changes they made. Some of them make sense, the look is a bit more modern but the new Retail Description text box is so small that I can only see 3-4 lines on my screen and have to constantly scroll up and down the page to see if I have some text or is it missing. Could they not include a simple button to make that text box expand to full size? Also they seem to have blocked the upload of the same image file twice. Can someone try and upload THE SAME photo on an ad and tell me is it me or is it them? I am used to publishing a couple of my finance banners more than once.

I'll be easy in the sense that I'll have an exact list of colours, options, wheels etc so they won't need to explain them to me for hours :-) I am never an easy spender and I doubt this will change in the next decade (or three)

I've never in my life been to a main dealer to buy a brand new car and I've been tempted to go once or twice, just to experience it... I simply can't bring myself to waste some poor salesman's time like this though so I'll wait a few years until I finally decide to splash £40K on a new diesel Merc just before they stop taking orders for them. And even then I think I will be one of the easiest customers they'll get to deal with... EDIT BUTTON IS BACK!!!!

Absolutely plus in your buyers' mind they are already starting the process of buying the car. When a customer comes in 15 minutes before their appointed time, refuses a cup of coffee and says: Let me look at MY car before we do the paperwork you know there will be no need for the hard sell. I agree 99% but in any business there are practices that help, practices that don't and practices that make no difference. Reduce the last two categories, increase the first category, you have a much stronger operation.

This model saves a bit of time, true, but there is a cost to it: Lower margins Lower turnover (many potential buyers are put off, not attracted by what they see) Longer time in stock Little opportunity to sell them a different car instead of the one they’ve seen No finance in your case (although there might be a way to work it in). I prefer to work three hours a month more with a slightly conventional model and get a chance to attract 100% of buyers. This month all my sales were with deposit “unseen” £100-£200. Not asked as a committment but offered as an opportunity to reserve the car. Fully refundable if they don’t like it of course. Everyone bought other than this chap that wouldn’t leave a deposit to start with. Wasted 10 minutes of my time, would’ve earned a four figure sum if he bought so it would’ve been good return on my directly invested time.

Because it works for me, because it gives me the maximum return on my investment and because when a decent buyer turns up the satisfaction is much bigger. The warts-n-all videos and “sorry, no deposit, no car” model isn’t for me. Never was, never will be.

On the “be back” bus.

This was my thinking but why make a complete fool of himself (to the point where his stupidity is discussed on an internet forum) when all he had to say was "Nick, there is a scratch here, mark there and I don't think it's for me". Where has common sense gone???

He was old enough to insure it but they parked out of sight from the office so I don't know what car they had. A 2002 Clio if I have to take a guess but it could've been a Transit van or a "limited edition" Corsa...

As I understood it there were NO written Ts & Cs as it was all verbal. Had there been written terms (1 month, 50/50, £1000 limit) it would've been worse for the OP as the document would be seen as trying to limit the consumer's rights.

It's an Audi S4 4.2 V8 and if it was newer he would NEVER be able to afford it :-) Oddly for such a car his first words were not "Is there a chance to take it out for a little spin". Maybe he really IS hungry :-)

On Wed a customer booked a viewing for an Audi for midday today (Friday). Did not want to leave a deposit to secure the car. Just turned up now with his girlfriend, about an hour late and after a 110 mile drive, had a 10 minute look around the 14 year old 119K mile car, came to the office, had a very brief look at the extensive paperwork, asked about a lower price, then the question I hate most: "Is there any place to get some food around here?" to apparently think it over a lunch. I pointed him towards our village centre but have the feeling I will never see or hear from him again and have a couple of cars I need to go and pick up this afternoon... Will give it another hour, then go. Why do buyers do some of things that they do??

No :-) I fell going reasonably slowly at the very top of Black 3 (European Cup they call it) and went 3-400 metres down the steep hill sliding on my back with the skis and poles still attached, legs and hands fully in the air. Someone tried to take a video but they couldn't get their phone quick enough. We flew on 4 Feb, Plovdiv to STN, bunch of Brits seated at rows 24-25

Absolutely. And in 5 years time you will lose half your sales to a bunch of 18 year olds who were born in the text world and will adapt far quicker. Get WhatsApp on your phones TODAY.

Over 6 months which is all you need for WBAC purposes

Interestingly (and I am not suggesting anything here) there is nothing to stop you from entering a much earlier date of ownership so you can have a trade car in stock 2 months then "sell it to yourself" online and put a date from months prior. They only way WBAC might know anything is amiss is if the car came from one of their own BCA sales :-)

While I loved that model back in the day (I still own one!) I feel sorry for that doctor who didn't see the point of getting themselves something newer and nicer for 18 years!

There isn't any legal disclaimer that will get you out of this, it's just numbers. If I sell a £1000 car (and I sometimes do) I will NEVER CONSIDER spending £300 (a third of it's value) on a cambelt replacement just to ensure longevity. If the belt breaks shortly after that sale I will refund the customer in full and scrap what's left of the car.

Well said. A cambelt replacement is usually the same £250 on a £2,000 old car or on a newer £20,000 car with a much better margin. You can not trade effectively and profitably if your prep is uniform and "regardless of cost".

Yes, sure. I'll definitely be there. Missed last year because of the location but Farnborough is perfect for me.

Rocker cover gasket or sump gasket on the 4 pot, oil filter housing gasket on the 325.

4 days of skiing. Nothing broken but had an epic fall. More humiliating than painful. 4 sales between 5-7 Feb. Went away again on the 7th and took one more deposit by transfer. Flying back tonight and the handover is tomorrow so fingers crossed.

Couldn’t make it to a year :-) i have an Audi since 23 Sept. every time I go away someone wants to come and buy it THAT DAY! No more trips for two months so I can see the back of it!

Yes, absolutely. Central system.