Nick M.K.

Great post, loved the bit with the many £ signs, I'll come work for you for a day (let's hope it's a busy one)

In that case worry if you have a repair business. You are a dealer so the punters' cars' maintenance has little to do with you.

Where will this nearly new stock come? Bear in mind because of the strict lending criteria a lot of people will move away from brand new towards nearly new where the saving is 15-25% sometimes. come from? my question above should read

There are different kinds of deposit. You can have Simon's kind where the car is virtually sold at the deposit point, they've seen his video and no additional work is required from him, you can have the typical deposit where the punter arrives, looks, drives, signs order, wants something done and pays a deposit or you can have the kind I usually take over the phone: "Leave us £100-200 refundable deposit to guarantee yourself availability, if you arrive and don't like the car or find a fault I will refund this to you in full". Last week I had a customer leave £100 unseen on an £19K Audi A3, then he arrived, loved the car, went away to arrange his own finance. He couldn't arrange finance at a rate he was happy with. I could arrange it for him with Blue but the rate was very high and he decided to "leave it". So no sale. Sold to a cash buyer on Mon with a a lovely p/x. And another: 30 minutes after advertising a left hand drive Jeep on Sunday the phone rang, a Brit in France said he absolutely wants the Cherokee and left his £100 deposit, he said he was flying in on Mon to pick it up. Never phoned back, never turned up, he changed his mind maybe. £200 up but I can't count both as sold. Jeep is still here.

if I just had a great month I will leave the other two sales for the next one. If my current month has been dysmal I will happily add those two sales to it :-)

Absolutely right, be positive! Now, where do I send my application for a Maruti franchise please?

"Presentation... not the work, not the work"

Mine too. And for months until they approved me I wondering why some wouldn't just press the button but write ^^LIKE

While that is by far my biggest cost I have not found that it adds the most value. People don't know and understand mechanical (even if they love service history). Don't care for the new pads and discs, brake fluid change, wheel alignment, service with the correct Mercedes specific 229.51 or BMW LL-04 engine oil, some of them don't even know what a cambelt is or if the car has one! What they care about is... Looks, image, presentation, no scratches, no scuffs, wheels, tyre thread, windows, cleanliness. Stuff that they can see and understand... And if you ask me what adds the most value? Phonecalls. ££££ added after I've worked the phones for a few minutes / hours and find that incomplete or missing service history. We know and the mechanics also know that it doesn't mean much BUT it's what the buyers want and value most. On some cars anyway.

While I am a Remainer (ReMoaner, even ReScreamer) doom actually brings tremendous opportunities. Do you remember 2008-2009? Poor sales of used cars for a few months but because new and nearly new car sales were very poor (no finance approvals) and because of the scrappage scheme of 2009 there was severe stock shortage. Even franchise dealers were stocking other makes of prestige cars and those sales were very strong. Then the stock became so low that prices shot up something like 25% in 2009-2010 (and WBAC really grew)... I remember one "deal" in 2010: Bought a 2007 ex-MoD Astra Life for under £3000 (the going rate then) in June '10 from BCA Bedford and sold it online to a buyer from Aberdeen for £4800 a couple of months later. They were going to the Edinburgh festival so I agreed to deliver the car there for extra £300, enough to cover the trip, hotel and flight back for two. Had a nice couple of days there actually. The next morning got an early easyJet flight back to Luton and a taxi to BCA Bedford armed with the £4800 fully expecting to buy two cars for that money. The cheapest out of 25 or so ex MoD Astras went for £4400! Only two months later. I know it's an extreme example but back in the day auction prices were more stable than they are now. My money will be on 3-8 year old stock, £3K to £15K

I get more motivated by the lows... Nothing more depressing than reading about other people’s exceptional sales :-)))

I started refurbing around 2006, £35 per corner, now it’s £50. I can’t stand kerbed alloys but love buying them kerbed at the auctions.

Sad but true...

Yes, their returns policy is abused by many :-)

I am a huge advocate for changing wheel colour especially because for me it's free. (I pay for the refurb but any colour, matt, satin or gloss is included). People want to stand out, preferences change and what could've been the norm in 2006-2008 is no longer the case. Every week I see brand new BMWs and Range Rovers at our wheel place getting a complete change to Gloss Black (usually) before delivery.

Just ring them. 50% of their stuff isn't even on the website and the pricing there will not show discounts.

Knowing where to stop the prep takes a long long time. And comes after many sales where you know it should've been done but for one reason or another wasn't and the customer still bought WITHOUT moaning about it, ask money off or even point it out. In your example touch up and leave wheels is what I'd do. If the wheels were slightly worse I would redo them and change colour as David suggested.

If you get Vat regd customer you offer a 20% discount “for cash” from the vat inclusive price I presume or even more likely tell them, oh, sorry, my colleague just told me it’s reserved for another customer.

Everyone nominates themselves. It's the winning that gets decided by a vote. I was asked to nominate myself a couple of years ago at CDX17 but swards and accolades aren't really my thing. Calling my business award-winning on my website though? Absolutely I'd plaster it all over all pages if I could.

He was one of 5-6 finalists but he got the No2 or 3 Highly Commended spot which on the website sounds even better

^^ LIKE

We'll have to move way up North if we want to secure Dave's services :-)

That makes no sense at all, unless they are trying to be clever and add 20% on top of the market price (hoping for a non-vat registered buyer) without having any intention (or indeed obligation) to pay that to HMRC :-)

Did a new CRA came out this year? Don't think so. If you want customers with A LOT of time on their hands try electric cars. This year I sold 8 (average price £18K) and I must've done 30-35 viewings / test drives averaging 90 minutes. Newly retired accountants / middle-management / architects / engineers / pilots and one 85 year old East London pensioner (Millwall fan) who after buying the car visited me 3 more times with various tech questions. He did leave me glowing reviews, bless him.

http://cardealermagazine.co.uk/publish/won-2018-used-car-awards/161678