Nick M.K.

I know. It's everywhere :-) It's even on my coffee cup. Re-did it a couple of years ago and now I am thinking of upgrading it again. Everything moves so fast in this trade, a two year old website becomes obsolete :-)

No. M.K. are my middle name and surname. I am just outside the M25 in Southern Bucks

James, if able can you run a couple of examples through it for me: MJ59HHF, 56K miles and HK64FFT, 24K miles

But a silver 320D M Sport with "Network" cloth interior, Business radio and manual gearbox will be far less desirable than a black / white 320D M Sport with black leather, auto gearbox and Professional nav. We are talking 60 days to sell vs 10 days to sell difference, yet both cars will probably end up with the same 3.4 rating.

I am sorry, I only just saw this. The "proper" package gives you a certain number of advert slots and an advert can be live on one slot indefinitely. The major advantage is that if you turn your stock quickly you can sell 20 cars in a calendar month but only pay for say 12 advert slots. The major disadvantage is that you could pay for 12 slots but only have 9 available cars to advertise so you could potentially be overpaying at times.

What tool do you reckon is worth trying out the most? I might persuade my account manager to give me a months' trial...

A lot of my customers weren't actually looking to buy a specific car, they weren't actively searching. They just browsed AT (the mobile app mostly), liked a car that we have, kept looking at the ad for a few days, weeks sometimes, made up their mind and came to buy. I am not prepared to lose these "impulse" (if you can call them that) sales for the sake of a-grand-a-month when just a single finance commission covers that.

They rely a lot on analyzing searches in conjunction with views. But the desirability ratings are flawed in the sense that the same make and model with certain spec and in certain colour can be a lot more popular. And their desirability ratings don't factor that in. Give me an S500 any day and cut my veins now if I have to sell another Fiesta "for my daughter" :-)

Out of 10-11 sales a month 8 come from AT, 1 each from eBay and Motors. If you divide the cost-per-sale AT is working out cheaper. What I find crazy in this internet age (and FORGIVE ME if this will sound insulting to some) is to NOT use Autotrader considering how much more popular it is as an advertising platform.

I don't think so but I'm never sure which package I am on. My listings are not "featured". Your invoice summary Total inc. VAT £1,372.67 Advertising Package £1,105.50 Finance £38.39 Forecourt Management - Auto Trader Dealer Website - Retailer Display - Added Value - Subtotal excl. VAT £1,143.89 VAT ( 20%) £228.78 Total £1,372.67

13 (11+2) on Autotrader £1370 up to 25 on eBaymotorspro £210 up to 20 on Motors.co.uk £97 I always have 14-15 in stock of which a couple are always in prep 9-12 sales per month

But still got 120 views in a day? My very desirable fast sellers get 40-50. Your target customer is a Polish or Romanian national in his late 20s early 30s and unfortunately right now they have already made their annual pilgrimage back to the homeland (they look at your ad on their mobiles right now). When they return at the end of the month they will resume their search for a cheap prestige mile munching chariot to use on the next year's journey and your desirability will shoot right up :-) Fingers Crossed.

Why? It came to you at the right money, you can't go and buy another at the same money and the other two dealers may have examples that are inferior to yours. £500 extra on this margin is a huge percentage and worth aiming for. If you said you'd had 6 views on it I'd say: get rid of it quick. There is nothing more rewarding than selling for more than the immediate competition :-)

That's plenty of views. One was from me. Why not increase the price to £4500? On a 55 plate it will be one of the last before the £500 tax comes into play so to some it should be more desirable than 2006 even 2007 at this age...

What I will say to anyone in this price bracket is to go have a look at a few auction sale sections by big finance companies if there are any near you (Black Horse, Moneybarn, Santander etc). When you see the values and the condition of the cars that go through these sales you'll know if they attracts prime, subprime or the plain crazy :-)

+1. And this is 15 years at the start of the agreement!

I don't think it is, I think it calculates the actual days from advertising to Mark as Sold. My Stock Desirability hovers around the 2.7 mark all the time but my days to turn have been anything from 18 to 60+ in the past couple of years. I don't look at it because I advertise sometimes even before the car arrives, often before it is actually ready and leave the adverts running long after it's sold (for a number of reasons).

I get "flyers" all the time. I offer free airport collection in my adverts. They are from Ireland mostly, a few from Scotland but this month I had a young chap fly from Trondheim in Norway to buy a RAV4 for under £5K. He will be based here for the next year so didn't exactly fly-to-buy only. Years ago I had an elderly couple from Sweden that bought a Volvo C70 Convertible (it was worth around £3K at the time). They flew in and immediately drove off back to Sweden in mid-January. The cheapest "export" was a £500 Merc 190D 2.5 (no turbo and 0-60 "but only just") that went to a North African chap based in Brussels. This was many years ago, that car in that condition now is probably worth ten times that to someone here...

No. M Sport Coupe in Space Grey, Red leather, 16K miles, Great Price. 1) because it was a manual 2) because 4 people wanted to buy it and all 4 were declined for the finance :-)

100% would certainly be better but as I wrote above acceptance is also depending on stock profile. Prime lenders have to look at "affordability" now, not just credit history and score. We had a £17K BMW 420D in stock for 5 months. 4 people wanted to buy, all four were declined, three of them because of affordability. In a deal like this I'll take 50% acceptance any day :-)

With our prime lender, yes, and this is a good number compared to others. Also bear in mind this number is dependent on stock profile. Young buyers with good credit history will not be approved for an expensive car which the lender deems to be "unaffordable" for them to run long term. If we had a large yard full of Fiestas acceptance would be higher. Most of the "declines" will then go to subprime lenders but the commission from them is so small that we might as well forget it in this topic about being paid for our time.

Oh, this, absolutely. But because I run my business completely by myself I see every penny as I personally spend it and always try to pay bottom dollar for anything. Which used to make the spreadsheets even more painful :-)

If you did do finance you wouldn't charge a penny for the admin. For the simple reason that your finance company would pay you a HEFTY commission for your time and even if the comm is only say £350 per deal it would compensate your time at a grand an hour assuming acceptance rate of 50% and around 10 minutes to submit an application.* *Our lender is Close, they require no additional paperwork other than a Driving License and it takes me 5-6 minutes to submit an application. My acceptance rate is 47%, take up rate is 93% (so virtually everyone who was accepted bought).

I used to have all these. Costs, costs, costs, you name it it was all there. Every penny. Horrible read. Then I deleted them all. Now I only have my stock book in Excel and I have to say: Ignorance is a bliss. I genuinely don't know what I am earning per month or year or per "unit sold". I know it may not be an obvious decision from a management point of view but my every year is better than the last. Just don't ask me exactly how much better.

I actually know a dealer in Bedfordshire that charges £50 "test drive deposit" so it seems your idea might just catch on :-)