Andy Entwistle

We've already started seeing some good nominations and over half the tickets have gone already. But we want to encourage more people to put themselves forward, this is a great chance for industry recognition, regardless of the size of your company.... Nominate yourself or someone else here... https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/usedcarnominations13

I don't believe there can be too much biased opinion here. See our story on the most influential manufacturers on Twitter, vauxhall come in an impressive 3rd ! With a stronger line up of product, they could really put this to good use !

Not from facebook, but we've had a number of emails offing to sell us varying amounts of likes for our page for varying amounts of cash. Of course we've never pursued this and even if they can do this, its fairly pointless as they aren;t real likes. however if it can be manipulated ( yet to be verified) then it could adversely impact the results Has anyone else had this and has anyone looked into it, woudl be interested in hearing back....

Hi Ben This is something we are looking at right now. I think this would be a really interesting piece of analysis. We are currently trying to work out how best to calculate this as Facebook doesn;t have a "klout" rating. Its also alleged that "likes" can be bought, so we need to find a way to make this fair and representative. What are your thoughts ?

Agreed. But how many sales people know how to advise correctly ?

Given that the motability fleet is the largest fleet in the UK, i imagine that most dealers actively welcome Motability customers in. These are also generally a good source of low mileage stock. Most don;t cover many miles and while we have all seen those with every panel dented, most are fairly well cared for...

Where did this all start... Cayenne? or X5?

I think plenty of people have seen the deal that BCA did for WBAC... i wouldn;t count on many more of those type of deals mind...

30% Wow. could it be anything to do with an increase in these type of companies taking some of their market ?

Such a shame this wasn't done when it was still being built here !

They say that the amount of traffic on the road is a good indication to the health of the economy ! Well, based on the traffic on the M27 and around the office we must be flying. The last 2 weeks have been awful, it took me 2:15 minutes to do 40 miles today, should take an hour ! Apparently, the busiest day of the year on the roads is the 23rd October ( someone had too much time on their hands to work it out and its worse that i can remember it !) Is this a combination of lack of holidays ( summer season over and no skiing yet? I'd be interested in hearing if its the same everywhere and your views, could this be a result of the reduction in fuel, more people in work and maybe a bit of the weather... or it it just my journey into work ?

I'm sure well be seeing ore views, but the feedback i've received so far is that stock is still incredibly difficult to come by ( no surprises there) and after a fairly strong September things have quietened a little in October. Has the feel good factor that was returning to customers taken a bit of a hit as a result of the increase in utilities recently, maybe this has made people take stock again?

Hi Autoecosse. Yep, we used the Klout rating to help us create our top 100 most influential dealers on twitter. Its calculated using followers, tweets, retweets etc and its a good independent way to monitor this. We intend to make this a regular update and hope that dealers will start to follow this and aim to try and improve their standings in the league and subsequently improve their interaction with the industry.

i really mutton add to the list...

The police don't allow public access to the PNC, its actually a fairly complicated database and not user friendly. This is where the provenance companies like HPI come into it, they take the raw data out of the feed and turn this into something useable. Most of the stolen data you see on HPI etc comes from the insurance companies, its far more comprehensive and accurate than the PNC and updated far quicker, the PNC info simply fills the holes where the vehicle isn't insured. You woudl be amazed how difficult it is to get data from the authorities. For example in ireland there is no central record of stolen vehicles available like the UK, the data the provenance companies use come from insurance companies rather than the police and in the UK there is no separate register for trailers and caravans, they are held on one huge register along with all other reported home theft item.

I think these are 2 separate audiences, Twitter is used as a business tool far more than Facebook. People will talk business, follow companies and get news through Twitter, Facebook tends to be more social, its where people are chatting to friends and catching up.... We were just having this conversation in the office, "likes" would be the way of monitoring influence, however we hear that these can be easily manipulated I think most companies "Get" Twitter and how to use it to keep people updated, i'm not sure many have really worked out how to make Facebook work yet?

Auto-quake had one of the best online sites i've seen, the quantity of pictures was excellent and the description was extensive, including all service information ( dates and mileages), with detailed description. Their prices were also fairly keen. Yet they folded. I'm fairly sure this was down to the very poor handover experience and the rundown state of their locations putting people off. It does go to show, that the description is one thing, but it needs to be followed up with decent service ..

Most manufacturers warranties do have small print that terminates the warranty if the car is an ABI classified write off. The idea of setting up your own would be worth considering, i'm sure that someone like Warranty wise might be interested in chatting to you

And i thought cows in our front garden was bad enough ....

There was a report i read a few years ago that showed that the percentage of 5 year old cars without some sort of accident repair was very very low. It might just be something minor, but during 5 years its inevitable that most cars will have had something done. Would the industry support a HPI type register of cars that have been repaired within the approved network that can be checked, or do you think this would impact the value of stock adversely?

There was one on Ebay a few weeks back, It had been put in storage and hadn't turned a wheel in 12 years, was in excellent condition externally and inside, but seller couldn't vouch for the engine as it hadn't been started in so long... wanted £17k !

That list is heavily weighted towards 4x4. is this just a reflection of the time of year ?

Hi Kido, welcome to the forum. I'm sure you'll get plenty of other feedback from others in the next few days, but having spent 7 years working with categorised vehicles I found that most dealers stayed well clear of them. Categorised cars generally fetch around 50% of their non write off value at auction, the big franchised and independents won't touch them, so your pool of bidders is limited. You are always going to be fighting an uphill battle, as the industry has always been very much against written off cars. The biggest problem is the patchy quality of repairs and the charlatans out there, I have sadly seen too many that are dangerously rebuilt in a back street garage on the cheap, no one wants to risk being associated with that. Have you considered getting these officially checked. Although this would not remove them from HPI's condition alert register, it does mark them as "Condition Inspected", which is a check of the quality of repair and safety ( unlike a VIC test which is purely identity). This may add value and make the cars more attractive

Thanks Jim. Seems a strange time of year to have a drop! Agreed, I don't; think its panic stations, but its interesting to see its not just one area !

I think this is a good point, how many more MR2 Mk3 would Toyota have sold if it actually had a boot. No boot at all harked back to the days of the frogeye ! I'm not a golfer, but I know plenty of punters who have struck a car off their list because they can't fit their clubs in. Given that with every model cars are getting larger I can't see why they can't give us more space. Saying that, the wife uses her mini convertible down the stables, it can fit a bale in hay in the back..... with the roof down and the seats flat !