sparky

I can think of one or two reasons how they make it pay.......

Renault Fuego?

If it was me, no doubt about it, Mr and Mrs B would still be the proud owners of a shiny new car. The only thing I would have done differently would have been to leave the car advertised online.

I'm an Auction man, with the majority now coming from Manheim and BCA as their online buying facilities are top notch IMO. Also use SMAG, Shott's and Central Car Auctions up in Scotland although not as much as I used to. I agree about auction fees, especially when they include basic mechanical reports at £40 a time but like you say, what can you do apart from take the hit. Can't remember the last time I bought off ATM and don't anticipate doing so any time soon. I do find it useful for disposing of bits of stock though so for £600 a year it's just about worth keeping it on. I only discovered dealer auction 6 months ago and whilst it's ebay style bidding format frustrates the hell out of me sometimes I too like the concept of it and find it a much more user friendly as well as giving me more confidence when buying than auction 4 cars.

I had an email alert from ATM on Sunday. Opened up the email and thought I recognize that car so crossed checked a few things and yep, it was the one I was thinking about that had been sold 48 hours earlier on another dealer platform. The description of the car was basic and there were no comments. Now then, in the space of 48 hours the dealer may well have replaced a rather expensive mechanical part, had it in the bodyshop, replaced interior parts and given it the mother of all valets but somehow I doubt it. A bit of a pointless yarn maybe, but it does put a bit of doubt in your mind.

Anything going through the hall that ticks a few boxes is making bonkers money, whether it be down south or up north. You then search a few days later on AT (as you do) to see where it ended up and yet again are left scratching your head as to what it's retailing for. Some seem to be working on such small margins that I just can't see a future in it bearing in mind the recon a second hand car needs these days plus all the usual deal factors. Then, on the other side of the coin you have dealers having paid way over book for stuff asking new shape money for old shape Mondeo's and C5's for example. Complete madness IMO. Here we are in the second half of Jan and numbers in the hall in the auctions I use are noticeably down on the first half of Jan but demand clearly isn't so I'm now trying to buy more in hope than expectation. No wonder I'm losing my hair!!

Possibly. I think I'll be giving DA a miss for a while. Difficult to compete against a home trader who will will invest £3800 to sell for £4400 and a 30 car lot like myself who will buy 'up north' for 3k needing prep and obviously transportation and sell 'down south' for 4k and that's without even thinking about cambelts. Ridiculous.

I'm very lucky in that both the SMART repairers I use ( one for dents the other for paint) are the dog's wotsits . I hope he is not reading this, but my dentman in particular saves me a fortune and enables me to buy stock other dealers shy away from. In my experience, being able to do SMART repairs is a bit of a gift and you can either do it or you can't. Whilst training, practice and back up can get you to a certain level, you must have that natural hand eye coordination and be more of an artist than an accountant. For me there is nothing more satisfying than buying a grade 4/d car at the right money and being able to stick it on the forecourt looking like it's just come out of the box after a couple of hours worth of SMART reapir.

As expected, the 'good news' stock is making bonkers money in the hall with the average stuff not far behind leaving many small dealers including myself who can't or won't play ball left scratching their heads. Personally, I play the waiting game at times like these in the hope and expectation that the market will settle down and normal service can be resumed. If that means empty spaces for a few weeks then so be it. It's just frustrating not being able to buy the usual bread and butter stuff and whilst I don't expect to nick anything at this time of year, it would be nice to have some profit left in the metal. How does everyone else cope during this period when you may as well throw the book away?

£30 a month is probably all that Motors is worth IMO.

Sad news. I guess the other side of the coin north of the border is the likes of Pete Vardy and John Clarke seem to be doing well, as are the major auction companies up there.

Morning chaps, my first post on here so go easy on me The only advertising I do now is on AT and ebay, having stopped advertising in the local paper many moons ago and having found motors to be a complete waste of money for the results, or lack of them, that it achieves. We all know that AT works and whilst it is criminally expensive IMO I'm another one who has not quite got the balls to cancel it, yet. When the job is busy I don't tend to worry about the monthly bill of circa £1200 but when it goes quiet like it has now then I do seriously question if things could be done differently and whether or not I could depend on ebay and passing trade. I know ebay has it's faults but at £200 a month for 40 cars it is fantastic value for money. I look at other garages who only advertise on ebay and have done for some time and they still sell plenty of cars. My heart says that I should give it a go without AT for a couple of months and see what happens, my head on the other hand says I would be mad to.