CCC

Charges are exorbitant and you need to be registered with American Express to do it. Most customers are used to be turned down for those reasons (hence asking) and will have an alternative card they can use. They will want to use Amex for the Air Miles or Cashback which are very generous thanks to the exorbitant fees

The normal laws of supply and demand will decide. I guess the reality is it depends on how the economy is doing as to whether it’s a gradual return or a sharp one.

Our local LR dealer was forced to move from a great location and biggish place to a massive glass goldfish bowl in a large of town you rarely go to. All due to JLR requirements. Given the internet was already putting the writing on the wall that felt a stupid move at the time, now it seems insane. I worry JLR are in bigger trouble than they let on too. Massively unreliable and technology changing fast, and against big lumpy cars.

That’s the business model. Dealer just a middle man (who does the hard work) between finance company and asset in reality? my belief was that if you owe money to someone you’re working for them, not yourself. Though right now the economy is built on high levels of debt so the governments are now having to do a lot of intervention to keep the house of cards up.

Yes, saw that. They really need to find a lot of mugs, but maybe that’s why the Daily Mail is on board. Stock market is looking like the days before the Dot Com crash right now.

From what I see the stocking loan boys and BCA have a nice business model. Lend people money to buy an asset which they sell in your behalf to a) create a demand for consumer finance b) create a demand for auction cars The problem comes when the economy takes a down turn and the finance houses want their money back, not stuck in depreciating cars anchored to forecourts. As people I know found out in the 2008 recession, owe the bank a little and you’ve got a problem, owe them a lot and the bank has a problem. I guess most dealers fit in the former. Cazoo sits in the latter but that’s a different model, everyone piles in (money is cheap and many private individuals, pension Co’s et. are also now giving the PE boys money as they search for yield) they build it, then float it and every investor gets his money back with a nice premium, leaving those who bought shares in the floated PLC to take the hit when it becomes apparent that profits won’t match forecasts. Slow and steady with your own cash means you can sleep at night.

Eldest son is doing electronics at uni. He’s less driven than his younger brother who’s doing law but I suspect he’ll have more career options if he can make it to the end of the course.

I’ve got an X5, arguably too big now the kids have left home, but useful for chucking wheels and parts in, and worth more to me than I’d get for it. I’d recommend getting the auto box flushed around 75k miles. Downside is that’s it a real pain to park due to its width so getting kids in and out maybe hard in many car parks. we had an FRV as the family hack when the kids were young. Not exciting but the most practical (and reliable) car we’ve ever owned. Barely a penny other than routine servicing in 140knmiked and 12 years

Have you tried Metro Bank? We found them the easiest to deal with of the lot. Helped by the fact they actually have branches with people in them and open normal hours. Had a form to complete for them this afternoon. Sent it back at 5.30pm and for email back at 6.15pm confirming it had been actioned

Easy to turnover £60m as the spend on google may go through them, but what they actually make on that might be very marginal. It’s easy to start spending 5,6 or even 7 figure sums on google ppc if you’re an online business.

The FSB used to offer heavily discounted rates on what’s now Worldpay (can’t remember what it was called when I started with them) when I had my old business. If you take serious amounts via card then you can negotiate the rates beyond that too. With the car business we just used bank transfer, far easier and no risk of chargebacks which was a nightmare with cards as bank always sided with the customer.

It’s often due to skill sets. A friend works in e-commerce. Received 3 job enquiries from M&S the day they announced 7,000 redundancies. If they’d recruited e-commerce skills earlier maybe they wouldn’t have to make so many redundancies.

Whether businesses survive will be partially down to the owner/managers attitude to risk. Fortune favours the brave?

That’s the new reality. It was easy to find new employment before, what’s an unemployed pilot qualified to do if he can’t fly a plane?

With the advent of Cazoo, I'd assumed Heycar was a similar operation retailing cars themselves but having read the article in the latest Car Dealer magazine then it looks like they're just another competitor to Autotrader but with a more restricted dealer/car base. Very interesting reading about their "content is king" approach but I'm a bit clueless as to how that's going to help them when all of their competitors (Gumtree, Motors, Autotrader) are using Google Ad's on searches anyway. I guess another player might force AT to reconsider it's pricing policy. Can't help but think the fragmentation of the used car advertising market has no winners in the end. They heycar valuation tool seems a bit optimistic too with a recent purchase valued at £1900 vs £1480 on AT and £1485 on WBAC.

I’m watching this with interest. HMRC very wary of the problem and now trying to work out the solution. Last idea I read was making it like student loans, you pay back when profits allow. Given that profit is a fudgeable number then they’ll have to audit books to be on top of it properly (eg exclude director and family member salaries) Whatever they do then they need to be harsh early on to get the message across.

I can see the pound plummeting but not sure how that will affect the market. Arguably just make new cars more expensive and help prop up the used market. The cheapies market is where the action will be as people wise up to the risks around PCP and buy what they can afford to run in tougher times.

We’ve got a journalist as PM. Anything is possible. car dealers understand the basics of business.....

I’m not sure it’ll get clawed back but he’ll have to make the payments (cheap) or fold. HMRC will find it easier to claw back money taken fraudently than looking for cash via VAT inspections I suspect. Getting money after going bankrupt might be a lot harder going forwards as I’m sure lenders will be more circumspect after this. Unfortunately a lot of people are going to learn what a real recession is, we’ve not had one since the early 90’s. Those of us who lived through that and the 80’s one have generally been more cautious as we know what can happen.

This. 25% of turnover for most small businesses who qualified for BBL’s wasn’t £50k. Though I know a few one man bands who’ve taken them and been looking for a new sports car.

^this. A lot via pcp’s as the smart money knows this reduces their exposure significantly and moves it to the finance company. buy assets and lease liabilities. Some people think a super car is an asset which it generally isn’t in the long term. Genuine rarity isn’t what it used to be. Look at all manuf’s numbers.

The big problem will be finding enough stock to do this cost effectively in volume I’d guess. in reality there’s more profit opportunity on slightly rarer stuff where fixing costs might be higher but sales prices higher too (eg nice BMW 6’s/2002’s). If you can weld and spray then MX5 mk1 might be a gold mine but I don’t think there is the demand there used to be. ULEZ and recession might mean a surplus of sellers over buyers in the long term too.

If looking at a private then you often “buy the owner” as much as the car. Evidence of regular maintenance and things being done when they need to be. Service history always a good indicator. Best we had was a Grade 3 Mini that was really Grade 1/2 but no history But limited owners. Quick few phone calls and turns out it had been main dealer serviced annually for 10 yrs.

It’s in the FT but that might be behind a paywall, here’s the same story. https://tamebay.com/2020/05/axel-springer-submit-bid-for-ebay-classifieds.html

I think EBay are selling their classifieds business which includes motors and gumtree. I suspect this is because they’re expecting a decline in revenues (due to FB marketplace?)