CCC

I guess the problem is the invoices all have customers names, phone numbers, addresses, etc.

Is the next stage that the dealer who buys it doesn’t make a massive profit on the unit but does on the finance? its a pack of cards I reckon, but then I’m a pessimist when it comes the this stuff.

Agree. For people spending £9990 on something with performance then it's all relative anyway. Chances are they would be considering something with £300+ tax anyway so what's an extra £200 per year (and not so noticeable now it's direct debit every month). That's the way I used to look at it, and any extra cost on tax and fuel was more than offset by lower depreciation vs buying a new car. I did go from one extreme to another though, selling an E500 (£500 per year road tax) and replacing it with a Mini Cooper D (£30), though that's because the MINI was the highest group I could get cover for a 17yr old on (I'd have kept the E500 if it wasn't for those pesky kids )

All these electronic issues mean I'm starting to hanker after my MK4 Cortina again. Bought a nice Freelander 2 earlier this week. Low miles, FSH, one owner. All good, bought direct from owner who's chopping it in for an Evoque. Decided to use it today, fine for first hour or so, then got a HDC Fault message flash up. Cleared on stop/start and not re-appeared, Google seems to think it's a random error they throw when low battery (likely issue with this one, hence using it) and cold weather (so today definitely) but it's broken my confidence in it a bit. Oddly the spare remote is a bit slow to respond too, takes 5 minutes to lock/unlock it (unlocks just when you are about to give up on it).

Thanks. Appreciate the drink, I'll buy you one sometime. I suspect you're not that far from me (MK) Cheers

Any chance I could send you £5 to get an example?

I’ve got to admit that pressing the fob to unlock the car isn’t too much of a hassle. Could never see the point of keyless. Supposedly someone had a BMW nicked when their wife left her key in her handbag in the car.

Just bought in a nice Freelander. Never hoped for snow before

They stopped making those early on I think. Friend brought a brand new one for his wife and the box failed within 6 months, I’m not sure if they initially replaced the box and had another failure before they refunded but by then they’d discontinued the model due to failures and hadn’t got a leg to stand on consumer rights wise.

Is it just me now picturing the opening scenes from “Minder”

I'm a bit confused on the model. You're going to sell advertising space to local car related businesses? Will they get viewing stats and click through data? My guess (and happy to be proven wrong) is that they'd be better of investing in their own sites and PPC campaign optimisation? I think the weekly email is a good idea to the local market and I could see it linking in to Facebook page of some kind. I might sound like I'm knocking it, but I've a reasonable amount of Ecomm experience from other businesses and it's a lot more competitive than it used to be, especially with people like motors chucking cash at it just to try drive some traffic to their site. Autotrader has the brand awareness build up over 40 yrs, it takes a lot of cash/effort to overcome that (though Niching is the best way). If it's free for dealers then nothing to lose from their side. We operate in a relatively local market and our target customers are ones who need hand holding through the purchase generally so local is better (and they are more likely to turn up)

Agree, but if it's free then maybe no harm if listing simple/automated. Purple Bricks are busy making a thumping loss. Only winner at the moment is Rightmove but even they seem to be having a few profit issues Can I check for understanding. In Google natural search your listing are achieving higher positions than Autotrader, Motors, Ebay or any other main platform, e.g. for Electric Vehicles. How are you quantifying this? I'm just checking for understanding. When I googled "Toyota Prius for sale Tamworth" the results in order were Motors, VantageTamworth (main dealer), Gumtree, Newsnow, RockpointBMWspecialists, Autotrader, Autotrader, Gumtree. In fact googling 'Car Sales Tamworth", "carsales tamworth" failed to find you? I'll admit that googling "carsalestamworth" finally worked and you took places 8-10, with this page featuring higher.

According to an article last week, JLR cars (at least new ones) are the only cars that can avoid the keyless entry issues (though finding the keys sorts this). Friend had his M6 taken from home a fortnight ago by bouncing signal from the front of the house....glad my cars are keyless entry, though could do with my son finding the spare to his Focus or it will just be keyless....

Surely you needed their address and business details for the paperwork? How did they pay? As above, I fear this will just be the start. Might be worth getting a solicitor involved immediately to see what your options are. In theory a quick phone call to ask for their address to complete your paperwork ahead of a forthcoming inspection to avoid drawing attention to the transaction?

We tend to go for the higher price option, which has changed in terms of how you enter the data but just checked listing and it looks similar to the promoted listing below us. We've got dealer name but no logo facility. We're a bit of a hybrid though as we subscribe to stock and buying side but not ads (not enough volume at present to justify it).

Interesting. A few questions. 1. Who are the third party’s to whom you will sell advertising? I’m assuming (?) this is via google ad services or ad servers or will you be selling your own advertising, if so to who? 2. Has the existing stock been signed up for or scraped? 3. What level of traffic (views) does it need to become worthwhile? 4. What’s your budget to promote it and how will you be doing this? 5. What’s the number of daily google searches on the term “car sales Tamworth” (as exact, phrase and broad matches)? i get the concept and in the right locality (large urban centres) it might work if you do enough advertising to get it known. If it’s just full of spam advertising that will put people off and also there is a risk that people just think it’s a single dealer called “Car Sales Tamworth”. In this day and age the the Autotrader postcode and distance search is a more customer friendly location tool. Ive been working on a related idea so would be interested in what you’d charge for doing a similar site?

when you say basic package, how many photos is that? We’ve got Autotrader account for buying tools but payg on ads as not constant neigh to justify monthly. We do tend to go for premium ads though.

This. Our goal for the year is to focus on the buying side and encourage locals to try is for a price before they trot off to wbac. Registered need domain name for it last week and need to get one of our project cars sign written that I’ll use as a runabout.

As you say it’s about building a brand, 3 months is probably nowhere near long enough to do that. We’re in a small town with a local magazine and no competition, we should give it a go.

Thanks. Useful tips for us too. Less is more is the plan for this year and try to focus more on stuff we’d like ourselves.

Hadn’t really twigged that in terms of quality but just use AT. AT enquiries are generally good quality, virtually no “best price” merchants. Only issue can be distance sometimes. Guy doing an 8hr drive to get a £10k, rare spec MINI convertible, I understand. Someone driving from Chester for a £3k Cooper doesn’t make sense. Also use targeted Facebook/promoting on local FB sites.

I always wanted one of these but when it came to it, common sense prevailed. Not at all practical, massive outside, tiny inside and 20mpg. if I was ever to have one then would need to be dark colour and auto too. I like bright colours but an orange mustang is not a statement I’d like to be making. A CLA 45 shooting brake makes a lot more sense

And they are debating it? FFS, that is ridiculous.

How are they saying this was done? Any chance your BCA account has been hacked? I would have thought they'd have CCTV or whoever collected it or was it delivered. Cyber security is a major issue, and getting bigger, as we know from a previous thread on hijacked client accounts. The main risk is single passwords as most sites have been hacked at some point so it's estimated that password details for 90% of the population for at least one site is available on the "dark web"

We’ve got that too, though the cheaper alternative is just to use google to get a brochure for the vehicle in question at the time of production. It also helps sell the car when you get viewers anyway as you can point out what yours has (and benefits) vs other cars they’re considering (and also what the car would cost new, with the options added). Not that I’d condone this, but adding in standard features for the model in question as extras might help the AT value markers, as well as ensuring that all features are clearly listed.