CCC

Is it just me, but 504k cars works out at 13% of the uk car population being advertised on autotrader, so if we add eBay, Facebook and all the others that might get towards 20%, or 1 in 5 of all cars in the uk is for sale? That sounds like a lot of stock in the market, especially considering it doesn’t allow for new sales (all those pcp deals). Might explain why UK residuals are poorer than other countries but not why auction prices are so high! Madjeski copied an idea he’d seen running the USA so it was a proven formula already before he launched it in the UK.

https://auction.sytner.co.uk/Listing/Detail/382246 This one looks great. I wonder what they gave for it as Part Exchange?

I suspect we might see some poor sales figures on new stock over the last quarter, which explain the stupid deals last month. I got a ring from Lancaster BMW at 9.00am sharp on the 28th December...... If that's the case then BMW/Audi, etc won't want to be busy fools and will adjust down their RHD production allocation for next year and some of the amazing deals will disappear which will help the used market. If credit is tightening then the market for PCP's will decrease a bit too.

I agree with everything in this thread. Prices on cheap stuff is too high to make a margin if you prep properly and too many cars seem to have a zero maintenance approach, plus there’s a lot more to go wrong on modern cars. We’re liquidating our cheap stock having spent time learning the hard way and plan to move to less stock but higher price (around £9995) stuff too. With hindsight that will fit in better with the local area (similar to Nick’s) but at least our investment in over prep and helping on claims has helped establish a good reputation locally.

Not your typical Volvo owner?

Buy assets, not liabilities I was taught. £10k for a house is far more sensible. National shortage of maths teachers so won’t be short of work though starting is closer to £30k before incentives. It’s not much fun though so train him up in cars to give him a choice if he wants to get out. I know plenty of teachers, few enjoy it nowadays, but then the idea of working for the government holds no appeal to me.

From what I've read the problem is with the DA being hacked, so the bank will just bounce the issue (as they can't be held accountable for the DA's lack of security). Technically the DA should report the breach of their systems to the GDPR authorities now and risk a fine (or a bigger fine if someone else reports it, maybe a bargaining chip) The situation highlights a situation that many of us would have fallen for, I used to set up accounts and just send £1 initially to check it was working OK but you get used to sending larger amounts and I stopped doing that a while ago. I just renewed my personal business insurance and included Cyber Risks for the 1st time ever, cost me £120 extra but maybe that was well worth it. One reason I sold my old business was that the amount of hacking going on was increasing exponentially and with it both the cost of security systems and also the level of risk if they got through to our website. We use office 365 for business email accounts now (does anyone know if that's hackable)?

Exactly. Tried it once, never again.

fattening up company to sell it? Fees were piss taking before, who’ll cough up in a tighter market? Or do they expect it to feed through to higher used values?

Just reading new car sales down 8% in Germany vs 3%down in Uk. Looks like it’s not just Brexit.

It's an interesting one. I'm sure I could earn £60 doing something else than standing in an auction hall for a couple of hours freezing my toes off. But it would have to be someone you trust implicitly I guess. And, has been said, finding the diamonds in the rough is half the fun. Not convinced on online buying, bought one that was OK and as described but as we'd guessed mysteriously bid up to our max. plus needed transporting, and had another one cancelled last minute due to undeclared write-off.

I've got multiple cars on DD (mine, wifes, 2nd cars, kids, etc), all OK though it's a bank account not debit card. The £30 mini is also on monthly, purely as it's simpler for budgeting and means no hassles refunds needed if we sell it. The £30 Mini replaced a £500 Merc, that was a nice change

I quite liked the look of them, very early "crossover" though didn't sell due to Renault badge. Lots of X Trail underneath I think so might be one of those rarities where someone seeks them out due to the good value they offer for what they are.

Interesting piece on Waymo driverless cab service. Seen a few LR driverless vehicles around MK, but from watching Tomorrows World last month, still quite a bit of time before they are real world ready. Driving in America (and MK) is a world of difference to cornwall or the lake district waymo-one-self-driving-taxi-service-ride-safety-alphabet-cost-app

Suggest you'd offer as P'ex against one of his more expensive cars, but you too are struggling for cash so can only offer 20% lower than asking price on it? One of the delights of running your own show is you can tell customers to do one. Politely or Impolitely is your choice.

A fool and his money...... Haymarket did a great job on trashing what Pistonheads could have been. I'm sure CarGurus will do just as good a job. Though has it announced how much it paid? I suspect they might have got a nice C200 for the same money....

A few thoughts. If he really believed in it, he'd be staking 100% of his own money, instead it's a leveraged play with a lot of others money. My limited experience of these things is that there is more cash than opportunities now, so it's not hard to raise money, especially if you've got a track record of delivering value to the original investors (I have my suspicions on Zoopla long term but that's not the original investors problem). Will people buy cars unseen - yes, as long as the seller has a 5* reputation (feedback counts) and the car is as described and video'd. We do shed loads of photos and the odd video, plus prep, so in theory when the buyer arrives they've already "bought" the car in their heads, it's just confirming what they've seen and giving us payment. It's an odd time to be investing in this market. The future 10 yrs hence is predicted to be self-driving ubers with ageing pensioners unable to drive, and youngsters more interested in spending on a phone, so the used car market faces a gradual decline. So by the time their finally dominating the market it will have gone. How does it solve the "disatisfaction" problem mentioned? Buying online isn't going to improve prep on it's own, that's going to be down to dealers having no choice other than using his platform? There is a good reason Amazon have stated they aren't going near used cars for a long time. The manufacturers will be going to an online model over the next decade, is that a competitor to him or channel for them? Whilst Lovefilm was a good concept at the right time, I'm not convinced Zoopla has any great market changing dynamic. Rightmove yes, Zoopla? The above may be wrong/right or complete bollocks, but my tuppence worth.

Nice candidate for a none age related plate. Immaculate merc on your drive for £1500. I’m not sure how many people will clock the number of owners, never ceases to amaze me how often cars change hands nowadays.

Isn’t this the same as stocking loans depending upon finance sales? in times of uncertainty clear your debts and build a pot of cash to take advantage of bargains. I’ve got a dollar account opened too in case the £ really falls of a cliff. Though the chance of a no deal brexit is tiny now so I suspect business as usual early in the new year.

When I had my old business people used to say “are you busy”. Obviously clueless about how having your own business works, where if you’re not busy then you’re busy making yourself busy (more advertising, sales calls, etc). I’m a bit ocd about the numbers too and it’s all about net profit and keeping overheads down. As others have said many might look successful but are treading water, those are the ones who will be left high and dry when the tide drops as it does every decade or so.

Watching the brexit discussion on the itv news and the word chaos, I’m not suprised people are staying at home. Popped to Rushden Lakes shopping centre on Saturday. Last time we drove past in the summer people were queuing to get in. A month before Xmas and Black Friday weekend the wife suggested it would be a nightmare, but drove straight in and many of the shops seemed virtually empty.

Nice cars those 75’s. In laws had one and I drove it back from Devon once. Nice, comfy place to do fast miles. They sold it and bought an x type and regretted it immediately. A cheap tourer one would be ideal for my eldest once insurance gets reasonable. Generally older owners so lots of them been looked after and serviced properly.

Good to know. Just up the road from me. Thanks

When buying then 1) is pretty much word for word. When selling my own cars privately the traders who rang up and offered me 50% off the asking without even seeing wound me up. There was one that made me smile. I’d advertised an E39 535i at midnight at had a phone call at 7am from a guy in Stafford. He’d driven down immediately and bought it there and then at the advertised price (by the time he arrived I’d had several calls so knew it was going to sell fast). At 9.30am a trader rings and launches into his spiel about why it will never sell and how he would do me a favour, etc. He rabbited on for a whole minute whilst I tried to interrupt him to tell him the car had already sold, to the first viewer for the full asking. Being polite got us my sons Focus for £300. Spares or repair at £500 and everyone else had just taken the piss and slated it. We drove it, praised it and offered £300 politely, expecting a haggle and she accepted it there and then. A steal as it needed £100 of work and was worth £500 all day long to someone who could fix it.

Direct debit probably best as it’s a bit pricey on tax.