RJEauto

Ours seems to be going up just over 8%

We use Xero, highly recommended MTD compliant, easy navigation, bank feeds and we use payroll on there.. something like £30 per month

If it's any condolence we've been pretty quiet too compared to last year. I would definitely look at redoing some of the photo's, a lot of them are too bright / not clear. Even if you edit the photo's you have it's surprising what difference it makes.. On another note, we always do well with CR-V's so if you want to trade any of the diesel EX's to free up cash and diversify your stock - drop me a message :-) -Kelly

Welcome! If it's any consolation, December was awful for us - hardly any leads, and sold 3 all month with 18 in stock. We've also had a slow start to January. We have Ebay/Gumtree package without Motors for all of our stock (up to 25 cars) which costs £260 p/month and then AT for part of our stock (8 slots I think) which is 895.92 + VAT. We're a fairly new site (opened just over a year ago with limited funds) and still building on our stock levels but tend to do better from AT, definitely more consistent sales and less time wasters than other platforms. I'd also recommend looking at Facebook (both business marketplace and building an audience on a business page) - there are lots of time wasters on there but we tend to do at least 1 or 2 per month with very little spend. Just remember what works for one person may not work for everyone else and there is a reason AT is much more expensive that it's competitors. That being said, there are dealers on here that have binned them off altogether and still run a good business. Best of luck! -Kelly

If he rejected the car under CRA within 30 days of purchase and you did refund him, CRA says full refund entitled (doesn't mean you can't offer less!) after 30 days it just says "fair usage charge".. we've only ever had 1 and charged 45p per mile

We use Blue motor finance (prime) and connected car finance (broker) both offer great comms for us and helped with initial FCA application

Our diamond cut wheels cost us the same as Powdercoating (£200), done by 2 different local companies.. Obviously we do all of our own mechanical and valeting with the exception of MOT's

We use Blue for all Prime and Connected Car finance for everything else. They're a fairly good broker, gives us access to circa 30 lenders with decent Comms and quick turnaround

11 out of 15 with 5 of those on finance so good month for us.. dead with enquiries the past week though

Welcome My partner, Ryan, is a detailer and did that full time prior to us opening a year ago so similar starting situation to yourself. Insurance - If your dad is actually involved in the business, could be possible but I believe the insurance "policyholder" is normally company and it's director/s so may need to look into this. I'm 23 and Ryan is 27, he's the director and policyholder of the business which wasn't an Issue, I'm covered for business use, SD&P. I can drive anything business use but our cover has me limited to 1600cc for SD&P, which in our case isn't an issue. Responsibilities - as others have said, read up regarding CRA as much as possible. We make sure everything leaves with long MOT's, fresh service and full inspection, PDI sheet signed by customer, etc. They are cars, you will have issues occasionally, but treat your customers fairly and prep everything as well as you can - it's all you can do. Good Luck! Kelly

Thanks NOA. We have a small audience on our page (1800ish) but do well out of our sponsored posts. We do best with Facebook with our lower value stock, although that could come down to area etc

I think Facebook massively depends on how you use it and your stock profile. Over 50% of our sales this month have come from Facebook.. But you do get a lot of time wasters amongst them

Last Car we bought without a log book was a repo. V62 in customers name but couldn't tax as it wasn't registered in the trade (was therefore still registered to prev owner), held the vehicle until our customer received the logbook and could tax it which was around 4/5 weeks

False reviews are killing us - read my separate thread. (It is in the private section) Internet is a fantastic thing but the problem is you have dickheads that can purposely write whatever they like to try and tarnish your reputation Can't do anything these days without fear of offending somebody who may post something online that becomes a nightmare to try and remove

We switched from free CG to paid package around 4 months ago and so far so good. Leads are limited but we've had quite a few sales so ROI isn't bad at all, we've had better success with some of our lumpier stock on CG than AT. However, I don't like the dashboard, vehicle pricing check and the amount of info it gives the customer

Not long after we opened, we took an old 1.3diesel Hyundai Getz in for sale. Customer was "devastated to part with it", decent MOT, looked fine offered him £500 to get the deal done (didn't bother driving it out of the yard). Happy customer leaves with his new i20, Ryan takes the Getz to the local shop, starts a 3 point turn and cuts out in the middle of the road. Managed to get it going again but there was no reverse! Ended up spares or repairs on eBay with fuel and gearbox problems. Had another customer a week or two later, PX and old focus. Lives 2 streets away so had walked up to test drive the Volvo he wanted. Mileage on PX please, 103k he said. No problem, we'll give you £700 for it. Deal done, he returns that evening for handover, our mechanic test drives the PX which is fine and new car goes out. About to ring the guy who has our cheap stuff, looking through the MOT history - last MOT 180K miles, check the car 198k miles!! A few lessons quickly learnt, thankfully they weren't too expensive! -Kelly-

Before we opened the garage, Ryan used to do some trade valeting to bulk up his work load. £40 Full valet and £90 with machine polish to the trade for most sized vehicles - South Wales area

We only ever had 20-30 images, but always fill in all the boxes etc etc Haven't noticed increase in enquiries but definitely an increase in ad views.. will have to see how it goes as we were just considering dumping them!

GLWS FYI We sold our XC70 (the white one) for £11990 via a Car Gurus lead. We're on the paid package. Didn't seem to get much interest through AT though

From an outside perspective, I'd do the following: Re-take photos - some of them look fine, others not so great. The Wheel photo - definitely add tyre shine, not everyone likes it but makes a huge difference on the photo's. The door card photo is blurry. I'd put the price back up and show a "Great Price" indicator rather than "Low Price" indicator. Volvo buyers don't tend to be the last price brigade, they want a quality car. We recently sold an XC70 - Not sure if you can see the old facebook ad? We have another one in stock atm - https://www.rjeautomotive.co.uk/used-volvo-xc70-ebbw-vale-south-wales-2330050

Absolutely dead here - hardly seen a soul this month let alone sold a car! With 17 in stock we're a little low but have some great bits which I think are priced very competitively.. Hoping for an end of month pick up

Doesn't seem cheap to me (considering the issues you've had as well) £80 a panel here and turned around in a couple of days

We've had a few NI cars and never shown as import on Hpi, I thought it would only be Irish cars that would show as NI is part of UK and although number plates & MOTs are different there they are issued with a standard UK log book??

We sent request with proof and got access within a week or so. They never emailed back to confirm though, I just clicked and there it was

We also use Xero. Just as easy as submitting it previously, the click of a button