awc1000

^this, older units that condensate / freeze / drip will drive you mad, newer units are lovely but don't forget a lot are designed for height (racking) you'll be paying for this space but not using it, as mentioned check usage, any decent landlord will already be aware what his building qualifies for regards usage, even then check with council on any restrictions, some can get quite arsey if you mention steam cleaners and chemicals.

sounds good and a real advantage if you can spanner, weld, and paint, in the short term though it sounds like you will be time poor, sadly you can't buy your time, i would advise to start by buying cars that need little or no work, with you working full time you will probably only find an extra 20 odd hours a week to prep cars, once you have sold your first car without so much effort for a profit you will soon loose interest in the heavier prep cars anyway, then if things work out to the point where you do the cars full time you can then justify the heavier prep cars as you will at this point be looking to fill 60 hours a week instead of 20. regards your post you mention that you are not bothered about a profit to start with, forget that, now't wrong with earn as you learn, there's nothing more motivating than seeing a profit, good luck.

god knows, looking at the ownership you would think they are well propped up financially, going to be interesting to see how they try and replace lost revenue from lack of entry's moving forward. when you look at the business model of some auctions - advance the vendor Cap clean, collect and sell car, finance the buyer, it's all fine in a buoyant market but looks fragile in times of uncertainty, they now have to do this without knowing how wounded their vendors or buyers are. the recent case i know of was a franchise vendor who had multiple entry's in a sale, 6 sold but no funds were forthcoming, auction claimed the buyers hadn't paid, that may be true for some of the cars but unlikely for all, its resolved now but it took them over two weeks to resolve, and it was before lock down, as you can imagine it's left a bitter taste for the vendor who is now looking at disposals elsewhere.

some of them must be or borderline, i wouldn't say they use the best lenders, their whole model is based around commission kick back and bolt on's, i would say their stock is more reliant on fleet than ex franchise, they wouldn't get by on those alone, one that i know are currently operating on £300 chassis profit then everything else underhand deal bolt on's, finance, overpriced admin, extended warrantys, inflated lifeshine's, steal the swapper as a deposit etc, it all ads up. I would rather they all went to the wall rather than survive at the cost of indy's and franchise's, big difference from an indy taking a big finance commission against a supermarket shafting a customer on the total process of buying a car. when you work off that model it becomes easy to give £1000 more than everyone else at auction, add in preferential buying / indemnity rates, ghost adverts (reg number hidden) removal of parts before sending the swappers back to auction, it's all bad news for everyone else. i'm down to only dealing with two these days, they are always slow to pay and give me nothing back in the way of swappers, i'll not be bothered if i loose either.

bad news for everyone, can't see how anyone in this trade will be happy with the findings or new likely capped rates that are coming, whether you use finance or not we are all reliant on the influx of cars that it generates, the irony in all this is certain lenders may choose to exit this market if they don't see profits worthwhile, the end result being the buyer will have less choice of lenders. It makes you wonder if certain players in this trade already know what the outcome will be regards capped rates, the supermarket groups currently don't seem bothered and are marching on regardless, strange when they are totally reliant on higher rates / subprime.

probably gaining steam due to the fca new rules being due, july? we hear finance rates will be capped, perhaps the legal bods have got wind of results early and think its got legs, problem is the fca report will include "why" in the new rules which in itself gives the issue clout, hopefully these sharks will soon move onto covid pickings rather than chase fca case's.

good news for vendors, bad news for everyone else, pre covid purchase's that they financed through stocking loans must be causing them pain too, inevitable increase in indemnity's imminent? iv'e heard one of the main auctions might currently have financial wobbles, anyone else heard anything?

are you referring to the fca new ppi thing that's gaining legs? didn't catch how far back these claims could go, any idea?

more like 30-35%, my thoughts based on conversations with lookers managers and other group managers and franchise owners over the last week, havn't seen any of these boys talking to the press this week, strange that isn't it....... on my rounds next week i'll check the press before i enter any franchise's, just in case they are unaware of their own specific situation. not at all, no buyer is happy with auction prices. it affects what what sales managers expect me to pay for cars, the days of talking advantage of inexperienced sales managers are long gone, cars are dear full stop, the only advantage i have over an auction buyer these days is i don't pay indemnity's out of franchises. no glutony hear, as a trade buyer these days its crumbs, expensive ones.

I'm not the type to loosely accuse, iv'e got an opinion too, and it's my opinion that in recent posts you have patronised and antaganized other users on this forum and then you seem happy to go on to directly insult said users, witness your recent snipe at boycie after he pulled you on your generalisation that too many idiots were buying auction cars, it was a simple ask the result being a snide remark about him needing mental help or words to that effect, totally underhand and certainly not banter, you even told me i was a gofer, whatever that is? regards thread content, it would be fare to say you are currently contributing little on here in the way of facts, help, or industry news, it matters not who starts a thread, its a forum not bingo, do i want to have confrontation on here? - of course not, am i likely to take shite on the chin? - no fooking chance, am i bothered about any outcome whether that be insults or even a ban off here? - not at all. of course people come and go on here being a forum, my point was members are leaving because of current negativity, that's a fact.

apreciate its big news, but the sunday times are not in the car trade, there's a lot going on in this trade at the moment that will affect us all, would be nice if folk on here would engage and share to help in the spirit of the forum, the press usually print whats happened not whats happening and they certainly don't print or discuss implications that affect the likes of us on here, we are after all the people on the ground in the job, they arn't. I'm not claiming i know more than anyone else, but there is plenty to talk about regarding the current crisis that affects us on here which the papers won't have any interest in, ie with the big change around coming how will it affect our various suppliers, whether thats direct out of franchise or out of the block. for me i need to and want to know the future outcome, and i guess a lot of folk on here do too, if the topic is of no interest to members thats fine just ignore it, but some of the current sniping and negativity has resulted in some previous good members on here wandering off and losing interest, thats no good for anyone on here whether they be members or even admin.

rubbish, current industry average for franchises is 1-2%, the 1% gross profit is irrelevant, its simply a case of big loses across certain franchises wiping out profits from their other winners, which they have a lot of, this isn't uncommon when a group own 100+ outlets. their mercedes outlets alone make them the biggest mercedes retailer in the uk, these are owned outright and are very profitable, and they own rather than lease many other sites, they might be wounded but they still have a high value, just a case of how many sites they will sell or bin, they'l not be getting foreclosed by the bank that's for sure.

agree, most the franchises i deal with are up beat, trouble is they will struggle to supply what they sell, already slow new lead times getting worse due to problems elsewhere, a lot of these customers will get talked into late used cars, no doubt this will increase the scramble for stock, expect franchises to start keeping swappers and retailing brands other than there own, and possibly extending the age of these too, don't expect a nice choice of cars to buy at auction this summer.... anyone witness the 5 series tourer that sold online manheim? CAP 24000 sold 31000 ex fees, export surely?

yes i think we have all heard of story's on the 10k grants, being rated anywhere got you those easily, regards the 50k at 2% probably not as easy to get?, i was referring to the uptake on the 50k from the more established trade on the facebook trade to trade page.

Tom on form today on twitter, "if your not in the leisure industry and not back at work today your'e a lazy b..stad", must be wonderful being on his pay roll....

a bargain and good news if you need it, and cheaper than a stocking loan, the downside to retailers being the inevitable price increase at the block with what will surely be an influx of extra funded buyers. It's been quite funny seeing the amount of trade asking for and being offered lumpy cars and quality watches on the better facebook trade group page, 50g's baby!

^ this, surely cost matters not when you are getting an 8/1 return on the outlay, Iv'e always thought with AT the real issue is what you are selling rather than the cost, RH - what profile / age / price cars are working for you??

iv'e had that happen before, mid update quite often change every quarter especially if you have not logged in for a while, sounds daft but try this - they often use spring, summer, autumn,winter as passwords, try summer and you might get in.

yes i know the company , my father traded with tom in the late 70s - 80s,the traders around the midlands in those days would all congregate at the old measham auction, i would get dragged up there as a teenager loved it, you could roll up in a lumpy trade car and drive straight in and park up next to the main hall in those days, much trading was done in the car park, tom was a good buyer of range rover, merc 's especially TE wagons, and anything rolls royce, for lumpy cars it would be measham tuesday's and northampton on a thursday, some trader at northampton would do a collection with his hat - sign a £20 quid note and they would have a draw for the pot, proper arthur daily stuff... iv'e bought a few swappers off them in recent years through autotrademail when it was in its prime 2004-2010, his sales manager was a nice fella, tom will probably say different but thats understandable as he left and set up a similar company up the road with one of toms customers, they are - kaaimans international, nottingham. rory - not sure about SOR, its not toms style and that industry is currently in chaos due too a few high players going under owing multi millions to customers, , one of the reasons why tom jnr went his own way, the high end clients expect brokerage sor and zero exposure, going back to the tom senior interview - the record price for a car that he touched on, that was sold through tom jnr, the car being the ex 1937 mercedes w125 gp car - ex bernie ecclestone who is one of juniors customers, the same place that juniors recent gp cars came from, ex lauda ferrari, and the ex james h.unt mac m23

if you are into exotica or classics check out the d.k youtube channel. the setup and stuff they have on site is mind boggling, the separate storage facility even more so (they supplied and maintain many of these). a lot of them have "divisions" regarding accounting so it takes a bit of working out, but if we are talking about who is earning more rather than doing the job better its tom jnr, last accounts showing 5 times more turnover and 5 times more profit than tom senior, bolstered by the sale this year of the lord banford 250gto at 30+million, (jcb empire) impressive stuff. as for company value, d.k out in front, just one of david cottinghams own cars being currently worth more than the total combined hartley stock.

.I think so, the market leader is d.k.engineering, light years ahead in facilities / customer service / client base / high end stock, and company value. others doing the job just as good and some better, william loughran, tom jnr,, taylor and crawley, duncan hamilton, kidston, furlonger, max girado, lawton brook, redline, top555, octane, vvs, amari, romans, hairpin, and others, a lot of these folks are highly regarded, none of them feel the need to slate the opposition through media platforms. I like tom and love the fact he cares not about the snobbery amongst some of these type of customers, it just gets a bit tedious when he has a poke at the opposition

Hats off to him for what he has achieved (the start up money came from his uncles carpet business - his words not mine). Sadly, its often said if someone feels the need to say they respect someone then its quite often the opposite in reality, his regular rubbishing and resentment of anyone else in the trade is becoming his trademark, and the total opposite of what he claims in this interview, god knows why he feels the need to do this as he has nothing to prove, its clear he has a bee in his bonnet towards anyone else working in this sector, especially those who are doing the job better of which there are plenty regardless of what he claims. Its also well known he's not the best employer either, if you want to work out who the true tom is forget books and interviews, simply read down his twitter feed and you will soon work it out, his rant for today - we hate bank holidays and letting it be known your'e a lazy b...stad if you do, it's usually a dig at his valeters, classy.

whats not decent about it? its not ideal but will work for some surely,

a retailer i spoke with came up with a decent solution, after meeting the customer and being happy they are genuine - use the company hack and go out together, they follow you = your route at your pace.

exactly, thank you. just to confirm the last scheme cars were mostly sub £1k shitters that the customer got £3k for in swap. clueless, you cant even grasp what a trade buyer / franchise underwriter is, iv'e had no need to stand in an auction for 20+ years.