awc1000

james, maybe you could get to talk with one of the bigger fleet operators? would be nice to know their opinions on short term values and expectations regarding a possible influx of early fleet returns from the inevitable business reductions / closures. failing that maybe someone from CAP or GLASS who tend to be in daily contact with the fleets anyway. cheers.

you can hold your nerve all you like regards pricing, but the trade don't dictate values the market does based on demand - unless you are very specialist. pricing will all come down to how much a dealer needs to make a week, many will hold nerve many won't. regards replacing stock, it has been a shocker during this crisis seeing how many smaller dealers are 100% reliant on buying stock from auction.

why would it decimate mot only garages this time next year? we are only talking about mot business that has been lost during lock down, currently that's about a month's worth, the 6 month extension will likely be scrapped sooner rather than later, it is after all easily possible for a customer to distance themselves from their car whilst having an mot test,and likewise for the mot tester, lets not forget the 6 month extension was quickly thought out during crisis, its very unlikely they will honour that period once folks are let back out. It beggars belief some of the thoughts on this forum, and at times makes me wonder how some survive in this job. here is exactly what will happen next year regarding mots and how much business the mot stations can expect, all figures quoted are fact not dreamt up like some of the dross finding its way onto the forum. next year most vehicles with a current mot will need another one at some point - that's millions of cars, at the same time every car that was registered new in 2018 will be due its first mot at some point - that is another 2.7 million vehicles due an mot test, (2018 confirmed registrations). at what point these vehicles are due a test matters not. if any mot stations cant make a living out of that volume of cars then they should give up, most make good money on mot's, the clever ones will not be worrying about next year because next years quota has already been decided in 2018 (2.7 million new cars plus whatever is already out there) they will be doing the sums for the year 2023 when they are likely to see an actual decline in numbers partly based on the inevitable decline in new registrations expected for this year.

It certainly is gaining traction, will be interesting to see at what pace and how much market share it has after a year from now, rory - you mention you were geared up for it sometime ago, can i ask what age / profile cars you are / were selling this way, cheers.

sounds fishy........

lots of reports on other forums / groups that plenty of business is still being done remotely, by the larger groups and other smaller independents, some dealers even complaining they cant buy stock, it would appear anyone who is in the market currently for a car is finding a way to buy it and take delivery, and as the weeks roll on these dealers and others will get more adapt at it, note vardy say from this coming monday they will start delivering the 1000 units they claim have been sold during lock down already, so that puts paid to any thought of a future pent up demand come post covid, some franchises are also already having customers ask to cancel new cars that were currently on order, regards the sub£2k market i'm convinced these punters are also still being served, but sadly by the many social media group type street traders. of course a lot of these dealers need to do some business as they are hurting, if you can afford to stay shut or will stay shut due to your morals then that's great, if you can't afford to close but are just uncertain on how to proceed i would suggest you have another look at a solution, of course the government will be watching how the trade cope and if they are operating safely - ironically if they see things are working o.k then that will give them no reason to let premises fully reopen in the short term, in other words a happy compromise.

good well informed post. the incoming problem needs discussing, whether you like it or not it will affect us all regardless of what end of the trade you are in... if it came to it the manufacturers are likely to prop up the franchises if needed, cant see them having the appetite to let their brand fall in the public eye, car supermarkets are the ones who are not in a good position, and for them the mid year fca review is also going to be critical bearing in mind that their business model is already largely based on deal profit rather than chassis. here's how i see it - fleet returns from failed business's,unemployment rise, public tightening there belt with worry over future work, all these factors are likely not just presumptions, the outcome being a reduction in sales and a surplus of cars, the million dollar question is by how much.

james, yes fear of going back to public transport will mean more sales but unlikely to produce any notable spike, and these sales will be wiped out by the inevitable down turn in sales anyway. the reality is - when company's are allowed back to work they loose all the current benefits ie furloughed staff, but many will have no customers or orders for the get go, this will be fatal for many company's. a lot of company's were already servicing loans and will have no appetite to lend more money in the short term, and lets not forget things like vat have only been deferred not given away free. forget the talk of getting back to normal, things have changed and that's a fact, some company's have already realised they can do without certain things since lock down and many are likely to want to continue those savings post lock down, its amazing what you can do without when you are told you cant have it. sorry it sounds negative, but the reality is we are going to be in for a serious down turn in business for some time across many trades, and that will without doubt hit the motor trade hard. hold on tight chaps, the ride is about to get very bumpy,good luck all.

good shout,

as a 14 year old in 1980 remember driving through birmingham with pops and see a transporter full of odd looking cars, what are they dad? thats the new metro son, its going to be a world car. metro was a big leap for leyland, but the already 3 year old fiesta was better, and when the nissan micra arrived in 82 it was game over, having said that it sold well especially around the midlands to the leyland faithful, i later went on to sell loads never really had issues with them, it was usually just clean and black the sills lol then out the door, selling them with rusty arches seemed accepted they just sold on price quickly, crazy how it was still on sales in 96 as basically the same car! apart from the mini i cant think of any other car that has been on sale in the u.k which had a longer run as basically the same car / shell??? any thoughts???

great interview, i always thought the family pulled off one of the best moves ever in this industry, sold out to pendragon in 2005 for £450m, at the time of sale the reg vardy brand name was so strong in the north east that it wasn't included in the sale! then used the money to start again with the same name, and quickly became worth more on paper than pendragon, legendary stuff.

yeh good car, and the earlier mk2 was good for a lot of miles, thats the version that the well known "trade expert" got done for clocking during the late 80's lol.

john wheeler of stanley, just out of town on the chester road, site is still there but i think is a used pitch these days.

thats the one, i remember a lot of the diesel cars back then were non turbo, that 1.5td started life in the nova, mid 90's was a sweet spot for some brands - some great cars that went on to replaced by uter shite later on, first laguna in 92 was a great car, peugeot 205 306 and 405 were great cars - all replaced by shite!

cant remember casper, was it a 1.7 engine that also sat in the isuzu piazza ?i left vauxhall in 95, calibra was the best one,we did a few of the 2.0 4x4 turbos in 94, thats a very rare car these days.

probe yeh,for 95 i had moved onto a ford dealership which was chaos, demo probe but only a 2.0, sales manager wrote it off, parked it in a ditch during one of his many liquid lunches, crazy things used to happen in those days, franchises were still largely privately owned and you usually had an heads up what day the owners would role in, yeh the 89- cavalier was a good car,though by 93 the new mondeo was giving it a kicking in the sales charts, it swung back to vauxhall in 96 with the arrival of the vectra, another good car, but by then i had long gone from the main stream franchises.

we gave him a frontera LWB 2.3 td, easily one of the worst cars of the 90's, registered as a demo we couldnt give it away, forever in the workshop for warranty. i was at vauxhall stanley county durham, happy days, it was like on the buses never a day without something mental going down, apart from shite fronteras the rest of the range was very good news in the mid 90's, used nova, new corsa, astra, cavalier, tigra, calibra, omega, all winners and network q used cars were still good news.

Ah miss the old tewkesbury,bought my second bike from there in 84 suzuki gp100 ! good cafe too, back then trade entrys were welcome and an entry fee was about £14, and buyers premiums had'nt been invented yet, fast forward to 2007 same venue and that was the year i last used bca / adt after my 2 year old avant s-line failed to sell and they tried to charge me an £85 non sellers fee lol. after they got flooded out in 2008 they never really recovered, probably because in true bca style they argued about paying out on all the vendors cars that got flooded, these days the site is still in use as a prep centre for blade group. back in 94 in my vauxhall days in the north east we sponsored dennis aka tim healy a new vauxhall demo, remember the xmas party he turned up with his then unknown mrs aka the trollop who now sits on loose women, she was pissed out of her tree that night, fast forward a few months and he managed to blag us to take on his young nephew as a sales trainee, he turned out to be a nice lad but always out of his head on weed.... anyone want to guess what healys courtesy demo was?? youll never guess it.

suggested elsewhere - regards paperwork simply video call or facetime the customer, show them the paperwork, they show you all theirs plus photo i.d. etc. have it delivered by a proper logistics company, its cheaper than your partner following etc and using 2 cars for a delivery is borderline bending the rules. plenty of folk saying not seeing the p/ex before a deal is an issue, well either under value it or grow a pair! one thing for sure those traders who are selling cars up to circa £2000, its going to be hard as peoples expectations vary vastly in this sector, plus this price range customer often pays with hard earned cash that they have sweated / saved for and mostly prefer to view first, sadly it is probable that some of these customers will revert to the facebook type traders who have no morals once you tell them they cant come and view your prepped pipin.

welcome back fella, what merc unit did you use, 4.3 or 5.0? supercharged?

Well amongst all the uncertainty it is now a green light to trade, prolonged social distancing simply means coming up with a plan where a customer can buy and take delivery in safety,i cant see that being a problem for those who are in this job properly anyway. the biggest issue looming is the probable reduction in customers, unemployment (already 3.5m) and the fear of it + people tightening the purse strings will no doubt mean a reduction in customers, there will also be a fall out in commercial and fleet sales with the likelyhood that many companys who buy these units will go to the wall, furlough has been good news for company's, but once that ends the bills are back to normal, motor trade aside for many companys who have no orders this in the short term will be fatal. also, dont forget that buried amongst all this crisis is a forgotten brexit and a mid year FCA decision regarding finance rules, the latter already being an issue lurking for those dealers who rely on deal profit rather than chassis profit. it could be worse - if you run a pub!

just noticed on his website "test drives are welcome at a cost of £10+vat for 15 minutes ON OUR PREMISES" and mentions you cant get this option at other auctions lol, he's got some front i'll give him that...

dont think this type of stock will be on the radar for carzoo, one train of thought - for me this job is and always was about contacts, thinking like that can you imagine the circles in which the carzoo founder mix's in, probably the same circles as the owners of some of the fleet companys fleet users and certain u.k franchise directors, all manufacturers have late fleets that they disperse of on a regular basis, can you imagine the conversations these folks are having whilst socialising on each others yachts in the med?? it might already explain where carzoo are getting some of that nice late stock from.

not me, after 4 weeks at home l'm so fat i cant fit through the door

all good points, but again i'm sorry to say its not an issue, carzoo are contracted into bca for all spanner work, these bca centres are stand alone prep sites NOT on site at the bca auctions, bedford aerodrome being just one, banbury another, ive been on both sites, sad to tell you all its all very slick - in summary they are selling quality late low mileage cars still in manufacturers warranty and prepped properly. and i also here because of there appetite for buying this type of stock they are now being offered and buying direct from fleets not just auction, so after starting out by holding stock for a long time before launch they have swiftly moved onto muscling in on supply which will = profit moving forwards.