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awc1000
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Posts posted by awc1000
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5 hours ago, Mark101 said:Because you are ex Police
classic
whats this rat business then? anyone elaborate?
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4 hours ago, trade vet said:There will be a lot of RHD new stuff sitting around at the moment.How might the manufacturers react if they offer to take 500 of X every 3 months less 50% and pay now.?
There isn't plenty of new RHD stuff sitting around anymore these days apart from maybe the odd manufacturer , and that's the problem amazon would have - delivery lead time, it would be no better than the franchise network which due to most customers choosing spec can be painfully long, in short you can't sell what you havn't got, cars are quite different to general goods which you can sell online and honour a sale by using the accepted 28 day rule for delivery.
It will be interesting to see if amazon have the appetite to buy a bulk order and if the manufacturer has the appetite to serve them in this manor, iv'e seen this before in the mid 90's when a certain hire car company ordered thousands of vauxhall cavaliers, many of which were sent straight to auction for a profit, at the time a disaster for the franchises and rv values.
One possible swerve by the manufacturers is that they could produce a poverty model unavailable through the franchise network and exclusive to amazon, a price lead type unit similar to the dacia brand.
Can't see it working for used cars, i wouldn't want to give amazon a share of the profit in a unit i have prepped, which is what i presume they will want, based on the fact they say they are going to be selling cars not hosting adverts.
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7 hours ago, tradegirl said:Good morning guys.
Looking at a car, 2018 BMW, not a mark on it. Flood damaged but the engine runs. It's been written off in September as a Cat B...? The car's worth £20k all day long, who the hell wrote it off for a £2k rebuild?
Even if the gearbox has gone it's what...£5k? Maximum.
Has anyone had any experience in this in contacting the insurer to get it overturned? To be clear, this is going through auction, it's not my car.
Back in the 2007? there were a lot of cars damaged in the worst floods we had seen in our lifetime, the insurers at the time were looking at big loss's, many insurers foolishly attempted to repair some of these instead of paying out, it didn't work and many cars were littered around workshops for months before it was conceded it was a bad idea, since then if it's been in the water it's usually an instant write off.
You mention £2k rebuild? any idea what that involved? a rewire alone on that car would be a huge cost an enough to write it off.
If it's been payed out and has a marker you have no chance of having it being changed / overturned.
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Another hijack job by AT, generic numbers instantly give those who don't fly straight the same credibility as those of us who have had a city business landline forever, so it's good news for those who sell shite from the side of the road, local buyers recognise long standing local landline numbers and that instil's confidence in ringing, exactly the same if i miss a call from a landline - i know where they have called from no matter what they say.
There is zero need in having a third party involved between a buyer and seller no matter how small that hurdle is, and we are all capable of monitoring our own leads.
There was talk sometime ago regarding AT gathering information via email contact with mutterings that they could then up sell a lead to others and that others were interested in buying your lead - ie supermarkets who spend more with AT, perhaps this new number system could be the start of something similar? who knows, but i do know that if a customer rings me direct then AT have no knowledge of this and hence zero chance of being involved in what is a private matter between a seller and buyer.
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46 minutes ago, JA Trader said:An introduction will go a long way in terms of getting assistance.
In terms of your question he isn't interested in the fact its a cat D he wants the head gasket repaired (He is using the lack of category D on invoice as leverage) seek proper legal advice but i would not be giving a penny back other than scrap value for the car.
Do you have old adverts stating category D ???
Spot on.
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7 hours ago, tradex said:Good question.
Thinking about it, not that comes to mind really, some would whinge about VAT, others about new fangled MOT's, or drink driving laws, but those really were old boys. Maybe I was on the fringe too much back then.
Only watched an episode of Minder yesterday where, Max Wall comes out of jail and Arthur tells him what he has missed "something called VAT, but don't no need to worry about that".....would of been 8%, they were the days?
That said with the caveat that car dealers can lean towards half full types, not enough cars, too many cars etc
That also said, things were a LOT more relaxed and casual back then, and dare I say it more fun. Trade to trade on the whole was more upfront, bar the usual wrong ern you'd give a swerve, but one important thing that a few forget.
In general, I think customers knew a LOT more about the product we were selling, yes really, honestly. They would often change their own oil 'n filter, a bulb, service cars plugs/points/belts/brake linings etc, some would even pull heads.
If you are of an age remember of all those car parts shops that were on every estate.
........ and heaven forefend, and this is true as I sit here, some would even wash the car on a Sunday, without paying a criminent to do it, fag in hand to spend more time on their Iphone posting pictures of their dogs latest turd.
....do you know why the AA response and fix times are what they are... because they change so many wheels.
great post, interesting point about trade to trade being upfront, think it was due to having to mostly deal and trade locally, everyone knew each other and socialised together with many trade deals done in the pub, these days you can trade a car to the other end of the country without even talking to the buyer, and strange how these days a lot of local retailers and traders don't know or talk to each other.
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Final rules due late 2020, and presume implemented shortly after, i guess finance commission will revert to a flat fee or dressed up as something else, either way its bad news for supermarkets and some used dealers who's business model is not based on a car's margin, one supermarket who i used to supply has £200 margin across a lot of their cars
Regards new car sales, the manufacturers could be holding the cards here, already plotting how to halt the current decline in new car sales they are the only ones with options, they could introduce % manufacturer owned finance, pay dealers more back end bonus instead of com's, reduce factory list prices making pcp cheaper again, none of these are options for supermarkets.
Cant see how the supermarkets are going to avoid the incoming pain, casualties are inevitable, best scenario for us used dealers will be increased new sales, if not the franchises will have an even keener eye on used car profits which is never good news for the rest of us, lets hope they do well on new and loose interest in their used car satellite sites which will no longer be bringing in high commissions after the fca change, if all that pans out there could even be some cheap cars for us to buy again.
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When it was initially set up the wbac buyers were all / only based at carcraft sites, where the public had to go to sell to wbac, and these lads were very switched on and knew how to nick a car off the public, wbac were then strangely happy enough to under sell these on to the trade cheap from the carcraft sites in a weekly leave a bid sale, 2006-07 were great for earning fortunes out of wbac, it all changed when a lot of trade lads started taking the piss by hiding keys / history packs / etc so it was decided to send everything to bca and the fun ended.
It didn't matter if the cars were fooked because they were so cheap, the problem started when wbac expanded to local delivery points and employed staff with lesser experience, regards appraisal, this is when it became easier for the public to shaft wbac with a knacker, the outcome was dearer fooked cars, and then when wbac sold out to bca the trade lost the appetite for buying the wbac entry's because of bca's deluded idea on the values.
buying off them these days? the secret is to work out how long the last owner had it, have a decent relationship with the admin girls so you can spy the v5 pre sale, a decent name and postcode generally = decent cars, they arn't for me these days but good luck if they are your hunting ground
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1 hour ago, Arfur Dealy said:No Range Rovers, no Vauxhall’s, no Minis, no Powershifts, no ecoboosts, don’t like Citroen, Fiat, Peugeot, anything TFSI, small cars, entry models, poverty spec...... the list is endless....
yep usual suspects, anyone want to list their favourite winners??
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1-12, you forgot number 13 - tell forum spammers to fook off.
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Looking around the omens in my opinion look good, house market, car sales, high street retail, these have all slowed down but with no obvious reason apart from brexit caution, no spike in unemployment, no rise in interest rates, no obvious credit line withdrawal, so we can realistically presume it is just joe public being cautious about spending pre brexit, this could = pent up demand and the used car market could end up having a good november / december for a change, the only thing that could put the brakes on this is if the media carry on with the negative doom mongering, lets hope the media take the opposite stance and take the view "look how well we are doing without you" and stick some confidence back into the economy.
It will be interesting to see how the new car game pans out, we hear the manufacturers moaning about increased costs to "land" units here, and we hear them testing opinion by claiming list prices will have to go up, but they are unlikely to get away with this (unless premium brand) and are already having to deal with what has been a declining market for two years now (down to 2.5m units), with many franchise holders here now really struggling and posting annual profits between just 1% - 2%, a lot of these are near folding at the moment and need help fast, so the only solution is to either increase a dealers new car margin or for the manufacturer to reduce their margin, currently most franchises are circa 10-15% margin per unit but the manufactures margin has always been a bit of a mystery - though thought to be as high as 50% in some case's
so as you can imagine there is plenty of scope for them to reduce list prices, iv'e seen it happen before in the mid 90's when the media got wind of how much merc made on a new s-class, the result in reduction was huge to the point where a current s-class now still costs the same as it did in 1995!
Of course nobody really knows what will really happen post brexit, but those sneeky bankers are usually the first to get wind of how things will pan out, keep an eye on them and it will give us a clue to what is likely to happen.
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4 hours ago, BHM said:By my calculation the next post here should be in July 2023.
fiat stilo, post probably still active, just coming up to 1000 days in stock
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you have to be very lucky to resolve this cheap if the car is lurching on the slow down to bottom gear, bands for sure, usually from skipping vag 40k service intervals and usually shows itself at 80k+ miles, i'm yet to see anyone confident enough to quote this job pre box removal at sensible money, but have seen plenty of cars with invoices at circa 4K after removal, dsg and multitronics, advise not to get involved.
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2 minutes ago, XFS said:There lies the problem.
There is simply no party worth voting for.
Makes no difference. Remain or don’t remain. Either way the fundamental problem is still there.
well we are leaving and that's that, and i think the u.k motor trade will be ok when the brexit dust settles, the real biggest worry for our industry will be a future election with an outcome possibility of a coalition formed of labour and the green party, that would be a disaster- steam driven bicycles
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13 minutes ago, XFS said:Weak leadership and a gullible electorate is our main problem.
Now we have some toff in charge who thinks he is above the law. He is not a strong leader, he is a devious self serving individual with a sense of entitlement.
I have no idea how to address this. I guess we need need a new broom, where it is coming from I don’t know.
Whether or not Brexit happens will not cure the deep rooted problems of weak government and a gullible electorate.
I just want Brexit out of the way one way or another.
agreed, trouble is the tory's are clearly the best of a bad lot at the moment, god forbid corbyns clown party ever get into power, we would be digging coal again and having tax levy's for steam power
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5 hours ago, TangoVictor32 said:Read something about this in the papers (or websites nowadays).
There's very minimal people of other ethnicities. Some have said there might be racism within this group.
All this nonsense about "peaceful" is just another way for them to be little spoilt brats and have their chaotic events through nuisance and disturbance rather than violence.
If they did really care they could rummage through bins and get empty cardboard boxes and stand outside supermarkets letting people use them for their shopping rather than cause traffic to standstill and released more fumes... Like the modern traffic lights aren't enough
one group of brats got wind of a mobile phone mast going up in a field so decided to have a sit in the day it was due to arrive - when did they know the day it arrived?? they all text each other-
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36 minutes ago, CCC said:What's the years on these to avoid?
For us it's the BMW/Peugeot Prince engine - New caught directly but a few close calls out of warranty put us off them unless very low mileage. Generally find MINI's lacking in servicing as oil change interval is too great (they get more brake fluid changes than oil changes according to the schedule).
VAG TFSI - 1.6 & 2.0 , 2006 through to 2012/13? and some 1.4 at upper miles.
1.8T & 2.0T are generally fine.
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25 minutes ago, CCC said:The warehouse my former business used tried to actively employ British workers. Took on 5, none came back for the second week.
Meanwhile the Poles, Romanians etc, all put down roots, buy new homes and furnish them, pay taxes, spend money here. More so than the ageing UK population who's growing need is simply care (my mum spends £100 a month outside utilities, she has no need for anything as she's got enough clothes, furniture, etc.
The simple fact is that the economy is a demographics game and with a rapidly ageing UK population we need new blood to fill jobs, pay taxes, etc.
Without immigration then look at Japan for the last 20 yrs to see where our economy will go.
And yes, we can export, but it's far more complicated exporting to India, etc. than France. For a start you'll be wanting payment guarantees which will cost you, plus exchange rate risk is far greater. Plus our currency will have to drop another 10-20% to make us competitive vs Eastern Europe (I left engineering around 2000 when it was clear many of the UK''s manufacturers where moving East).
I don't see it ending well but for some of us, then yes, rich pickings.
point is the ageing generation has contributed over their whole life here, and yes they may not contribute much in retirement but on their passing their wealth gets inherited and will stay in this economy and will "go again", this is not the ethic of a foreign workforce who will simply follow a labour rate elsewhere when the numbers stack up, can't blame them for following the money, yes in the meantime they contribute here but very few have long term plans to put down roots here and what they gain here will at some point leave this economy.
i think you are right regarding some engineering / manufacturing but these industry's have always been at the mercy of labour rates elsewhere with staff being their main overheads, not sure what happened regarding the 5 british workers you mentioned, but maybe a poor labour rate had a factor in it combined with being useless fookers
, what were they doing?
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2 minutes ago, BHM said:+1
...and imagine what the real percentages would be if all of those who emigrated for work had to return to their original countries. Greece’s youth unemployment is something like 40%! Poland only has about 6% unemployment but there’s a skills shortage due to emigration & they’re now attracting in various old Eastern Bloc workers & shipping in Indians - like the UK, Indian takeaway may eventually become Poland’s favourite food
interesting times, some parts of spain who don't see tourism currently have one third out of work, i think poland suffered such an exodus of skilled workers that their government eventually had to act by upping the working wage, i know it did mean a lot of skilled polish workers went back home, many have stayed here who settled and had children and realised an education here was more beneficial, can't blame them for that
the reality is despite all the doom mongers the u.k is still very much envied by a lot of the world regards skills multi industry's etc and wealth, think we will be just fine after brexit.
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5 hours ago, CRW said:I fear you have too high an opinion of the British population.
We also forget that if we want a trade deal, with the EU post 31st October, the first thing they will ask for is the £39bn divorce bill. No pay, no play. They don’t need us, all the numbers are in their favour!
Yes we can do trade deals with the rest of the world, but that nice bit of Newlyn cod landed this morning is going to be pretty rancid by the time it’s shipped to Australia.
But hey, it’s all going to be fine, because that spotty little twat with a broom sweeping the yard outside, he’s going to be on £10.50 an hour! No he won’t, he will be unemployed.
I fear you have too low an opinion of the british population,
granted there are some lazy useless fookers about
but we are generally as a nation grafters, skilled, wealthy, entrepreneurial,
Leaving the EU v the UK car industry, well there will likely be pain for franchises with increased cross border import duty / crap supply etc as we are already seeing with some manufacturer's aborting us with build slots for more favourable exchange rate markets (try buying a new toyota chr here at the moment) , but the reality is everyone on this forum is in the used car game and none of us are exporting used cars, and for those that do sell the odd car into europe to vlad and his factory mates well it won't even be 1%of your business and will not be missed, keep an eye on that spotty twat you mentioned sweeping the yard because now that he earns £10.50 an hour he is going to be in the market for a used car soon and is your future audience.
the EU is a club that thinks its the like the football premiership with 19 top team members, trouble is in reality it is like the scottish premiership with 4 teams and the rest making up the numbers, i'm not interested in being in a league that subsidises other country's with shit economy's and high unemployment, if i was exporting cheap shit out of a factory into europe i would be worried, but i'm not worried because i'm selling used cars to u.k residents who work in the many industry's that will carry on being great.
yes there will be exceptions, but the u.k is now so wealthy we can take some financial pain in the short term no problem, as for european business not wanting to trade with us well that is utter bollocks, one example of many - bmw shift 65000 3series in the u/k a year, that's even more sales than fords mondeo, i don't see bmw loosing the appetite for this anytime soon, they like others will simply test us with a price increase and then revert to a reduced factory margin as plan b, and so will everyone else. and in the unlikely event that the arse does fall out of the new car market that will only be good news for us used car dealers.
here's the current facts - regards size we are currently the second lowest country in europe for unemployment at just 3.8%, many of the union countrys are in the shit with +10% unemployment with some as high as 15% , so we must be doing something right.
i've seen many things happen in the u.k car trade since we have been a united europe and let me tell you increased competition hasn't done u.k used dealers any good, iv'e stood at manheim colchester at a merc direct sale and watched 80% of the late mercs sell to cypriot traders at silly money, no problem with that but the cars then leave this economy - no good for us, iv'e sold a £14k octavia vrs to a very nice polish chap who worked nights at tesco, good for him he deserved it with his epic work ethic, but the car then left the country, again no good for us if all the vrs stock went east, which it did for a while. once these units leave they no longer support the traditional food chain during their life cycle from servicing to ending up as a banger here, these areas are important to this industry as a whole, if it becomes cost prohibitive for europeans to trade in a brexit u.k economy then sorry but the reality is it will be good news for us u.k dealers who contribute to the ecomomy here and here alone.
i'm looking forward to leaving, reverting to just competing with other u.k traders who have the same legit overheads as me will suit me just fine.
anyone who is still pro remain europe and in the u.k used car game and not happy - you are more than welcome to leave and go test your business model in europe...let us know how you get on
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cazoo will only be selling used cars, they have contracted into bca only to use bca services which will be- in house prep with bca prep centres / storage / and forward transport with bca.
they will not be buying cars from bca pre auction- no chance, but car supermarket buying rates probably yes.
bizarrely they claim to have already been buying stock for 12 months, on launch how they will turn a profit on these only god knows.
like others have said, bigger players have come and gone with this business model before -virgin/tesco both thought they could rewrite the industry and both went down in flames.
distance selling will hurt them as will valuing p/ex cars unseen, there is a huge difference in the likes of us fetching and inspecting a p/ex car as opposed to a delivery driver who has no financial interest in the p/ex doing an inspection - its loaded and home prompto.
in the short term bca will be rubbing their greedy hands happy to take as much of the start up capital off cazoo before the inevitable withdrawal from the market.
personally i hope it fails, start up company's like cazoo and carwow are parasites who invest nothing in actual bricks or infrastructure or people, instead they devalue every part of the trade from valeters to salesmen by encouraging punitive working margins before the inevitable fleeing of the market.
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On 9/19/2019 at 3:46 PM, Earunder said:
It was in fact Ebay Motors.
Interesting to know that the majority thought Facebook / Gumtree. I don't really get that many of the UWOTs from there.
I thought it was trader with those price's, UWOTS like it
...with autotrader's new lucky dip search facility there is a new breed known as ...Customers - Using - New - Traders - System......
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2 minutes ago, Rory RSC said:If I had a car on stocking or outright and it was at 90 days I would just end up cutting my losses, taking a hit and shifting it on.Buy something else, take some finance comm, take in a nice PX.
There is a lot of silly old men in the trade who think anyone who pays over cap clean for a car is 'money laundering drug dealer innit'.
Many, many businesses make funding work for them. Some don't. That being said some people with a big pot of money owning all their stock still take losses and still mess up when buying. Keep up that kind of activity and your out of a job funded or not.
very true rory, but the old guard didn't build their pot by being as careless at the block as some of the new breed, stocking plans certainly are pushing up auction prices,fair do's for those that are making it work,
as for the auction money laundering drug dealer innit - that's a miff...but the bored builder / sometimes car trader types are certainly out in force charging in as ever.
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1 hour ago, Mark101 said:Just Googled price of fags (gave up nearly 4 years ago).
Tesco Malboro Lights = £11.39 for 20. I smoked at least 40 (but often into 3rd pack) and better half around 20. So conservatively, we were buying 3 -4 packs a day between us.
That means, in todays money we would be spending between £1025.10 and £1366.80 a month. My mortgage is just under a grand.
For me though, more than money is the horrible smell which is now completely gone (never smoked in current house).
Oh and I only have about 2/3 acre.
mark your math is impressive for pre 10a.m, scary though a grand a month to smoke, i would love to smoke marlboros again but to strong for me now...
besides, if your living in 3 acres you can afford to stand outside and enjoy a marlboro
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What do we think of this then?
in General Dealer Chat
Posted
Both realise they cant survive on their strong home markets alone, guess they are after the r&d and various shared euro build platforms? one of the reasons vag group are winning, something like 10+ models now produced off the golf platform alone?