jimreidvehicle

not to my knowledge?

Andy, what exactly have we tried?

Well done you! We packed them in more than 4 years ago! The grass is really greener on the other side! Trust me! Have you registered for this yet? Click and join dot co dot uk ? no back links allowed on this forum!

It is different in a lot of respects however it is still promoting favouritism of some vehicles & companies and profiting in the process to the detriment of other paying dealers, no? The process in my opinion is flawed and is misleading customers by not drawing their attention to the fact that it is 'sponsored adverts' first and explaining what is a sponsored advert! It would be much better for customers to see clearly that they have a choice of how to search ie distance, value, price , monthly payment etc first. I mean really out of 100 customers GIVEN THE CHOICE how many of them would select sponsored adverts first?

Google, the monster that dictates everything digital in the world has been fined £2.1bn due to unfair practices. Does this draw a comparison to what AutoTrader do? In this months Car Dealer magazine ( AT advert/feature) , Marc Thornbourgh of Autotrader compares what they have done with 'Sponsored adverts first default' or what they call 'promoted' to how Google advertise their 'Sponsored Adverts' first. In fact I think with AT it's actually worse because of where they place the drop down box on the screen at the top right hand corner , the least likely place for a potential customer to look, at least Google tell you(even if it small writing) that's its a sponsored ad. Your thoughts? Do you think that AT are ever so slightly kicking themselves with their comparisons to Google? Jim

Completely disagree. My view is this, you either do it right or don't do it at all. Regardless of how old a car is we treat our customers exactly the same, the £1000 it cost you customer for this car may well take the same amount of time and effort to save for as the gut that spends £10000 on his upgrade. It's not the cost of money, that is all the same, it's the value of that money that is important. My advice is (for what it is worth) , if it's a dog of a car , bin it! Take it the auction and let the private man bid on it there. At least that way he knows that he is taking a chance buying it. The Consumer Right's Act was brought in for this exact reason.

Like a proper dealer Umesh!

The customer has come to a dealer in good faith to purchase a vehicle. Regardless of the price or age of that vehicle it is safe to say that it should be fit for purpose. I fully understand that the light may or may not have been on just before the customer purchased the car however the facts are that the car is not operating properly and it should be even though it is now (just) into the 2nd month of ownership. If I were in the same situation then I would pay for the CAT not because I have to, but because I should, to do the best by your customer. If the CAT went after 8 or 12 months then yes I agree there is a responsibility to be taken by the customer but 32days??? Sorry, you may hate me for this but my advice is , pay up and look after your customer! Jim

If it's broken it's most likely a M32. Vauxhalls are a major issue at this age especially, we have changed or repaired loads Jim

He did text me back to say it was back on line

same here! I've put a call into Philip Nothard

Phil is 100% right. unless it's a deposit allowance and alredays rates like that on the quote then they are not allowed to treat cash and credit customers differently. the fact that your friend has selected another finance provider means they become a cash customer.

There are a lot of Associations at the moment but none purely for the Independents , the choice is build our own one from scratch or hold hands and become a branch of another( which I'm already in talks with) however you didn't answer the question , would you join Y or N ?

Can you believe it ? There is NO Association in the UK for Independent Car Dealers, I found this unbelievable! Yes we have the SMTA who do their bit for independents in Scotland, and also there others that assist in the rest of the UK but nothing official, I think that's crazy. Over the last couple of weeks a number of dealers from this forum having been discussing setting up a non for profit Association designed purely for the Independent Car Dealers in the UK. This would become 'THE VOICE' of the UK's Independents for car and van dealers and would sit along side the SMMT, SMTA the RMI etc to give us Dealers a real voice, to challenge the likes of AutoTrader and their price increases and their unannounced changes which affect us all we would also look to create dialogue to sort out these crazy TRADE PLATE rules with the DVLA & Govn't The Associations mission would be to become THE VOICE to help the survival of Independents and to Ultimately to start to Regulate the Independent Car Dealers selling cars, which will leave only the good guys. IF or should I say WHEN this Association is set up, would you join? Jim

Agree , Facebook is best likely because the amount of users on there, we have some fantastic results from FB, Twitter is great for peer to peer stuff and keeping in touch with other members of the trade and suppliers but not so much for selling to the public and for me no longer my number one stop. Instagram, we have a strong following and growing with now we are seeing results, easy to post and can be artistic too. But LinkedIn for me is where I get most customer interaction, it's great for Direct Messaging etc and it's all about the non -direct sell, celebrate what is happening in your industry with great content and it will be followed, become an expert and people come to you for advice, it's amazing! a real hidden gem Jim

Deja Vu We have all been here before and all moan about it but the only thing I can add to this is the fact that you have to have the B***'s to DO IT! Cancel the account with AT. We haven't advertised with AutoTrader for over 4 years now and I'm fed up stating to dealers that there are so many other ways to advertise cars without having to use them. But it's your business and only you will know what will work and what will not. But here's the facts............................ I hear so many dealers complain about the price increase yet do nothing about it. Your fate is in your own hands. If you don't do something about it now , you will not be in business in 5 years time. Start taking back control and building your own brand locally, Yes it's hard work marketing your company on Google and Facebook etc but the rewards are massive and the cost is small. So take from someone who is over the other side of the wall and yes not only is the grass greener but it smells lovely and tastes so so sweet! If you need a hand getting over that wall feel free to give me a call 07787587422, it's not as high as you think!

No, AutoVolo, still going strong, however my agreement with them is based on results, as explained in the post, I'm still with one's that are free or are leads based, I'm quite happy to pay for quality leads, is that not what life is about? You pay for what you get. thanks Rory, Google is so knowledgeable now it knows where you are based in the UK , so if you are searching cars just with terms it will localise the search firstly anyway, well that's certainly our experience. Just try it now,

it's quite simple Sparky, as I said we are about to up our spend on Google Ad's which will mean that as soon as you Google (as most people do) with that specific car that you are looking for and you will find me, not only that but with one click you will be straight through to the Picasso page of our website with all the details inc video, 360 degree interior images, pictures and finance available and one of the main things is the fact that we won't have competitors vehicles advertised on the same page next to it or price indicators or even age indicators telling them how long it's been in stock to give them more leverage to gain discount! Just saying!

Am I brave or stupid? Yesterday I emailed my cancellation emails to the remaining Classified Websites that we advertise our cars with. So unless we have a free listing or a pay per lead agreement we will no longer have cars advertised on any Classified Car Website. So instead of paying for 'the great unknown' we will be paying only for results. This money will be reinvested back into Google Advertising & Facebook Advertising, hence we regain control of our monthly spend. If your AutoTrader rep is telling you that about 60% of their customers are walking straight onto your forecourt, I think it's time you take a serious look at where you are spending your money. Brave or stupid?

done

Yip bang on the money!

Imagine a world where you only paid Classified Websites on delivering leads to you. Surely that would be best for dealer and for the Classified owners? We dealers would know exactly where our leads are coming from , the quality of them and what they are costing you. This way you only pay for what you receive. For Classifieds bit would mean they would ensure that they consistently delivered quality leads so they can make money. Isn't it not about time Classifieds become accountable and start working harder on our behalf? Instead of just charging a flat monthly fee to advertise your stock that you have taken the risk on? My feeling is times are about to change online and for the better and those greedy Classifieds who stick to the same attitude and business model will either change to survive or stay the same and die off? your thoughts? what would you pay for a quality lead?

Imagine a world where you only paid Classified Websites on delivering leads to you. Surely that would be best for dealer and for the Classified owners? We dealers would know exactly where our leads are coming from , the quality of them and what they are costing you. This way you only pay for what you receive. For Classifieds bit would mean they would ensure that they consistently delivered quality leads so they can make money. Isn't it not about time Classifieds become accountable and start working harder on our behalf? Instead of just charging a flat monthly fee to advertise your stock that you have taken the risk on? My feeling is times are about to change online and for the better and those greedy Classifieds who stick to the same attitude and business model will either change to survive or stay the same and die off? your thoughts? what would you pay for a quality lead?

Ken, yes the advice above is correct. However you can in fact check on line to see if it's been passed to trade. Log into the part of the DVLA site that tells you if a car is taxed , when you get the details up, check out the very bottom line, if it says ' you maybe able to road tax this car without the V5C at the Post Office' or something similar , it means it's been passed to trade, just use a V10 to tax and V62 to change name, but you will also need the last owners postcode. Really easy afvyhe post office just an extra £25. best of luck

It's almost a year ago since I was lucky enough to WIN CarDealer Magazines 'Dealers Dealer of the Year'. And what a year it has been! I have spoken to more independent dealers and made more connection this year that all my previous years in the trade. Not only this but our company continues to grow profitably despite the Oil & Gas collapse in the NE of Scotland and all without advertising a single car on AutoTrader. It was an honour to accept this award and hopefully I have done enough this year to repay those dealers for their votes. Good luck to all those nominated for this award and all the award categories on Monday and may your award bring you the success it has brought me this year . Unfortunatley we are unable to attend the Awards this year but I'm sure you will manage to party without us. Jim Reid