jimreidvehicle

Easy answer, the part that has gone is not related to the extra parts fitted to the car, so I would fix it. However the knocking was caused due to the exhaust or other parts then the customers needs to realise the responsibility lies with him due to the modifications. Jim

I would have done the same! I'm all for open and honest policy and have no issues in showing a customer if they ask however helping themselves without even asking is taking a liberty. I think you have managed to get a lucky escape from a potential problem customer !

We always show a WAS and NOW price both on adverts and on the car! Its a CALL to action ! Works a treat for us!

9 in one week from 35 cars advertised that's awesome! We were lucky selling 9 cars in 2 months with AT,

It's almost 3 years since we stopped advertising with Autotrader and although 'they' (the doubter said we would not survive without them) , here we are not only surviving but thriving without the burden of the Autotrader invoices that everyone and their dog moans about! (especially the 5 week months) So I have decided to share with you all, via a Podcast interview with Derek Blair from www.cardealerpodcast.co.uk how we achieve sales through Facebook. Click here to listen or download their APP via iTunes http://bit.ly/1iEEFtX IT ONLY WORKS! Not only does it bring thefun back into selling, it sells cars and the saves money on advertising too! Find out how we have managed...... Any questions feel free to shout! Jim

That's us mid way through what should be one of the busiest months of the year for the motortrade but how are you feeling about things? BUSY or QUIET?

Jack, I do think that it's best to get too tied up in average days of selling as they are exactly that..... average ! which means you could have a wee car that sells the first day it comes in and makes £700 profit , but the big chunky £40k 4x4 you have could take 91 days to sell and make you £3000 profit, the average days to sell is then 45 days! Horses for courses, always best to try and spread your stock , age, miles and price this way you don't have all your eggs in one basket, as we all know one weeks you can't get rid of |Mini's the next week there is a queue of 10 folk looking for one! Profitability is key and turnover is part of it, try and aim to turn 3/4's of your stock at least once a month if you can! The CAP book plus 3 months is normally quite accurate! Jim

Hi Rory WE run with Dragon2000, which is great, it works as an invoicing system can be connected with Sage Accounts and your website and can produce any amount of reports you need inc vat calculations etc and deals, it's also a stock book, CRM and DMS if you have workshop too, monthly payment only! Another which looks good and wee bit cheaper monthly is Titandms.co.uk its a little cheaper and looks very similar with product. Hope this helps Jim

For those of you didn't see this on Twitter over the weekend, I thought I would share it with everyone on the Forum, as I can't believe what was written.... Your comments please Joys of pootling along in the car Joys of pootling along in the car Reported by Catriona Stewart Published Friday 11 September 2015 / OpinionUpdated Saturday 12 September 2015 I READ about a man who was caught keying a swanky car. A proper full-on swanky car. An Aston Martin V8 Vanquish, if you please. Do you know what an Aston Martin V8 Vanquish would set you back? Somewhere in the region of £90,000. Gary Brissett spotted an Aston Martin V8 Vanquish parked outside a supermarket and decided, for no discernible reason, to take his keys from his pocket and run them along the length of the vehicle's bodywork. Mindless, pointless vandalism that caused £7,741 worth of damage. Good for him. I often feel like keying swanky cars. I particularly feel like keying high-performance cars. One day someone will buy one of these cars and decide to be the one person to change the reputation of their drivers. They'll drive it and they'll be a decent guy. They'll go at the speed limit, even when it's 30mph. They'll let other cars out in front of them when merging. They'll obey the two second rule on the motorway. They won't race along suburban streets as though the devil's at their tail. They won't zoom about, rashly, as though overtaking this one car in front will give them the clear way they need to pelt to wherever they're going. The wherever that is obviously far more important than anyone else's destination. The rest of us are just pootling. Brissett, who is a single father, is now facing a possible prison sentence, which won't be good for his child. I imagine he's most likely kicking himself as he prepares for his sentencing date next week. I hate to generalise but allow me to generalise. You can't spend more than a house worth on a car and claim the moral high ground. Why is it impressive or desirable to show off your wealth buying a car with a top speed of 201mph when you can't take it more than 70mph? Surely a chap confident in his man credentials would be happy in a Nissan Leaf, ostentatiously plugging it in to charge at a city centre rapid charging point, winking at the ladies going by as he shows how much he cares about the future of the planet. The level of fancy of the car is in direct proportion to the level of morality of the driver. You don't get boy racers in a Fiat 500. Ostentatious cars driven selfishly by the unthinking are a motorised symbol of all that's wrong with this wealth divided world. And don't get me started on 4x4s in the city. In my opinion Brissett deserves a medal, not a prison sentence. http://m.heraldscotland.com/opinion/13713677.Joys_of_pootling_along_in_the_car/?ref=twtrec

Now I'm not an Autotrader Dealer Bethany but you seem to be doing quite a bit of fire fighting! Does this mean in general dealers are NOT HAPPY with what they are being charged and what value they are getting for their money given the level of customer service etc?

WE do what the public do to us, scan the classified adverts both papers and online, watch when the cars start to reduce in price you see a weak point and you pounce, call them, ask if they have had it for sale for a while or not etc etc, agree that's a tough market, but we are just topping up stock and may manage to strike a deal at the right price which would benefit us both !! Bought 3 privates from online adverts locally and saved a total of £5000 yes £5000 of their advertised prices! The car dealer bites back :-)

Sparky, as Umesh has said, instead of those really sexy pictures why not try a short 30 second video, showing the amount of shopping, kids and buggies you can get in the Grand Scenic, honestly it works for everything! Back to basics , safety features v's benefits , who is you core audience, find them then target them! Family!!! if you sign up with http://www.fbfortheforecourt.com/ use my personal discount promo code JIMREID1 , but don't tell everyone sssshhhhhhhhhhh Sparky, happy to talk anytime! 01467 634000 Anytime, just pick up the phone 01467634000

https://www.facebook.com/jimreidvehicles

Jack Bought it off a private man! I was told I was mad for buying it given the fact you can but them so cheap from Audi on PCP, but it's now sold

As we have been chatting that's another car sold through Facebook..... Audi S3 15 plate , see it on our page https://www.facebook.com/jimreidvehicles Seen by 10,005 people resulting in 3017 post clicks, Liked by 219 people, with 46 comments, this advert was set up to run on a targeted audience for 5 days for £15 total, after 2days it has sold to a customer today and as we stopped the advert run, it has cost us just over £5 , and now it's sold! The buyer said he never knew we were even here, he didn't even like our facebook page! Yet it appeared in his Facebook feed when he was offshore on Tuesday night, he then contacted us via Direct Message, using CAP Valuation anywhere I managed to give him a rough idea of part exchange from my house, appointed for test drive today, #BOOM sold! Yet he just bought this S3 for £31,999 and part exchanged a lovely Audi A6 Quattro on a 12 plate! Now you maybe think this is a fluke, but if that's the case this fluke happened 7 times last month and 9 times the month before! Facebook sells cars all you have to do is find out how it works and persist, Hi Rory, it's actually more simply than you think! Direct message me and I'll point you in the right direction!

Whilst you have all been moaning and groaning about the latest Autotrader price increase we have been filling our boots with selling cars via Facebook. No I know what you are all going to say " we already DO Facebook" , but DOING Facebook is NOT enough, you have to learn how to master it and the persistently work with it until it starts paying off. Directly marketing customers, right down to age, gender, where they stay, what they like, even which TV programmes they watch.....I know it's crazy, but YOU can use this technology now! Yes you have to pay to get results, but trust me it's only a fraction of what you are paying advertising on Classified Adverts especially Autotrader. Now there are two ways to do this, either take the hard lonely path which takes about three years to master (this is what we did) OR take the easier more direct route which will normally take about 3 months to get results! Let me know if you want any help and I'll point you in the right direction. As Albert Einstein once said " Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results " Jim

Now here's an offer you don't get every day. We have been notified from CAP Valuations that we have 782 credits (valuations) that we have to use or lose before the end of September. So as a completely selfless act of kindness.........I'm offering you all FREE Cap valuations on any car (not commercial) email me the reg and mileage to jim@jimreidvehiclesales.co.uk and I'll come back to you as soon as I can. Being a frugal Scot , I hate not getting full value for money, so help me help you..... fire away! Jim

looking good James yes that's obviously the website I mean

#BOOM The Motortrade summed up in one short story! Well done Sparky you made me and the rest of team laugh out loud!

think it's nearer the £4k

that's 200% of CAP, lol

yup Gold Car, easily spotted in the Airport, they have the longest queue!

Confused? Well we are! So the FCA decided back in June this year that they would take out the 4 day rule for selling GAP product to customers, the reason? oh thats right to make it an even playing field for online GAP sellers and give customers a better choice and to Treat them Fairly! So, 4 days thats easy! Present the product on Monday, no action taken on Tuesday or Wednesday, then registration of GAP and invoicing on Thursday! EASY! Well actually it means that there has to be 2 clear days between Presentation and registration/invoicing! Ok, when I went to school 2 days = 48 hours, this would mean if I presented GAP to a customer at 9am on Monday morning, I should be able to register and invoice the product on 9.01am on Wednesday as 48 hours has passed, YES or NO? Nobody knows! Crazy. The next thing is the customer can if they really want GAP, they can over rule this 4day rule and ask you to register it 'the next day' after the presentation, so back to the showroom 7.00pm Monday presentation, back in the showroom 7.00am Tuesday, can I register & invoice it then? Strictly speaking its 'next day' but only 12 hours! Now this is not the only confusion with FCA, one of our Dealer Only Forum members has been asked to carry out his first annual finance report through Gabriel, only for one month trading crazily enough and you would think easy enough, but look at the 6 questions, I would like each of you to answer these questions as your interpret them, don't ask anyone your view only. 1 Revenue from credit-related regulated activities 2 Total revenue (including from activities other than credit- related regulated activities) 3 Number of transactions involving credit-related regulated activities in reporting period 4 Number of complaints related to credit-related regulated activities received in period 5 Credit-related regulated activity carried out in relation to the greatest number of customers in reporting period 6 Total annual income as defined in FEES 4 Annex 11BR for the purpose of FCA fees reporting Answers by reply, thank you!

As I have been ranting on Social Media, Green Giant has asked me to vent my fury on Car Dealer Forum as one of his guests, like a guest blogger I guess (wow that's a lot of guests and guesses) As it is still holiday time I thought I would have a holiday RANT, read on......... In June , Gail and I jetted off to Spain for some sunshine as Scotland has experience one of the wettest and coldest summers of all time. I could tell you about the 40 degree heat , the cloudless skies or almost perfect villa we stayed in however the biggest bugbear is this :- As part of ordering the flights through Jet2 they offered the cheapest deal on car hire also, so we ordered a fantastic deal on a VW Golf Petrol or equivalent, when we reached Alicante Airport in scorching heat we were forced to wait in a queue the size you would expect to see at Wimbledon (actually maybe there were people camping in the queue), one hour and 30 mins later we reached the front stupidly thinking the hold up would be the fact that they had recently abolished the paper part of the driving licence and you had to gain a code from DVLA (which we had done , see smart cookies) BUT NO, the queue was due to the hard-sell staff, upselling insurance cover and upgrades on the cars that had already been booked ( yet we try and make a few quid from a GAP policy and have to jump through hoops). So we get to the front of the queue, after 3 hours on the plane and another 1 hour coming through security and passport etc and did I mention the 90 minute queue? We had all our paperwork ready , driving licence and went for the straight to the point "we don't want any upgrades" package, so now looking forward to a lovely Tsi Golf or similar , the guy says we don't have any petrol Golfs on books, so would a diesel one, do , "of course" thinking I could save a bit of cost on fuel with better MPG, " that will be 50 euros extra for the week" and £140 EURO for fuel as it comes with full tank of fuel, EH NO! You will have to find an equivalent petrol, I said, he mumped and grumped and back he came after 5 mins holding the keys to a Seat Leon, so I said is that the same price as the petrol Golf, YES he replied, RESULT I thought, but NO, another way of milking money.... the LEON has a larger fuel tank than a GOLF, no he obviously didn't know that I'm a car buff! BULL!!!!!!! the car has the same 50ltr tank in both cars,8 EUROS MORE, but he wouldn't budge and the fact that I was going to get back a percentage of the fuel back anyway as we only planned small trips using the car I left it at the agreed price! Now I won't bore you with the 'the car is brand new ,has been fully checked and there are no marks on the car' remark from him only to find a car with 20+ kms on the car obviously through the normal wars of Spanish driving and high kerbs, I went to reception and got them to change the damage marks on the car paperwork, all 5 of them and note that it had no parcel shelf (helps when you are experienced at checking in cars at the garage!) So drama over, the car did really well, actually I really enjoyed the poke of the power and the comfort of this small car, lovely wee engine with a turn of power and frugal, so much in fact that we returned the car with over half a tank of fuel, which I wasn't caring about because the reception guys said ' return it with any amount of fuel , we credit you for what you have not used minus a fuelling charge , which was best for us because I'm a nightmare trying to find a petrol station near the airport, so bingo! We have now been back from holiday for more than 6 weeks and still no sign of the credit for the fuel even though we have sent Jet2 numerous emails with a picture of the fuel gauge showing the exact miles and fuel left in the car when we dropped it back. So being a Social Media monster I took to twitter last week with my rant, they did the normal thing take you offline with a DM say everything is ok and they are looking into it, which is the same message now 8 days in a row! So the point of this story is this! DON'T EVER BOOK A RENTAL CAR THROUGH JET2 , THEY RIP YOU OFF! AMEN!

The proposed change to 4 year MOT's is much more important for many in the aftersales side. Just look at this year , it's predicted that 2.4M NEW cars will be registered in the UK this year, fast forward 3 years, thats 2.4M MOT's that won't be carried out, so who is missing out? Yet again its the Motortrade, not only this but there is an issue with not checking the cars with a figure of 23% of all cars either fail or advised on their 1ST MOT of low or dangerous tyres! So if customers are not checking their car because they have to and with service intervals now longer than they ever have been, who is going to be responsible for all the lives that will be lost due to blow outs on the motorway? If you've also put a Hyundai through it's first MOT , how many have required road springs because they are broken? A backwards step in my mind, also a step closer to 4-2-2 MOT's which will be a disaster! Jim