umesh

I mention I'd heard this was happening in the US and AT were thinking of bringing it here, It appears its already started and is in trail with various dealers ? Are you one of the trial dealers? what are your thoughts with AT doing this ? will it benefit YOU or hinder? Article link: http://www.am-online.com/news/2013/12/20/dealer-ratings-and-car-reviews-under-trial-by-auto-trader/34130/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Bonus ! A great idea to keep everyone motivated and as a THANK YOU for all the hard work during the year . But I hear of so many people who moan about getting bonus‘s in the fact it was only a small amount or if their colleagues got more.. It’s a BONUS! Some base it on performance individual or department or simply set amount for everyone in the business, will they expect it automatically next year regardless of the ‘business performance’? Parties are great for bonding excise but think people seem to appreciate money in the pocket more so ! I’m opening between Christmas & Newcastle year : Closed 25th/26th – Open 27th & 28th Closed 29th –open 30th/31st – Closed 1st .! Merry Christmas to everyone – THANK YOU for all your support & help guys! Wishing you a very Happy , Healthy and prosperous 2014.

Just been looking at some of the topics/ people on the forum, some only have a 'name' think it would be great if EVERYONE had full details , name, address, contact , email, tel, web, twitter name etc etc . then we least we can get to know more about each other / others business, and then even maybe do some business between us all ! Or any reason why not to show full details ? your thoughts guys ?

As said a very fine line , in my old role there were many times I'd grab some lunch with the team ..but there were times when they didn't want the manager as "I wasn't one of the lads' think it all about respect as Jim pointed out. As for socialising in the evenings that was a very rare thing maybe one a year ! the lads wanted to do their thing I was the big bad manager ( well to be honest I was too good to them ... so they ALL keep telling me after I'd left !! )

Hi Simon, Currently not ..but soon will be able to bulk load and automatically resize ! Can't wait ! video is something I want to do more of ..just need to get more focused and get on with it...... and think about 60 seconds or so is about right !

Ian , I'm a one man band - small dealer ! never did I ever think I'd be good enough to be part of these awards but walked away with 2 awards ( Still on cloud nine !) ! so proves size in case doesn't matter ! and said by other " Got to be in it to win it ....." Good luck !

James , Depending on car and only odd car I've shown the mark ..However personally I prefer to get the car prepped to the highest standard to retail sol that when the customer does arrive - its all ready to go! Why leave scrapes/marks on for the customer to only find faults ?

Quick Question - I get a bit carried away taking lots of pictures of all the cars , some up to 40 Images ! Obviously all this takes a lot of time not only taking the actual pictures but rescaling - naming them all. Is there a faster way ? what does everyone else do ? I know autos on show have a system where you literally walk around the car with a camera it does a video and then make approx. 10 images automatically - great for a big operation but not cost effective for someone like me. Any suggestions/ help appreciated!

We've all that - it does happen ! As Green Giant says .. Reasonable deposit - and explain that its not a holding deposit but commitment to buy AND its non refundable you soon find out how serious they are. to be honest 90% of the time you get a feeling with the customer - many,many times old fashioned but a handshake deal works well with most of my customers !

I thought I’d share this little story with you of what happened to me this week! Just lining a car up that had come into stock , a beaten up old mpv pulls up , a guy jumps out heading towards me shouts “ what does a Chrysler C300 do to the gallon†a bit taken back I said “ No Idea..but but let’s have a look “ we went into the showroom and towards my office .. As he walked in he spotted a SAAB Convertible and started to walk towards it. After a few minutes he said I like this, I’m sure my missus would like this.. I printed the details off then he went on to the question of MPG on the Chrysler. I looked it up gave him the answer, As he walked away I said why don’t you bring you misses let her have a look at it. Last night he rang up asking how much for his PX , and telling me a figure of the least that he would take against my SAAB, I rang him back and said I’d love to offer him what he wanted but he was unrealistic in his expectation , it would be £500 less IF the car was as described. Earlier today they came down , looked at the car in more details and I inspected the PX, Told them my offer is the best I can do. They said we’ll go and think to which I say when you’ve give it more thought and want a drive give me a call and I’d get the car out ready for a test drive . 2 Hours later i got a call, when can we have a drive? I asked when did they want a drive? Well it’s raining now and you have to move all those cars.... I said give me 20 mins the car will be on the front . Sure enough 20 mins they apologised that I had to move 3 cars out to get that one out and my showroom was looking a bit wet/ dirty – I said its only water- I can soon clean that up! Take as long as you like ... Deal done! They went on to say the reason why the asked me about the MPG was their friend had told them about me but didn’t trust the garage where the Chrysler was for sale! How bizarre! Having sold them a car it just makes me wonder , would I have sold them a car IF I hadn’t bothered to look up the MPG ? OR if he hadn’t come into the showroom and spotted the SAAB?

the problem is we always hear of all the famous names who like publicity but so, so many do an amazing job that if we tripped across them or their name we wouldn't know of them! Look forward to seeing new name/ faces that have done so much but not been in the limelight !

Trevor Finn -always comes to my mind -but is he or isn't he is the real question?

Looks Cool ! Will it sell more cars for me I was told a few years ago for having 'too' much colour on my website/ tabs etc ..... .. Seems its catching on you've got some colour as well now.

Pre-Reg – Surplus Stock – Special Offers May be this could open up a can of worms or help ALL dealers out there. I get asked many times to source specific cars or even sometimes not a specific car but a general type/price range of cars ( I’m sure lots of others do too) I use ATM to try and source / request cars – requests normally fall on deaf ears (still don’t know why?) I get lists from various companies of their stock and try to sometimes sell from that or even buy for stock. I hear of lots of ‘pre-reg’ cars with great savings, or new cars with ‘support’ but whenever I want or try and find any of these , no one ever comes forward with them , but the retail customer always knows who’s offering what/where & how to get it. I’d be interested to see what others think about cars /deals being shared /offered with this forum with obviously secure login so that only us dealers can help each other. Its simple I might have a customer in stoke for that ‘pre-reg’ sitting in Aberdeen which needs to be moved rather than collecting dust/ costing money ! Any thoughts ?

interesting debate that keeps coming round and round! recently discussed on #TCD Think we're all baffled what a cars are actually worth and having the confidence in which guide is right or wrong (if any) I use Glass's - only because I feel confident that it more accurate for ME, having said that I will also check on deltapoint ..just to compare and If I'm really, really not sure CAP on line and Autotrader to see what the retail value is ..but looking on AT is even more confusing as we all know. ALL give conflicting info ,here is a example Audi A3 Tdi S Line Quattro 2008 GG £7500 CAP Clean £8575 Deltapoint £9300 closest match on AT £ 10350 ...So who would pay what in this situation? That's a massive difference on this car!

James - spot on with method of reply, many who email me - leave their phone number off - for a reason ! they only want email reply! Interesting point about having a dedicated person handling the email/twitter enquiry ,had a case earlier this year tried to book a Mini in for a service still on TLC Pack but getting close to end of the term, Rang Mini dealer left message, no response, rand next day - ,no reply - sent email via their web site - no reply - 3 days lost and getting very frustrated ! On to twitter directed to the dealer - no response - another dealer contacted me - car booked in for ...2 days later the original dealer calls me responding to my email 'how can I help?' I explained the full story of what had happened - he said unfortunately the service reception don't get the leads for their department and go to general enquiries/receptionist - as and when they 'feel' like it - its passed on to him! He totally agreed that it was very poor but his hands were tied - however did give me his direct number to call him next time as he wanted my business ! Now for a main franchised dealer not to have the correct system in place I feel is not acceptable - that should go direct to the correct dept/person. And the way he was telling me I'm sure the sales enquiries go through the same process ...could be a long wait if you want to buy a car too!

Every enquiry should be treated the same email, tweet, phone or forecourt ..As we know they're not all genuine but a courtesy reply/call back doesn't cost anything..after all these 'potential customers' have taken the time to make contact be sometime at 2.00am in the morning after a few drinks and wishing they could buy the car ..and reality next morning of not knowing anything about it!. Personally not sure if training / systems etc is the answer - is it simply 'wanting to do the job' ? Nice to hear some real professionals out there ! Excellent !

Just have to express my thanks for an 'awesome' night ! still on cloud nine and speechless. Great event - Great hosts and well done to all the other winners, also managed to meet so many people who I've been tweeting/ chatting with! Thanks again to all the guys & girls in the background who did a great job but sometimes get forgotten! 2 Awards and wearing a Kilt for the 1st time ! #LovingTheExperiance

Do we have any further news of who's been affected ! Its a terrible blow to anyone after helping to build the brand (be it SEAT ) in this case or others ! Just shows no one is safe when the manufacturer's have a change of plan! Hopefully not too many will be affected.

really , really sad to see yet another high profile group go into administration. just proves its still tough out there. Little pockets doing well but from what I hear/see lots still struggling to keep afloat. Lets hope we don't see too many cases like this and hope that the group gets snapped up and jobs are safe.

VW Harlequin ! Loved them used to sell them new ! ..then of course there were the special edition 'Golf Rolling Stones' but I do remember think around 2004 ish ( after I'd left the franchise) a batch of Golfs they called 'limited Edition' which were actually miss-built cars i.e. no central locking or electric windows ! How bizarre to call them ' limited editions' normally LE have higher spec! - Well I guess that's marketing for you !!

Good Luck to #Team Reid - and well done to everyone else who's made the short list !

That's just crazy ! no conversations either in cars .. ! People do sometimes get engrossed in conversations on 'hands free' but personally shouldn't be banned. Only this morning nearly got hit twice on coming cars 'appeared to be reading txt - looking down - coming towards my side of the road - or they were falling asleep! then last minute realised and pulled to their side! WHY is it so important to do that whilst driving I'll never understand ! Talking of hands free I see a lot of ' prestige' cars Bentleys, Porsche, BMW , Mercedes... "Drivers" using the phone is it they are too idle to set the phone up to Bluetooth or simply think its 'cool' to use the hand held phone!

Just to let you guys know.. The customer from Highlands , Scotland some 341 miles arrived this morning here at 8.20am , sadly his PX wasn't as he'd described it! I explained that it wasn't what he has described so I've got revise the offer ...£500 less for his car! Deal done - VERY HAPPY Customer on their way back! home. Lovely , lovely couple ! so all happy

Philip ! you got my post card yet with the answers!