MAldridge

No more than the Restaurant trade needs help from Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares. Although her last programme was to help arrest the dramatic fall in high street retail outlets footfall it is confusing her next port of call is an industry that has been growing month on month for over 2 years. I suppose the reason for the death of the high street is the internet, along with other factors such as supermarket growth and diversification. The internet is certainly not a hindrance for Dealers I would say. Anyway, I guess the point this will be more akin to Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares: Fixing businesses with glaring problems with a bit of hammed up acting for good measure.

The logic of asking people 'Would you buy a second-hand car with an integral radio which didn’t work? A new poll from ICM for Vertu Motors concluded that 78% would not.' is flawed because currently the issue has not arisen. When the digital switch over does take place asking people ' would you pay X amount more to have a car with an integral radio to work? you would probably find the answer is no. Technology will always 'hurt' value of cars without the latest mod con. Whether this is a reverse gear, a seat belt, power steering, casette player, cd player, Isofix points, Bluetooth, and now Digital radio. It is just the latest in the line.

Well I think I am in a unique position. I myself deal with Recruitment specifically for the motor trade (I have no plan on using this forum as a hawking opportunity for what it's worth) so I come from an outside looking in background myself. I do find a lot of people seem to go into recruitment from a motor trade background with varying levels of success. I once knew a DP who went to go set up his own sweet shop though. That deserves a few puns.

One focus we are seeing is the Appleisation' of the retail environment which I personally think is very flawed in it's ideas. Yes your brand spanking new main dealer is plush with clean lines etc. just like an Apple shop but the whole idea is the interaction with the product. This simply cannot be replicated to the dealership model. Cars cannot be driven in a showroom. Equally people wonder into an Apple store, they make people gravitate to them. A 4 year old loves to play angry birds for 5 mins whilst you are pulling them around Debenhams and I like checking the football scores because normally shopping centres have non existent phone signal! And when it comes to buying a phone I buy Apple because of those experiences I have had with the product, maybe not entirely but I have tried them in their shops and they are very user friendly. I think the industry suffers from a lack of footfall that is spontaneous and also it's approach to footfall. A well known main dealer near a busy shopping hub suffers from high levels of this kind of footfall and blames it for it's problems with CSI etc. The whole dealership approach for me is flawed. Tesla are getting it spot on in regards to placing themselves in a retail environment in Westfield. I appreciate a car is a high ticket good but most cars are now financed anyway not making them the bulky life changing decisions they once were.

It would be good if there was more public awareness of issues like these, such problems would really make people think twice about buying off the side of the road/with private sellers. I would think that a lot of people do not know stuff like this goes on sadly.

I know it is a feature on most cars now but Isofix car seat compatibility, to families is a real selling point. Agreed with the Bluetooth comment.