Halfpenny

I agree. We are looking down both barrels of a recession/depression. Many people will have their backs against the wall and if their car starts and goes then they won't spend any money on it. The proportion of the general public who properly look after their cars is very small. Many don't even check fluids and tyres from one year to the next.

The easiest way to tell what type of brakes are fitted is to get a torch and peer in through the wheels at the calipers. If they have an oblong panel visible with 2 dimples on it then its the performance brake system - 355mm. If the caliper has an "arch" in the middle then they are standard brakes 322mm.R models have a coloured "R" in the centre panel - 380mm. All rears are the same. But, honestly, it only takes about 10mins to wizz a wheel off and measure. I'd want to do that anyway to inspect the calipers\hoses etc before ordering parts.

People keep talking about a vaccine, but that seems a long way off. What is probably more likely is that within the next six months an effective antiviral drug will be found that turns a Covid infection into something no worse than a bad cold. Like Tamiflu for the flu. Then we can get back to normal. Apparently there's already about 12000 different antivirals in the back-catalogue, so hopefully at least one will work. Vaccine can come later. Fingers crossed we'll be back to normal by Christmas, but by then about half the retail motor industry will be gone. The survivors will do well.

Sorry, but what you have written there is jumbled-up claptrap. The Paris Agreement sits above the EU. The EU is a signatory to it, along with 188 other states. The Paris Agreement is operationalised by the Katowice Rulebook (set up by the UN) which sets out how all the different countries will meet the requirements of the Paris Agreement. The EU is responsible for implementing it within the EU. After Brexit the UK government will be responsible for implementing it in the UK. I highly doubt that the UK will break ranks with the rest of the world after Brexit. Don't expect any changes.

Yes they are a dodgy bunch. Albania is not in the EU and a lot are in the UK unofficially. The Poles are a different kettle of fish and mostly keep their noses clean.. Generally well educated and God-fearing with a good work ethic. The only problem is if they stay in the UK too long a time they 'go native' and start behaving like British people ;-)

The Polish (and the Russians) are some of the most determined mechanics you will ever meet. Nothing scares them off. They will strip a RHD car and rebuild it as LHD. Outside in a muddy yard in the middle of a blizzard.

Metrocabs is part of KamKorp - owned by an Indian guy Kamal Siddiqi. He also owns Bristol cars. To be fair at least their HQ is in the UK. Sounds a fantastic idea, let's get started ... And don't worry, Rodney. This time next year, we'll be millionaires!

Completely agree with this. UK new car retailing has been built on foundations of sand - just look at the share prices of the big groups PRIOR to Covid. I also think that Brexit is going to be a much bigger shock than most people realise. Prior to Covid the EU were trying hard to avoid us leaving on a No Deal (WTO) basis. I think that now they would be very happy to see us on WTO terms. The tariffs will make car (and component) manufacturing in the UK uneconomic and the EU will benefit from that. The only way out for us will be a huge 'competitive devaluation' of Sterling - around 25% or more - which I think could be on the cards anyway. Then look forward to high inflation and a big fall in living standards. The government is currently increasing the national debt by 50%. Adding together public and private debt the UK is about to become the most indebted nation in the developed world, proportionate to GDP. I have already shifted all my cash savings into an HSBC US$-denominated offshore account. I own two properties overseas and I'm getting ready to bail out of the UK permanently. Very worried for my kids though.

Years ago, as a previous premises, I had a Chief jig with their Genesis laser system. Nice bit of kit. For a few years I did a profitable sideline repairing salvage for sale - did it properly. But the price of salvage started to go up and Tomacz, Dick and Harry were paying stupid prices for the lightly damaged stuff. Wasn't worth doing unless you were prepared to bodge it. Now when I see any decent DR's the prices are close to what I'd pay for a clean-ish car so not sure its worth the bother.

Spot on.

The Institute of Social and Economic Research are predicting the motor vehicle sector to be one of the worst hit. 47% of jobs going..., https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/2020/04/18/new-analysis-of-the-impact-of-lockdown-on-uk-jobs My own view is that its going to be bad, very bad. Expect defaults on leases and PCP etc. Far too many punters have overreached themselves, especially the small business guys and sole traders who wanted 'big face'. Many are going to be on the bones of their backsides. Public sector will be your best customers. People are going to have priorities other than a new/er car. Be very debt averse. Expect sub-£5k to do well. Brexit adds another dimension - expect the pound to take another nosedive as the country blows its brains out. Inflation will pick up. Some marques will pull out of the UK (Subaru ?). Expect Tata to offload JLR at a fire-sale price - maybe to some Chinese manufacturer who will want the badges to stick on their own electric vehicles.

I am guessing they were actually non-OE. As I said above, we have found non-OE to not communicate properly.

Service yes. Sales no.

Nice try....but still BS in my opinion. Not a lot different to writing 'Trade Sale' on an invoice. I wouldn't want to have to defend it in court.

The number of virus particles declines exponentially with time. On plastic surfaces the half-life is about 7 hours (50% drop every 7 hours). So after 3 days a contiminated surface becomes essentially virus free. So a car unused for 3 days is 'clean'. Temperature and sunlight kills virus. The virus are destroyed quite quickly at temperatures above body temperature (around 40deg or more) and 56 degrees kills all virus immediately. Leave cars parked in the sun.

1. Be calm and civil - if I get a customer who throws four letter works into every sentence or is bad tempered then I tend to take a dislike to them and rather not have them as a customer (problems down the line). 2. Let the dealer know what you can afford and how you intend to fund the purchase. 3. You can always find a cheaper car. The car you should buy will not be the cheapest. Recognise that in the long run its better to pay a bit more for a good straight car with good provenance from an established dealer rather than save £500 but have stress and expense down the road.

If Ling is not furloughed then there is no reason she should not work from home. She processes orders and passes them on to dealers/leasing co's and the delivery issues are owned by them. However I wouldn't think delivery of a brand new car poses much of a health risk. It should be easy to sanitise touch points and the cars are only driven on and off a transporter. There is a risk of additional accidents through transporters being on the road but the chances must be very small. We are allowing the likes of Amazon to continue to ship vast quantities of non-essential goods and that must overall present a vastly greater risk than the very small number of new car deliveries that are going on. In terms of Lings marketing - well lease brokering in a very competitive industry (although all roads seem to lead back to a handful of big leasing co's). I suspect almost all leasing customers have decided what vehicle/spec they want and then trawl the internet for the cheapest deal. Anything that increases a broker's web traffic has got to be good - and Ling has gone down the 'wild and whacky' route to grab attention. After that its a case of being price-competitive and then, as with any brokering business, providing good service (which basically boils down to prompt and accurate processing and responses to customer orders/queries). As a used car dealer I think that Ling's activities are so dissimilar to mine as to be irrelevant to me. The only impact is that she is facilitating the financing of new cars which I guess is good for me because it boosts the supply of used cars. As for her 'whacky' marketing strategy, well I guess I could go down the 'Crazy John's Used Cars' route and adopt a 'Howling Mad Murdoch' persona, but IMHO that's the kind of stuff that plays much better with the yanks rather than the rather dour customers that we get.

No you are not a car dealer because you are not buying or selling anything. You are an agent/broker acting for leasing companies and paid a comission. A 'middleman' and part of the financial services sector. You correctly identify who the dealer is in your post above ('5' and 'b') in your two lists. You are not selling cars and you are not marketing cars, you are marketing financial deals. Your customer has most likely already decided which car to buy, the spec. and the colour (probably as a result of visiting a dealer and having a test drive). They then trawl the internet looking for the best leasing price. When they pay money for the car they pay the financer, you take a commission. You are not a dealer in the same way that my insurance broker is not an insurance company and a mortgage broker is not a bank or a builder. I am not knocking or criticising what you do. Good luck to you. But what you do is far removed from what used car dealers are doing. The kind of marketing that you do is not relevant to most of us. The key skills in being a successful used car dealer is (a) knowing how to buy used cars you can make a profit on, and (b) interpersonal skills - handling your customers.

Ling Your business is not remotely comparable to the that of the rest of us on here. You are basically acting as a go-between - an agent, you are not 'selling' cars. I suspect you seldom see the cars or the customers. I also suspect that most of your customers visit franchised dealers to inspect and test drive potential purchases. Once they have taken delivery of the car you are out of the equation and unless something very very untoward happens then they won't interact with you again until the lease comes to an end. The guys on here, like me, are buying used cars, preparing/repairing them, taking customers on test drives, explaining features, trying to stop them buying the 'wrong' car, negotiating on price and then dealing with all the aftersales issues - possibly servicing the car subsequently. We need to know what our market will buy, how to evaluate a car, estimate preparation costs., what to buy and what to avoid, how to structure a P/X-finance deal. How to calm an irate customer.... the list goes on and on. In my view (and I don't mean this in a nasty way) you are not a car dealer.

Its one thing to sell new cars online but used cars are a whole different world of pain. You open yourself up to distance selling regs for one thing. I know there are people doing it, but its not for me.

U201F-87 indicates a receiver fault. But you say its gone away. C1D21 indicates that the receiver can't see the transmitters... Here are rectification steps from manual.. Complete a visual inspection to ensure tire pressuresensors are fitted Using the manufacturer approved diagnostic system check datalogger signal 0x4127 - Number of Tire pressure sensors failed: If all 4 sensors fail - Check that the RF receiver is correct part number - Review potential electrical interference to RF receiver, e.g. charging units, power adaptors, laptop/navigation screens, etc. If 1-3 sensors fail: - Identify faulty sensors by using the manufacturer approved diagnostic system and running application - Tire Pressure Monitoring Wheel Sensor Test - Replace faulty sensors It certainly is a lot of hassle compared to checking the tyre pressures every now and again with a guage. This also reminds me why I dislike JLR vehicles.... The electrics are temperamental even when new and they don't improve with age.

Its a fair query.... but this being a trade forum most of us wouldn't disable a safety feature like TPMS. Too much liability. When we have had problems wih tpms the problem has been solved with either new bateries or new OE sensors. We found aftermarket sensors to be unreliable. One thing to note is that phone chargers and the like can cause problems. So remove any non-standard accessories. IIRC the module is usually under driver's seat or behind front headlining.

Well if I were you I wouldn't worry about Hyundai, I'd worry about your own business. Leasing, especially to SMEs and B2C (where I'm guessing a lot of your market sits), is going to take a real hammering over the next year or two.

They can if they want to.

Panasonic is Japanese and they are making batteries for Tesla, but the Chinese (CATL) are bigger and growing much faster. Like I said, Tesla make a lot of noise but they are the Alfa Romeo of EV's. CATL are about to open a $2bn battery factory in Germany to supply batteries for BMW and Mercedes. They are set to supply just about every else apart from the Koreans. The Chinese have now got control of most of the worlds supply of cobalt, which is essential for EV construction. Read more here : https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-china-positioned-itself-to-dominate-the-future-of-electric-cars-11572804489