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XDR
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Posts posted by XDR
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On 2/6/2023 at 10:28 PM, A & S said:Good January, good start to February. Prices are quite strong at the sales but we are still managing to buy bits to keep stocked up.
That’s good to hear!
prices seem to be strong - I’ve heard prices will be even higher next month!?
luckily we’d are stocked up (some more cars coming out of prep)
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Crazy times at the moment I’ve seen large (Ish) dealers reduce their margins to £600-700 a car and I’m talking lumpy stuff.
luckily we still have decent stock around either in prep or awaiting to go on. I’ll hold the bullet for a while until prices level off.
If you don’t mind me asking - what market are you in / price range
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Good Morning Everyone
I was having this chat with a few other dealers and thought what other place to see if there are any variances.
Some dealers I know have said they had a quiet January & others say it was very busy?
We stock around 50-60 cars, mid range (10-25k) mainly German stuff and found January a little slow. We still made a healthy bottom line figure but just slower than anticipated.
February so far has been steady, with decent leads but with auction prices being high for quality stock - I’m not paying crazy money to make minimal margin.
I know the old saying “you can’t sell and empty space” is true. But imagine paying 2-3k into book, for a car to then have a big issue eg gearbox!
I know you could upsell products eg warranties, finance (to get comms) etc but surely the risk / reward ratio is against us?
What’s your stance for your business - are you paying good money and sacrificing margin, or are you holding off?
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On 11/12/2020 at 6:10 PM, Adam winterbourne said:Hi,
I am setting up as a car dealer and have the funds and everything set.
My accountant is setting me up as a LTD company to get a VAT number.
The only thing i am struggling with is getting a premisis and also finance.
I know i need an FCA number which my accountant is looking into but is there anything i need?
I have land can i sell finance from my house until i can secure premisis
Thankyoi
Not being a D*ck..... but if you’ve put your accountant to such detective work ... why don’t you ask him to find that question out too?
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Morning folks,
I’ve spoken to the chap on site - I’ve given him until Friday to “trickle charge” the battery.
Ive told him, only will I make the journey to collect if he can confirm the car starts up (and will start up on site).
If not, I’ll outright reject it, and want my money back.
@trade vet I’ve taken your pointers on board, and will mention this with him on the next phone call
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Good Evening All,
I need some advice as on this rare occasion I feel BCA are trying to pull the wool over my eyes.
Bought a vehicle from Walsall (Audi Q7) not assured. However went to collect the vehicle today and noticed the following
1) All tyres are flat / blatantly moved around with no air, so the metal rim has cut them all through - site managers response “they weren’t holding air, so we just moved it as is”.
2) The battery was completely dead, and no matter which jump / booster used it wouldn’t tick over - I told the site manager I’m no way taking it unless it fires up - as for all I know it’s a non runner? (On the pics it shows the car running)
His response back was “well there isn’t an assured report, so it’s sold as seen” however I’ve said to him I won’t take it unless I can hear it, or they should have sold it as a non runner?
Surely when buying online, we deserve some assurance regardless (it’s not like I bidded on it live in the hall?). I’m going on their description / disclosure.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve bought cars (some assured) in the past and not bothered them with petty repairs. But this one surely is taking the p*ss?
Your opinions on what would be the right point of action is welcomed
Thanks in advance
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My two pence below
Selling from home can be an effective and cost saving method - if you do it right you can give even us forecourt lads a run for the money
I know of a guy, who lives in “high profile” gated community, big fancy metal front gates, and a nice stoned driveway - his stock profile is around 30-40k a car at minimum and does extremely well.... even has his own office in the house for the customers (it looks the dogs boll*cks if I say so).
come to think of it, even Tom Hartley technically sells from home (although he has a showroom in his property lol)
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“My best mate is a mechanic”
“How much for Keshhh”
”Can you deliver it and then I’ll pay”
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On 9/16/2020 at 11:13 AM, BIGNIT said:Anyone charge for the fuel in the tank.
I always make sure cars have 1/4 tank of fuel in and sometimes we get cars with 3/4 even occasional full tank.
Thinking about charging (at pump prices) for the fuel in the tank.
If I claw in on average say £15 per car and sell 20 cars a month that makes me better off by £3600 a year.
Anybody tried this?
How have customers reacted?
Seems a shame to lose a sale for £15 worth of fuel.... not the best first impression, that you’d want to give a customer
Just make your margin in the metal and put your energy / effort on to the next one
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Not going to lie - I do miss the buzz when coming into the auction... always ended up spotting something that I would have never marked up on the catalogue.
Oh... and also the food (Chip Cob for me) .... that was a bonus!
1 hour ago, Paul C said:Anywhere between 0.1-0.5% of the people bidding?
Of course they're happy for people to never visit and bid online, it saves so much in not needing to deal with customers in person. It was (broadly) demonstrated a decade ago when eBay took off, people are happy to offset the convenience of shopping/transacting remotely even with the downsides of lower quality, no opportunity to inspect, etc etc. Strategically I bet all the auction houses have been wanting to do this for ages and it was something of a case of "1st one to jump might lose out". Covid has changed all that, they've advanced years ahead in their plans and I doubt if there's any momentum in going back. It seems there's plenty of traders happy to transact online and take the negatives too.
Anyone down for a signing a petition? Not that I think they’d give a rats arse about it
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I know its still a few months away, but I’m sure some of us must have thought about it?
Combining two factors (COVID-19 & December (Christmas)). What are your thoughts....
will you be taking the month off and absorbing the expenses that you would have incurred,
or .... is it full steam ahead! And sales as normal?
my opinion - Normally Christmas time is generally slower for us, so adding COVID to the mix, I can only anticipate an even slower month?
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2 hours ago, NacMan said:Dont forget S3s.
I’ve had this convo before haha
there’s levels to the type of “clientele” who buy these cars
SEAT CUPRA - Starting off dealer
GOLF R - Made some change, Few months in the job (£, €,$,¥)
S3 - Middle Management Level (promotion)
RS - Top Dog / The Gaffar! (The dogs Dangleys)
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O.P.
Try selling a Golf R (I’m sure others have had the same experience). You’ll get more messers, “cash tonight at 9pm” or low ballers, Drug Dealers, or Test Pilots, and last but not least thieves!! .... all coming your way.
We has an 2015 DSG GTD and it took a while, but the right buyer comes eventually.
Best of luck
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I’d give the depo back regardless to wether the pedal is normal or not.
Customers like that can tend to be difficult to deal with after sales, and will expect the world of you .... e.g. the bulbs gone, can you replace it etc etc.
Count your blessings and retail it again, now that’s it’s detailed etc, your bound to sell it at near enough asking, as it’s fully prepped!
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13 hours ago, Lakeside said:Been ok with assured reports but bought three over the last couple of weeks sold with two keys and only turned up with one.
Same thing that happened to us
Some cars have been advertised as 2 keys, and lord behold just the one - it doesn’t help as soon as your off site, they don’t entertain it.
Ive even had one (BMW 3 series) rock up with an Audi A6 service book - luckily obtained the history via dealer!
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OP - I generally feel for you, especially with a 6k bill - that’s a stinger!
However, in our trade... we live by the good old saying “no risk, no reward”. Surely buying a high value vehicle from multivendor should ring alarm bells?
We all know the ratio of it being a dodgy car to it being retail ready is heavily weighted to one side.
I may sound like a d*ck, but you took the risk (which other seasoned buyers wouldn’t), and unfortunately on this one you got burnt.
PS - I once saw a multivendor C63 2008/2009 at Measham - with high miles and category D marker. It went for £8,000.00 - did I bid? Nope because of the vendor.... was it cheap? HELL YEAH!!!
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4 minutes ago, Halfpenny said:High prices over the past few weeks are a blip. Once furlough ends all hell will let loose and prices will fall. Mark my words.
Apparently the high prices, we’re due to the car super markets boys being a bit greedy and not letting anyone else take stock? (So I’ve heard)
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6 minutes ago, New year revolutions...... said:this
they used to do this to me after the event and ask me to wave a magic wand on it for them
i stopped doing this a long time ago
I’ve learnt the hard way myself (mainly close family).
They want a specific spec, mileage etc. Before I’d say “sure no problem”, i’d bid on the car without no security as it’s family.
Now whether it’s a loyal customer, family or my staff. The rule is prior to auction put down a 25% deposit on the car.
If we don’t get it, a full refund back. If they wobble and don’t buy it after we’ve won it - thanks for the cheap car!
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4 hours ago, Rory RSC said:Imagine being a private and so stupid to think you are getting a better deal at BCA than just walking into a dealer and buying. My fees are bad enough on platinum the private ones are horrendous.
I've never bought more cars privately / trade to trade facebook the amount of money ive saved in fees is unbeliavable. For every ten cars its about £4k its a lot of money saved.
Seen this happen one to many times.
About a year ago, my builder who was doing my extension knew I was in the motor trade, but didn’t utilise me (I was going to charge him a small sourcing fee).
Instead thought he’d cut the middle man out as he believed he had the “experience”.
Not only did he get shafted on fees, but also the car needed mechanical prep.
by the time he was done, it owed him near enough retail - but no 6 month warranty to claw back on.
I had no sympathy at all as it serves him right! Leave it to the professionals.
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20 minutes ago, Mojo121 said:I liked the overall jist of your post and it's made me think of a few bits:.
- The 50k BBL is very much a self cert affair, what do you turnover and when would you like the money are essentially the qualifying criteria.
- While the car auction craziness may end by Aug-Sep the effects of mass redundancies, reduced spending and the inevitable inflation caused from the dishing out of 'stimulus' money haven't been felt yet. So, although we will almost definitely see a CAP price increase now we run the risk later of a massive contraction as demand dries up. Dangerous game to play.
- When you attempt to stimulate a market with the kind of hand-outs we've seen (specifically rate relief grants and furlough money) you devalue the currency already in circulation by "printing" more (it's more adding 000's on a computer screen rather than printing). This leads to a rise in the price of goods and services because you need more of the devalued asset to exchange for the thing you want. If you've stimulated a market properly the new "money" will be spent. In the market/ world we're in right now with huge uncertainty (second wave question mark and socio-economic problems globally) I think it's unlikely to see businesses or consumers being frivolous (more a batten down the hatches mentality?). To make matters worse, many who have received this money haven't had it in addition to what they would have had, they've had it in replacement of, so it's been spent in the normal way i.e. all we have is more currency in the system, and the big boys who were allowed to trade earlier than the rest of us or by nature of their business to trade throughout (amazon etc) have likely hoovered up what luxury or recreational spending of that "new money" occurred... and they'll do their best to spend as little as possible of it here!
Spot on Sir! You ever though about getting a job in the parliament? - Well said!
I think people are adopting the mentality of “its borrowed money” and are taking higher risks,
Don’t think they’ve read the T&C’s of the BB loan.
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13 minutes ago, Padstar said:Managed to buy 7 this week but looked at 100s. God knows what they’ll be like if and when they arrive. All seem pretty clean on photos and good mot history but It’s a minefield even when your there In person We are really short of stock (sold a bit pre lockdown) and can’t sell fresh air. Either that or close up for another month or so until it settles down (if that will ever happen) Think I’ll see what they’re like when they turn up if they’re all a pile of crap I think I’ll go and sell wood pidgins or something. There’s plenty of them about and cheap as well.
I would be very interested to see how you get on. What vendor were they?
If you don’t mind, once you’ve got them delivered if you could fill us in on how they turn out?
I’m sure you’ll be doing us all a favour - as you’d either ease the uncertainty of buying online or make us change our profession for a few months haha!!
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My only concern is... these loans have been handed out to every Tom, Dick, Harry and his dog too.
Even if things level off a bit, things will be much more pricey going forward. We’ve gone past the days of anywhere near CAP CLEAN / Slightly above it. Now we’re going to have to factor in the abundance of money.
People now have 50k burning a hole in their pocket, and some people will gladly spend it in an absurd / not financially sustainable way (as they think it’s not their money).
So only people winning are
1) Vendors - as they get higher sale prices
2) Auction - more fees
3) Customers - as they’ll get a competitive price - as dealers will squeeze their own margins to make money
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1 hour ago, justina3 said:I can beat that audi TT in enfield this morning cap clean £1450 retail £2625 i had a punter for it and was going balls deep at £2200 -----nope i didnt even get my hand up ended up selling for £4700 plus fees
Check mate! - I’ve got one even better
2013 BMW M5 ( came in today)
• Alpine White / Red Leather
• 50k Miles
• MARGINAL
CAP CLEAN £15,700
BCA SOLD PRICE £22,000 + FEE’s to be added yet
that’s nearly £6.5k over book? Unless a celebrity or royalty had that car, it can’t justify that price!
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Talking about burnt fingers, I know of 2 local dealers, who hit the “buy it now” button and purchased unseen, when we first went into lockdown and this is what happened to them;
Dealer 1) Bought an assured car, All green ticks nothing of any concern. Collected the car and by the time he hit the motorway .... he got an Gearbox Malfunction Light (Audi) - rang assured team, they said they are closed and can’t do nothing until they are open / when they open - APPALLING!
Dealer 2) Bought a Car, not assured Or essential check, but upon collection, the car had a nasty miss fire, and the paint work granted it was a grade 4 had so many different shades / panel gaps - ALL STUFF YOU’D NOTICE AT A PHYSICAL AUCTION
To be honest that’s why I’m trying to hold on, and not buy anything without physically seeing it. Our jobs are pretty much to see, hear and touch a car before we bid.
At the moment there’s too many Billy Big Boll*cks bidding - let’s hope it calms down soon
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Auction charging me loss of resale price £800!!!
in General Dealer Chat
Posted
Firstly - my condolences & sorry for your loss.
Our trade is a very tough one - with little or no empathy.
I can see why the auction house may not have any remorse for you (they probably think you’re lying - as they’ve heard that excuse serval times before).
if it’s a genuine scenario, stand your ground and show then proof (I know you’re word is good enough) but if it’s the truth stand by it - it will save you £2,400
however if you’ve bought those cars I presume to retail then & make a margin on? Why don’t you simply just buy them? Decent stock is still hard to get.