Paul C

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Posts posted by Paul C

  2. Posted

    Of course, you're legally obliged to notify the DVLA of a change of ownership*. So you tell the customer "I will send off the necessary paperwork, do not worry". They can insure the car, when it asks "are you the registered keeper" they can confidently say "yes"; or if they are a pedant they can further explain they just bought it and they aren't yet, but will be. Insurers accept this every single day, its normal business.

    *It doesn't say when!

  4. Posted

    Its not Joe Public its the test & trace which has failed. In theory, this is the solution:

    1. Get the baseline cases down to a low enough level so that test & trace works properly
    2. Aggressively track the new cases (via test & trace) so that restrictions are very localised and targeted, leaving the rest of the country in relative normality

    The system hasn't worked though, so the restrictions were great swathes of the country rather than being focused and localised. 11 days to get a test result back is useless. They were hoping and crossing their fingers but in the meantime its gone up and up again (viruses do that....) so another harsh national lockdown is needed sooner or later. May as well be sooner so there's a glimmer of hope that Xmas isn't affected, because if it runs into Xmas about 0.05% of people would actually comply with a "don't meet in households" restriction.

    • Thanks 1

  5. Posted

    Non-essential retail can stay open but local authorities have the power to optionally rule that certain places should close, eg casinos, hairdressers, etc I doubt if they would impose that non-essential retail - eg car dealers/showrooms - would close, given that the main focus is to keep people going to school and working. Its more about shutting pubs, stopping people socially meeting up etc

    Wales is different.

  6. Posted

    On 10/27/2020 at 4:08 PM, It's me said:

    just done a check on this car

    3 years from now if you do the same and this came up on your screen  would you think mmm has it been clocked??

     

    650209864_OperaSnapshot_2020-10-27_160139_www.check-mot.service_gov_uk.png.faa0081806b7b656d625ad5af228d22d.png

    I am guessing, about 1,000,000* cars will have this type of entry on their MoT record. So, no, it won't raise suspicion its been clocked, it will become a familiar sight for those who are checking.

    *Very rough guess

    • Like 1

  7. Posted

    That's my understanding too - if you've been in close contact with someone with Covid, you should self-isolate. If its a further step (or more) away, no need.

    The reason being, the person with Covid19 could have passed it on very easily. But without the receiver having any symptoms (ie sneezing etc) they're able to incubate it (and maybe go on to develop Covid later) but not transmit it. So onwards people are much less likely to have caught it off the receiver. Of course, its down to timing too - if its been a  number of days; and the receiver is asymptomatic but also a spreader (which is unlikely but possible) they could be capable of spreading it. The "test" isn't a sure way to properly know if someone has Covid (because it can't sense minutely small quantities during the incubation phase) and having symptoms or not, isn't a sure way either (because some people can have Covid but be asymptomatic; or have a different virus eg cold/flu/similar). Its all a bit of an unknown but it always is, in epidemiology.

    • Like 1

  8. Posted

    Its a balance though? Your mum going round for dinner doesn't do anything for the economy? But going to work does. How would you feel if you caught CV at work then gave it to your mum and she died? That's what they're trying to stop. This is a weird, new disease which is very dangerous for some; and asymptomatic in others. You don't know if you get it, and you can't get tested quick enough because its physically impossible to just magic the capacity/capability of the testing infrastructure from thin air. 

    Sure its a shambles, everyone's guessing and nobody fully understands it. I'm sure we can all blame something or someone else.

    Apologies if it comes across a bit blunt, but there's a sense of frustration that we shouldn't actually be where we are today. I don't know what the solution is, I wish I did. 

    • Like 1

  9. Posted

    I don't get it, starting a rumour of a scrappage scheme just creates uncertainty in the market and some punters pausing their purchase??? If/when further restrictions come in, the car industry is well down the list of sectors of business the government will help.

    • Like 1

  10. Posted

    4 hours ago, Halfpenny said:

    I think the notion of getting money off for cash is well ingrained in the public consciousness thanks to various TV programmes where some 'expert' or other goes into negotiation waving a bunch of 'readies' and magically the price drops 10%.

    I enjoyed the one where the seller (I think he was American) said, in a somewhat deadpan tone, "the price is $xxxx, if you don't pay it we'll part as friends". I often use that approach myself. Asking for the keys back and going into the office normally illustrates the point well, if the words weren't clear enough.

  12. Posted

    Worth getting legal advice on. I think (not sure) you are obligated to offer any new positions internally for a set period of time (before you can advertise them externally), to those being made redundant, above a certain size/number of redundancies. You can't just assume they wouldn't want that job (maybe with a pay cut), you need to go through the proper process of evaluating their skills and experience etc.

  14. Posted

    1 hour ago, metcars said:

    I noticed that Manheim are going to offer pre booked slots to inspect cars prior to purchase. They've nicked that idea from Copart. But I wonder how that's going to work, I wonder how many 'slots' they'll have available in a day?

    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. 

    • Like 1

  15. Posted

    Is it the system similar to eBay, eg an item is getting bid on around the £5k mark, you put (say) £6000 in but it bids automatically £5100 £5200 £5300 etc according to the bid increment up to the max?

    Or is it that your bid is the amount you pay and you can exceed the bid increment if you want to; or are limited by only being able to bid the current+increment amount?

    If its the former, there's an opportunity for the auction to fiddle it by running it up nearer (or reaching) your max. eBay doesn't do it - can you imagine the commercial suicide if they did and it were discovered - in fact they show the bid history to show how the auction was run. If its the latter, it just sounds like there is some kind of lag in between the system running/tracking the bidding and you finding out. It might be a badly designed system which doesn't degrade gracefully when resources eg network speed or latency reach the limit. Or, just too many bidding at once to make it viable.

  19. Posted

    There's that many good YouTube channels that now it would be difficult to find a niche - its effectively a saturated market, just like so many others. The better ones have a good, almost professional ability to present to the camera and slick video editing (which takes ages!) and post regularly - its almost a full time job in itself. And, its necessary to keep producing new content, at least weekly. 

    So the ones with loads have subscribers have earned it (and work for it), sure there's a handful of people who have done really well (Doug Demuro, Hoovies Garage etc) but for the others its pretty much a normal job.

     

  20. Posted

    Temporary: supply is down (a lot), demand is up (due to built-up demand)  --> prices rise

    Long term: demand will pass thru normal then be down (a bit, or a lot, depending on how the recession pans out); supply will either match demand or go up --> prices fall

    Its getting to the point, it might actually make financial sense for dealers to put their cars BACK into auction, because they'll make more now at auction, than their current or future retail value. It is indeed irrational at the moment.

    • Like 2

  21. Posted

    2 hours ago, Halfpenny said:

     

    Makes me laugh on programmes like Wheeler Dealers, Flipping Bangers etc.  Buy at £5k, spend £2k on parts. Sold at £8k.  'Oh, we made £1k profit'....   Well what about the 40 hours labour in a fully equipped workshop etc etc.?  

     

    I came across an article the other day about Wheeler Dealers. They analysed the cars they did, and included work which hadn't been mentioned in the programme etc (and also where some other savings were made). They concluded that while the figures put on the screen towards the end of the show were broadly true, once you look at the time spent, Mike and Edd would make about £5500/year salary (ie £11k/year between them).

  23. Posted

    27 minutes ago, awc1000 said:

    just thinking on, if lenders start leaving this industry due to risk, remaining lenders are going to want (rightfully) even higher rates if they are going to keep lending in this climate, how is that going to sit with the fca?

    In theory, with increasing/decreasing DiC commission barred, the "market" would function better and so long as enough lenders stay in the business, would result in generally lower interest rates for customers. I believe the finance companies themselves (with a few exceptions*) won't suffer much at all with the FCA-imposed changes in the summer, because they are carrying little blame. The main miscreants were the dealers who sold the inappropriate (interest rate of) finance; the lenders were somewhat guilty of lack of oversight though.

    * There are a handful of manufacturers who were/are sufficiently big, that they ran their own bank/finance, eg Renault (RCI).

    I don't think we'll reach the situation where lots of lenders pull out of car finance. I think more likely, there will be a general downturn in 1) the number of cars sold (in total, new & secondhand), 2) the average amount financed per car, 3) the proportion of cars bought on finance. 

    But I think the existing lenders - most of them - will be happy to continue to operate in a smaller overall market. Car finance is still pretty good, compared to other types eg mortgages, credit cards, business lending.

  24. Posted

    Indirectly related, but be aware of this: https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/multi-firm-reviews/our-work-on-motor-finance-final-findings.pdf (gory details), https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/fca-acts-protect-those-buying-motor-finance (summary) and also your requirements under CONC (full details here https://www.handbook.fca.org.uk/handbook/CONC.pdf) 

    For sure, there is going to be increased public awareness of motor finance and I suspect a lot of high-end dealers and car supermarkets making a number of changes. Basically, don't look at making extra money on finance at the expense of the customer! 

    • Like 2