Bmx Bandits

Wife gets a nice car to slowly destroy and I’ll drive any old p/x with fuel in it

I don’t think they want to make more money retailing, I think it purely about creating a brand and an infrastructure that can be split from BCA and sold off for big money. They would have looked at Carzoo and thought, if they these people can create a brand (that BCA was helping to stock/prep anyway), which can be built up and then potentially floated for a frankly obscene figure then so can BCA!! I could not agree more and you don’t even get great service for that money!

I wouldn’t worry unnecessarily unless it fits into the vendors used car stock profile. It not uncommon to dealers to fund part exchanges especially coming upto plate change months, they need to carefully control their cash flow and with manufacturers taking full payment for a new car as soon as they are taxed, the dealer will potentially have to wait for the part exchange to have private plates removed, auctions to collect, be lotted, selling and then add a couple of days on top for them to receiving the proceeds from the sale. Its not the end of the world with a handful of cheap p/x’s but if a dealer has plenty of lumpy cars sitting around they can get themselves into trouble very quickly.

They also used to have their Mercedes Benz Direct used car sites, they were more like car supermarkets and I’m sure they used to sell the unwanted deflected management/daily rental cars. They have all disappeared over the years too.

Is it just me or is it amazing that new users on here with zero reputation seem to do very well buying cars from these people??

I’d image MBR have rarely ever made a real profit. The only one I can think of would be Porsche Retail Group Ltd which does very very well. I'm sure most retail groups would argue that they are just there to represent the brand in areas were no one else can afford to. It proves that car manufacturers should stick to making cars and leave selling them to the car dealers !!

It’s just one storage compound full of Vauxhall management cars/fleet pre reg/daily rental return cars. Back in the day (20 years ago) I worked for a vauxhall and they had fields full of cars back then too, they used a high tech showroom customer facing used car locator so that you could order a specific 1 - 12 month old car in the spec/colour/mileage the customer wanted and it would be delivered direct to the dealership for handover, they had cars everywhere. Mazda for example still photo these cars unwanted-nearly new cars and advertise them direct on their used car locator The real issue has always been that most manufacturers try to force their market share so inevitably have lots of cars sat around waiting to find homes. They won’t be trying to control the market, they would happily sell them all ASAP, if they could, to get the ££££ back in and also help save on the big storage fees.

Bank transfer is so much easier and cheaper. We did have two customers asking if we accept PayPal which I didn’t expect!! The only issue I had was when someone wanted to use a 0% credit card, in the end we got them to finance the car and then settle it with their credit card after a couple of days. Bizarrely I met Nick Frost last year in the queue of a local coffee shop, he seemed like a nice bloke and we had a good chat - when my wife came up and told me who I had been talking and I didn’t believe her at first, it’s only when people started asking for sly pics and someone asked for an autograph that I believed her . Turns out he lives locally. If I’d know he was doing the ad I’d have given him a slap

Exactly!! I’ve had someone go to the credit card company because in their opinion the 10 year old Fabia he’d purchased rev’d too high in 5th gear!! The letters I got sent from the credit card company where unbelievable. Customers don’t even need to pay for it all on a credit card either I believe.

Tommy good on you for giving but a go. Sounds like you’ve got your head screwed on and I’m sure you will have plenty of highs and lows in this trade. The advice I would give is to continually evolve and embracing the new while keeping more than a keen eye on your costs and profits, we are all still learning. When I look at what I spend on all my prep costs I wish I had a dent man, paint guy, specialist tech etc on staff but the reality is it’s hard enough running a business and trying to keep my current employees on track as it is. If you can find the holy grail of a master technician who is preparing to work for sensible money, isn’t a primadonna, will work on multiple brands, in a smaller workshop without a multitude of special tools and training courses and graft then bottle him as you would make a fortune!!! But seriously keep an eye out as you never know. A director of a very large dealer group once told me the best way to make a small fortune in the motor industry.......was to start with a large one!!! TV is right in what he says about company accounts as all that glitters isn’t necessary gold especially in this industry. I do miss physical auctions and the traders turning up in fancy cars talking loudly about how well they are doing while trying to all outdo/out story each other, while a handful of quieter buyers who always turn up in non descript cars and who week in week out hoover up quantities of cars, these are the one’s that I’d be watching and trying to learn from.

Well done, really pleased for you and sounds like all your hard work paid off.

Thanks for posting. I’ll be saving that email address!

Thanks for uploading another podcast. I’ve always thought Jamie came across as a good guy. I just hope he gets to keep hold of some of the money this time

You haven’t visited Michael Smith have you?? There is evidence the Oxford Vaccine reduces your ability to transmit the virus but doesn’t appear to stop it all together. Better to be safe than sorry

Couldn’t agree more, the fact it’s not yet available means there is no actual chance of them having to buy it, even if you cii off of get a deposit out of them, they can keep you waiting a week before they have to come and see the car, and then either not turn up or call with a p**s poor excuse, in which time you could have advertised it and sold it so someone who deserved to buy the car.

They are getting worse, I’ve just had someone try and chip me 20% off the price of the car that has not even arrived yet and want 1st refusal....... erm....no to both!!

Thanks David. You helped keep me sane through 2020!!

Completely agree with you BHM!! Got to ask is this a proper lockdown or a click and collect lockdown??

Tier 4 is click and collect only, I blame my predictive text or possibly the new bottle of whiskey I opened yesterday after work. It was very moorish

Legend!! Thank you

It’s definitely allowed in Tier 4. It could just be that they have not updated their adverts/website.

All the best to you too Umesh, hope we can all make the most of next year. Thanks for the offer of a virtual beer!!

That is what I really love about the motor industry, there are so many different ways of advertising and selling cars. It’s a brave move in my book but obviously with lots of hard work has paid off. I wonder if they saved money over just advertising their cars in Autotrader? To be fair most of the big supermarket’s have been bolting people into expensive finance deals, rolling in massively over priced warranties, paint protection and anything else they can. It’s the way their business model works. What is surprising is they they are still allowed to get away with it. How it can be in anyway treating customers fairly is beyond me, can it really be much longer before then FCA slap a couple of them on the wrist and issue a big fine or two.

The Bosch sat nav fitted to this age Smarts are as Halfpenny has said are not great, I had two in the past year or two that become really laggy or stopped responding at all. If the reset doesn’t work, let me know as I can give you the details of the company that I used who can replace the touch part of the screen as long as the display underneath is still working.

Hi, what age is the smart?