Bmx Bandits

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Posts posted by Bmx Bandits

  1. Posted

    55 minutes ago, New year revolutions...... said:

    I've done it since cra came out

    not used it but it saves hassle 29 days down the line, I've always thought

    I  electronically send log books off after 7 full days and tell customers this too so they know where they stand 

    That’s a really good idea. What would you do about the road tax? I suppose you could/would have to pay them for it and try and sell it to the next owner? 

  2. Posted

    4 hours ago, RH Trading said:

    Wow - so you think I just give them money and receive nothing in return and don't bother to pour over every single lead that comes in?

    I invest in what works, if it works well I invest more, if it doesn't I pull away. I conservatively work out that for every £1 i invest Im getting about £8 back and know I can get this higher. Ive used them for the best part of 20 years, with only one ,4 month spell  away when someone on here recommended I cancel and try Jim Reids Autovolo, which I did and was the worst decision I ever made, in  a normal month  it accounts for between 85-90% of all my sales. I couldn't care less about their profit as long as I make a profit from them, thats all that drives me. I monitor religiously where every single enquiry and sale come from, passing traffic, referrals, walk ins dried up from the day we had to shut. did a few deliveries but more by appointments, thats how I know,. My chats, texts, calls and emails returned abut 2-3 weeks ago, I don't just ask where they saw my advert as I only now advertise on one website, yes I have my own by Click Dealer but vast majority of my traffic comes from the adverts on the autotrader. Ive given all of them a fair chance, CarGurus for almost 12 months last year, Motors, eBay, I've fed my stock to all of them. I did get the odd sale but the cost per sale compared to the autotrader was horrific

    Trust me, for me there is no more cost effective way of generating profitable sales. Ive tried everyone over a long period of time and pound for pound none come close. Do I wish they were cheaper, God yes, do I scream when they put their prices up, no one shouts louder, but the fact is - they work. Ive published on here last year my sales, profit, ROI generated, and for me I can make it work. I know it doesn't for some and good luck in using other websites. i wish you all the best.

    anyway, Im off home now to catch a little of this sun, been preparing cars all day today, got 6 confirmed appointments tomorrow, all with reservations paid to stop the messers.

    Good luck all for reopening and hope everyones safe and well

    Look, if you think paying £100 in advertising with Autotrader to to sell a car is a fair price for you, that’s your choice. For me it’s to high.

    I was purely explaining that I felt that Autotrader’s offer was poor in light of their excessively profits, was not bashing anyone, although I could quite happily slate Autotrader on the complete lack of supplying me any real sales rep for the last five years, while continuing to increase their prices.

    For me I find repeat customers/referrals are my most cost effective source of business as good as free and the easiest to convert.

    Good luck for tomorrow. Like many tomorrow will be the 1st day back in 10+ weeks, my prep guys will be in at 5.30 so I’ve got an early start, due to furlough no deposits for us but have made the appointments insure the cars to remove any chance of messers.

  3. Posted

    3 hours ago, RH Trading said:

    I think AutoTrader have been fantastic throughout this, if you don't like them and you cant make it work for you then fair play, no ones forcing you to use them. Car gurus have been charging 50% whilst we've been closed and not selling, they've pulled out of load s of European markets, laying off staff, whilst not paying a penny in UK tax, but I don't hear anyone complaining about them.  

    My sales like everyones took a massive hit in April but May I've done 23 sales so far,  still about 10 behind last May but every single one has come from the Auto Trader and without it costing me a penny. I for one want to thank them for what they've done because I really believe without them I'm not sure I'd have managed to get through this. and the double stock will be most welcome for the coming weeks. I 've never been a massive fan but the facts and evidence prove that I  get the best ROI from them by far than any other website Ive ever used. 

    this wont be a popular post as everyone hates em but seriously I couldnt have survived without them and am really grateful of their support in the past couple of months, my rep of 15 years even posted me a load of disposable steering wheel covers. 

    Wow Autotrader have an operating profit margin of 70%, they’ve given you two free months over 15 years  (while you’ve given them - circa £360,000.00 I’d imagine) and oh and some plastic steering wheel covers and you think they are fantastic?! 

    I find it hard to believe that every one of your enquirers has come purely from Autotrader. Do you not have a forecourt, website or advertise anywhere else? I’m opening up again on the 1st June and list about a quarter of my stock on Autotrader, less then 10 percent of my booked appointments have come from Autotrader. 

    I am really pleased you’ve made click and collect/delivery work that well for you and it’s not that Autotrader doesn’t work, its just that you have to be cost effective and there’s are many other ways to drive customers to your stock.

  4. Posted · Edited by Bmx Bandits

    8 hours ago, umesh said:

    Auto Trader continues support into June, with a series of new measures, including a 25% discount and its biggest ever stock offer

    27th May 2020

    Following the government’s confirmation that automotive showrooms in England will be able to reopen from 1st June, Auto Trader has signalled its ongoing support for its retailer partners by offering a 25% discount on all advertising packages throughout June, as well as extending its double stock offer until at least 16th July[1]. For customers in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, Auto Trader will remain free while retailer forecourts are required to remain closed. March payment terms for all customers have been extended by a total of 60 days and packages will also remain free for all customers for the remainder of May.

    From before the lockdown began, Auto Trader has been committed to supporting retailers, providing free advertising packages and extended payment terms to help manage cash flow challenges. During the period of the lockdown, while the business has been free, it has delivered over 400 million ad views and more than 750,000 leads[2] to its customers.  

    In addition to these measures, to further assist customers in their recovery, Auto Trader has invested in a consumer marketing campaign to drive awareness that retailers are back and open for business. Auto Trader is in a unique position to support the industry to get back to business with circa 1.1 million potential car buyers currently visiting its marketplace every day and through its app which has been downloaded by over 14 million UK consumers.

    What’s more, to reassure anxious car buyers, Auto Trader has introduced a range of free online features to help highlight the safety measures retailers have put in place to make the car buying experience safer. The business has also accelerated the launch of AT Market Insight, an innovative tool designed to provide retailers with bespoke market analysis.

    Nathan Coe, Auto Trader’s Chief Executive Officer, commented: “This recent government announcement is an important step forward for the automotive industry. We will continue to support our customers, which is now about helping them to sell as many vehicles as possible, which is the focus of everyone at Auto Trader. We understand that returning to trading will be challenging for our Retailer partners, but we are confident we can help given our scale and the unusually high levels of demand we are seeing on our platform.”

    The offer is only for dealers who didn’t reduce their advertised stock levels before the 16th of March. I like many did and there is no support at all. The majority won’t increase there stock numbers with Autotrader.

     

    Autotrader purely only exist for their shareholders and have made excessive profits off the back of car dealers for years, if they really wanted to support the motor dealers surely they would make their packages for affordable in the long term.

    • Like 1

  5. Posted

    3 minutes ago, have a word with the wife said:

    and yet boris by opening garden centres and outdoor markets says your less likely to catch the virus, well er, hellow boris what about open car sites ? :D

    Taken from the press release today  - https://www.gov.uk/government/news/prime-minister-sets-out-timeline-for-retail-to-reopen-in-june

     “Car showrooms often have significant outdoor space and it is generally easier to apply social distancing” 

     

    It would make sense to apply this to all car dealers with outdoor space?!:wacko:

  8. Posted · Edited by Bmx Bandits

    12 minutes ago, Boycie said:

    Paul, If you are refering to the congestion charge being brought back in London, that isn't going to be anything that the Government have decided.

     

    From the BBC News Website yesterday, “The congestion charge for people driving into central London will be reintroduced on Monday under the terms of a £1.6bn government bailout.

    It follows a deal in which Transport for London (TfL) secured emergency funding to keep Tube and bus services going until September.

    From 22 June, the congestion charge will also rise from £11.50 to £15.

    Downing Street defended the changes saying it "only applied to a small area of central London".”:)

     

  9. Posted

    I think it goes to show how deep the problems are within the economy.

    Go to work, get the county going but don’t use public transport, we’ll then have to tax car drivers harder to keep public transport alive, as in the future we’ll be telling you all to ditch the car and use public transport again.

  10. Posted

    10 hours ago, david gott said:

    I always self warrant, might be worth having a listen to this there’s plenty of chat about warranties on this podcast we done the other day with nick from small cars direct 

    https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/car-dealer-pro-podcast/id1506252764?i=1000474472263

     

    Thanks, really enjoyed the podcasts, Nick is a good lad but I was really surprised when he said he didn’t offer a warranty.

    We’ve only ever used an underwritten warranty and we have never been great at up-selling it. It’s when you look at what I’ve spent over the years, it’s really surprised me.

    I’ve never used Lawgistics, are they a good company to get involved with? do you use their managed warranty service or administer yourself? 

     

  11. Posted

    I think it will be hard in the current circumstances to see the government launching a new scrappage scheme, we have huge problems growing within the economy, consumer confidence is at an all time low, the potential for massive increases in the level of unemployment, and the retired (with ££££) under house arrest, to name just a few of the likely issues. Who is going to be buying the cars?

    Its true that some of the car manufacturers have had very high factory gate profits but most have continually increased their costs on the back of these large profits. The perfect example is JLR they had one of the highest factory gate profits in the industry - making av £20k+ for every car that left the factory gate but they used this profit to increase their head count/spending substantially. They had already tried to rectify this in Jan 2020 when the CEO stood down and they announced £1.1bn in spending cuts, things will have got a whole lot worse for them since. I think the manufacturers will have a very hard time and we will likely see further consolidation and cost cutting at a time when they will be massive pressure on them to prop up their dealer networks.

    The franchise dealer network is going to really struggle, the franchise model hasn’t worked for years and was one of the main reasons I got out of it. I do feel for some of the smaller family dealer groups who have been finding it more difficult to trade successful over recent years and for many it’s likely to be the final nail in their coffin.

    I’m sure the car supermarkets will survive on the back of buying some very cheap cars from rental firms, ex demo’s and nearly new cars repossessed from franchise dealers and manufacturers directly.

    I wouldn’t swap my used car business for any of the above! 

  13. Posted

    21 minutes ago, Casper said:

    Same happened to us years ago with 4 smiley transits from a local company at 3 years and 5 years old probably even before autotrader values but unsure 

    2 minters 1 was ruff and 1 2 years older that was kept due to one of the newer ones being fired damaged and written off 

    the mechanic got one of the minters the ruff one sold first then the older one and the van the was left for a few months was in my opinion the best one of the 4 

    guess the public just look at the cheapest price and think wow bargain for a three year old transit thing is it was only about £300 cheaper than than the minter but the boss did him a deal on his old transit i even pointed the customer in the direction of the minter as i knew him and his company but couldn't sway him though i think the boss tried a bit harder to get rid of the ruff van . 

    I had this last year with a Auris I’d had for ages, kept reducing the price and couldn’t shift it, I then took in part exchange a last of the old shape Corolla and marked it up £300 less than the Auris, (the auris was cleaner, 18 months newer and with 15k less miles). I thought it would make the Auris look so cheap. Guess which one I sold first....... the Corolla?!!!!  :lol:

  15. Posted

    I don’t think they can operate properly until we get a vaccine.

    The last auction I went to before lockdown was a nightmare, all the cars went through the hall had their doors locked and the windows up. You could’nt check interiors, keys, clutch, gearbox etc. Traders where all trying not to get near each other while trying to check a car/bid. It just really did it work.

    Mad as it sounds i’d almost rather take my chance online and try and claim against an incorrect appraisal.

    I think that if auctions find they can survive just by being online and with proper appraisals/resolution they might never need us back in.

  16. Posted

    3 hours ago, Nevillec said:

    I had a similar call last week,  but from a  van customer,  he bought a Mercedes Sprinter from us, about 6 months ago,  he  does  rubbish/ garden  clearance,   but has not had any business for 7 weeks.

    Some trades must be really hurting by now. Do you think van sales will be as badly hit as car sales post lockdown? 

     

    3 hours ago, Lakeside said:

    Won’t of helped with WBAC etc being closed. I’d imagine they’ll begin to reopen soon though as social distancing will be easy enough for them.

    Forgot about them being closed, I’m sure they will be back soon and hitting people properly hard!

     

    3 hours ago, New year revolutions...... said:

    well if they phone and they want a kicking why not,you could probably even leave it up their drive as free parking for the next 4 weeks if you wanted

    win win chicken dinner

     

    The question is how hard to kick them? Its hard when you know them and some are going to be in proper trouble.

  17. Posted

    Today, I’ve found the phone has been much busier with enquiries than its been in the last week or so.

    But what I found was more significant, was that I had two old customers asking “Do you buy cars?”

    I didn’t go into detail, but both customers where needing to sell their cars for financial reasons.

    Just wondered if people were experiencing similar and if so what’s it going to be like when we actually re-open?

    • Like 1

  18. Posted

    I would recommend that people research the value of any part exchange they may have, many customers seem to massively over value their current car and under value the car they are looking at, dealers can’t work miracles and it can make it almost impossible to do a deal, as their budgets simply will not stretch.

     

    I’d also recommended that prospective customers be honest about there credit history, if looking to purchase a car on finance. Car dealers/staff will not be judgmental and it save everyone considerably time and effort. Finance companies are very good at uncovering every minor missed payment, defaults and CCJ’s so there is no point not telling the truth!  The majority of dealers have specialist brokers/lenders that can help them get the best finance deal on the market for their credit profile.

    Prospective customers also need to find/check their Driving License and then bring it with them. You are unlikely to get a test drive with out it and you will need it you take out dealer finance (it needs to be in their current address)

    The salesperson will take you more seriously if you come prepared and put your cards in the table (I like your car but can you move a little on the price) is making their job much more straight forward. Your the more likely to get a better deal.

    • Like 1

  19. Posted

    59 minutes ago, justina3 said:

    The cynic in me cant help thinking what a neat set up this is, sell a car grade 3 to a dealer the dealer then puts it on plan spends there own money to turn the car into grade 2-1, all of a sudden you cant pay and bca turn up collect the car put it through the ring as a grade 1-2 for clearly more money charge the dealer for the default and collection re-action fee admin costs ect invoke the personal guarantee if the dealer cant pay.

    I have seen far more riskier investments.  

    Not only that but even if the dealer does manage to keep up stocking loan payments and sells the car, they still come back to you to buy another one with the auctions/stocking fees and so the cycle continues. It really is ingenious ;)

  20. Posted

    33 minutes ago, New year revolutions...... said:

    dont forget the tyre blower upper

    bet you wished you'd replace the crocodile clips now after ramming the wires down the side of the battery again:lol:

    that’s if I can remember which car I left it.........2 months ago:wacko: 

  21. Posted

    46 minutes ago, poor-trader said:

    A quick scan through buy-it-nows at Manheim Colchester reveals them all to be the cars which they couldn't get a bid on the week before lockdown in March. In fact of the cheaper cars I spotted at least 3 which failed to make it even through the 'ring on the last Thursday night (the very last auction they had). All yours for a bargain few hundred quid above March CAP Clean if you're tempted....

    Take some jump leads and some K-Seal when you collect.

    And having stood for two months are now likely to also need a battery, brake caliper or two + pads and disks after you got them nice and red hot on the drive back to the site :blink:

  22. Posted

    12 hours ago, Roberto said:

    Come on Johnson! Show some balls and get UK rolling again.

    Easy tiger!! Slow and steady wins the race. I’d like nothing more than to see the uk get rolling again but there is little point rushing into a second wave of this shocking disease.

  23. Posted

    I must say I’m surprised that they are taking such a hard line with you at this time. As you say it’s no one’s fault and you are doing the right thing by closing.

    What does grate on me that if you had a 1.5m buy to let mortgages you could apply for the 3 month mortgage payment holiday but as car dealer with a similar size loan there is no specific guidance/help.

     

    • Like 1

  25. Posted

    It’s a good insight into the direction the market could take but I am surprised Derren Martin didn’t mention Finance Houses.

    I think they have the potential to cause considerable damage to used car prices. If they act like they have in every recession so far, they will be quick to repossess stock from dealers and private customers in financial distress and just as quick to dump them into market and take what they can get for them.

    To compound this, these are the very same institutions that will then become risk adverse and make it harder for the dealers to obtain finance for stocking and customers to purchase cars, increasing the likelihood of further price erosion.

    It would be really interesting to hear his view on this. 

    • Like 1