Rosemotors

Hi All Gumtree rang me this morning to tell me my account had been hacked. I'm normally pretty savvy when it comes to hackers etc but this time they had me. I had an email enquiry and part of it was a p/x request with a link to their car on Gumtree. Of course, it was a phishing account but I didn't spot it. Entered my Gumtree details and thought no more of it. It could've been a lot worse. Be careful guys!!

Thanks Umesh That's my best month since opening (a year tomorrow). Shame it doesn't reflect in my less than bulging bank balance as it all goes back in, renewing and upgrading stock, but I couldn't be happier.

Now on 8 retail deals from a regular stock of 7. Plus a couple carried over from October. Still got 2 or 3 I'm sick of the sight of though.

I've registered a a junk email address for use with websites I know will spam me (I thought about calling it myjunk@whatever.com but then realised if I ever wanted to send from it it might get filtered....)

She bought an 06 plate Zafira auto with 21k on the clock.The gearbox has gone. He's offering £300 and she pays the rest. He's self-warranted so I can see what's happening but I don't have the whole story. After 6 weeks, with the car unusable he needs to be fixing this. (Disclaimer: I know customers lie. Especially on Facebook selling pages when They're slagging dealers. She said she'd paid £5k for this, which seems a tad unlikely)

There's two schools of thought with this. I'm of the view that warranty firms give you a perceived credibility and self warranty is open to perceived abuse of the consumer's rights. Others might say you end up paying twice (and sometimes you will). I've been talking to some poor lass on Facebook that just (on the face of it) got shafted by her dealer on a car she's had 6 weeks. The temptation to do this when cashflow is tight (it always is) can be too much for some.

Ummmm........

The afterparty's where the fun starts.....

I've got the feature booked in the local paper with supporting advertisers and I've got lots of good news stories to go in there (Just become RAC Approved) so hopefully that'll bring a few in. I might do it annually as a Christmas party if it's well supported.

I can't believe I'm just 2 weeks away from this. I want to do something for suppliers, customers and the community but I've never seen them done well ("Sales Days" at all the main dealers I've worked at have been mostly dead affairs). Obviously Christmas springs to mind as a theme, and quite how I've sold a single car without balloons escapes me, butI figured you guys might have a few do's and don'ts, some general ideas etc

I often make far more money on the p/x than I do on the stock car. I see them as an opportunity.

When I opened I had the card company that my bank recommended to me come and see me. But they wanted a business plan, which surprised and irritated me (there's zero risk to them, so why did they need it?). In the end I went with WorldPay. Easy & competitive.

My best week since opening. Invoiced 5 from a stock of 7. 2 of those were carried over from October though.

Unfortunately I've created a rod for my own back. The RAC Assured scheme gives a (perceived) quality assurance to customers (and I've already had an increase in footfall with people saying it's directly because of RAC that they're there). The downside means having to sometimes reject cars on economic grounds. The car I was whingeing about was a perfectly good retail car (and sold too!!) but was just one of those where all the small bits that we normally shrug off and do came together in one massive bill. Returning the deposit hurt but I traded out of it for a small profit so I really shouldn't complain.

Well!! No-one else has today..... I've just become an RAC Approved dealer and their preparation standards don't seem to allow for the fact they're used cars that I'm selling. Surely there should be somewhere on their 82 point check for advisories?

Thanks guys. Based on the old saying that if something's too good to be true it probably is I was naturally sceptical. But it seems to check out. Awaiting funds as we speak.

.... a sub-prime finance house rings you and has your car sold & just want an invoice. Or should I be worried?

I've never been so glad to have a warranty company on board as when I had a Peugeot 307 Auto suffer a catastrophic gearbox failure on the way home. I was very lucky. I had just serviced it and there was a BCA mech report when I bought it so I could prove the fault wasn't apparent at POS. They sent an engineer out to look at the 'box once stripped and they paid up to the claims limit. That company was Centurion Warranties. I'd recommend them based on this claim alone. I've had to leave them to go with RAC (I want their branding) but it was with a heavy heart.

Thanks for the tip. I'll look into this next week.

They made up for it. I just picked 17 out of a file from a car that turned up last night.

Thanks Umesh. I meant easier to get stock funding, increased overdrafts etc.

5 so far from a stock of 7. I need more capital for stock so I can start to grow. Nearly at my 1 year mark so it'll be easier then.

I've got the dentist in an hour, had a terrible night's sleep and my ex drunk-called at 3am last week. Glad I got that off my chest....

If anything was going to convince me to stay, its because Gumtree rang me a couple of weeks ago with too good an offer to refuse, which included 2 month free Ebay Motors pro. And I haven't had a single enquiry yet. You get what you pay for.

This made me laugh more than it should. He's my neighbour/nearest competitor. And from what I can tell, does it about right.