j4ck100

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Posts posted by j4ck100

  1. Posted

    Had a mega weekend, 3 Friday, 2 Saturday, 2 Sunday, 3 Monday.

     

    Didn't give £1 off a car (tell a lie I gave £200 off one in lieu of doing the paint work rectification) and that's from a stock of 25 cars from £1,500 - £5,000.

    Personally I have found a lot of goof stock on the online auction sites (DA, A4C & Sytner) and having regular enquiries at the minute.

    did every customer ask for something off and you refused or did some not ask etc ? 

  3. Posted

    ALL

    If you had to summarise the current market in one sentence - what would you say????????

    Activity?

    Demand?

    Values?

    Profitability?

     

     

     

    Activity seems to be reasonable but not ground breaking. It's easy to come up with excuses as to why it's a slow month e.g August everyone on holiday but in reality it's not like that because if it was no one would sell anything - December Christmas no one buying, Jan people are broke, Feb fine, March plate change so people buying new, April easter hols.... Key is right stock right price, easier said than done! 

     

    Values IMO are HIGH. Was at bca Blackbushe on Monday, and pretty much everything was hitting cap clean even though most wasn't what I'd describe clean, or in cases of cabriolets and other random stuff, prices were up to a grand above book, this is hammer before fees too!!!

    Is there any reasons that we all have in common so that we can try and see a solution to the problems? I put van sales being quiet  for me due to a combination of the following factors.

     

    1 Location North West of England only 1 job being created for every 6 in the south. 

     

    2 Booming Building Trade causing tradesmen who've struggled for years to make ends meet getting a full time job cards in with a big company for £700 + per week complete with a company van, which is bought by the company on a 3 year lease. So these customers who would normally buy my type of stock (sub 5k) are selling their vans to the cash for vans market and buying cars instead. These people have been self employed returning to full time employment and are not included in the job created figures. 

     

    3 Stock Prices I rely heavily on auctions for my stock due to being a 1 man band. Like the rest of you I've watched the prices continually rise over the past few years and as a result so have my prices, unless I work for a smaller margin or try and make a living on selling fresh air. 

     

    4 It's August and everybody's enjoying their joll's having a lovely time getting stuck in operation stack (apart from GG who had the foresight to charter a private jet) and us. 

     

    Those who are doing OK do you rely on auctions or do you source elsewhere? Where are you located? Are you working for a smaller margin just to keep things moving? 

    do you sell cars as well? If not maybe you should think about it to vary your portfolio and be less reliant on van sales ?

  4. Posted · Edited by j4ck100

    Cheers for the responses! Find the whole pricing/negotiating topic very interesting, I guess key is managing initial listing price against competition whilst acknowledging the fact you will have to knock a little off

    Kills me that Think Ford down the road have lesser spec fiesta's up for a grand more and they probably sell them at full as someone will just think oh ford i'll walk in !! Had a chat the other day with the sales guy there, they do 200 a month every month except december, we can dream!

    Other thing is - I used to work for another dealership, and have also come across it where they point black will not budge on price, and max they will do is throw in 12 months warranty - they tell the customer they are an online dealership and therefore prices are already competitive.

    Part of me is tempted to try this, other half is worried that you'd lose a sale over it ! Having said that at my short time there, I never really saw anyone who was genuinely interested walk away because they didn't get a big enough discount. Generally, when they were told that the RRP "usual price" on the 12 month upgraded warranty that was being chucked in was £300 they were happy with that, even though cost to business was more like 100-150. Couple this with the fact that this now covers their statutory 3 month warranty then it's a real winner. 

    Interesting TImes, now to shift this bloody fiat 500. Hard graft when the dealers are doing £1000 deposit contribution and 0% finance on New. Hmmm.

    Jack

  5. Posted

    With the admin fee, we found in mail order products that most people really didn't look at the total price, for us we were sometimes a little bit more expensive but our delivery was cheaper and we always included batteries but customers were always blinkered by the main price.

    Both of those prices seem good to me but lease rates on 500's and fiesta are that low it's pointless buying almost new. If you could afford the hit I would reduce the prices to £4999 and £5999 that way if someone searches on autotrader with a £5000 or £6000 budget then your car will appear in the listings. You could try similar with the mileage. 

    Sold that Fiesta today !

    need to work on my negotiating skills though, bearing in mind I'd dropped it down to 6000, gentleman came over this evening, liked it, and said what kind of a deal can we do, everyone likes a deal, so I said £100 and a tank of fuel and then he said 5750 I said no he said well you already dropped 150 inc fuel so it's just a bit more so I said ok 5800 deal he said yes. I think I need to learn to stand my ground better but i sometimes get so worried that they will walk away that I roll over too easily! Or maybe I should have started with less of a discount. Advise please ! 

  7. Posted

    Interested to get a general gauge of lead generation methods

    For myself currently as trade from home, i'd say it's 99% Autotrader 1% Gumtree

    Haven't given the others a proper shot yet, but interested to get the lowdown from those using all or most of them on the lead breakdown

    % Wise what's the split for you guys between:

    (state those that apply)

    Walk In (if have showroom)

    Autotrader

    Motors

    AA

    RAC

    Ebay

    Pistonheads

    Facebook

     

    Thanks

     

    Jack

  9. Posted

    Finding it pretty slow going at the moment.

    I'd like to get to know more about others pricing strategies too.

    i.e 29 miles from me is Car Giant, who have a very similar vehicle advertised to me. Do I therefore undercut them and reduce my margin, even though they will charge customer £149 "admin fee" which IMO is outrageous.

    I'd also appreciate if anyone can advise on my current pricing as two of my current stock vehicles have been sat for a while now without a bite (why do we pay AT again??!) :

    2009  09 Fiat 500 sport 1.2 white 35k fsh very clean got up for £5100

    2011 61 Ford Fiesta Zetec black very tidy 24k 1.25 fsh up for £6100

     

    Realistic or too high? Starting to think there are just too many of these small hatchbacks about that the odds of customer finding mine are minimal!!!

    Thanks

     

  10. Posted

    So this Fiat 500 is turning out to be more of a pain than I imagined.

    First i noticed some oil in the engine bay - turns out an oil breather pipe has split - common on the 1.2 apparantly so there goes £60

    Next i notice that there are arc scratches on the windscreen in line with the wipers that have obviously been caused by old wiper blades or maybe debris that got stuck

    Has anyone else encountered this before, and if so how did you fix it ? Reading various things about toothpaste being a possible solution!

     

    Thanks

     

    Jack

  11. Posted

    Hi All

    Recently picked up a 09 Fiat 500 1.2 Sport from auction - total price £4050

    Needs a service, MOT and 2 front tyres

    Retail looks to be £5000 or thereabouts

    Alloys are all kerbed a little bit. Annoying as the car is otherwise mint. Would you bother getting the wheels refurbed and therefore margin reduced, or leave it and hope customer doesn't mind ?

     

    Thanks

  12. Posted

    Went swimmingly, took a while for the main dealer to pay up, some kind of miscommunication between sales and accounts.. More likely they wanted a few weeks credit!!

     

    All paid now though, no hassle at all.

     

    Jack

  14. Posted

    Hi Umesh.

     

    Just read your post and the exact thoughts came to me, called about 10 ford dealers, some said already overstocked, some said maybe interested will call back and didn't, one said bring it down so we can appraise.. it's a brand new car for gods sakes! Got 2 bids on the phone, one for more than CAP, more than motorpoint are selling them for and about the same as i probably would have retailed it for!!! I guess this is because the main dealers have margin to play with...

     

    All going well i'll be dropping it over to them this afternoon. One happy chap (hope i haven't spoken too soon!!)

  15. Posted

    Hi All,

     

    Just had a customer PX a 64 plate Mondeo in with 7.9k on the clock , Titanium X fully loaded etc.

     

    Thing is I am a pretty small dealer, and this thing has a massive load of my capital tied up in it, and I've never sold anything so close to being new before.

     

    Would anyone recommend a quick way to dispose of this with maybe a few quid sweetener over what I paid for it ? Looking on AT it's only ford dealers and motorpoint that sell these nearly new mondeo's.

     

    Any advice welcome

     

    Thanks

     

    Jack

  16. Posted

    Hi all

    Small dealer got a few motors up for sale since week before Xmas, been so slow had 1 call, are others finding this as well? If so when is it believed it will pick up again? Got a mate in a main dealer says it's dead atm too, new and used. Not overpriced my stock to my knowledge.

    Cheers