LINGsCARS

I'm sure they are very nice, really... underneath

Ah, right. THAT contempt. Now I understand.

Don't like it up' em.

Hang on, First, your 10 year old Focus will have probably dropped to bits by then, agreed... Second, Umesh is selling his old cars for delivery after lockdown, why not mutter at him? *** note, I applaud Umesh selling online by video, showing some spirit in this adversity, everyone could be doing that?

Merc is 19th June delivery, Trok is 20th August. Why am I showing contempt? I am selling cars, supporting the industry. Doing what i should be doing. How is that contempt? I'm supporting my suppliers and my customers. Don't need a crystal ball, ...just plain balls will do. And a "get on with it" attitude.

While you lot are pissing about with vacuums, I am selling. Merc A-Class and a Trok today. BOOM.

My 2-pennethworth (someone asked me this stuff privately, so I thought I would post it) is that everyone has cars. But there is only one *YOU*. So, you need to present online or FB or wherever. Do what other people don't do... buy yourself an edge. It's worth to spend a few quid on great photos from (say) a wedding photographer, build up a real album of them to use. I'd say photos are the thing most people screw up on. Explain you need photos that *pop*. Make sure they are full HD (or bigger). Splash £1000 for a full portfolio of great photos, In all shapes and sizes. I would really say, just be YOU. Try not to be deliberately funny, but give your opinions. Don't be shy. Consider the photos need to be well lit/bright primary colour clothing, doing stuff like sweeping the floor etc (not stood there like an idiot). Polishing cars, doing stuff. Jump starting. Use props. throw things, use action. Look at the camera. Use emotion, shout, get angry. All those make great photos. Don't be a grinning idiot in a suit. Give as much personal info as you can, be brave, then people will make up their minds whether they will trust you. Don't be anonymous. Don't pretend to be a big co if you aren't. Always say *I*, not *WE*. Always. Then, start to make movies, watch that interview with JB and Carwow yesterday, just make loads of short 15 sec to 1 min movies. Someone will like them. Make sure they are full HD, and GET THE SOUND GOOD. None of this costs much, but £500 on photos is a really good investment, no one else will do that. Use animated gifs... like these ones, here is me and Adrian. Make sure you POP online, don't have to be stupid, you just need to have more oooomph than the rest Keep it personal. The trick is, you need stuff people will pass to other people and say "worth looking at this". Easy. Ling

Stretching is good. Get on with it

Excellent, but my reaction would be you need to get a job, not just apply for them. Small difference. I know you hate me, sorry.

I'm afraid that will come true for you. Best will in the world, you need to get a grip. I'd say that to anyone. At the very least, get a £15/hr fruit picking job, that is equivalent to the max furlough amount (£2500/mth). You'll soon build capital if you live frugally. No doubt someone will come along and be kinder/sympathise more, soon.

I hate to be cruel, but that is not "productively". That stuff is 10 minutes of clicking. Busy-work. "Productively" is producing - Ie making money. Show me the facebook account.

DCS01: Selling cars is perfectly fine. There are no "banned" occupations. It's just how you do it. There are lots of jobs out there, on another thread I showed fruit-picking. You're trying to find reasons NOT to do stuff... look at it the other way and get on with it. Everyone here is good online... I mean you're all communicating effectively on this forum, eh? The miserable ones are often the most prolific. What I'm astonished at is that so few of you are prepared to use your real name, or say who you are. Why on earth not? Why does (most) everyone think hiding their identity is a GOOD thing? Do you wear bags over your heads in real-life?

No, not my stock. i don't buy the cars...

Well, with all the factories having closed for a month, and the parts suppliers too, and all the pipeline delays, surely the new cars can only get scarcer this year? So prices may harden. I mean look at Golfs. a big seller. This happens just on change over Golf 7-8. I've still got G Mk7 orders in... unsure where the cars are? Surely the builds will be cancelled? Surely, there will only be 8's being built now? It's all up in the air. And Golf is usually No1 UK seller.

Yeah well most VEDs went up on 1st April too, that bloody 1st reg fee... so we've all had a price hike, maybe that VED rise pushed used cars up in Cap?

Do you think cars are oversupply? I find the opposite with new cars, lead times can be 6-months, and God knows what will happen now post-virus. If I find physical cars, it's like Christmas With used cars, don't companies like WBAC and Cazzoo just suck supply? =========== Another reasonable day today sales-wise (considering), with 2 x new Tigs. ... (this would have been a crappy day pre-virus). My average is 1.5 creeping up to 2/cars a day, this month. There is still much demand out there, a point made by CarWoW. Many people want new cars. Not many places are dealing with them.

I would say the translation into online RELATIONSHIPS with customers is a big thing, now. For used car dealers (seem the majority on this forum) they should watch the CARWOW interview and take notes. It's about communication with customers away from face to face. Don't get left behind, give customers a reason to smile, and they will buy. For Franchised dealers, hmmm, they are really constrained by "brand", or even worse... trying to manage multiple brands. They have to be brave, I think. The boldest will win. Once they move online, they lose their precious geographical USP. They are already forced to use manufacturer names (eg Mercedes Doncaster or such). They may as well be in an anonymous shed in Corby, to serve the UK. For a while, few people will want to do face to face. Especially the older cash rich ones. I foresee them trying to overcome blandness with a massive SEO spend, forcing the PPC up. Or they rely on referrals from manufacturer portals, which further subjugates their identity. If I were them, I'd develop a very attractive (big tits springs to mind, frankly) live-video streaming meet and greet crew. That sends female customers to an attractive young man, and vice versa with male customers, and also caters for the gay community. To be blunt you have to ATTRACT custom and HOLD attention while some relationship develops (15 mins sounds good). So these attractive people need intelligent, funny personalities and be able to string some not-duhhhh sentences together. Who dares, wins.

Seems an ideal opportunity to weed out any staff you don't want to keep. You could choose based on sex, colour, religion, ability, body odour... anything goes really. May be ideal for misogynist or racist employers. You might get away with retaining people on just 80% of their previous salary? Or weaker terms? Or force less hours? Who knows... Or does the employee get to question it? I mean, will you end up in a tribunal because you didn't offer a fair and transparent process in demonstrating who you take off furlough first? Do you need to fully document your rationale? Or will the Government force furlough to end across the board (so you will be forced into a broad decision concerning all staff)? Or will they claim back furlough from the company, for people who get bulletted? Like a clawback. God knows at the moment. Pragmatically, I agree... you would go with the strongest workers and protect the most sensible number of jobs. But mass redundancies or not taking backs... may play very badly on public media. Cash is king though, you can only do what you can do.

That was quite good, James. This lot know what they are on about. Glad they vindicated many of my arguments re marketing.

Good analysis.

I am Ling.

Must say, CarWow is a fantastic concept. They have over 1 Billion YT vid views, compared to my tiny 1 Million. Give them a big thumbs up.

You mean haggling customers? I don't. I advertise a price. That's the price. BOOM. However, if it's a returning customer, I do offer a loyalty bonus. Christine explains:

I would say to customers: Go through a broker when negotiating with a new car dealer, if you can. Because it avoids the "dealer experience" where a customer gets played and spit-roasted, and puts you in a much stronger position. Get everything in writing (EVERYTHING) because dealers can be known to occasionally lie (that's code for nearly 100% of the time), and make everything explicit, not ambiguous. I deal with dozens of new car dealers every day, and wouldn't dream of doing anything verbally - it always needs to be in writing. All those emails and written notes form part of a contract which protects you. Anything that contains the word "try", will mean the exact opposite. Add 3-weeks to any date that is promised.

Stupid: Apart from the general stupid-ness of the post, you are NOT [sic] de-sanitize(ing) a car, you are SANITISING it. De-sanitise means to make it dirty.