LINGsCARS

In fact, picking fruit would be a FANTASTIC month's R&R for most car dealers. It will do you good. And you get paid! £15 an hour isn't fantastic, but £600 for a week's enjoyment and exercise is not to be sniffed at. £2400 for 4 weeks = as much as the max furlough amount. PLUS, you still get your furlough amount, or your self-employed payment. What's not to like? Have a month without a polyester suit on. In the fresh air. Entirely legally. The weather is lovely. GREAT!

I don't deliver the new cars. Just as I don't deliver Amazon stuff. Is there anyone here who hasn't placed an online order for some crap over the past few weeks? And gladly had it delivered? I got some canes for my raspberry plants delivered the other day. Why not? The hypocrisy is deafening. The idea is not to kill the country through inactivity and be proud of it... the idea is to prevent the spread of a virus while carrying on as much as is possible, best you can within the guidelines. Read the guidelines (again)

Moderation: Hang on, the forum is full of posts saying "bored" or "at a loose end" and people moaning about financial impacts. I'm pointing out this will cure all those things, and keep you fit, and sort out schooling if you have kids. What's the moderation issue? You have topics started saying "tired of beans and toast" or "week 4 lockdown". This is very valid! If you're not working and are fit enough, why not get off your fat arses and do something useful and in the national interest? Even car dealers can pick some fruit. My raspberry canes are coming on a treat, the rhubarb is a metre tall and I might need some itinerant workers soon, on my farm.

Jesus. Some people just can't read.

"Copywrite", heh Lisa Lisa... You know nothing about UK copyright law. The UK law says that a trademark owner (eg Ford) cannot use its registered trademark to prevent further dealings in their own goods, once they have put those goods on the market in the UK. As long as my use of those signs does not indicate there is a commercial link between Ford and LINGsCARS (someone would have to be mentally deranged to think that is the case) there is nothing a trademark owner can do to stop me (or anyone else) using the trademark to advertise deals relating to Ford products. Otherwise every car badge would have to be removed from every car dealers' advert in Autotrader etc. And no website except the authorised websites would be able to display car maker logos and badges. Think about it, dumbo. I'm sure Andy Barrett will love your grammar and formatting and nonsense opinions and will click "bin". So please shove your pseudo-legal opinion. And get a sense of humour. Seriously, what's wrong with some of you? Have a look at this attempt from 2013 by Harley Davidson to try this crap on with me. https://www.lingscars.com/images/pdf/legals/harley.pdf

Have you had to stop trading for a while? Look on the sunny side! You can become a "key worker", still qualify for your 80% furlough or self-employed 80% Covid TOP-UP, plus your rates relief or grant... and also your kids get to go to school! And you'll get clapped! Plus you'll get fit and have the time of your life! "the government has classified workers under ‘food and other necessary goods’ as key workers. This includes people involved in the production, processing, distribution, sale and delivery of food. This means as a key worker you are able to travel to and from work, and your children may still be able to attend their local school." So, stop moaning about not being able to sell cars, get out there and do something useful instead! COVID19 CAR DEALERS CLICK HERE

Car showrooms are closed, ...because you'll kill the customers. Obviously, everyone knows car salesmen are sweaty and their breath can be putrid even pre-virus. These days, it can kill. You may as well mainline Covid19 via IV injection if you visit a car dealership. May as well boil the virus up on a used teaspoon and jab that sucker in, between your customer's middle toes. Online car sales aren't banned ...because the virus can only go via 5G and you ain't got 5G at home yet. Or something. You don't catch Covid from your home PC. Storage and distribution facilities are exempt from lock down... there is no rule saying WHAT is in the storage or distribution. Could be Amazon crap - being sold like mad, pet food (I got some delivered yesterday), sex toys, newspapers, digestive biscuits... or it could be new cars. ALL ARE ALLOWED. A SCAB?? Really?? Because I'm selling online? There is no chance of killing customers, online. Nit/Idiot (choose your insult). You are online NOW, reading this... and are you being infected? Only being infected with common sense, so keep on reading. Maggie Maggie Maggie! Indeed the Government says, if you can work from home, you should do so. ...So I am. ...I am STAYING AT HOME >>> PROTECTING THE NHS >>> SELLING CARS. Just because I don't have a dinosaur model of a car pitch which relies on VICTIMS (usually in person) rocking up at physical cars doesn't make me a scab. Or should I be NOT WORKING out of sympathy with car dealers with pitches? Oh, ...hang on... I'm NOT a car dealer! That's the popular vote I think. I am NOT "trading and on furlough". I am not on furlough, me. Sometimes people can really talk out of their ass. === And finally Rory/Stalker if you think this very sparsely populated forum boosts Google rankings, you don't get the online thing at all. The stuff I did at the weekend, the Daily Mirror item, The Sun item, all the backlinks from them, THEY boost Google rankings. In fact Google ranking isn't my main route to market. I spend £0 on SEO. Idiots. HOW DARE YOU! My advertising is very tasteful and of the highest quality. Surely *someone* here has a sense of humour?

Back to the OP topic... Look, here's a BMW dealer trying to get me to shift 12 of his stock cars. Just sent this email to me, now. Notice there's no corporate BMW brand bullshit, here. Car is car. Could be Kia Picantos. Consumer goods. "Sun Pro" = that Corsa-type tinted cling film from Halfords. BMW call it Sun Protection. These are for delivery after lockdown, but no reason they can't be sold, now. I just upsell to increase commission, add VAT and resell. Easy. No reason any of you lot couldn't move new BMWs (or any car) like this... ...I would think online is the way to go, at the moment. The trick is web-traffic, get eyes-on the deals. It's a numbers game. Here's a funny page; https://www.honestjohn.co.uk/askhj/answer/14045/ling-and-buy I am officially a Honest John HAT award winner I know you would all be impressed

No, I'm just bored with the virus thing. Sat glued to my PC at home, taking car orders and answering customers. I thought there might be some "real" car dealers on here that may have marketing tips...

Careful. Baguette will have you.

I have a 2004 TT convertible (the old shape) 3.2. Nice little car, juicy though. 100k BUT>>> due to the virus, and as a complete coincidence my NIG motor trade policy (any vehicle etc) was for renewal end March, I've stopped it completely and for now have insured only a 56 plate Ren Master Luton (the most useful vehicle I have), so all my cars, 1965 LR S2, 1994 RR Classic, and other various stuff and my TT are now undriveable. I slashed overheads massively 1 month ago. It's a bleeding competition, now, and I wanted to stop bleeding. Saved £6000 on that policy. But needed £300 for the master and a further £300 for stand-alone employee and public liability. Pragmatic. == My hubby Jon was a car salesman, and I thought "I can do better than that", so I did. I'd just finished a Master Degree at Bournemouth in... 1999? First cars I sold were £99 Daewoo Matiz and £129/mth Cit Picassos. Remember them?

I've got signed orders for 3 x cars today, it's been a Skoda/Renault day today. A new Kamiq, a new Scala and a new Ren Kadjar. I spread them over 2 different dealers. Both franchiseed dealers are VERY chipper about these cars from heaven at this time. People obviously order cars from me and my website. Nit. This is the advert (on FB) I sold the Kadjar from. A bit rough at the edges, but it worked! Took 5 mins to make - can you tell? heh. Note to JB: this is to show how "awful" marketing sells cars. I'm not trying to sell this car to visitors to your forum.

This is true, as i said, these are consumer goods. My website is beautiful, it gets a lot of exposure on TV and in newspapers. If it was "standard" or boring, it wouldn't. Here are 2 clips from Channel 4 News, who use me a lot (I'm unsure why more people don't get their businesses on TV- for free): Figure how much this was worth? £thousands.

Umesh and Jim are very good people, I've always said that. My argument was never with Jim or Umesh as people (even though I teased them), it was with petitioning the Government when thousands of people were dying.I thought that was bad. I thought the car dealer employers should step up and furlough staff at correct rates (inc comms) rather than bang on at the Gov. After all, the dealers created the low-basic, high-comms structure. (but now it seems they could pay 80% of full total wage all along... we just have to see if firms pay it?)

Who would do the translation? I struggle with Scottish twang. I think you are all deliberately goading me to reply on this thread. That will annoy El Baggotte. So I'll stop replying for a while, take my valium and drink my Buckfast in silence.

No bad feeling from me

Careful, or I'll post the "Flour of Scotland" song again.

TangoVictor "I'm" a company. LINGsCARS.com Ltd. But I'm still me, Ling, Chinese female lunatic. "They" (customers) come to me (I think) because a) I market effectively b) I offer a fantastic service c) My prices are cheaper (usually, not always) especially due to very low overheads d) My communication is really effective/efficient. And I deal with people personally. e) I'm competing with an industry that doesn't market well, has a fairly rigid old-fashioned way of communicating and selling (drive to the dealer, pay salesmen on commission), and customers often don't like the experience. People see the ridiculous-ness of £££multi-million dealerships trying to market "great deals". It's a nonsense. We all have the same new cars. f) I have fun. ...and I make lots more than £200 a car, usually.

My model is 1) get lease deals on new cars 2) sell the deals to customers 3) place car order with the dealer 4) do finance paper 5) get dealer to deliver car. 6) dealers pay me commission === Why would I want to buy stock? That's a mug's game. No stock, no overheads, no advertising, no pitch, just a website. I never see a) the customer b) the dealer c) the cars But, I move 800-1000 new cars a year, so unless i am a magician, I think I'm a car dealer. ====== And Brewer? Hmm, don't mention him, we have history. He was 100% horrible to me, threatened to shut me down (on Pistonheads). So I was horrible back. I have all the screen grabs some where... he was trying to undercut my deals by forgetting to add VAT on his website (to consumers). Ling V Brewer if you have an hour... 28 pages Pistonheads https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=1482333

Yes, or even better not touching the main dealer. So a Citroen would go direct from Sandtoft (M180, Scunthorpe way), on a GEFCO truck. Never ever seeing main dealer. Cheaper, faster, simpler. And customers love big trucks turning up at their house hahaha

Casper, that's nice. I often type things with a smile but people take it wrongly. I guess everyone here is rough-tough car dealers, but in fact there seem to be many more sensitive souls.

casper, in fact no. I have no relationships with any lease companies. They hate my marketing, sex, profile etc (!) I'm on that secret blacklist. I market deals from franchised dealers, give them the orders. Easy, peasy, but less margin than dealing direct with finco.

Casper, I'm unused to the politeness and kind remarks My staff are fine, my family out of hospital, back home in China and I'm stuck in my bloody farm in luxury (loads of space, food, 5 acres) What's not to like apart from the slow sales rate and franchised car dealers absent without leave. FFS hahahaha, I need to break the lockdown to draw a cock on a mug and post it to you... do I even have an address?

There might be some technical reason, like the contract type. I never see the V5, so never know (and don't really care) heh