RH Trading

its a good question, dont know how VIP events actually return any additional value now with so much of buyers going on the internet first to do research. My son and I attended one last year that had cardboard cutouts of Ant and Dec and Simon Cowell???? I can see it for new model launches to drum up a bit of interest but these things cost thousands

31 sold from 47 stock so far, 24 from the autotrader, cant restock quick enough and that's the problem, still crazy trade prices, service side is booked up for 3 months almost, not had that ever before, people seem to think prices are going to keep going up so are buying now rather than sitting and waiting, one couple at the weekend bought a nice 18 Focus after they'd just seen me put the price up by £125 saying "we thought we'd buy it now before it goes up even more" - crazy times

Agree, Ive bought a few more recently from BCA, still top money but managed to sell quickly for a few quid more than normal margin. Public seem to realise they need to pay more. December started well compared to previous Decembers but quieter this week as per normal in run up to xmas

Sold 38 cars last month from 40 advertised, 28 of which came as a direct result of the autotrader leads, and would say thats about average for a month. its expensive but when you work out the return its a no brainer, leads are quality serious buyers, not many messers. was once talked into cancelling a few years back and was off for about 6 weeks whilst i tried, eBay motors and cargurus - worst mistake Ive made in nearly 30 years of selling. It works for me, I know it doesnt work for everyone but youve got to measure what you get back or else youre just pissing it up the wall. also youve got to work at making your cars stand out, great pics, descriptions, reviews etc

depends what type of cars do you sell and at what price, I do very well from auto trader but anything really cheap did do better on eBay when I used them. ebay tend to draw out the messers an best price with ridiculous bids

My old dad is one of the idiots falling for the media hype around petrol shortages, he does maybe 10 miles a week in his year old Honda Jazz. Panicked over the weekend as he only had half a tank so queued up at local Sainsburys for an hour to put £7 in!!!!! I really need to get that Power of Attorney sorted quick

All credit to those that repay it in my opinion, wonder though how many redundancies will happen after furlough ends in September, think that's where some of the larger boys will save money realising they don't need quite as many expensive staff in their gin palaces

Clearly Cap's wrong, cant catch up fast enough to reflect live prices right now, its not the market that's wrong its IMHO I believe, we've just increased all of our stock by a few hundred and are still selling fast, don't want to be left with empty spaces, cars being sold within 4-5 days at moment when they normally take 2-3 weeks

Not too bad here, opened Wednesday and was busy with November handovers and test drives from people who wouldn't travel through lockdown. End of last week was slow but weekend was mad, 10 sales so far from December from 35 in stock. If I can finish on 25, same as last year I'll be happy

I've never even thought about this, and can count on one hand the number of times Ive been asked for a look at the V5 before purchase. will be wary of any requests to view it now, might be the start of a spate of them - thanks for the warning

Not sure what Zahoor has been smoking. Never expected anything so its very welcome, see others have now followed but the AutoTrader one was the biggy that makes the most difference, with click and collect and delivery we're still able to trade and sell right now (just off to deliver a Polo to Sheffield now bought entirely online) Hopefully even with a slow down for Xmas we'll be out of lockdown by the 2nd and able to make a few sales with zero AT cost.

We've been operating safety measures since opening, click and collect and delivery, 100% of our transactions have been appointment only, we can still operate delivery and click and collect so not sure if we'll be as affected as last lockdown. just need to shut the showroom,.

Bank transfer all the way, stopped accepting cash completely for sales and workshop in June and saving on bank charges as well as the stress of town centre bank runs with bundles of dirty cash to pay in

its dead simple, i set up a daily budget in my portal, think there are different levels I'm on £10 a day for a 5 day period, you only get charged when someone clisks on your advert, think its about 20p not sure but if it sells on day 1 i'm not charged for remaining days. helps me control my overage as my cars days in stock cost around £18 so the quicker i sell them the better. just put a boost onto a Corsa ive had in for a while thats reaching overage so hopefully get more interest on that one. you pick your budegt, cars to add them to and days without even speaking to my rep and your only charged when someone clicks. done something similar recently on facebook boost but no joy, will keep trying though

Been using it on and off, works well for anything that's getting near overage for me, last time i put it on a 420d 16 plate I'd had in for 11weeks and it went within 3 days , couldve sold it 3 times over

sold 10 over the last 7 days from the Autotrader, and looking at portal 4 of them were fair price, 3 high and 3 great, customers seem to want to use the high price flags as a bargaining tool, asking for the amount its overpriced as a discount. If they've rang up they're interested, love it when they do as this gives me a chance to tell them why its got that price and why every other car they're looking at is a shitter compared to mine, wax on about the service, the reviews we have etc. very rare we dont sell.

Easily done, saw the film at the weekend on CSDG on facebook, scary but a quick look on companies house can get you director details and the invoice makes it so easy to apply for one of those loans. I'd love to have had the police waiting for the guy when he turned up to collect the Porsche

interesting reading, always thought Lookers were a decent set up, worrying times for all but think particularly people employed in the larger groups, a neighbour of mine is a business manger for a large well known group on a 6 figure salary, he's still furloughed along with half his team and some other big wages. The group is now considering making all these positions redundant, not because they're in trouble but the fact they found out they can still sell as many cars with half as many expensive sales people. it'll force many to make efficiencies that they should have done years ago. big winners here I think will be us smaller guys that don't have the big wage bills, or the expensive gin palaces

normally stock around 40-45 cars, bit depleted right now like everyone I speak to, 25 in stock. nothing special about my cars, stay away from under 3 years, don't want to compete against franchise. Ive also got 3 ramps and a repair and service centre (only 2 ramps working at moment for social distancing) so luckily prep is in house and this has been ticking over nicely. get some repeat sales business through this but not a great deal. I dont fill the the front with a load of heavy German stuff as that gets competitive as well, prices range from £4k up to around £16k and Ive currently got 5 high price markers. normally stuff like Polos fiestas, focus, golf, usual kit but bizarely Kia and Hyundai stuff sells quickest for decent margins for me, people travel the furthest for these as well ive found and know what they want - no messers. average days to sell was around 32, aim for a £1200 margin on average oddly the 10am appointment this morning from the autotrader that thankfully bought had a high price flag. now just desperate for stock

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

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.

Yeah great work all, received the confirmation yesterday morning - thanks

confused now, on a whatsapp traders group for Birmingham and one of the VW guys posted this, this morning - NFDA Clarifies BEIS Position on Online Sales and Deliveries Following recent articles concerning comments attributed to BEIS in connection with remote (online) sales and deliveries by certain media publications, the NFDA have spoken to a senior official in BEIS for clarification. The clarification obtained can be summarised as follows: Contrary to media reports, no official statement has been released by BEIS in the last few days regarding dealers’ entitlement to sell remotely and deliver cars to customers. It was suggested that the comments attributed to BEIS yesterday by some parts of the automotive media, would have come from a member of the BEIS press office and should not be taken as official guidance; nor should they be taken as a statement or recommendation that dealers should open, sell online or deliver vehicles etc. It is not up to BEIS to determine the commercial approaches taken by businesses. The position of BEIS has not changed from earlier guidance. BEIS’ position is that a retailer’s (dealer’s) decision to sell remotely (including online) and deliver products remains exclusively a decision for the dealer. This decision will naturally be informed by a range of considerations arising from the present COVID-19 crisis, not simply whether the dealer technically has the right to sell online and deliver cars in accordance with Government guidance. As an aside, if one party were to be forcing or applying pressure to another party to trade and deliver products to customers at the present time – where the latter was not comfortable that all of the relevant precautions could be taken or was otherwise ill-equipped to do so as a result of issues connected with COVID-19 - this would raise concerns, and is something that should be reported to BEIS. BEIS has no immediate plans to issue further guidance to supplement or amend that already issued in the previous weeks by the COVID-19 Response Team of the Cabinet Office. Businesses should, if they require further guidance at this stage, - including in terms of the precautions to follow if choosing to sell remotely and offer deliveries (which is an option as already explained by the likes of the NFDA) - seek it from responsible and professional trade bodies, such as the NFDA and SMMT https://www.nfda-uk.co.uk/industry-issues/nfda-clarifies-beis-position-on-online-sales-and-deliveries#entry what did you get confirmation of James, doesnt look like anythings changed or is this just for main dealers?

Hope you and yours are safe and well Casper, I wont be delivering through this until we're allowed to reopen the showroom, dont do a lot of deliveries and not rushing into it now just for the sake of it and as you say I cant 100% guarantee its not making the problem worse, I'm currently looking after my 89 yr old dad and keeping him safe and looked after is my prioriity right now, good luck to those that can though, Im not saying theres anything wrong with it just not for me right now hope everyones OK

what do you think about this James Baggot? not sure what to make of it myself, thanks for posting