RH Trading

Ended the year a lot better than I started it, I didn't really monitor overage stock for years or understand how much it cost me until mid year, now after its been re-priced and adverts freshened up if its still not sold after 90 days then I trade out of it. I now don't use CAP or Glasses for a view on selling price or find l'll be sat on them for months, don't get attached to cars or fill your forecourt with what looks nice is what I found many years ago but never actually stuck to it until this year. now I don't have a single car over 90 days and its not reduced my profit, far from it I made more in last 6 months (still not a lot, I'm not bragging here) than I did in all of 2014.

Decreasing my average days to sell from 75 in January to around 45 now, all without sacrificing profit - its made a massive impact on bottom line,. But the best thing has to be being able to bring my grandson into the business as an apprentice, seeing him grow and putting the hours in, is the best reward, means its all been worthwhile as it'll all be his sooner or later. Merry Christmas all and here's to a great 2016

Glasses for us, but reality check against prices on AT first to work out how much I could sell for, then work backwards to find how much I should buy for,

5 over weekend - 27 for December in total, been very busy and now desperate for stock to fill some gaps, hate empty spaces. Not seen much decent stuff at auction lately and very tatty, anyone else notice quality has dropped off or is it just me? seems everything would need a fortune spending on it

Funnily enough received a nice autotrader phone charger today through the post saying thank you for your business, a discount would have been a nicer present though

Not sure you can call stocking 40 cars a hobby, sounds to me like you've answered your own question there KingKong - I work around 60 hours a week sometimes more and stock around 35 cars - its a profession not a hobby, if you're only toying around with it as a hobby and cant devote all your time and effort into making sure you sell cars quickly then I think they're going to stick around for longer. Does anyone else work with you or are you on your own? sounds a lot of stock for 1 man

December quite good for us at moment, 12 gone out and no returns (he crosses his fingers) November was terrible though 13 in whole month which was half that of Nov 2014

Anybody else seen their cars on Cargurus.co.uk? apparently and unbeknown to me my stock is appearing alongside a big red arrow saying overpriced!!!!!!!!

if its a choice between the two I'd edge for the Toyota, does it need to be a 4x4? prices will be high at the moment for these, obviously not the best time to buy. find getting hold of either very hard, don't see many turning up at auctions (that are in a decent state with less than 100k) so I'd grab either if you can, as long as its petrol and auto in good nick, not been abused and serviced. Also the new A class is a completely different car than the old A class box and the 2-3 new shape ones I've had sold very quick, expensive for what you get now, and again don't see many around unless you buy from main agent

Its the future, good luck to them I say, if they guarantee to buy after 30 days sounds like a no brainer depending upon their valuation (there'll be some clause that this doesn't apply to trade no doubt) may lead to people buying purely on cost. if there's 10 very similar ford focus, same mileage/age/condition etc. then its the cheapest that will win the business so I'd assume I'd have to reduce my price to have a chance, cutting into my already slim margins. I pride myself on the experience when customers arrive for test drives/service etc. pleasant, no hassle environment, not necessarily the cheapest but clean, well prepped and serviced, I have sold unseen to scotland, newcastle, even IOM recently but majority want to get in the car and "feel" it before they buy

I rang this number and its only for Franchise and groups apparently, was toying with the idea until jamslug put me straight. if its free it normally means its useless in my experience, Ive noticed my stocks still on Motors weeks after Ive cancelled so hope theyre not billing me, might explain why they've got 350000 cars. Still nothing yet from RAC but fingers crossed

Good luck James, let us know how you get on mate. Motors complete waste of money for me, not 1 call in over 9 months so threatened to cancel and rep said half price for next 6 months! "So I'm only wasting half as much money I said" to which he laughed!!!!! . RAC no brainer as its free and early days yet. Exchange and Mart is free now also,

Hi James - you can use Flyers from Motors, we also dropped CAP and use the auto trader value tool. CAP doesn't mean a thing to my customers but they seem to trust the AT one. around half of all our enquiries start off asking me to value their car first. didn't hear from half of the enquiries after I gave them the CAP value but now I email them the AT price, ask them to bring it in with them when they test drive and 9 times out of 10 they turn up with it,

good broadcast and well worth a listen, although we sold 9 last week from AutoTrader (from 35 advertised) so not sure 'll be able to go anywhere soon. nice tips on facebook, will give it a try

Classifieds are good for the cheaper cars you want to shift quick but margins are a lot slimmer on ebay than other sites. as mentioned above lots of idiots and timewasters, think its the ebay user mentality that they all want a bargain so be prepared for lots of stupidly cheeky offers. we have around 12-15 of our cheaper cars per month on there and sell 1-2 a month

AGREE! You're absolutely right - Reading the SOGA it says - "There has to be a fault which renders the vehicle not of satisfactory quality, unfit for purpose or not as described, said fault must be proven by the customer to have been present at the point of sale" as long as the customer returns the vehicle or gives the dealer a chance to rectify the fault before rejecting. Trading Standards came to see us a few weeks ago and they said they would deem it unreasonable for a customer rejecting a car out of hand without the opportunity to rectify the fault, also advised to make it clear the customer needs to return it to us rather than collection

Interested to know if they were definitely trade or public that bought the Jag, If it was a dealer I bet he trades from his house with zero overheads, little prep cost and low margin but quick sale. Seeing more and more of these examples of silly money, way above CAP clean. Don't have a problem selling at moment but very slim pickings at auction to replace sold

False economy as Motors doesn't work but charged me £160 per month, then wanted nearly £350 so I told them to stick it after zero enquires. Go with RAC cars, its free

Thankfully we're still fairly busy and August started well, 4 over weekend, Just looked at the book and 6 gone out so far this month, 2 more look promising, compared to 23 for July, 21 in June and 13 in May so its improving. MOT's and service doing well also. More interest now in more expensive, BMW's and Audi which we've been sitting on for 3-4 months

Was targeted over the weekend from two of my ebay cars which also go on gumtree - https://www.paypal-community.com/t5/Access-and-security/SELLING-CARS-ON-GUMTREE-SCAM-TO-WATCH-FOR/td-p/631754/page/3?profile.language=en-gb

I'm constantly looking for any alternatives, I use autotrader, and I use ebay for anything sub £1000 - you get lots of timewasters and cheeky sods offering peanuts but is worth it if you persevere, dropped motors in April but stock now free of charge on RAC cars, been on 4 weeks now - no leads as yet but fingers crossed and best of all its FREE!

Its picked up slightly in June and last couple of weeks have been OK for us, mostly smaller older cars priced around £3k-£5k are selling and thankfully no returns yet this month (he touches wood). Have some newer, more expensive prestige stuff that seem to be getting little interest so I'm guessing PCP deals look more attractive for brand new cars against these, Its getting hold of these cars for decent money that I'm struggling with, auctions seem to be full of strangers and privates that bump up what I'm bidding on

We do a lot of MOT's, looking at the service books a lot of people take it to main dealers for the first one, we normally pick up MOTs after 5-6 yrs. Wonder if this will impact how long people keep hold of the car from new?

Did you manage to speak to someone Colin? would be interested to hear what was said

I'm on RAC now and its free! - make hay while the sun shines as no doubt it wont be free for ever, not had a call yet, its only been 10 days but even if I sell 1 car a year its cost me nothing!