RH Trading

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Posts posted by RH Trading

  1. Posted

    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.

    • Like 2

  2. Posted

    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

    • Like 7

  4. Posted

    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

  6. Posted

    Hi to all I sell Used cars as a hobby and past time and I sometimes make a profit only recently every car I buy seems to hang around for along time any advice would be nice

    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

  9. Posted

    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

    • Like 1

  10. Posted

    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

  13. Posted

    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,

  15. Posted

    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

  16. Posted

     

    Something is puzzling me. I've just read a bit more on the new act and it still says that if customer has inspected the vehicle and a fault is obvious or should have been noticed then it is not the responsibility of the trader to rectify (which has always been the case).

    But in order for the customer to reject they MUST prove that any fault was present a time of sale.

    So lets take an engine light. If it was present at time of sale they would and should have noticed it during test drive and inspection (when they look round the car). 

    So for example next month I sell a car and after 2 weeks an engine light pops on, in my eyes there is no legal way this car could be rejected. I am not saying we won't have to sort the problem out as we normally would but they can't reject because if it was there 'at point of sale' they would have clearly noticed it and as such would be deemed to have accepted it as it is a clear & obvious fault (a dashboard warring light)?

    Agree or disagree?

    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

  17. Posted

    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

  19. Posted

    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

    • Like 1

  21. Posted

    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!

  22. Posted

    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

  23. Posted

    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?