James Bush

Good luck and what a great job to go too...... and just for you, received from BCA Enfield this moring.........19 staples holding a MOT, V5 and invoice!!!

IN

Yes betginge just register as you are and then change address when you've found somewhere. I was surprised how easy it all was.

I've just moved business premises and to change the FCA address you just log into the FCA portal, all very easy. My original application was completed in around 3 weeks, there were a couple of bits I didn't fully understand but they are really helpful on the phone. Even saved me a good chunk of money because I was applying to be registered for stuff I didn't need.

I've been seeing an influx of these and I personally think its the Google generation who sit and find something they want at the cheapest possible price. I find it hard to deal with them, always explain we'll never be the cheapest but will probably be the best prepped cars they'll find with the best aftercare service, 9 out of 10 I never hear from again. I'd be interested to see the stats from autotrader, ebay, motors etc on how many cars an individual enquires on. I would hazard a guess that the ones that enquire on 1 or 2 cars buy and the ones that enquire on 4, 5, 6++++ are still driving around in their £150 scenic!!

Its been slow for us today, both autotrader web and dealer portal

Edward Roots, details on the fiesta http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201603242300682/sort/priceasc/usedcars/channel/cars/dealer/699607/page/2/dpp/james-bush-cars-brigg-dpp-699607/stock-search/true/advert-type/dealer-stock?logcode=dsp if they are interested get them to mention you and this forum and I'll work a better deal for them

Play the game with them and some will come back and buy one.........eventually..........we had a old guy that came in his old Corolla for years, every Thursday (market day) and then one day he popped in and asked to look at a Seat Leon FR we had, with full Cupra bodykit.......here we go again, I was chuntering away as I went to collect the keys, 20 minutes later I was taking a deposit!! The true tmewasters are the young lad and dad I've had in today. Lads just passed his driving test and they come in looking for a Grande Punto we sold yesterday, then his dads says to him to come and look at a Fiesta we've got.....Fiesta 1.6 Zetec S Anniversary.......he pops across and obviously falls in love with it, we then have a 10 minute discussion/argument that I think the insurance on it will be more than the £1500 he'd been quoted on the Punto and it was pointless letting them testdrive it and to get insurance quotes 1st!!! I found out a couple of hours later they've bought a £750 Clio from down the road!!

I knew I should have put my money into AT shares and not Tesco!!! The auction would probably still make delivery, wait for the complaint, ask you to send photos of the issues and then claim it wasn't listed on the POD so there's nothing they'll do!!

2 leads, 2 sale in 8 months.....

I've always used onesureinsurance.co.uk but never accepted there 1st quote or renewal. I've always got them to work a bit and it's saved my £100's. Decent company to work with, no sales patter, just ask them to get you the best quote and they do I have 3 seperate polices with them, road risk including private use for 4 drivers, accompanied demos and cover while at home address. Stock cover (away cover I think they call it) at my showroom and my public liability insurance for my showroom.

The other thing I missed in my early days was your target audience and its important to target your audience to your advert - advertise a Fiesta ST to sports fans, lower age groups, ford groups, modified cars etc and the Renault Scenic to Mums groups, interests on family days out etc........it is stereotyping the customer to the car a little but does work...... Its not as simple as pressing the boost button and setting a budget, each advert I boost takes me around 15-20mins to taylor make it to suit the customer I'm after.

I've been using facebook seriously for around 6 months and get mixed results but on the whole sell 3 or 4 cars on month from it. The customers in the whole seem to be under 35 years of age but the likes and shares do help spread your brand, and finance seems to be a big seller on facebook for me. From my website stats I can see a spike every time I boost one of my facebook posts so facebookers aren't just viewing the add and disappearing. You do get a lot of bizarre questions and hopeful daydreamers hoping to swap some old banger with big wheels and a spoiler for a nice bit of prime stock but a polite decline and a few minutes throwing messages back and forth and no harm is done. One mistake I did make was just advertising car after car and you'd get a few likes from a boosted post but the new likes seemed to then disappear, so I started mixing it up with a bit of motoring news, sports news, iPhone hints and tips, funny videos (although be careful because what I may laugh at is somebody else's worst insult - my women driver video didn't go down too well with certain females, even though it was really taking the p155 out of lane hogging male drivers) etc and be prepared to spend a bit of time with it. I think its slowly slowly with facebook because its rare you'll post a car at the exact time somebody is looking for one but its all about awareness and building a brand an a audience as already has been said.

Keep battling on and try not to beat yourself up to much......everyone I speak to.....dealers, finance reps, warranty rep etc are saying its dead. I have 2 large car supermarkets near me and one did 1 at the weekend and the other 3 - the salesman even started prospecting!! We're quite too and it gives me time to tidy up the showroom a bit, changed some tattyish looking spec card holders, re-cleaned a few. re-photo'd them, and changed the adverts a little and we did a couple at the weekend and one yesterday. We are a small 20-25 car indoor unit but try and really push the benefits of buying from us - cherry pick the best stock, every car serviced and MOT'd, 6 month warranty with car, warranty inspected, personally test driven by us to check everything works no squeaks or rattles etc, if you have a issue you come and speak to us and not get passed around departments and managers like in a dealer/supermarket etc etc

I've stopped dealing with this company - they claim they offer the best level of warranty tailor-made to suit the motor trade and don't use weasel words etc but in my experience this is exactly what you get.....also Quentin says you can contact him direct with any issues - I've rang and tweeted him and guess what? no reply!!! I had a claim declined by them for an air-con pump because an internal bearing had failed which they put down to wear and tear even though I added air-con cover, declined a gearbox on a Mini because its a known issue, and the last straw was a electric window because the car didn't have full service history - somehow they seem to think changing the oil and filter every year will make sure the electric windows don't go wrong!! Once they've declined a warranty its very hard to make them see it from your point of view - I like you sold all the benefits of warrantywise and started to feel I was misleading customers because they seem to wriggle out of claims at will.......

Electronic handbrake and keys that don't look like keys but you still have to put them into the dash and turn them

Absolute arses......feel for you.........it's the 2nd time in a few weeks I've head of a bumper going missing, the other was off a Mondeo?

New shape Corsa and there rately timing chain!!!! Changed 3 in 2 months - just not going to stick them anymore - shame :-(

Don't be put off applying to FCA. If you get stuck give them a ring as I found them really helpful and they even saved me a bit of money advising that what I was applying for wasn't needed just to offer car finance. Get yourself an afternoon free and just go for it, there's good commission to be made plus it helps sell more cars. I like you had to opt for izettle and never had an issue with them, it works well and 2 days later you have the money. You just have to work it a bit with the customer. If the monies sat in their account the majority are happy to do a bank transfer or pay cash and people paying on credit cards are quite prepared to pay the 2% charge so I rarely lost out. They seem to be the cheapest out there, although it is worth ringing a few of the merchant companies as they all have different rules.

I work in a small town with 5 car dealers, bit over kill for the size of the town and customers who come from far away always comment on how many there are and how do we all survive but from day one we've all worked together rather that going head to head with each other so all have a slightly differing stock profile, we all have a good chin wag when we see each other and will quite happily underwrite each others part exchanges or point customers in the right direction if they arrive at the wrong dealer which is quite different from the impression most folk have of the motor trade. I travel the country buying stock and I find most in the trade are polite, pleasant folk who enjoy there job and are not the type I started with in the motortrade 20+ years ago where sales staff would do anything to get the sale, maybe the modern world of the internet and sales of goods act changes have helped focus the mind a little from profit to customer care a little more? If I do come across an unfriendly type its normally some fake Rolex wearing sales manager at a main dealer, I came across the type a few weeks ago when collecting a car from dealer auction, kept us hanging around for 10 minutes while just chatting and laughing in an office with the other staff, came out and shouted around for somebody to help him (he only had to open the key cupboard, took the p155 out of the young service receptionist then made a big deal of telling us how busy they are and how much money they're making.

Velicular your twitter link doesn't work

Yes. I had to apply for change of use from light industrial to store and sell cars. It passed easy enough but with conditions that I can't park cars outside the unit advertised for sale, no trades will take place in the unit - paintwork, serving of cars etc and opening hours are limited from 8am - 8pm weekdays and 9am - 6pm weekends and bank holidays.

A collection of photos in the back of a px book pack of a rather "arty" nature..........to make it worse it was px'd in by one of the mechanics

I'm just about to move into an industrial unit after months of trying to find a pitch at sensible money. I'm renting a 2500sq ft unit £1000 a month cheaper than the 1500sq ft pitch I was looking at. I weighed up all the pros and cons a decided on the indoor unit because I believe the benefits are more, not just the £1000 a month rent saving and £0 business rates but nice dry and warm on cold winter days, anytime viewings even in short winter months, not having to clean the car a couple of times a week (8 miles away from the steelworks but still get horrible fall out if the winds wrong), a less dell boy trotter image I would have had to shed after the last tenant on the road side pitch and currently 80% of my sales come from internet leads anyway. I gulp every time I see my advertising spend in my accounts but at the end of the day it works and I believe I'm better off spending the £1000 a month saving on internet advertising where the audience is unlimited than the pitch in the hope that one of the hundreds of cars that pass a day will like the look of one of my cars. I suppose it made my decision easier because its a nice, clean set of 5 units in the town centre so not a massive industrial estate and there's a very well respected garage and bodyshop just down the road.

Yep agree with Chris, I've had a couple pass like this with The Car Finance Company