Velicular

It was very interesting to listen to what he said about dealerships that there are less but they are bigger as they are becoming brand experience centres. He goes on to talk about VR within the showroom to compliment customers experience. So how long is it going to be before a dealership places a dealership in a high street and you can go experience the vehicle via VR and if you would like to have a real test drive they bring one up from a storage area for you to try?

It would depend on what you would like the app to do. You could make an app that informed customers of service dates etc. Most people want apps to be useful and fulfil a purpose within their life to make something easier. For example the expiry app that tracks foods in your refrigerator is handy for some people as it tells them what they need to eat now before it perishes. There is a good write up at Edmunds about car apps. Ideally you want to have an app for your customers to download that builds your brand and that they will pass on to friends within your area and so help get your name in front of new customers. If the app was built correctly you could feed ads of your stock through it for users to see. In fact you just gave me a good idea for one that is not on the market place yet!

Here is an interesting article about deposits and rights. http://www.thecarexpert.co.uk/bought-a-car-and-changed-my-mind/ Though giving the deposit back is the kind thing to do and may get you some credibility. I say might because if they have found a truck cheaper else where they are going to slate you for the truck being too expensive, so either way you lose. I think I have become too cynical! Anyway have a read it is quite interesting written from a consumers rights not a dealers.

I would have thought a deposit was for you to hold the truck and not sell it to anyone else. If he paid a deposit and never came back for the truck even though you have contacted him I would think you have the right to give him written notice for 10 days to complete the transaction or he loses his deposit. Hey I am not a solicitor or really know anything about the law but it seems you have done your part and held it for him. If some one else had come along to purchase the truck you could not have sold it to them or you would have been in breach of contract.

Ok so you are trying to take a different perspective so the customer sees the picture and is intrigued to look as it is not the norm.

Nice setting soft to the eye. Could start a trend of where was the picture taken to get more interest in your website, Facebook posts etc!

The question is though how long before you have to follow before being left behind. Look at Imperial Car Supermarket, they are quite a large business now and for them to move in that direction is a huge step. I remember on the Trade Plates TV when the director was interviewed he said all their stock was now 360 (VR) ready. The younger generations have come to expect that sort of interaction and it will only expect more as the years go by. If you ask how many dealers used car customers visit today it is far less than several years ago. They are now willing to travel a greater distance to obtain the car they desire. Customers can now sit at home and brows thousands of ads for what they want before visiting a dealer. May be in 20 years the car sales lot or forecourt or what ever you want to call it might be obsolete. We might have advanced to a stage where you have a compound where you keep your stock to sell. I dread to think this will happen but it is possible it will go that way. I know there is a dealership in Bristol who deals in a specific offering which is SUV's they have everything you can think of but no sales area. you view everything from the internet with them. They have a thriving business.

I have often wondered the same points as to where do they get the money and having spent 5 to 10 million on a new showroom does that not put customers off thinking that they can waste money on building a huge fancy showroom but the prices are inflated because of it. I wonder if customers would rather see less spectacular dealerships and cheaper cars? This article explains quite a lot and sort of ties in with my question earlier about virtual images (360 Panoramic) are worth the cost. By the report it would seem a lot of manufacturers are looking away from the showroom.

Looks good to me. Shines and that is what a car should do. There are a lot of tutorials on the internet on how to use Photoshop etc which can make a huge difference when presenting a car. Just have to remember not to take out and dings etc

Does anyone on here pay a photographer to take the pictures of their stock and if so do you think that their (the photographer) services are reasonably priced or inflated? I was having a conversation with a dealer and he is going completely virtual with his stock. Something similar to Imperial Car Supermarket. It seems more dealers are using 360 virtual tours but is the price worth it? The dealer I was talking to said his cost was fifty pounds a unit.

I think they are going to put a bid in on FB as dealers seem to be moving their in droves! They can then increase the prices and make even more money. As for the second pic I think the driver tried to deliver and played it off as if he didn't know anything with something like "Well bugger me I just popped in for a cup of tea and a bacon butty at the café on the way over, some bugger must have been stood next to my lorry with a bad case of gas and it exploded!"

Thank you Alastair for clearing up some of my concerns. I do agree your statement. A lot of the so called "go to places" have become over complicated and to some extent unusable. As we learn more about databases and rational uses and extracting information from them I think we have forgotten some times more is just too much. Looking back and it still applies today, if a customer does not find on your website what they want within 30 seconds they will be gone to the next site. May be we need to all re-evaluate our thoughts about the web and how we use it to interact with customers.

This is a great article but as with all statistics and polls there can be a lot of information missing. If we stop to examine where the poll took place would be a good starting point. What was the proportionate demographic ranges within the poll, eg, ages, locations and incomes? All these have a very big impact on the information obtained. Statistics are like bikinis. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital. ~Aaron Levenstein There is no doubt a huge market of people who do not use the internet to search for cars etc. To throw a spanner in the works consider this for a moment. How many customers are you losing because you do not present your website in multi language accessibility. Of the three hundred languages spoken in the UK the second most prevalent language to English is Polish. It would be interesting how changing your website to multi language would affect your sales as well on the internet. Here is a few other reasons I have problems with the article. and I quote: "UK CAR dealers could be missing out on as much as £14 billion of used car sales through their websites, according to new research which shows nearly one in three adults bought their last car WITHOUT using the internet." Note the emphasis on WITHOUT that is capitalised. Then the article goes on to say, " It found that 30 per cent of people who had previously bought a car said they didn’t use traditional car sites such as AutoTrader or Motors.co.uk the last time they made a purchase." The writer is now saying that the same 1 in 3 adults did not use Auto Trader or Morors.co.uk, not that they did not use the internet. He then goes on to say, "‘The statistics speak for themselves. A third of people didn’t go online to buy their last car" So does the article contradict its self? Or are we to take it that the author pertains that unless you use AT or Motors.co.uk you are not searching online? I think there should be some clarification as to these statements. I know I am been picky but there are a lot of holes in the article. I can see and have found through research that there is a move away from websites like AT etc. Another discussion on this forum is about walk-ins and as many of you have stated it does make a difference to your business if you are not advertising or promoting your business through other means. After all we are all some what like magpies and attracted to shiny objects and if something catches your eye while you are passing you are going to look. That is why high street shops spend thousands decorating their windows displays to attract us to walk in. Non the less its is an article worth reading and there are some interesting points to it.

As stated knowing your demographics and target age groups is a must for advertising to the right audience on the correct platform. I have attached a report from Bi Intelligence that shows the age range and usage of each platform. Hope this helps someone.

I think a lot is lost in paid advertising with FB. Yes you can select audiences etc but how many other people are also marketing to the same audience? For your ad to stand out you have to be very different and creative in some ways. Building a brand awareness locally for your business on FB will pay dividends over paid advertising. Yes it takes a while longer to do but the results are astounding. Remember most people are on FB for social reasons. Yes the odd add catches someone's eye but it is slim pickings. Building a brand will keep visitors crossing your door step because you are not trying to sell to them. In some ways it works as a reverse phycology. A bigger bang for your pound in advertising is sticky adds as I like to call them. Have you noticed that when you search the web for a product it does not matter which site you go to afterwards that has advertising on it, the item you were looking at is there in the ad. These adds have proved to give better results because they follow people around on the net. Also they are cheaper than FB advertising.

They seem popular cars lots around on the road. My sister has one and she loves it. Where are you located?

Yes the factory installed Sat Naves are a pain and they want to much money for updates etc. Would like to see a car company put a Linux operating system in a car then you could run several Nav systems that are free and better than those supplied. Oh yes the new hand brakes are a complete pain I am with you on the well placed handle to pull! Some interesting comments and enlightening points about what's good and bad.

I was just talking to someone about the features on a vehicle we were looking at. The conversation turns to features and best of and worst of. What are some of the worst features you have come across on cars and what are some of the best. For me wiper sensor is the worst. I can see when its raining and can turn on my wipers if I want them on. I don't need the car doing for me. It is as bad a certain German car I owned years ag that told me what gear I should be in when driving, just as annoying. The best feature I think is Heads Up Display. It helps drives become more aware of the road as you do not need to look down at your dashboard to see how fast your going while trying to avoid the speed camera ticket! lol Do you think we have gone too far with features?

Yes you are very right. It is fantastic you had 2 sales today and I hope that RS Car Sales has the best month ever to make up for the idiot that stole the bumper.

I know gun laws are very different there and I had to learn very quickly about why you would want a gun at all. The idea is that if all the nice people gave up their guns and never owned another the bad guys would still have them. Even in our wonderful country England, the bad guys always get guns. It is not the nice person who is being robbed that has the gun but the person doing the robbing. I lived in the US for 15 years and crime with guns is not as high as people are lead to believe. There is a lot of shootings between rival gangs and I think they should let them shoot each other and arrest who is left at the end personally. Interestingly enough is the fact tat per capita more people are injured via knifes in the UK than people are shot in the USA. I would like to quote the source of this statement but it is another website and I do not know if you can post other URL's in a post. "Well, the 2010 stats apparently report 130,000 knife attacks in the UK during that year (an approximation, but all of these stats are). Looking at the Bureau of Justice Statistics Criminal Victimization report for the same year, approximately 337,960 gun attacks (I am presuming that both numbers include rapes/sexual assaults, robberies, and simple assaults, which appears to be the case at first glance). As the population of the UK is listed as approximately 62,641,000 and the USA is 311,591,517, we get approximately .0021 knife attacks per capita in the UK and .0011 knife attacks per capita in the USA. Assuming the veracity of all these numbers, then it would be true to say that there are more knife attacks per capita in the UK than gun attacks in the US." There is a saying guns don't kill people, people kill people. I have just broken one of my sacred laws, never to discuses politics and religion. My view may jive with a few of you out there while it offends others. It is not my intention to offend anyone and I deeply apologise to any one who takes offence at my post.

Well many years ago I had a 14,000 sq ft ware house in Exeter. We kept being broken into despite alarm systems etc. So I stayed there several nights and eventually we caught the people breaking in. I called the police and they were arrested. They were taken to crown court and the person who was with me and my self were requested to give evidence. I said that the thief's arrived at 3.20am and the other person said that they arrived at 3.25am. The judge dismissed the case because our times were different. Out side the court I was talking to the detective about the case and one of the guys who had tried to break in walked over and said in front of the detective. "Well me and my mates will be back and we will put you out of business for this" Amazing the breakings went up and I could do nothing about it. I closed the business laying off 20 staff. I lost a good friend many years ago because his home was broken into and they beat him up in front of his wife and children after raping his wife multiple times. The people who do these crimes are not normal members of society. Should you not have the right to protect your family and belongings. Do you think that these people should just be allowed to steal from honest hard working people and get a tap on the wrist? As for calling the police they are not interested any more because they are too under manned. We need to place bobby's back on the beat and lots of them. Do you not think you should be allowed to protect your own property? Would I shoot them? Yes I would. I believe in the right to protect yourself your family and your property. If someone gets into your house in the middle of the night through a window or what ever other opening they use and you or a family member did not invite them in then they are not there for a social visit.

It is bad when you lose out when trying to make a living because someone else is light fingered. May be we should start to cut the hands off those that steal. It might work as a deterrent. That is one point I do miss about the USA is that you can shoot robbers as long as you catch them with the items in their hands on your property. I hope you find a solution to your problem as you have not just lost the bumper and have to cover replacement costs and labour but also the potential to lose a sale as well which is a double whammy! Hope it all works out for you on a good note.

It mouse't have been a shock!

Thank you Bethany for replying. I have sent you an email. Regards

Have you a link to todays broadcast for those of us who missed it at 1 o'clock?