grant8064

25 CG enquiries this month and not a reply from any of them. I even went as far as phoning a few to see if my replies were going into spam folders or something; one answered, didn't have a driving license, I got shouted at "where did you get my number" etc...the rest we're all 'number unavailable' messages. I raised it with our rep last year multiple times, she doesn't visit anymore.

Yep. The fake eBay ones seem quite rife at the moment. Do CarGurus enquiries count as spam?!

Pretty standard month for us but it's been really dire last couple of weeks for quality leads and sales. Everyone is really hard work of late, always are when it's quiet. Nothing about to buy either, our local had 120 in today and we didn't bother attending for the third week in a row...had a call just to check we were still operating! Todays lead were four CarGurus so we'll never hear from them again, an 80 year old looking to strap up over 60 months and guy travelling two hours to comment on a car being too green...I did check and it's as green in the photos as it is in the flesh. Roll on February!

I like them but it's a bit leggy for Honda buyers IMO. You won't struggle to find someone for it though, always been good news for us.

We did twelve weeks in our local rag over winter, full page, full colour, advert changed and differently themed weekly. Resulted in nothing. We hoped to pick up those older local punters but in reality they all just go online and know how FB messenger, email and search engines work just fine.

Bulk for us is an equal mix of recommendations/word of mouth, walk ons/roadside presence and AT. The few remaining ones are from FB and eBay. We also do one or two a month from CF247 and despite the reputation the process is good (the staff less so) and the customers are mostly pleasant and grateful, certainly no worse than a regular punter. Car gurus, Motors and Find and Fund are a bit of a running joke in the office for us. We're probably on some websites where they lift your stock listing without permission but they result in nothing anyway so it doesn't really matter. AA, RAC etc Had an enquiry from Autovola (spelling?) today for the first time ever but you have to pay to view the enquiry so we didn't bother. Gumtree/Schpock we tried, enquiries were a bit like being 17 trying to buy weed in a block of council flats.

+1 Exactly this.

We do some cheap S & X types so long as they're not rotted out. On a clean 'proper' car I find they either take a glance and throw their money at you and never hear from them until it's time to change or they visit three times, notepad, underneath checking on something ticketed a day previously and moan and winge about a crease in a seat bolster...don't mind a cheap S Type myself, always seem a lot of car for the money.

Snap, cheque took months last time around to be cashed so nothing to worry about.

Welcome NITM, I'll probably show my ignorance asking but why do you buy most stock from over the pond? Is it just because more is available or is stuff cheap enough to make shipping it worthwhile compared to cars at home?

Sometimes it's just a new tester given the job so it's worth mentioning it to the manager that they're being a bit of a jobsworth, failing that just move somewhere else they'll soon notice the drop in business.

Our most recent was from a neighbour whose dog s**ts all over the gravel when we're not there, it's all on CCTV so there is no denial. We had a few choice words (and I had to stop my sales guy from feeding the 'matter' back through her letterbox) and received a pitiful 1 star. Happy to leave it up there with well crafted, honest, reply. The buyers you want to attract will appreciate a professional reply to an obviously BS review, the ones you want to avoid will believe a mis-spelt, grammatically incorrect 1 star review from a scrote. If nothing else it's good for a bit of test drive ice breaking.

I've been really busy and missed most of the recent goings on so i'm a bit lost on where we are and what's going on (if anyone can put it into a succinct bullet point i'll have a read). From what i've read it seems like the whole of Europe is on a bit of an economic slowdown but i'm no economist so I don't understand the real reasons why and how much Brexit has as a part to play in that. All I do know is that I still can't find a decent trade to work on my house that's not booked up for six months, cars are still shifting as per usual and a deceased relatives flat has had no end of interest and offers within a month. Not seeing the shortage or work/money down here in the SE yet.

I hope you have a good man in Cyprus looking out for you! We've done a few export sales after being initially very very sceptical. Not proper exports, we've sold to a company who then export and resell to their buyer in Cyprus, Caribbean etc. There's a market there for certain so I can't knock it but the guys operating in this field already really know their stuff; organised, efficient, a real pleasure to deal with over a regular punter, so I hope you're going into it knowing that some of the bases are covered already.

Mechanic we use had one for under a month...averaged 6.8 MPG!

Handy to swap parts when they go wrong too! I'm joking, if we all sold the same stuff it would be a boring world.

Price board, silent salesman, window sticker on automatics only, rear window sticker because it's fun spotting them out and about. We used to use those magnetic car topper warranty boards but they kept blowing off (we're on a cliff top site) and scratching car roofs.

Just out of curiosity; that'll be a different type of VAG 1.6 tdi to the ones they chucked in 09-12 plate Golfs right? Apologies for my ignorance but we don't get as new as 65 plate yet and don't stock Supurbs

Anti bacterial wipes on hand for short notice test drive appointments. Unwinding the seat belts and wrapping them extended over the handbrake/front headrests/wherever helps.

From our experience there is no downside to self administering. If you sell lots of stuff to people outside of your local area it might be different.

A couple of Zafiras with failed engines, one of each fuel. ECU on a Fabia and A4 Cab. In fairness they're all stock at the cheaper end and all a bit on the older side. Not unexpected, I usually have a couple a week needing surgery, but it was just a bit horrid that everything hit me straight away. Anyway, enough moaning. We've been pretty busy on the selling side all through Christmas and into this first week so hopefully it continues.

Can I be Bill Murray and just start again? After a cracking 2018 I started the year with high hopes to ride out the Brexshit worries, improve marketing, make both sites more visibly appealing, cut costs, improve service, quicker turnover without sacrificing profit, etc. Ten days in and i've got engine failures (multiple), refunds (two counts as multiple), ECU failures/issues (multiple), gearbox failures (OK just the one, but it was bloody expensive to put right) and mould (multiplying at quite a rate although I think we have a grip on it now). It's a rant. We all get times like it, but right at the start of a new year just isn't fair...it's really made a dent in my new years resolution to drink less and exercise more.

Had an 09 Octavia with the same engine and same issue, 1 litre every 400 miles. Refunded customer and took it to our local Skoda for investigation, already knowing exactly what the issue was, with hope because it is such a well publicised issue ( I only realised this after buying the bloody thing). From day one the cheeky c**t service manager did everything but admit it verbally, smiles, smirks the lot, basically laughed in our faces, one of those that blames the world for his crap job that he's ended up in. After weeks of pissing about they kicked it back at us because one stamp in nine years was an indie. I hope you have more joy than we did.

If you think moving up to £4995 is going to reduce your prep costs i'd think again, not trying to be a doom monger but a £4995 Focus is still a five - eight year old car with worn out parts, no average car gets maintained properly these days. For us £200 - £400 per unit average prep costs plus the odd 1K bill is typical. Having wasted many an evening trying to compete with benefits moonlighters and local takeaway owners at sub 2K auctions I feel your pain, good luck!

Must have been really cheap if you went ahead...get what you pay for.