Gavin@Rousdon

5.30 pm on a Saturday.....plus can we have a test drive? Is it ok to take the dog in the car?

The truth is you don't need premises, VAT, trade plates etc, insurance is a legal issue and is covered by existing laws, trading standards covers the quality of the vehicle. The issue is twofold that there is very little will to enforce the law and you can't stop stupid people from being stupid when it comes to vehicle's if it moves forward and backward that's all they care about. Would it be that hard for the police to organise a 'sting' operation with Trading Standards and VOSA outside an auction on a general sale day? Have they? The fact they haven't shows how much they care about the issue.

James, if you can talk to the government that would be great, maybe we should push for a minister to be give a role off overseen the 'motor trade'. Year after year we hear stories of how cars generate the most complaints to trading standards but we see very little action from government to help overcome this issue. The sale of goods act has so many grey areas which helps neither customers of dealers. I'm sure we have a cross section of dealers here selling from sub £2000 car upto maybe some main dealers and from different parts of the country. Even the roadside traders deserve to have a voice if only to try and offer education to them, everyone has to start somewhere. Acting like vigilantes and putting stickers on cars will achieve very little in the long term

Also don't put the P/X in trade. The DVLA need to think your customer owns both cars. Explain that the customer will receive 2 V5's in the post (show them what the V5 is to be sure) and they need to send the one for the Renault back to yourself. Once you receive this you can put the Renault into trade.

A few years ago my Dealer Portal was hacked and cars were put on priced at £5-6k under what they should have been with photos with an email address stamped on them. (I'm sure we have all seen the type of adverts I mean). Now it looked like a scam and the cars weren't just cheap but TOO CHEAP. I spent a morning answering phone calls about these cars or replying to emails which said 'I've tried to email you on the email in the photo but had no response". People seemed to genuinely believe they could buy £12k BMW's for £6k etc. I'm sure with a bit of sales talk these people would of sent me a deposit via PayPal or other means. It seems some people just don't have a clue. Lots of the advice on buying cars seems to be focused around getting a 'Good Deal' or 'How to Haggle' which is all well and good but maybe they should include advice on 'How not to get screwed over' within their poorly written articles too.

How much I knock off depends on the car and the deal. I'm happy to deal a one or 2 year old car for minimal profit at times. If that means knocking £500 or even £700 off so be it. If that customer is going to buy I would rather it be from me. Its a unit sold. I tend to buy in bulk 2 or 3 times a month so its a case of turning over stock. I'm different on stock sub £10000 as its not going to depreciate at such a rate if it sits there and you also have the potential for it to come back under warranty. Also if it's something specialist with high or rare spec you have to try and realise a true value for it.

My first idea was Corgi or Matchbox based car with logo. I sometimes have some of my son's toy cars in my office and other children seem to make a beeline for them. I bought a few mini BMW toy cars for him off ebay and ended up giving a few away to children of customers, cost me about £3 each in bulk !!! Or maybe a car based 'Umesh' branded colouring or sticker book but I imagine the cost would mount up. As a father or a 5 and a 2 year old I can promise you Lego would be a hit but the price of it would put me off for something that's given away!

From memory I had to take an extra product (live chat @ £10 per week) to protect the price of 'Standout listing' and 'Extra Gallery' (cant remember the exact name). Seems that protection has ended. Funny how the pricing structure gets published so close to the price increase.

Maybe that is more the problem, unless the cars are sub-standard why should a sales person not be motivated to sell them, I hope a few P45's where handed out!!! Also moving location is fine, but smaller independents don't have that luxury but I agree re-imaging cars is always worthwhile, I'm amazed how many poorly imaged vehicles are on the internet.

I did a deal with CarFinance247 about 6 weeks ago, after the rep offered me the chance to advertise my cars on their website, the deal was that I pay £150 if I sell a car to one of their customers who is taking finance with them. It seems they are now pushing this under the 'Carcraft' banner. I guessing they want customers to view the cars and apply for finance online where they deal with the application. I theory not a bad idea, their customers are normally sub-prime so on a higher APR plus they get £150 from the dealer, in return the dealer gets a hassle free (hopefully) sale. In my experience CarFinance247 customers seem more concerned about getting the finance and just pick up the car and drive away.

Umesh....I would trade or do a swap but there aren't really any dealers around here to do that with!! In reality I drop the price to get it gone. A car is just a unit offering a potential for profit. You can leave a car sat there for 6 months and take a decent profit or you could trade it and reinvest the money in the hope you turn over the next car quickly, selling 2 cars and trading one in the time it could take to sell the original one. Some cars I may hold to a bit longer because I have faith in them, things like 4x4 coming into winter or something oddball in a marmite colour which is priced well.

Price check it a 30 days, reduce at 60 days, get gone at 90 days

Run with it, a quick goggle search show www.wbac.com is a firm of accountants. There is a company online called we-buy-all-cars.co.uk so I'm sure there are many more variations of WBAC around.

Maybe independent dealers have got sick of buying mis-described car that they have underwritten for Main Dealers. With no money in new cars or demo's it must hurt when a trader refuses a p/x or wants a £500 chip on the price. Cars are so technical now yet the average main dealer salesman will claim they don't have the time or not care enough to drive it. A quick look at dealer-auction will tell you how some dealers view their p/x vehicles, forums tell stories of dealers picking up poorly described vehicle. Maybe the party is over for Main Dealers!!!! A few years ago £200-£300 could bring a car with a hidden fault to retail standard now you can spend that just trying to find a fault.

Just read the interview, to be fair to him he comes across as honest....but also a touch arrogant. Improving customer service is one thing but it seems AT have decided on their route and aren't changing their view. That's all well and good but his response to GG's 1st question (pointy shoes etc) makes me feel they have become a little one dimensional and have a team which are only allowed to think one way. I hope he isn't surrounding himself with yes men. Saying 'We have more experts in the business then you'll ever find on a single forecourt in the UK' show a lot of disrespect to small UK motor dealers. If he likes I can send Mr Mather my BCA account number, my debit card and the catalogue for the next BMW Open auction I will attend. Will be interesting to see an real world increase in profit and stock turn when he follows the data he is trying to sell us.

Not to bad down in the South West, as Jim says we are very good at talking ourselves into doom and gloom!!. It's a bit of a lottery as to what sells with cars that should go easy going overage etc etc, Convertibles have been a mixed bag, Mini's convertibles no problem whereas BMW/Audi are hard work. I think this time of the year brings out a lot of non buyers who don't really know what they want but like looking and asking, mix this with the increase in emails asking for £2000 to be knocked off the price of a car and it can seem a frustrating time. In footballing terms you have to 'Grind out a result' !! When it gets going again and look over the year as a whole I think we all will be happy compared with a few years ago.

I think the reason for 3 year lease's is due to most new cars having a 3 year warranty on them, unless manufacturers increase the warranty length I can still see 3 years staying the norm. The lease companies may still insist on the cars getting an MOT type inspection before handback which happens now (MOT a month before lease end). Also many PCP deals work with the cars going back after 2 or 3 years. I imagine people buying long term will take out normal HP finance. Not to sure why it's been changed to 4 years as it's hardly something people have been complaining about. I'm sure there are a lot of unroadworthy cars less then 3 years old on the road. Maybe 4 years or 60000 Miles would be a better idea. Cost to the industry, well number of new car registered in 2017 x £54 (cost of MOT) as a rough guide !! But hopefully workshops will calm the money back as cars may need more spending on them due to things which would have been picked up on a MOT will become bigger job due to uncaring owners not maintaining there cars (example being brake pads turn into brake pads and disc's). Or maybe thats my wishful thinking

Sometimes I wonder what goes on in customers heads, they seem to resent spending money on cars but the case above is just someone blatantly lying. If it had happened to me I would have been producing a bill to the customer for the work carried making sure every minute is accounted for including time spent driving the car to the garage etc. The car would also be locked in the garage until the bill had been paid. I had a case about 10 years ago where a customer damaged a car I lent them whilst I was carrying out a warranty repair on their car. The damage was to the two n/s doors and I asked for £200 to repair. She sent her husband to pick up the car once it was ready, I gave him the key to swap his items between the two cars agreeing to sort out payment for the damage and tie up the warranty paperwork once car seats and children were in the car. Next thing I look up and see the Nissan Terrano leaving the forecourt in a rapid manner. So I phone the lady who refused to pay using the reasoning that if she had been driving her own car she wouldn't of repaired it, as her car was getting fixed for a fault that wasn't of her making the same should apply to the car I lent her. I them politely pointed out the in his haste to leave her husband had left his wallet and house keys in the damaged Volvo I had lent them. I did offer to take the left items to her house and discuss the situation there (outside where neighbours may hear). She refused my kind offer and agreed £200 was fair and paid over the phone there and then. 10 minutes later her husband returned looking sheepish!! To be fair to him he apologised saying 'Sorry, I had to do what she told me to do, I would have paid you !!!' I guess some people just don't want to take responsibility for there own actions.

not sure as I've never really saw i-control but I have the feeling they may share elements such as regional desirability etc etc

Now the clock at counted down to zero I was wondering if anyone had signed upto to Retail Checker via their Dealer Portal? It seemed a massively flawed product in my view at an eye watering price. Certain aspects were useful but it was based around a unrealistic trade price and a suggested retail price which would put your car at the upper end compared to others for sale. Not looking to knock Autotrader as I'm a fan in all honestly, but I would be amazed if this product stays in the form it is and at the price it is. Can't see what it offers over using CAP and searching on AT.

​If you mind works like this I can see why its safer you play these games rather the sitting on the internet all day !!!!!

Retail Checker - Can they not see the flaws in the product? What Autotrader do well is deliver leads to us dealers, they understand how consumers search and much more. What they don't understand is how small differences in specification can effect a value of a vehicle. Do they not feel they are taking a big risk by launching a product such as Retail Checker at a cost of over £2000 per year to dealers which shows a basic lack of understanding of valuing cars whilst at the same time risks using up a large proportion of the remaining goodwill shown to them by the motor trade?

You could brick the f@@@er's in GG but then would then just phone us and email us with stupidity!! You know the ones that send 5 emails and then tell us that they only purchased their p/x a few months ago and fully expect to lose a lot of money, turns out they want £200 less then what they paid !!!!

Option 2......especially if it involves ex-Liverpool players who still think LFC are a big club!!!!!!

Had two over the bank holiday weekend, to be fair both phone back 3 hours after arranging a viewing to cancel but by then I had cancelled what I had planed to do to accommodate them. Then on Wednesday I had arranged to pick a customer up from the local train station at 3pm so they could pick up their new car, they phone at 2.30 to say they will be getting in at 5pm. The problem being that I have to pick up my children at 5 also. I get the feeling people go through life without considering others, we try and make out of hours appointments for the customers benefit but they seem to think we spend our 1 day off and time out of hours waiting for them rather then having our own family life.