Advice Needed! 30 Car Site Setup

[Dealer 54]

Good evening, only found this site the day before yesterday and have already enlightened myself with some of the information I have read so far. I have been in a partnership for the last 2 years and have less experience in the trade than the others. The time has now come to go it alone (these partnerships are hard work) and i am taking over a small 30 car site myself. Few questions to put to you chaps if you don't mind. 

1) with only 30 cars in stock and an obvious lack of footfall do you have to sit there all day every day waiting for a punter or do you think it will be ok to try and push people down the appointment route to free yourself up to run errands and vehicles around etc thus saving on other staff costs. I'm already aware that all our business is internet based and we'd be lucky if 6 walk ons/drive by's a year led to sales 

2) warranties, now I know about the self administering policy route but does anyone actually do an in-house system where they just pay for any work that needs doing on any vehicles and how do they word their terms and conditions. There's a guy down the road who just states 1 month, engine and gearbox return to base only, dont know how he gets away with this. 

3) advertising, what works best for you, I'm looking to get ten autotrader slots to start along with eBay and possibly motors, any other recommendations, I don't want to use exchange and fart and am currently on the fence with slumtree due to the constant beggars offering paltry amounts for your vehicles. 

 Any help would be greatly appreciated, I'm sure I'll have some more questions in time. 

 

 

[Rory RSC 596]

With 30 cars and 10 Autotrader slots how is that going to work? 

 

 

[Dealer 54]

21 minutes ago, Rory RSC said:

With 30 cars and 10 Autotrader slots how is that going to work? 

 

 

HI, most likely just put the more expensive stuff on there, as they sell I'll just tick the boxes on the back of our website to move another into that slot. It's way too expensive to put everything on autotrader. 

[justina3 518]

Only advise i could offer is I would ditch the motors cost, the rest you will no doubt learn from the book of hard knocks.

 

[Dealer 54]

34 minutes ago, tradex said:

......now that does seem a tad random.

I have found that it tends to be the least expensive stuff that doesn't do so well on autotrader, maybe it's just a geographical thing with the area we are in. 

[Rory RSC 596]

Its your shop window  - All needs to be on there IMO at all times to get the best results.

[Dealer 54]

2 hours ago, Rory RSC said:

Its your shop window  - All needs to be on there IMO at all times to get the best results.

Out of curiosity, what sort of size stock levels are some of you holding and are you putting them all on autotrader? Cost for 30 cars is well over 3k a month 

[trade vet 702]

Hi there

Is this pitch in a good location,can you describe whether or not it is on a main road,visible to passers by ,how many car frontage etc.As for warranties,we have done our own for 20 years.Just lift the clauses from other warranty books and tailor them to your business.However,if I was doing it again,I would emphasise it as a 'power train ' warranty,although you cannot use the word warranty ( unless you are underwritten by Lloyds etc.).You could call it Power Train Mechanical Agreement,throw it in and it will pay dividends over time,you just pay £100 per car into a ring fenced account and the claims should not hurt !

As for advertising,that depends on the description of your pitch.

[Rory RSC 596]

1 hour ago, Dealer said:

Out of curiosity, what sort of size stock levels are some of you holding and are you putting them all on autotrader? Cost for 30 cars is well over 3k a month 

46  package on AT. Biggest bill. Best advertising return to be fair.

[Dealer 54]

2 hours ago, trade vet said:

Hi there

Is this pitch in a good location,can you describe whether or not it is on a main road,visible to passers by ,how many car frontage etc.As for warranties,we have done our own for 20 years.Just lift the clauses from other warranty books and tailor them to your business.However,if I was doing it again,I would emphasise it as a 'power train ' warranty,although you cannot use the word warranty ( unless you are underwritten by Lloyds etc.).You could call it Power Train Mechanical Agreement,throw it in and it will pay dividends over time,you just pay £100 per car into a ring fenced account and the claims should not hurt !

As for advertising,that depends on the description of your pitch.

Thanks for the reply, it's a decent location on a main road through a semi rural town/village with approx room for 27 vehicles, there's also more room to the rear. Points noted about the warranties, really pleased with the other responses I've had so far too

[grant8064 219]

1 hour ago, Rory RSC said:

46  package on AT. Biggest bill. Best advertising return to be fair.

We're on the same package as Rory...45 on AT and another 30 in stock that we rotate.

Biggest bill followed closely by rent but worth it.

[trade vet 702]

53 minutes ago, Dealer said:

Thanks for the reply, it's a decent location on a main road through a semi rural town/village with approx room for 27 vehicles, there's also more room to the rear. Points noted about the warranties, really pleased with the other responses I've had so far too

Sounds promising,open pitches are all about presentation,colour and kerbside appeal.Stock must be washed and leathered every day by 10 am,looking mint and be attractively priced up at all times.I learned this long ago when our pitch was competing with 12 others in the same street ! There is no time to sit in the office,there is always something to do out on the pitch among the stock which needs improving.Do that and you should get at least 2 walk ins per week,so you may not need to put all of your stock on the dreaded Auto Trader.

[It's me 615]

29 minutes ago, trade vet said:

Sounds promising,open pitches are all about presentation,colour and kerbside appeal.Stock must be washed and leathered every day by 10 am,looking mint and be attractively priced up at all times.I learned this long ago when our pitch was competing with 12 others in the same street ! There is no time to sit in the office,there is always something to do out on the pitch among the stock which needs improving.Do that and you should get at least 2 walk ins per week,so you may not need to put all of your stock on the dreaded Auto Trader.

brilliant post this one

amount of places that think unpriced badly parked flat battery rubbish is doing them any favours just leaves  me exasperated,you feel like going in their portakabin kicking the mobile phone they are messing with out of their hand and booming come with me.........now..................

[SuperLease 13]

After 10yrs we have recently (July) come away from a roadside forecourt. They require too much effort for little reward these days so we are now 100% reliant on internet traffic. We cut down our overheads to account for our online spend otherwise we would not be in business. Working from a unit has far more benefits than working from a pitch. We have more free time to buy and do the important stuff only wish we had done it sooner. I would think very carefully about taking over a forecourt these days. As for warranties we stand by the stock ourselves unless we sell something long distance or high spec then we buy an off the shelf. Best of luck whichever way you decide to go...

[Dealer 54]

33 minutes ago, SuperLease said:

After 10yrs we have recently (July) come away from a roadside forecourt. They require too much effort for little reward these days so we are now 100% reliant on internet traffic. We cut down our overheads to account for our online spend otherwise we would not be in business. Working from a unit has far more benefits than working from a pitch. We have more free time to buy and do the important stuff only wish we had done it sooner. I would think very carefully about taking over a forecourt these days. As for warranties we stand by the stock ourselves unless we sell something long distance or high spec then we buy an off the shelf. Best of luck whichever way you decide to go...

I have been thinking exactly this for quite some time, if we had to rely on walk ons we'd be lucky to get half a dozen sales per year, with a unit it's surely working around you rather than being tied to the site 9am till 6 or even 7pm every day. What sort of cost is a decent size unit costing though, how many do you stock and is it only suitable to higher end stuff?

[SuperLease 13]

13 minutes ago, Dealer said:

I have been thinking exactly this for quite some time, if we had to rely on walk ons we'd be lucky to get half a dozen sales per year, with a unit it's surely working around you rather than being tied to the site 9am till 6 or even 7pm every day. What sort of cost is a decent size unit costing though, how many do you stock and is it only suitable to higher end stuff?

Depends on location as to what you will pay we rent a 3000sqft with an option to extend to 6000sqft. We can hold 10 - 12 comfortably with an office area for doing business plus whatever we are driving. The problem with a pitch is joe public expect you to be there whenever they choose to turn up. We don’t advertise appointments only I think it puts people off. We get the odd one just turns up but it’s only 15mins away from home so can always nip out if needs be. We mainly have late plate German stock never had a customer comment on the fact we’re in a unit. Stock is always clean and dry too. Marketing spend is never gonna get cheaper so we needed to cut other costs. 

[Dealer 54]

14 minutes ago, SuperLease said:

Depends on location as to what you will pay we rent a 3000sqft with an option to extend to 6000sqft. We can hold 10 - 12 comfortably with an office area for doing business plus whatever we are driving. The problem with a pitch is joe public expect you to be there whenever they choose to turn up. We don’t advertise appointments only I think it puts people off. We get the odd one just turns up but it’s only 15mins away from home so can always nip out if needs be. We mainly have late plate German stock never had a customer comment on the fact we’re in a unit. Stock is always clean and dry too. Marketing spend is never gonna get cheaper so we needed to cut other costs. 

Having say 15 approx for sale how many per month do you turn over. 

[SuperLease 13]

Worst month so far was 9 best month 12 target is to get to 15 per month. 

[Dealer 54]

With decent margins though surely so 12 would mean that you are well in profit? 

[SuperLease 13]

15 minutes ago, Dealer said:

With decent margins though surely so 12 would mean that you are well in profit? 

Well we’re not doing it just for the fun of it :-) profits not a dirty word. It’s still hard graft it just means you work harder on different things. 

[grant8064 219]

15 hours ago, Dealer said:

I have been thinking exactly this for quite some time, if we had to rely on walk ons we'd be lucky to get half a dozen sales per year, with a unit it's surely working around you rather than being tied to the site 9am till 6 or even 7pm every day. What sort of cost is a decent size unit costing though, how many do you stock and is it only suitable to higher end stuff?

If you run a forecourt/pitch and are only doing half a dozen sales per year from walk ons you've either taken on premises in the middle of nowhere or are doing something very very wrong.

The internet is great but we're still doing approx 50% of sales to passers by and walk ins. Stock has to be correct for the demographic of your area, priced right and well presented.

Our pitch has a lower rateable value than a similar sized unit and the rent is about the same as a unit half the size.

Yes you have to man the place but we keep opening hours rigid...like Tesco we are just a shop and have opening hours just like any other.

[It's me 615]

1 hour ago, grant8064 said:

 

Yes you have to man the place but we keep opening hours rigid...like Tesco we are just a shop and have opening hours just like any other.

yes otherwise customers abuse you i find

[RH Trading 80]

On 08/11/2017 at 7:56 AM, Dealer said:

Good evening, only found this site the day before yesterday and have already enlightened myself with some of the information I have read so far. I have been in a partnership for the last 2 years and have less experience in the trade than the others. The time has now come to go it alone (these partnerships are hard work) and i am taking over a small 30 car site myself. Few questions to put to you chaps if you don't mind. 

1) with only 30 cars in stock and an obvious lack of footfall do you have to sit there all day every day waiting for a punter or do you think it will be ok to try and push people down the appointment route to free yourself up to run errands and vehicles around etc thus saving on other staff costs. I'm already aware that all our business is internet based and we'd be lucky if 6 walk ons/drive by's a year led to sales 

2) warranties, now I know about the self administering policy route but does anyone actually do an in-house system where they just pay for any work that needs doing on any vehicles and how do they word their terms and conditions. There's a guy down the road who just states 1 month, engine and gearbox return to base only, dont know how he gets away with this. 

3) advertising, what works best for you, I'm looking to get ten autotrader slots to start along with eBay and possibly motors, any other recommendations, I don't want to use exchange and fart and am currently on the fence with slumtree due to the constant beggars offering paltry amounts for your vehicles. 

 Any help would be greatly appreciated, I'm sure I'll have some more questions in time. 

 

 

Never sit around all day waiting for a punter, but with that size of stock view by appointment only don’t think works, people will enevitably let you down and not turn up. Keep busy, don’t waste time traipsing round auctions and being away from the site if that’s how you stock, do it online if you can across many websites.

get some proper legal advice on warranties T’s and C’s check, ask Lawjaw on here, he’s a member of lawgistics and could help. some aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on, we have a workshop and do most ourselves but still use WMS, shop around

the AutoTrader works best for us, love it or hate it, they’re expensive for a reason, they work. I have all 35 cars on their ranging from £5k up to £20k, any cheap part ex’s under a £1500 are free I think but only rarely put these on, it’s not just for expensive stuff. Don’t put your eggs in one basket though, I use the AutoTrader as main source of leads but always dabbling to see what works, whatever you use make sure you measure it, nothing worse than paying a fortune for advertising (our biggest bill) and not knowing if it works. Exchange and Mart is useless, where would you go to buy a car if you weren’t a dealer?

 

 

Above is only my opinion though AM, don’t want to sound like I’m telling you what to do mate, good luck with everything hope you’re a success (unless you’re based near me)

Edited November 11, 2017 by RH Trading
Correction