Location Location Location

[Ek cars 17]

What is everyones opinions on location in uk when it comes to buying cars ? Reason I ask is that I am becoming increasingly disillusioned with Glasgow and surrounding area in terms of lack of sales.  Saturated would be an understatement in most big city's these days and understandably if you have the right stock people will travel however getting increasingy difficult and after 9 years I am ready to up sticks to somewhere more resolute either that or stock up on automatics and sell in London.  In my opinion if you are down south low mileage cars will command more money and sell a lot faster than up here in Scotland, opinions ?  

 

Also considering an auto trader package for 20 cars as I believe Gumtree and Ebay is too slow and Auto trader still most popular with dealer edit page and certain cars like crv diesels always sell fast on a.t and slowly in other media services.

[whitestone679231 113]

You want to move to London AND have an Autotrader package..... I thought my wife had expensive tastes and knew how to waste money

[justina3 518]

And you think London isnt saturated !! if i was to relocate i would be looking at someone small and quiet where you can build a local customer base, needle in a haystack comes to mind.

 

[whitestone679231 113]

As a quick survey go on AT and search within 5 miles and see how many cars are for sale...... I got 6445..... 

[trade vet 702]

Forget London,especially South London,been there,done that,got the tee shirt etc. Costs are sky high,punters were all sub prime and that was 15 years ago.Because the traffic hardly moves,it was hard to get punters to travel more than 5 miles.Stay where you are,change your business model,where do you buy your stock !

[metcars 397]

I'm in East London and i've got 9941?

Selling LandRovers to a small rural community is every dealers erotic dream

[Earunder 69]

If you're in a good catchment area with low competition (as suggested below) you're buying the wrong stock for your local consumers.  It's like opening a pub outside a nursery and driving school.  IMO forget London as the rent and business rates are too high and let's be honest people with good credit, good pay packets will always tend to go to the more established and reputable London showrooms and pay that extra for the courtesy.  The highly intuitive London consumer is fickle, but they aren't worried about splashing an extra few thousand if they feel comfortable.

42 minutes ago, whitestone679231 said:

As a quick survey go on AT and search within 5 miles and see how many cars are for sale...... I got 6445..... 

 

[Rory RSC 596]

Buy stock where customers want to travel from far and wide because you have what they desire.

 

Do most of my business well outside a 50 mile radius due to having well equipped stock.

[grant8064 219]

2 hours ago, whitestone679231 said:

As a quick survey go on AT and search within 5 miles and see how many cars are for sale...... I got 6445..... 

I only got 421 and only 229 are used!

I am trying to sell to 50% fish though being located by the seaside.

I regularly look at premises in the Midlands near the other half's parents...five years rent at my present site would buy me a similar sized freehold site up there. Tempting figures but I couldn't move away from the sea. My customer demographic here is pretty nice too...I couldn't bear to move to the Midlands and get asked 'best price, last price' by a certain demographic all day every day. 

[It's me 615]

the key is having what people want

they wills travel a bit then see

[Arfur Dealy 823]

This is interesting, mine is 6659 within 5 miles, but only 8061 within 15 miles and 19471 within 50 miles.......

[metcars 397]

5 hours ago, grant8064 said:

I regularly look at premises in the Midlands near the other half's parents...five years rent at my present site would buy me a similar sized freehold site up there. Tempting figures but I couldn't move away from the sea. My customer demographic here is pretty nice too...I couldn't bear to move to the Midlands and get asked 'best price, last price' by a certain demographic all day every day. 

Interesting. I'd have thought that being in the Midlands would be the ideal location. It has the largest concentration of large auction houses and everyone there needs a car to get anywhere as public transport is insufficient. Down here in the 'big smoke' we have a complex public transport system with buses and tubes. In many respects, it's not driving a car that is expensive down here but parking/storing it, especially if you are in the City. In many respects, owning a car in London is an encumberment/liability.

[grant8064 219]

1 hour ago, met said:

Interesting. I'd have thought that being in the Midlands would be the ideal location.

With auctions on your doorstep and loads of premises for not a lot of money the entry costs into the industry are pretty low meaning there is greater competition. Cost of living and operating are lower too so margins might be squeezed too. As we all know, to do this properly, you need a healthy margin to cover PROPER recon and prep.

Having spent a fair bit of time in the Midlands previously and seen how the demographic and atmosphere is it would be one of the last places I would ever want to try and trade in. Every customer we have dealt with from there either wants your 'best final last price' or has a disgusting attitude. Not a slur on anyone from that region, i'm sure there are lots of lovely people there but it's not for me.

I always wonder how difficult it must be to relocate to an area you are not familiar with and set up. We moved about 20 miles a couple of years ago, still in our home town area, and were amazed at the difference in attitudes, buyers and quality of trades and suppliers. Took us a good six months to work out what kind of stock we needed to carry and it was completely different to our previous trading area.

[andymc1973 199]

i would sooner shit in my hands and clap then move to the Midlands

[metcars 397]

20 minutes ago, grant8064 said:

With auctions on your doorstep and loads of premises for not a lot of money the entry costs into the industry are pretty low meaning there is greater competition. Cost of living and operating are lower too so margins might be squeezed too. As we all know, to do this properly, you need a healthy margin to cover PROPER recon and prep.

Having spent a fair bit of time in the Midlands previously and seen how the demographic and atmosphere is it would be one of the last places I would ever want to try and trade in. Every customer we have dealt with from there either wants your 'best final last price' or has a disgusting attitude. Not a slur on anyone from that region, i'm sure there are lots of lovely people there but it's not for me.

I always wonder how difficult it must be to relocate to an area you are not familiar with and set up. We moved about 20 miles a couple of years ago, still in our home town area, and were amazed at the difference in attitudes, buyers and quality of trades and suppliers. Took us a good six months to work out what kind of stock we needed to carry and it was completely different to our previous trading area.

I can't imagine the Midlands are worse than where I am in East London?

[grant8064 219]

@met is East Laaaarnden just easy pickings with Fiat 500's, Minis and German stuff? Or do you stock normal stuff? I have friends there. One sells BBQ'd meat from a horsebox...he's very East London 

[BHM 994]

58 minutes ago, andymc1973 said:

i would sooner shit in my hands and clap then move to the Midlands

[grant8064 219]

1 hour ago, andymc1973 said:

i would sooner shit in my hands and clap then move to the Midlands

hahaha, I put it a bit more politely (must still be in work mode). Agreed.

[andymc1973 199]

well the last 2 part ex ebay jobbies were won from Brum and no contact, the never ending saga of my auto avensis diesel generated most calls from that area and as soon as someone asks how many owners and whats my best/last/death price it tends to be from the lovely diverse area that is the Midlands, last time I checked i'd stop selling cars from the local Bazaar/Souk and my price wasn't an opeing gambit, the problem is for some reason this is spreading through the entire east european population that has landed

 

#BREXIT

[BHM 994]

Pure scum & you are correct - half of the Eastern Europeans now conduct business in a similar vein.

Unfortunately people must entertain these bottom/last/best price twats otherwise they wouldn’t waste their time. I reckon that’s why we now have this horrible way of doing business - if everyone was stronger & sacked off the scum then they’d either have nowhere to go or have to improve their manners. 

Why on earth we are expected to accept this third world way of doing business is beyond me. I don’t & won’t entertain them.

[andymc1973 199]

i would hate to be a private person selling a car with this lot rocking up, always in an old octavia with 250k on, mother in the back not speaking a word of the Queens, yabbering away in Klingon between thmselves

[RH Trading 80]

19 hours ago, andymc1973 said:

i would sooner shit in my hands and clap then move to the Midlands

Im based in the Midlands and completely agree  might sound ideal in terms of being central, people traveling and lots of chimney pots but seem to get a great deal of timewasters on my doorstep. No surprise that if someone rocks up after a 50 + mile journey 99 times out of a 100 they buy. If I hear a Brummie accent my heart sinks, tend also to bring cars back at the least (I mean the very least) thing like washer fluid indicator lights, punctures etc. I agree with all above, if you have the right cars, priced right with good adverts people will travel wherever you are. we got 2 from Scotland last week, Perth and Aberdeen, one on a Focus another on a LandRover, flew down, met them at the airport and they drove back, no hassle 

[trade vet 702]

I think that anyone south of the border who has reasonably priced descent stock will get punters coming down from Northern Jockland.Have you noticed when you ask them why they bother coming down,they allways say it is worth their while as they are saving a fortune .

Would EK care to comment please on the replies he has had so far.

[Reggaj 12]

Plenty Poms travel north of the border too 

[trade vet 702]

22 minutes ago, Reggaj said:

Plenty Poms travel north of the border too 

I have not heard of many Pom punters travelling up to Aberdeen for cars.Best value up there is the Golf courses,must be subsidised by us Poms