Good idea or not ?

[trade vet 697]

I have not been in the front line in this job for a few years now.However seeing all the negative stuff about the likes of Dealer Auctions and also extortionate auction buyers fees in general,it has given me an idea.We have a good corner site coming off lease and since it was last used for car sales,there is now a big shopping centre next to it and the passing trade is huge.I am toying with the idea of reopening this site as a car buying and trading operation.When I go to the US,I have often seen stand alone car buying sites,so I would be interested to hear what you guys think,good idea or not.....Thank you.

[DBDlloyds 18]

I am new to the game as you know but I think a drive in instant cash for your car site would be a brilliant idea.

If you marketed it correctly and had the right staff appraising the potential purchases its a winner. We live in a society that wants it now so I am sure it would work.

Cheers Dean 

[Grantlfc81 88]

Just offer £100 more than we buy any car and you’re laughing 

[grant8064 219]

As we all know...buying correctly is where the money is made!

Sounds good but IMO appraising is a real skill so it would come down to what staff you had as to whether it was profitable. We have a sales guy who has been in the job 20+ years and couldn't appraise a brick let alone a car. 

 

[Lakeside 94]

I’m still suprised more companies like WBAC havnt sprung up, we all know they offer peanuts but yet as we see at BCA each week thousands of people still must sell to them.

[Max Branning 149]

Don't most roadside pitches have a big sign outside saying "cars bought for cash" already?

 

[Mojo121 229]

Happy to buy some off you when you're up and rolling 

[Arfur Dealy 823]

TV, the internet and BIN online is the way I see the future of car sales.. Make the purchase simple and offer complete and utter guarantees. Im going down this route, customer FB keeps telling me this way to go....

[trade vet 697]

Thank you guys.While the site is good ,with proper signage,I think buying in stock at the door will work ( it did years ago with poor signage when it was a less busy location) but it may not generate enough.We are going to need a good searchable website name and I am not ‘tech savvy’.Also,if it does work and we can buy plenty,we will need to trade most of them.That is not easy,how would we do that,maybe just show traders the purchase invoice.Again,I would be gratefull for any suggestions.Thank you.

[Max Branning 149]

11 hours ago, trade vet said:

Thank you guys.While the site is good ,with proper signage,I think buying in stock at the door will work ( it did years ago with poor signage when it was a less busy location) but it may not generate enough.We are going to need a good searchable website name and I am not ‘tech savvy’.Also,if it does work and we can buy plenty,we will need to trade most of them.That is not easy,how would we do that,maybe just show traders the purchase invoice.Again,I would be gratefull for any suggestions.Thank you.

Getting rid of them to the trade would be easy, you could list them all on ebay for example as trade sales only, my guess is you would have people queuing up to buy them.

Once dealers know there is an outlet they can just pop down to buy some stock offloading is a piece of cake, i would say a fair proportion would have to go to auction though, the ones no one wants.

I still don't know if you would get enough people looking to sell to you though to have it as a stand alone business without doing retail sales.

To keep a set up like that going you may have to be buying in 20 cars a week or so to make it pay.

[sparky 274]

Slightly off thread, but a dealer in the same town as me had what was already a decent pitch that just required local advertising. A few years ago, Tesco, Next etc set up a retail park right next to him and wanted to buy his land for a good few quid, he refused. Fast forward 3 years and the park has been a huge success and the knock on effect for him, well to say he is having it away is an understatement. No internet presence, just pure good old fashioned footfall with good old fashioned margins solely due to location, location, location.

Sounds like a good idea to me, whatever you do with it I'm sure with a little common sense it will work given what has sprung up next door. Happy days

[It's me 613]

get some christmas trees on it for sale

 

oops too late

 

rock salt

er not frozen enough

 

i know a hand car wash

 

cash cash cash................

[trade vet 697]

15 minutes ago, sparky said:

Slightly off thread, but a dealer in the same town as me had what was already a decent pitch that just required local advertising. A few years ago, Tesco, Next etc set up a retail park right next to him and wanted to buy his land for a good few quid, he refused. Fast forward 3 years and the park has been a huge success and the knock on effect for him, well to say he is having it away is an understatement. No internet presence, just pure good old fashioned footfall with good old fashioned margins solely due to location, location, location.

Sounds like a good idea to me, whatever you do with it I'm sure with a little common sense it will work given what has sprung up next door. Happy days

‘Old fashioned margins’,great expression,thank you.This site is similar,the retail park includes ASDA and M and S down to Poundland.