How are we all doing at the moment?

[j4ck100 12]

Finding it pretty slow going at the moment.

I'd like to get to know more about others pricing strategies too.

i.e 29 miles from me is Car Giant, who have a very similar vehicle advertised to me. Do I therefore undercut them and reduce my margin, even though they will charge customer £149 "admin fee" which IMO is outrageous.

I'd also appreciate if anyone can advise on my current pricing as two of my current stock vehicles have been sat for a while now without a bite (why do we pay AT again??!) :

2009  09 Fiat 500 sport 1.2 white 35k fsh very clean got up for £5100

2011 61 Ford Fiesta Zetec black very tidy 24k 1.25 fsh up for £6100

 

Realistic or too high? Starting to think there are just too many of these small hatchbacks about that the odds of customer finding mine are minimal!!!

Thanks

 

[Steve92 80]

With the admin fee, we found in mail order products that most people really didn't look at the total price, for us we were sometimes a little bit more expensive but our delivery was cheaper and we always included batteries but customers were always blinkered by the main price.

Both of those prices seem good to me but lease rates on 500's and fiesta are that low it's pointless buying almost new. If you could afford the hit I would reduce the prices to £4999 and £5999 that way if someone searches on autotrader with a £5000 or £6000 budget then your car will appear in the listings. You could try similar with the mileage. 

[It's me 612]

everyone but us fool traders are on holiday,you just need to sit back and ride out august,it never was a good selling month,

[j4ck100 12]

Gone for the price drop to round 5 & 6, shall see what happens.

 

Problem is s and b, i can't afford to ride out august with these as the AT package i'm on is a case of paying for each 21 day advert so hurts big time for relist!

 

 

[Phil H 124]

Van sales is not good at the moment and everyone of my colleagues that I speak to in the north west is saying the same, yes it is august so we know it's the quiet period what we mustn't do though is let our heads go down and get pro active with every lead, get the place looking pretty and maybe try the one week only offer trick. It will come back

[Daylight 28]

Cheers for the further feedback guys. I think it's important that we use this discussion to share success stories, industry trends, good stock, bad stock, low points etc We're all in this together let's help one another out.

For me it's been fairly quiet, moved a couple of units on in the last few weeks but my "results" might be tainted by the fact that I had new stock in prep so not a large market front. Most is now prepped, old stock re-imaged, refreshed and back online. Still trialling RAC cars (nightmare) and ebay motors in a hope that we'll be able to wave goodbye fully to AT.

 

[j4ck100 12]

With the admin fee, we found in mail order products that most people really didn't look at the total price, for us we were sometimes a little bit more expensive but our delivery was cheaper and we always included batteries but customers were always blinkered by the main price.

Both of those prices seem good to me but lease rates on 500's and fiesta are that low it's pointless buying almost new. If you could afford the hit I would reduce the prices to £4999 and £5999 that way if someone searches on autotrader with a £5000 or £6000 budget then your car will appear in the listings. You could try similar with the mileage. 

Sold that Fiesta today !

need to work on my negotiating skills though, bearing in mind I'd dropped it down to 6000, gentleman came over this evening, liked it, and said what kind of a deal can we do, everyone likes a deal, so I said £100 and a tank of fuel and then he said 5750 I said no he said well you already dropped 150 inc fuel so it's just a bit more so I said ok 5800 deal he said yes. I think I need to learn to stand my ground better but i sometimes get so worried that they will walk away that I roll over too easily! Or maybe I should have started with less of a discount. Advise please ! 

[Max Branning 149]

To be fair knocking £200 off a £6000 car isnt a bad discount for you, always depends really what profit you have in the deal.

Do your sums before it goes up for sale to allow for the discount.

[Steve92 80]

Personally I don't think there is a right or wrong with pricing and negotiating. At the end of the day you have a minimum price you can take to cover your costs, ideally you want to make as much as you can but 10% of something is better than 100% of nothing. Given you were already concerned about it sticking at least it has now gone, whether that was the price or they happened to be looking for cars in general I guess only the buyer knows.

well done in getting the sale though.

[It's me 612]

well done for shifting it,use the money wisely glasshopper

i always try to work out the bottom bottom price if i need to shift something thats become my landmark but always add in customer warranty work if self warranting like me because when times are quiet its always the time we get big comebacks that eat that small profit

my motto is if i have to bend to do the deal and it might go pear to a major moaner i would rather not do the deal

 

theres always a bum for every seat remember,we just have to find the bums

[j4ck100 12]

Cheers for the responses! Find the whole pricing/negotiating topic very interesting, I guess key is managing initial listing price against competition whilst acknowledging the fact you will have to knock a little off

Kills me that Think Ford down the road have lesser spec fiesta's up for a grand more and they probably sell them at full as someone will just think oh ford i'll walk in !! Had a chat the other day with the sales guy there, they do 200 a month every month except december, we can dream!

Other thing is - I used to work for another dealership, and have also come across it where they point black will not budge on price, and max they will do is throw in 12 months warranty - they tell the customer they are an online dealership and therefore prices are already competitive.

Part of me is tempted to try this, other half is worried that you'd lose a sale over it ! Having said that at my short time there, I never really saw anyone who was genuinely interested walk away because they didn't get a big enough discount. Generally, when they were told that the RRP "usual price" on the 12 month upgraded warranty that was being chucked in was £300 they were happy with that, even though cost to business was more like 100-150. Couple this with the fact that this now covers their statutory 3 month warranty then it's a real winner. 

Interesting TImes, now to shift this bloody fiat 500. Hard graft when the dealers are doing £1000 deposit contribution and 0% finance on New. Hmmm.

Jack

Edited August 4, 2015 by j4ck100

[sparky 274]

Sold that Fiesta today !

need to work on my negotiating skills though, bearing in mind I'd dropped it down to 6000, gentleman came over this evening, liked it, and said what kind of a deal can we do, everyone likes a deal, so I said £100 and a tank of fuel and then he said 5750 I said no he said well you already dropped 150 inc fuel so it's just a bit more so I said ok 5800 deal he said yes. I think I need to learn to stand my ground better but i sometimes get so worried that they will walk away that I roll over too easily! Or maybe I should have started with less of a discount. Advise please ! 

No advice, and I wouldn't want to teach a duck to suck eggs, but we have to remember in this day and age that when your man comes over to look at your car, in most cases he will have done his homework already and done some virtual tyre kicking. For whatever reason, he has come to see your car out of the hundreds that are out there so it's important, I feel, to have confidence in what you are selling and the price you are selling it at. Easier said than done, especially when it's quiet, but as George Michael once said, you gotta have faith.

[RH Trading 80]

Thankfully we're still fairly busy and August started well, 4 over weekend, Just looked at the book and 6 gone out so far this month, 2 more look promising, compared to 23 for July, 21 in June and 13 in May so its improving.  MOT's and service doing well also. More interest now in more expensive, BMW's and Audi which we've been sitting on for 3-4 months

[Phil H 124]

Is there any reasons that we all have in common so that we can try and see a solution to the problems? I put van sales being quiet  for me due to a combination of the following factors.

 

1 Location North West of England only 1 job being created for every 6 in the south. 

 

2 Booming Building Trade causing tradesmen who've struggled for years to make ends meet getting a full time job cards in with a big company for £700 + per week complete with a company van, which is bought by the company on a 3 year lease. So these customers who would normally buy my type of stock (sub 5k) are selling their vans to the cash for vans market and buying cars instead. These people have been self employed returning to full time employment and are not included in the job created figures. 

 

3 Stock Prices I rely heavily on auctions for my stock due to being a 1 man band. Like the rest of you I've watched the prices continually rise over the past few years and as a result so have my prices, unless I work for a smaller margin or try and make a living on selling fresh air. 

 

4 It's August and everybody's enjoying their joll's having a lovely time getting stuck in operation stack (apart from GG who had the foresight to charter a private jet) and us. 

 

Those who are doing OK do you rely on auctions or do you source elsewhere? Where are you located? Are you working for a smaller margin just to keep things moving? 

[Philip Nothard 26]

ALL

If you had to summarise the current market in one sentence - what would you say????????

Activity?

Demand?

Values?

Profitability?

 

 

 

[j4ck100 12]

ALL

If you had to summarise the current market in one sentence - what would you say????????

Activity?

Demand?

Values?

Profitability?

 

 

 

Activity seems to be reasonable but not ground breaking. It's easy to come up with excuses as to why it's a slow month e.g August everyone on holiday but in reality it's not like that because if it was no one would sell anything - December Christmas no one buying, Jan people are broke, Feb fine, March plate change so people buying new, April easter hols.... Key is right stock right price, easier said than done! 

 

Values IMO are HIGH. Was at bca Blackbushe on Monday, and pretty much everything was hitting cap clean even though most wasn't what I'd describe clean, or in cases of cabriolets and other random stuff, prices were up to a grand above book, this is hammer before fees too!!!

Is there any reasons that we all have in common so that we can try and see a solution to the problems? I put van sales being quiet  for me due to a combination of the following factors.

 

1 Location North West of England only 1 job being created for every 6 in the south. 

 

2 Booming Building Trade causing tradesmen who've struggled for years to make ends meet getting a full time job cards in with a big company for £700 + per week complete with a company van, which is bought by the company on a 3 year lease. So these customers who would normally buy my type of stock (sub 5k) are selling their vans to the cash for vans market and buying cars instead. These people have been self employed returning to full time employment and are not included in the job created figures. 

 

3 Stock Prices I rely heavily on auctions for my stock due to being a 1 man band. Like the rest of you I've watched the prices continually rise over the past few years and as a result so have my prices, unless I work for a smaller margin or try and make a living on selling fresh air. 

 

4 It's August and everybody's enjoying their joll's having a lovely time getting stuck in operation stack (apart from GG who had the foresight to charter a private jet) and us. 

 

Those who are doing OK do you rely on auctions or do you source elsewhere? Where are you located? Are you working for a smaller margin just to keep things moving? 

do you sell cars as well? If not maybe you should think about it to vary your portfolio and be less reliant on van sales ?

[Phil H 124]

I agree values are high, we can all think of excuses, we know it will come back it's just a constantly changing marketplace which we have to adapt too. I do sell cars as well but face the same problems as you trying to get the right stock at the right price and to me that's the key. Customers will buy anything if the price is right. 

[SC Derby 259]

Had a mega weekend, 3 Friday, 2 Saturday, 2 Sunday, 3 Monday.

 

Didn't give £1 off a car (tell a lie I gave £200 off one in lieu of doing the paint work rectification) and that's from a stock of 25 cars from £1,500 - £5,000.

Personally I have found a lot of goof stock on the online auction sites (DA, A4C & Sytner) and having regular enquiries at the minute.

[j4ck100 12]

Had a mega weekend, 3 Friday, 2 Saturday, 2 Sunday, 3 Monday.

 

Didn't give £1 off a car (tell a lie I gave £200 off one in lieu of doing the paint work rectification) and that's from a stock of 25 cars from £1,500 - £5,000.

Personally I have found a lot of goof stock on the online auction sites (DA, A4C & Sytner) and having regular enquiries at the minute.

did every customer ask for something off and you refused or did some not ask etc ? 

[SC Derby 259]

I'd say 50/50 mate.

The way I approach it is tell them that with the advent of the internet and autotrader national search then they can price check every Fiat Panda/Renault Scenic/Mazda 3 in the country, so we cannot afford to be expensive and thus we price as competitively as we possibly can from the offset. Obviously this means there then is no room for discount here like they may be at other garages who price over the top.

You can also say, if they are nice, that they must agree because if we were expensive you wouldn't be here would you?

 

They'll soon get it.

[Max Branning 149]

You can normally tell when a customer is going to walk and if it means giving them back 100 quid to get it gone then just go with it. It is true what you say though about being priced competitively from the outset but some buyers just NEED a discount or they feel cheated...

[umesh 336]

Its always tough call ... but as Max says some people just like to feel as if they've had a deal .. Last week customer travels from North Wales nearly 3 hours asked me over the phone what was BEST - NO PX Deal , explained this was a unique car and its priced right at £10500 - so sorry but that is the deal , says OK comes over test drive , couldn't fault the car ,says I want it but I want a deal !! I reconfirmed our conversation that I had not misled him in any way , so what should I do a deal ... eventually agreed to fill the tank full of fuel £50 - happy bunny deal done BUT he felt better as he'd got a deal !  

 

[sparky 274]

Its always tough call ... but as Max says some people just like to feel as if they've had a deal .. Last week customer travels from North Wales nearly 3 hours asked me over the phone what was BEST - NO PX Deal , explained this was a unique car and its priced right at £10500 - so sorry but that is the deal , says OK comes over test drive , couldn't fault the car ,says I want it but I want a deal !! I reconfirmed our conversation that I had not misled him in any way , so what should I do a deal ... eventually agreed to fill the tank full of fuel £50 - happy bunny deal done BUT he felt better as he'd got a deal !  

 

That's North Wales for you.

I'm fairly sure if we swapped locations, my hair would grow back and yours would go

[Tom 164]

The most Ill knock off is £200 to get a sale and keep up the turnover some people will ask for more but I just tell them to leave it there then! They forget I'm selling a car to make a living not like a private seller who would knock hundreds off!

[Daylight 28]

I generally don't move on price. If people ask what they can get off I explain that it's well priced and that being faultless there is no reason to discount. If they mention about other cars cheaper priced I remind them all my stock is freshly serviced and comes with a 3 month warranty, if they're not getting that elsewhere that's the difference and if they are, why are they stood in front of me! As above though, if the margin is good enough and they may walk or it's been hanging around a while i'll move a little (£200 max) or extend the warranty for free.

We have a culture in this country of not wanting to see other people make money unfortunately!