Bye bye autotrader

[Mark101 536]

Like everything, I never say never as never is a very long time.

The first two months (post AT) were record times for me.  This month has dropped off quite a bit but I have also ditched Ebay to give Car Gurus a fair chance, I'm curently sat on 4 for the month sold and gone, which is ok (if I pro rata that for a full month) but not brilliant.

I am debating giving AT another month with increased stock volumes (I was only on 5+2 with them and stock around 20) but I am concerned becuase those trades local to me say it is quiet generally so this may not be a true reflection on how good/bad a platform is working.

I am going away in a couple of weeks but when I get back, I shall decide on which way to go following one full month with just Car Gurus.

That bill is not missed though but if it double my sales volumes, I would welcome it back.  

Let's see what happens by month end.

 

[Rory RSC 596]

5 hours ago, Mark101 said:

Like everything, I never say never as never is a very long time.

The first two months (post AT) were record times for me.  This month has dropped off quite a bit but I have also ditched Ebay to give Car Gurus a fair chance, I'm curently sat on 4 for the month sold and gone, which is ok (if I pro rata that for a full month) but not brilliant.

I am debating giving AT another month with increased stock volumes (I was only on 5+2 with them and stock around 20) but I am concerned becuase those trades local to me say it is quiet generally so this may not be a true reflection on how good/bad a platform is working.

I am going away in a couple of weeks but when I get back, I shall decide on which way to go following one full month with just Car Gurus.

That bill is not missed though but if it double my sales volumes, I would welcome it back.  

Let's see what happens by month end.

 

For what is worth any advertising has to be tracked for around 3 months IMO just to get a feel for it. Any less and it’s hard to get a good idea. 

[david gott 58]

If you were to sell your house with an estate agent and they told you they didn't advertise on Rightmove, its probably likely you wouldn't go with that agent.

I had a mini in stock for nearly 7 months and in the end reduced it to cost on trader as soon as I done this I got a cracking 1 series in chop sold it 3 days later and made £1200, exactly the same scenario with a Bmax, took a Meriva in swap sold it 1 week later with another good margin.

For me Its all about opportunity and keeping the cashflow going, yes I don't want to be a busy fool but the days of waiting for big margins never seems to come if I'm not moving stock quickly then when are the good opportunity's going to come? I'd rather turn each car over 7 times a year with smaller margin than turning a car over twice a year with big margins.

 

 

 

 

 

[Arfur Dealy 823]

28 minutes ago, david gott said:

If you were to sell your house with an estate agent and they told you they didn't advertise on Rightmove, its probably likely you wouldn't go with that agent.

I had a mini in stock for nearly 7 months and in the end reduced it to cost on trader as soon as I done this I got a cracking 1 series in chop sold it 3 days later and made £1200, exactly the same scenario with a Bmax, took a Meriva in swap sold it 1 week later with another good margin.

For me Its all about opportunity and keeping the cashflow going, yes I don't want to be a busy fool but the days of waiting for big margins never seems to come if I'm not moving stock quickly then when are the good opportunity's going to come? I'd rather turn each car over 7 times a year with smaller margin than turning a car over twice a year with big margins.

 

 

 

 

 

Big margins pop up and you reap the benefit, sometimes you wipe your face, sometimes you lose. Those boasting big profits with stocking loans must be deeply concerned ...

[Nick M.K. 574]

20 hours ago, david gott said:

I'd rather turn each car over 7 times a year with smaller margin than turning a car over twice a year with big margins.

The problem with aiming for small margins is that you will then only ever get small margins, you'll never have a nice juicy £5K one (I've had less than 5 of those over the years so not there yet sadly). If a dealer clears £250 per car they need to sell 20 cars for each £5K. That's 20 TIMES more chances of something going pop & bang, 20 times more chances of screamers, 20 times more MOTing, 20 times more valeting, 20 times more servicing and repairs and MUCH higher AT or premises or storage bill. One guy can have 20 nice cars, the other guy needs 400! And several times more staff. And less finance penetration as % and a much lesser chance of another high value p/x for retail... 

Listen, I lived in £2989 land for years (you know I hate XX95 pricing) and I regret it. This comfort that we have with certain price points works against us sometimes :-)

 

 

[david gott 58]

22 hours ago, Nick M.K. said:

The problem with aiming for small margins is that you will then only ever get small margins, you'll never have a nice juicy £5K one (I've had less than 5 of those over the years so not there yet sadly). If a dealer clears £250 per car they need to sell 20 cars for each £5K. That's 20 TIMES more chances of something going pop & bang, 20 times more chances of screamers, 20 times more MOTing, 20 times more valeting, 20 times more servicing and repairs and MUCH higher AT or premises or storage bill. One guy can have 20 nice cars, the other guy needs 400! And several times more staff. And less finance penetration as % and a much lesser chance of another high value p/x for retail... 

Listen, I lived in £2989 land for years (you know I hate XX95 pricing) and I regret it. This comfort that we have with certain price points works against us sometimes :-)

 

 

Your 100% right to always aim for the big margins and I always do but I just don’t see the point in holding out for big margins with anything that’s been in stock for over 60 - 90 days, get rid, get a nice part ex, a bit of finance commission or reinvest and keep the ball rolling, although I did see a great quote the other day “affluence breeds impatience and impatience undermines well being, you don’t see many poor impatient people”

[beckly car sales 1]

On 6/14/2019 at 8:36 PM, david gott said:

If you were to sell your house with an estate agent and they told you they didn't advertise on Rightmove, its probably likely you wouldn't go with that agent.

I had a mini in stock for nearly 7 months and in the end reduced it to cost on trader as soon as I done this I got a cracking 1 series in chop sold it 3 days later and made £1200, exactly the same scenario with a Bmax, took a Meriva in swap sold it 1 week later with another good margin.

For me Its all about opportunity and keeping the cashflow going, yes I don't want to be a busy fool but the days of waiting for big margins never seems to come if I'm not moving stock quickly then when are the good opportunity's going to come? I'd rather turn each car over 7 times a year with smaller margin than turning a car over twice a year with big margins.

 

 

 

 

 

and have 4 times the risk of comebacks