How did you end up selling cars in the trade?

[Phil H 124]

Listening to Umesh on the car dealer podcast the other day and hearing that he fell into car sales after being a qualified mechanic it left me with a question.

 How many of us left school wanting to sell cars?

Like Umesh I had no plans to sell cars when I left school. After a short lived career in the navy I was at a loose end when I got talking to a smart looking man wearing a flash suit and a Mecedes key ring placed next to him on the bar, he told me that he was a car salesman, said he loved the job even though the hours where long, rubbish basic of £50 per week but if you where good at it you could make a lot of money and get to drive a nice car for free. 2 days later I was selling Lada's.  

Be interested to hear how many of us fell into the trade, how many planned to come in it and did anyone have a worse first company car than me?

 

[c_cars 56]

Started washing cars on a Saturday at a local used site when in college at the age of 16 and from there there was no going back. Instead of following the university path that I was intending I got more and more interested in selling cars and the bug bit so instead of washing I was selling on weekends and after that instead of university the job became full time.

At the age of 18 (back in 1998) my first company car was a part ex 1988 MG Metro followed by a string of 214 & 414 Rovers due to my age for insurance and the fact our supplier was a local Rover dealer!

[countryman 13]

Prior to being in the Motor Trade, I was an Estate Agent (never really known whether I moved up, down or across the social scale!). When the property market crashed in 1989 our local Nissan dealer was advertising for ex-Estate Agents to be car salesmen. The rest, as they say, is history!

[metcars 397]

Prior to being in the Motor Trade, I was an Estate Agent (never really known whether I moved up, down or across the social scale!). When the property market crashed in 1989 our local Nissan dealer was advertising for ex-Estate Agents to be car salesmen. The rest, as they say, is history!

I seem to remember often hearing the term 'agent' describing a guy selling cars. Sounds like a good bet to me. Estate agents can sell a million pound house and not have to worry about phone calls in 3 months time because the floorboards are creaking or a tap is dripping?

[James Bush 95]

Like Chris I used to wash cars for a little local Ford dealer at weekends, then started covering weekends then holidays etc and just before I was due to go off to Uni they offered me a full time job - I wasn't that interested with the £50 a week basic and £15 per car sold but they really sold it to me with a company car and as much petrol as I could use!!

Edited August 7, 2015 by James Bush

[It's me 615]

used to buy a car from auction run it get bored of it and retail it,the smell of dirty lucra profit was too hard to resist,of course back then dealers who worked from home were nearly unheard of and getting trade plates was a great struggle as dvla were insisting i needed premises,i won and still have the original plates but had to repaint them last year in lovely ford radiant red as they were becoming unreadable,nothing wrong with home traders by the way if they do the job right as we all have to start somewhere, its the traders who put two fingers up and seem to get away with it that gnaws at me