How far do your customers travel?

[tradegirl 112]

Hi everyone. On average, obviously not taking into account walk ons, how far do your customers come from?

Those of you who do detailed videos, do you find that people come from farther away than they normally would?

I'm going to be trading from a new location, and I'm just thinking how much it's going to affect business.

I will be doing videos, not as detailed as Simon's, but even so. I'm hoping that means where people would travel from an hour away, they'd be willing to travel an hour and a half.

Thanks.

[Mikey360 68]

People will travel for the right car, I've had people come from Dorset (4.5 hrs away) for a 3k mini! 

[Nick M.K. 574]

40-80 miles on average, over 2 hours many of them. 

Can’t say about the videos because mine are brief but the 60-70 photos on Autotrader make a difference. 

Post a dummy ad for one car and see what the response will be like when you write “located in Solihull” for example. 

[NOACROSS 414]

Most an hour tops. Maybe 70%. This isprobably more to do with what we stock  

Videos def help with the out of the area buyers for sure, although you often have to make them watch it because they haven’t. 

[Row 71]

Don't think it makes much difference if someone wants your car they will travel, I've had people from all over the country for all different types of car, some people don't mind travelling and others think half an hour is enough.

[MarkTVS 209]

Majority for us are within 90 minutes but I have just sold a car on Friday that’s getting exported to Spain 

[Nick M.K. 574]

10 minutes ago, Row said:

some people don't mind travelling and others think half an hour is enough.

Just like us dealers then :-)

[Rory RSC 596]

We roughly get 40% in under 60 mins travel time and 60% out of that area. 

Every week we sell cars to people doing 3 hour plus Journeys. 

Complete dependent upon stock profile and the way you run the business in terms of reviews and online presence.

[Row 71]

36 minutes ago, Nick M.K. said:

Just like us dealers then :-)

[justina3 518]

Depends on the car i think, people wont travel 100's of miles for a toyota aygo as there are always plenty to pick on there door step. 

 

[Nick M.K. 574]

28 minutes ago, justina3 said:

Depends on the car i think, people wont travel 100's of miles for a toyota aygo as there are always plenty to pick on there door step. 

Exactly the reason why an online based seller at a unit with no passing and little local trade should have a completely different stock profile to the local pitches / supermarkets.  

I bought an Aygo last month (almost by mistake) and I am enjoying an average of 2 advert views a day on AutoTrader :-))) If it wasn't in white, still in Toyota's warranty and with one doctor owner it would probably get negative views. I'll end up using it as our courtesy car and a second family car for a few months... Taking it to Wimbledon tomorrow. Lucky me!

[Tony911 79]

90 minutes tops just depends on the stock. Had a bmw m3 go to Africa about 5 years ago there concern was it didn't have a spare tyre as once it got off at the port in Africa they had to travel threw 7 countries to get it home 

[Row 71]

11 minutes ago, justina3 said:

Depends on the car i think, people wont travel 100's of miles for a toyota aygo as there are always plenty to pick on there door step. 

 

You would think so, but a couple of years ago I had a couple come from near London (200 mile from me) for a 1500 pound 06 Citroen C3 diesel with about 125k on it !

[tradegirl 112]

Fantastic, thank you everyone! That's put my mind at ease a bit.

Where we currently trade from (as you may have seen in another post) is surrounded by more affluent areas. But I'll soon be trading from 20 miles/30 minutes north of that, and I'll be surrounded by Birmingham and the Black Country (which isn't ideal)

But if I work online hard enough and the cars are right and well presented, hopefully it won't make too much of a difference. Need to work that USP!

Thank you!

[David Horgan 564]

8 sold last week , Wales 100miles  , Somerset 120 miles  Inverness  426 miles , Kent 220miles  Notts 25 miles , Peterborough 100 miles . two more were local 1 mile and 4 miles 

[tradegirl 112]

29 minutes ago, David Horgan said:

8 sold last week , Wales 100miles  , Somerset 120 miles  Inverness  426 miles , Kent 220miles  Notts 25 miles , Peterborough 100 miles . two more were local 1 mile and 4 miles 

you must really be doing something right with your adverts. That buyer from Inverness really must have had faith in your car!

[metcars 395]

2 hours ago, tradex said:

Thailand.....yes really, on Friday I took a hefty dipper from a retired gent who has sold up and, is coming back home. 

And no, his surname isn't Glitter

Yeah apparently they are bearing down on the retiree's out there. Insisting they have a minimum deposit at the bank etc etc. There are a lot of ex us military retired out there i understand. There pension goes along way, or it used too?

[David Horgan 564]

Thats the 4th gone to Scotland in last 3 months , The Inverness guy started out ripping me to pieces with Parkers price guide and wanting delivery , But then realised he was way off target and decided to come down , took it back with him , He learned the hard way that Parkers were not the way to go . 

Funny old job , You will have no worries selling to people from a distance if its the car they want 

[It's me 611]

sold a car to a neighbour 4 years ago,wont ever do that again

[tradegirl 112]

4 hours ago, David Horgan said:

Thats the 4th gone to Scotland in last 3 months , The Inverness guy started out ripping me to pieces with Parkers price guide and wanting delivery , But then realised he was way off target and decided to come down , took it back with him , He learned the hard way that Parkers were not the way to go . 

Funny old job , You will have no worries selling to people from a distance if its the car they want 

Hang on, is this the 5mm branded tyres guy who wanted £1200 off the asking price?

[awc1000 93]

distance is no object if A the car is right, B your postcode is right, C you don't look shite on google earth lol.

[David Horgan 564]

21 hours ago, tradegirl said:

Hang on, is this the 5mm branded tyres guy who wanted £1200 off the asking price?

Thats the one , he folded in the end , No discount , no delivery , came on the train , saw and bought it , No Parkers guide talk , found out it was his mate who was doing the talking . 

i was lucky too as the other customer i told him had bought failed the finance , lucky lucky 

Edited July 1, 2019 by David Horgan

[tradegirl 112]

1 hour ago, David Horgan said:

Thats the one , he folded in the end , No discount , no delivery , came on the train , saw and bought it , No Parkers guide talk , found out it was his mate who was doing the talking . 

i was lucky too as the other customer i told him had bought failed the finance , lucky lucky 

Haha, humble pie for him. It's always a good feeling when they try to haggle down and then cave.

[tradegirl 112]

Done a spreadsheet of 30 cars with locations, distances from Bromsgrove where they were sold from, and distances to Walsall (where I am/going to be). Trying to insert an image but it's not working.

Out of 30 cars, 10 are closer to Walsall, and 6 are similar distances, so I'd like to think I would have gotten the sales anyway.

It's worrying how many people travelled only half an hour though, or how many people the travel time is literally double that to come to Walsall.

Got 4 cars up for sale at the moment (around 2 weeks now), all 4 advertised in Walsall. Enquiries on all, but only 1 viewing and no sales so far. Wondering if it's price, price bracket, location, or just quiet. Do I drop prices, do I change sale location to Bromsgrove, or do I just wait? Pretty frustrating.

Edited July 28, 2019 by tradegirl

[XFS 70]

I always seem to sell to customers more than 1 hour away.

Last two cars were to customers 2 and 6 hours away.