Phil H 124 Posted August 24, 2015 I recently read a report that state's there are only 4500 independents left in the country, I thought that this figure was low as where I live on the Wirral the independents outnumber the franchise's about 3 to 1. Is this figure of 4500 correct or does anyone know the true amount left? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DanNextGear 4 Posted August 24, 2015 When our business was set up in the UK we were advised of the same number. I cover the Wirral as a patch though and it does buck the trend - lots of used dealers there. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Max Branning 149 Posted August 25, 2015 If you also count the independent layby dealers this number would surely be in the 10s of thousands? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Wheelerdealer1 91 Posted August 26, 2015 Get through some of those private AT ads that are quite obviously not! A tell tale is a list of 4 or 5 motors all private, pics taken in the same area with the same back drop ok so who is going to do a survey of how many illegal traders there are out there, now that's something that may actually be useful to us ! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
umesh 336 Posted August 26, 2015 Problem is Wheelerdealer1 - if / when we find hundreds of these 'illegal traders' - no easy task - what do we do with the information, who do we report them to .. and WHAT Will the do about it.. just have to be very careful we don't waste time and get distracted away from our core business ! #justsaying Last time I had a VAT inspection I asked the inspector why were there so many 'road side illegal traders ' and what were they going to do about it ? his reply was we don't have the man power to go after them ... I said looks like because I am legally registered , you know who I am - Where I am - I am an easy target for you ?? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Wheelerdealer1 91 Posted August 26, 2015 Don't you worry umesh I know exactly what to do with them Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ben at Glass's 2 Posted September 1, 2015 We have purchased lists of independent used car dealers in the past (from the likes of Automotive Management) and they contain around 4,500-5,000 dealers. However, taking 20 independent dealers at random from AutoTrader and comparing them to this list we found that only 4, or 25%, appeared in the AM list.We googled all 20 dealers and they all had a website, so it would suggest the number could be somewhere nearer to 20,000 independent dealers (though admittedly 20 is a very small number to base this on!). Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Phil H 124 Posted September 7, 2015 Ok I think the figure of 4500 independents left is absolute TOSH, Whilst it's been quiet over the last 2 weeks I've been gathering a database of traceable non franchise independent dealers (website, dealership address, phone number, CCL details, email address's etc) Located within a 50 mile radius of rainford and I'm up to 1220 already and by no means finished. Collate this with the rest of the country and I think you may find as many as 30000 traceable independents are left if not more. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
