How long do you expect to sit on a car?

[Nick M.K. 574]

1 hour ago, CRW said:

I'm a one man band with a 20 car site on a main A road, so don't feel the need to haemorrhage money on advertising. Yes, I could spend more on advertising, but AT doesn't work down here.

I think the reason for that Focus staying in stock 24 times longer than most other similar cars in the market is somewhere in the above sentence. 

[BHM 994]

30 minutes ago, EPV said:

Ok, so you average £33 per car x 24 months is £800. Add in costs of overheads associated with your pitch and the lost revenue that you could have made from spinning the money in that focus three or four times on something else. It doesn’t add up. 

I think you’re over-analysing CRW’s comments. My guess is he looks at his (minimal) advertising costs simply as an overhead rather than breaking it down per car per month. Rather like myself tbh.

The way I think of it is I fork out the pitiful sum of just over £220pm (+VAT) on advertising whether I advertise zero cars or turn over 60 (impossible but you get my drift). The advertising cost doesn’t change.

Different strokes I guess. The last thing I’d want to do is mentally apportion more money to a sticky car that’s been sat in the corner for 6 months laughing at me.

[CRW 73]

7 minutes ago, EPV said:

It doesn’t add up

Car will sell for with a  gross margin of £500, after 2 years that is rubbish I know , but still technically not a loss.  The part ex has a £1000 margin in it, I know the car, sold it previously and its in a good price range at £3995.

Had I traded the car out after 6 months I would have lost anywhere up to £1k easily so just sat on it. I am aware that I could have flipped that money over several times, but this is trading, it happens sometimes.  Its only a problem if you cant afford to buy anymore stock until said car sells, this sticking Focus never stopped me from buying other stock that I wanted.

These days, I only advertise a new arrival through a boosted facebook post as generally I find this as good "pound for pound" as anything else. After this I leave them sell from the front or through the website, which is included in my annual £3k advertising cost.  Because I'm not in any form of contractual advertising, I calculate that each sale last year cost me £33 in advertising as an average, certainly not £33 per month per car. 

This wasn't meant as a bragging post, im far from proud of the situation.  My point is, had I bailed out early I would have lost.  As it is there will be VAT to pay and therefore in my opinion that represents a profit of some form. Of course you cant run a business sitting on cars for 2 years and for a start up business it would be fatal.  However, I have been trading for 15 years so have learnt not to panic as long as something is always moving.

19 minutes ago, Nick M.K. said:

I think the reason for that Focus staying in stock 24 times longer than most other similar cars in the market is somewhere in the above sentence.

But offset by the fact that another car sold on the same day, before I had even washed it and generating around an £1800 profit.

[BHM 994]

8 minutes ago, CRW said:

My point is, had I bailed out early I would have lost.  As it is there will be VAT to pay and therefore in my opinion that represents a profit of some form. Of course you cant run a business sitting on cars for 2 years and for a start up business it would be fatal.  However, I have been trading for 15 years so have learnt not to panic as long as something is always moving.

Absolutely agree. Unless you are short of money or space there’s no need to bomb every sticky car out at a loss. Mind you, I’ve never had one get to anywhere like 2 years 

Edited February 29, 2020 by BHM

[Nick M.K. 574]

17 minutes ago, CRW said:

But offset by the fact that another car sold on the same day, before I had even washed it and generating around an £1800 profit.

We all have those of course but they are easier to forget. Comes, goes and so do the money. The 24 month landmark on the other hand is etched in our mind forever and we write on forums about it. 

By the way I also agree that superbly prepped car that is in demand and not easy to replace shouldn't be cut loose just because the calendar on the wall says so. 

Edited February 29, 2020 by Nick M.K.

[CRW 73]

3 minutes ago, BHM said:

Mind you, I’ve never had one get to anywhere like 2 years 

It was definitely putting down roots! 

Yes, I do consider my advertising to be a pretty minimal overhead cost. I turn over around £500k of stock a year with advertising costs of £3k. £3k per month (£36k per year) which I read about on here for an AT package is about as appealing to me as a genital wart.  If I multiply my advertising tenfold, am I going to suddenly turn over £5m, I doubt it and most importantly, I don't need to!

[EPV 631]

Well, whatever mate, it’s your business if you think it made a profit, then it doesn’t matter what I think. Good luck to you. 
 

1 hour ago, BHM said:

I think you’re over-analysing CRW’s comments. My guess is he looks at his (minimal) advertising costs simply as an overhead rather than breaking it down per car per month. Rather like myself tbh.

The way I think of it is I fork out the pitiful sum of just over £220pm (+VAT) on advertising whether I advertise zero cars or turn over 60 (impossible but you get my drift). The advertising cost doesn’t change.

Different strokes I guess. The last thing I’d want to do is mentally apportion more money to a sticky car that’s been sat in the corner for 6 months laughing at me.

No, I understand why you wouldn’t want to do that but if you think about how often you could have reinvested the money, in something that turned 4 times or more, it does give you something to think about when deciding to cut its legs off or not. I don’t suppose there’s a right or wrong answer, each to their own. 

[CRW 73]

7 minutes ago, EPV said:

Well, whatever mate, it’s your business if you think it made a profit, then it doesn’t matter what I think. Good luck to you

Cheers. Certainly wasn't my intention to have a row with anybody over it! 

[New year revolutions...... 197]

The thing forgotten by lots of you is he runs a pitch so what is the point of gunning a a car away to just replace it with something that might also turn into a landmark or worse turn out to be a lemon,theres nothing good about a main road sales site with gaps in the stock or its spread out ,as it always looks like your going bust

[CRW 73]

2 minutes ago, New year revolutions...... said:

theres nothing good about a main road sales site with gaps in the stock or its spread out ,as it always looks like your going bust

Which ironically is my biggest problem here at the moment as I'm really struggling to replace stock at sensible prices.  Oh well, it gets the locals talking! Will try to buy again next week.

[EPV 631]

1 hour ago, CRW said:

Cheers. Certainly wasn't my intention to have a row with anybody over it! 

No row from me mate, just don’t get your mentality but there again, I don’t have to do I. 

[Row 71]

3 hours ago, CRW said:

Its only a problem if you cant afford to buy anymore stock until said car sells

Exactly this.

[Mark101 536]

I'm of the mindset that providing at least 8 cars sell per month, I couldn't care less whether they have been in stock an hour or a year. There is no way I am binning off a perfectly fine, retail prepared car to risk buying a lemon and going through prep again. 

Caveat: Unless it is a problem car riddled with germs and bugs.

[BHM 994]

22 hours ago, CRW said:

It was definitely putting down roots! 

Yes, I do consider my advertising to be a pretty minimal overhead cost. I turn over around £500k of stock a year with advertising costs of £3k. £3k per month (£36k per year) which I read about on here for an AT package is about as appealing to me as a genital wart.  If I multiply my advertising tenfold, am I going to suddenly turn over £5m, I doubt it and most importantly, I don't need to!

Quote of the week.

My longest in stock is 15 months which recently left me - a 2.4 petrol 2wd Antara. At least I still got £500 gross from it.

The funny thing was, the week the Antara sold I sold a total of 3 cars, all 3 had been sticky (15m, 4m & 3m) so if I hadn’t owned them the way I look at it (rightly or wrongly) is that the £2500ish I got that week would of been sweet f.a. - At least that’s how I justify my pisspoor buying!