Coping with coronavirus

[Daz 1]

Sales seem to have gone to a complete halt here in Ireland. The phone has not rang once In over a week. 

I've tried price drops and extra advertising though I guess everyone is afraid of spending their pennies until they know they have stable income and jobs to go back to. 

I will most likely spend some time doing up my pitch and maybe taking care of some weeds and painting the place. 

I most likely wont buy any new stock for a month at least but wont panic sell either. 

Will be summer before this all passes and thats not exactly a busy time of year anyway.  

A Sincere good luck to all involved within the Industry 

[Row 71]

2 hours ago, poor-trader said:

I think it's pretty obvious where we are heading. Any dealer who isn't prepared to be shut down for 1-2 months has their head in the sand a little bit I think. 

Also just noticed Manheim going online only from Monday.

And waiving online fees.

[Stalker 180]

1 minute ago, Row said:

And waiving online fees.

I was just thinking this. BCA could help out a little. I do hop they could at least waive them, and also ease the storage fees. I cant see transporter companies running on time at the moment.

[poor-trader 15]

Manheim and BCA must be sitting on some massive losses. Maheim own a lot of cars through their "dealer advance" system and BCA of course through WBAC. If prices tumble and/or both are forced to shut down the write downs and losses will be huge for them. 

In addition they'll both need to take a look at their finance arms. If sales are basically stopped then dealers simply won't have the liquidity to pay off cars on BCA or NextGear finance as they won't have sold any. A 2 months stop on all business could pretty much bring down the whole industry in my opinion. Even dealers with strong balance sheets have it mostly in stock at this time of year, not cash, and if it is simply impossible to turn cars into cash (even at losses) then they won't be making their payments.

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

11 minutes ago, poor-trader said:

Manheim and BCA must be sitting on some massive losses. Maheim own a lot of cars through their "dealer advance" system and BCA of course through WBAC. If prices tumble and/or both are forced to shut down the write downs and losses will be huge for them. 

In addition they'll both need to take a look at their finance arms. If sales are basically stopped then dealers simply won't have the liquidity to pay off cars on BCA or NextGear finance as they won't have sold any. A 2 months stop on all business could pretty much bring down the whole industry in my opinion. Even dealers with strong balance sheets have it mostly in stock at this time of year, not cash, and if it is simply impossible to turn cars into cash (even at losses) then they won't be making their payments.

To be fair the writing has been on the wall for at least 6 weeks now,it was a waiting game that failed,talking to a local painter of trade cars established 25vyears he said yesterday that if we have a lockdown hes dropping his keys off at the landlords and walking away

x

this by so many small businesses and we might be in a very bad place in 12 months irrespective of any Grant's and free govt money its time China owned up and gave the world something back instead of a plague

[BHM 994]

4 hours ago, poor-trader said:

Also just noticed Manheim going online only from Monday.

Good luck. There is absolutely no chance of me bidding online for cars up to £3K based on their absolutely pisspoor non-descriptions. I’d be bankrupt within weeks of buying blind from them shysters.

[metcars 394]

3 minutes ago, BHM said:

Good luck. There is absolutely no chance of me bidding online for cars up to £3K based on their absolutely pisspoor non-descriptions. I’d be bankrupt within weeks of buying blind from them shysters.

Agree completely. When they can give an honest appraisal I’ll bid online!

[BHM 994]

21 minutes ago, metcars said:

Agree completely. When they can give an honest appraisal I’ll bid online!

I’d rather take my chances with DA than pay up at a Manheim cash desk, be directed to a handover point only to see the yard lads pushing out my latest purchase with a knocking engine cos the clutch had just packed-up halfway across the yard.....and that’s before I stuck my head inside to be greeted with the stench of cigarettes, a non working blower fan & faulty electric windows. Bid online? No fucking chance whatsoever.

[Casper 272]

There descriptions are terrible as is there grading

I asked the lady behind the desk if they employed ray charles and stevie wonder to do the appraisals one day that never went down well   .

[BHM 994]

7 hours ago, Casper said:

There descriptions are terrible as is there grading

I asked the lady behind the desk if they employed ray charles and stevie wonder to do the appraisals one day that never went down well   .

 

Appraisals might work well enough on 2 - 3 year old stock but they don’t cover 25% of what I check (in 90 - 120 seconds so it’s not exactly rocket science). Someone wrote earlier they believe Manheim may try to revisit this in the future, I agree, but it will not work on cheaper/older stock given the current wholly lacking appraisals.

[Huggins 17]

BCA Appraisals aren't much better in my opinion, probably worse on the whole. A grade 2 can have 10 plus points on the damage sheet?! So time consuming having to read them all in depth because the system is so unstandardised. 

[CJ Underhill 34]

Fleet Auction have waived their online fees

[Huggins 17]

22 minutes ago, CJ Underhill said:

Fleet Auction have waived their online fees

Thanks for the heads up CJ. Do you get much from this outfit? if so are the appraisals  generally up to scratch? and which vendors are the most reliable and which to avoid! Thanks again

[CJ Underhill 34]

2 hours ago, Huggins said:

Thanks for the heads up CJ. Do you get much from this outfit? if so are the appraisals  generally up to scratch? and which vendors are the most reliable and which to avoid! Thanks again

Tbh no, i havent had anything for a while from them but they are localish so can't comment on the vehicles, but they still send me emails/auction cats through, just they emailed the other day to say all online fees are being waived