Will online car sales allow dealers back to work sooner?

[LINGsCARZ 0]

51 minutes ago, LINGsCARS said:

 

 

Car showrooms are closed, ...because you'll kill the customers. Obviously, everyone knows car salesmen are sweaty and their breath can be putrid even pre-virus. These days, it can kill. You may as well mainline Covid19 via IV injection if you visit a car dealership. May as well boil the virus up on a used teaspoon and jab that sucker in, between your customer's middle toes.

Online car sales aren't banned ...because the virus can only go via 5G and you ain't got 5G at home yet. Or something. You don't catch Covid from your home PC.

Storage and distribution facilities are exempt from lock down... there is no rule saying WHAT is in the storage or distribution. Could be Amazon crap - being sold like mad, pet food (I got some delivered yesterday), sex toys, newspapers, digestive biscuits... or it could be new cars. ALL ARE ALLOWED. 

A SCAB?? Really?? Because I'm selling online? There is no chance of killing customers, online. Nit/Idiot (choose your insult). You are online NOW, reading this... and are you being infected? Only being infected with common sense, so keep on reading. Maggie Maggie Maggie!

Indeed the Government says, if you can work from home, you should do so. ...So I am. ...I am STAYING AT HOME >>> PROTECTING THE NHS >>> SELLING CARS. Just because I don't have a dinosaur model of a car pitch which relies on VICTIMS (usually in person) rocking up at physical cars doesn't make me a scab. Or should I be NOT WORKING out of sympathy with car dealers with pitches? Oh, ...hang on... I'm NOT a car dealer! That's the popular vote I think.

I am NOT "trading and on furlough". I am not on furlough, me. Sometimes people can really talk out of their ass.

===

And finally Rory/Stalker if you think this very sparsely populated forum boosts Google rankings, you don't get the online thing at all. The stuff I did at the weekend, the Daily Mirror item, The Sun item, all the backlinks from them, THEY boost Google rankings. In fact Google ranking isn't my main route to market. I spend £0 on SEO. Idiots.

HOW DARE YOU! My advertising is very tasteful and of the highest quality.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surely *someone* here has a sense of humour?

Your use of the ford logo is copywrite

I've emailed andy barrett of Ford

You should know better

I suggest you delete your account via the mods and never return

 

[LINGsCARS 24]

"Copywrite", heh

Lisa Lisa... 

You know nothing about UK copyright law.

The UK law says that a trademark owner (eg Ford) cannot use its registered trademark to prevent further dealings in their own goods, once they have put those goods on the market in the UK. As long as my use of those signs does not indicate there is a commercial link between Ford and LINGsCARS (someone would have to be mentally deranged to think that is the case) there is nothing a trademark owner can do to stop me (or anyone else) using the trademark to advertise deals relating to Ford products.

Otherwise every car badge would have to be removed from every car dealers' advert in Autotrader etc. And no website except the authorised websites would be able to display car maker logos and badges. Think about it, dumbo.

I'm sure Andy Barrett will love your grammar and formatting and nonsense opinions and will click "bin".

So please shove your pseudo-legal opinion. And get a sense of humour. Seriously, what's wrong with some of you?

Have a look at this attempt from 2013 by Harley Davidson to try this crap on with me.

https://www.lingscars.com/images/pdf/legals/harley.pdf

Edited April 15, 2020 by LINGsCARS

[CCC 31]

Don’t knock the site. It’s got a clear message, we’re fun and we’re cheap. It’s not going to be confused with any other site either, more than you can say for most dealers sites. 
 

ultimately Ling isn’t a car dealer but arguably the most effective E-commerce leasing business in the UK. 
 

I suspect more lease customers have heard about Ling than any other Lease/Brokerage owner? 

[have a word with the wife 299]

1 hour ago, CCC said:

Don’t knock the site. It’s got a clear message, we’re fun and we’re cheap. It’s not going to be confused with any other site either, more than you can say for most dealers sites. 
 

ultimately Ling isn’t a car dealer but arguably the most effective E-commerce leasing business in the UK. 
 

I suspect more lease customers have heard about Ling than any other Lease/Brokerage owner? 

its not fun and trust me, NOT cheap, it is  struggling, hence all the tacky  adverts, other lease companies are closed because they want to protect the nhs, the government has asked quite clearly to stay at home do not put the workforce at risk, grants and furloughs in place for this very reason ! NOT, work from home, send someone else out delivering, question, where, exactly is there advice on how to ensure a delivered car is sanitised correctly ? just a scab mate.

Edited April 16, 2020 by have a word with the wife

[LINGsCARS 24]

1 hour ago, have a word with the wife said:

its not fun and trust me, NOT cheap, it is  struggling, hence all the tacky  adverts, other lease companies are closed because they want to protect the nhs, the government has asked quite clearly to stay at home do not put the workforce at risk, grants and furloughs in place for this very reason ! NOT, work from home, send someone else out delivering, question, where, exactly is there advice on how to ensure a delivered car is sanitised correctly ? just a scab mate.

Jesus. Some people just can't read.

 

[have a word with the wife 299]

work from home and send someone else out

[LINGsCARS 24]

10 minutes ago, have a word with the wife said:

work from home and send someone else out

I don't deliver the new cars. Just as I don't deliver Amazon stuff. 

Is there anyone here who hasn't placed an online order for some crap over the past few weeks? And gladly had it delivered?

I got some canes for my raspberry plants delivered the other day. Why not? 

The hypocrisy is deafening. 

The idea is not to kill the country through inactivity and be proud of it... the idea is to prevent the spread of a virus while carrying on as much as is possible, best you can within the guidelines. Read the guidelines (again)

Edited April 16, 2020 by LINGsCARS

[Halfpenny 114]

If Ling is not furloughed then there is no reason she should not work from home. She processes orders and passes them on to dealers/leasing co's and the delivery issues are owned by them. However I wouldn't think delivery of a brand new car poses much of a health risk. It should be easy to sanitise touch points and the cars are only driven on and off a transporter. There is a risk of additional accidents through transporters being on the road but the chances must be very small. We are allowing the likes of Amazon to continue to ship vast quantities of non-essential goods and that must overall present a vastly greater risk than the very small number of new car deliveries that are going on.

In terms of Lings marketing - well lease brokering in a very competitive industry (although all roads seem to lead back to a handful of big leasing co's). I suspect almost all leasing customers have decided what vehicle/spec they want and then trawl the internet for the cheapest deal. Anything that increases a broker's web traffic has got to be good - and Ling has gone down the 'wild and whacky' route to grab attention. After that its a case of being price-competitive and then, as with any brokering business, providing good service (which basically boils down to prompt and accurate processing and responses to customer orders/queries).

As a used car dealer I think that Ling's activities are so dissimilar to mine as to be irrelevant to me. The only impact is that she is facilitating the financing of new cars which I guess is good for me because it boosts the supply of used cars.  As for her 'whacky' marketing strategy, well I guess I could go down the 'Crazy John's Used Cars' route and adopt a 'Howling Mad Murdoch' persona, but IMHO that's the kind of stuff that plays much better with the yanks rather than the rather dour customers that we get.

[LINGsCARS 24]

3 minutes ago, Halfpenny said:

If Ling is not furloughed then there is no reason she should not work from home. She processes orders and passes them on to dealers/leasing co's and the delivery issues are owned by them. However I wouldn't think delivery of a brand new car poses much of a health risk. It should be easy to sanitise touch points and the cars are only driven on and off a transporter. There is a risk of additional accidents through transporters being on the road but the chances must be very small. We are allowing the likes of Amazon to continue to ship vast quantities of non-essential goods and that must overall present a vastly greater risk than the very small number of new car deliveries that are going on.

In terms of Lings marketing - well lease brokering in a very competitive industry (although all roads seem to lead back to a handful of big leasing co's). I suspect almost all leasing customers have decided what vehicle/spec they want and then trawl the internet for the cheapest deal. Anything that increases a broker's web traffic has got to be good - and Ling has gone down the 'wild and whacky' route to grab attention. After that its a case of being price-competitive and then, as with any brokering business, providing good service (which basically boils down to prompt and accurate processing and responses to customer orders/queries).

As a used car dealer I think that Ling's activities are so dissimilar to mine as to be irrelevant to me. The only impact is that she is facilitating the financing of new cars which I guess is good for me because it boosts the supply of used cars.  As for her 'whacky' marketing strategy, well I guess I could go down the 'Crazy John's Used Cars' route and adopt a 'Howling Mad Murdoch' persona, but IMHO that's the kind of stuff that plays much better with the yanks rather than the rather dour customers that we get.

Good analysis.

[Paul C 75]

Ling has been a breath of fresh air/kick up the arse for this forum. She's right, a lot of websites for manufacturers are dull and predictable. A lot of aspects of the car industry are dull. For example, here is the choice of the colours you can buy a Golf GTE from Das Welt Auto, if you wanted to:

 

The wacky website is a big departure from the normal and as such, does its job but I can't help thinking (at least with the high-end) that there is a lot of "play it safe", "don't rock the boat" caution in their marketing, showrooms and branding. Up until now, that kinda worked.

However life isn't going to be the same, for a long time. The high-end dealers are going to get a shock, for a number of reasons 1) they need to translate all the fluff of having an attractive receptionist, free coffee, comfy seats, posh cars inside etc into an appealing remote-selling prospect - quick and 2) the higher up you go, the more the entire car dealer industry seems to be propped up by finance. Its a bit like an enormous game of Jenga. 

I predict we'll see some big companies go bust in the next year or two - in fact I wouldn't be surprised if one of the "big" manufacturers (like, BMW or FCA) went under too. 

People need to understand the science behind Covid-19 and infectious diseases. This lockdown isn't for 3 weeks, its 3-6 months. 3 weeks is (just about, with a lot of propping up by a government with a money tree) achievable to pause then unpause the industry. 3-6 months, and there will be a queue of about 20 industries wanting government support and the car industry will be one of many. Firms need to take a risk, NOW, by trying to predict what "the new normal" will be like for the next year or so and adapt quickly because there will be a bounce-back, of sorts. But it will massively shift to online. Miss out on that and your cashflow is going to go weak, no matter how good it is at the moment.

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

Thank you for those words

Next........

It's the door on the left by the way

[LINGsCARS 24]

51 minutes ago, Paul C said:

Ling has been a breath of fresh air/kick up the arse for this forum. She's right, a lot of websites for manufacturers are dull and predictable. A lot of aspects of the car industry are dull. For example, here is the choice of the colours you can buy a Golf GTE from Das Welt Auto, if you wanted to:

 

The wacky website is a big departure from the normal and as such, does its job but I can't help thinking (at least with the high-end) that there is a lot of "play it safe", "don't rock the boat" caution in their marketing, showrooms and branding. Up until now, that kinda worked.

However life isn't going to be the same, for a long time. The high-end dealers are going to get a shock, for a number of reasons 1) they need to translate all the fluff of having an attractive receptionist, free coffee, comfy seats, posh cars inside etc into an appealing remote-selling prospect - quick and 2) the higher up you go, the more the entire car dealer industry seems to be propped up by finance. Its a bit like an enormous game of Jenga. 

I predict we'll see some big companies go bust in the next year or two - in fact I wouldn't be surprised if one of the "big" manufacturers (like, BMW or FCA) went under too. 

People need to understand the science behind Covid-19 and infectious diseases. This lockdown isn't for 3 weeks, its 3-6 months. 3 weeks is (just about, with a lot of propping up by a government with a money tree) achievable to pause then unpause the industry. 3-6 months, and there will be a queue of about 20 industries wanting government support and the car industry will be one of many. Firms need to take a risk, NOW, by trying to predict what "the new normal" will be like for the next year or so and adapt quickly because there will be a bounce-back, of sorts. But it will massively shift to online. Miss out on that and your cashflow is going to go weak, no matter how good it is at the moment.

I would say the translation into online RELATIONSHIPS with customers is a big thing, now.

For used car dealers (seem the majority on this forum) they should watch the CARWOW interview and take notes. It's about communication with customers away from face to face. Don't get left behind, give customers a reason to smile, and they will buy.

For Franchised dealers, hmmm, they are really constrained by "brand", or even worse... trying to manage multiple brands. They have to be brave, I think. The boldest will win. Once they move online, they lose their precious geographical USP. They are already forced to use manufacturer names (eg Mercedes Doncaster or such). They may as well be in an anonymous shed in Corby, to serve the UK. For a while, few people will want to do face to face. Especially the older cash rich ones.

I foresee them trying to overcome blandness with a massive SEO spend, forcing the PPC up. Or they rely on referrals from manufacturer portals, which further subjugates their identity.

If I were them, I'd develop a very attractive (big tits springs to mind, frankly) live-video streaming meet and greet crew. That sends female customers to an attractive young man, and vice versa with male customers, and also caters for the gay community. To be blunt you have to ATTRACT custom and HOLD attention while some relationship develops (15 mins sounds good). So these attractive people need intelligent, funny personalities and be able to string some not-duhhhh sentences together.

Who dares, wins.

 

Edited April 16, 2020 by LINGsCARS

[Paul C 75]

Interesting, thanks. In theory, the best franchised dealers (I'm thinking of secondhand/nearly new cars) SHOULD be able to trade upon their reputation, at least for an interim. In other words, the customer's worry is the element of condition or issues with a SH car, which is mopped up by a new car warranty. To a certain extent they do this already (put the warranty terms of a SH and new car side-by-side and they are much the same) however its clear that even the best, don't have a robust process, all you need to do is read FB or Google reviews and you can see there's cases where something has happened that should never have been allowed to.

In practice, they all need to tighten up yet further. 

Of course, most people buy a car because they need to, but there is a proportion of the market which is a want, not a need. I predict we may see a permanent downturn and owners simply use their car less, keep it longer, etc. Of course eventually the wheels fall off and a want translates into a need. The market's somewhat due an adjustment anyway.

Another aspect which may come more prominent is sourcing/supply. I shudder to suggest it because I believe, on balance, cars are in excess supply and its a demand-driven industry. But for certain areas (eg electric) supply does have an influence, the high-end SH will play upon this more and more, in a bid to try give the customer more confidence. With new car supply issues over the next 6-12 months this will become more of a differentiating factor.

[have a word with the wife 299]

[LINGsCARS 24]

20 minutes ago, Paul C said:

 

Another aspect which may come more prominent is sourcing/supply. I shudder to suggest it because I believe, on balance, cars are in excess supply and its a demand-driven industry. But for certain areas (eg electric) supply does have an influence, the high-end SH will play upon this more and more, in a bid to try give the customer more confidence. With new car supply issues over the next 6-12 months this will become more of a differentiating factor.

Do you think cars are oversupply? I find the opposite with new cars, lead times can be 6-months, and God knows what will happen now post-virus. If I find physical cars, it's like Christmas

With used cars, don't companies like WBAC and Cazzoo just suck supply?

 

===========

 

Another reasonable day today sales-wise (considering), with 2 x new Tigs. ... (this would have been a crappy day pre-virus). My average is 1.5 creeping up to 2/cars a day, this month. There is still much demand out there, a point made by CarWoW. Many people want new cars. Not many places are dealing with them.

[Highlinev8 28]

1 minute ago, LINGsCARS said:

Do you think cars are oversupply? I find the opposite with new cars, lead times can be 6-months, and God knows what will happen now post-virus. If I find physical cars, it's like Christmas

With used cars, don't companies like WBAC and Cazzoo just suck supply?

 

Theres plenty of used stock out there but the trade sellers are in a period of indecision re pricing so not much stock is selling. 

Things were not helped by the majority of Cap Clean prices going up in value on the 1st of April. Realistically sales managers need to be looking at Cap and projecting future values to at least six months time if they want to sell to the trade today.

[LINGsCARS 24]

1 minute ago, Highlinev8 said:

Theres plenty of used stock out there but the trade sellers are in a period of indecision re pricing so not much stock is selling. 

Things were not helped by the majority of Cap Clean prices going up in value on the 1st of April. Realistically sales managers need to be looking at Cap and projecting future values to at least six months time if they want to sell to the trade today.

Yeah well most VEDs went up on 1st April too, that bloody 1st reg fee... so we've all had a price hike, maybe that VED rise pushed used cars up in Cap?

[Paul C 75]

7 minutes ago, LINGsCARS said:

Do you think cars are oversupply?

Broadly yes, especially new. Once you consider secondhand, then its still "yes" but with certain variations, it might be one operates in a particular market area subject to this variation.

[LINGsCARS 24]

2 minutes ago, Paul C said:

Broadly yes, especially new. Once you consider secondhand, then its still "yes" but with certain variations, it might be one operates in a particular market area subject to this variation.

Well, with all the factories having closed for a month, and the parts suppliers too, and all the pipeline delays, surely the new cars can only get scarcer this year? So prices may harden.

I mean look at Golfs. a big seller. This happens just on change over Golf 7-8. I've still got G Mk7 orders in... unsure where the cars are? Surely the builds will be cancelled? Surely, there will only be 8's being built now? It's all up in the air.

And Golf is usually No1 UK seller.

Edited April 16, 2020 by LINGsCARS

[Paul C 75]

Agree, going forward, new car supply is a big issue - for someone like yourself it will be, "interesting". I guess you don't have any significant infrastructure to hold stock?

 

[LINGsCARS 24]

3 hours ago, Paul C said:

Agree, going forward, new car supply is a big issue - for someone like yourself it will be, "interesting". I guess you don't have any significant infrastructure to hold stock?

 

No, not my stock. i don't buy the cars...

[CCC 31]

For me this was a day that was always going to come, just not as fast as Corona virus forced it.

Sales are moving online, so online marketing skills (which Ling has by the bucket) where always going to become more important than ever. It’s going to be about building proper relationships with customers for the long term not just transactional ones. Many here will have repeat customers and be good at this, just need to take that online, others will be relying on price which increases margin pressure.

 

Investing in Gin palaces whilst the direction of travel to online was always madness. Invest in customer service but not premises to look swanky. 

Demand has been driven by cheap finance and false impressions of employment guarantees. Finance will dry up heavily I’m sure as lending criteria tighten (ie actually become realistic) and everyone has learned employment is not guaranteed.

Supply of new cars might tighten but used cars are well built and reliable so we’ll just see more being repaired rather than scrapped for a £500 repair.

Some will go to the wall, some will adapt and thrive. But it should be more sustainable business going forwards.

 

 

Edited April 17, 2020 by CCC

[DCS01 27]

So this is the thing I don’t get.  I am now technically unemployed as the job I was moving to cancelled the contract and my current employer being on of the big player  plcs have refused to keep me on and furlough me.

So my plan for a while has been to open up at my dads place. Seems like now is that time when this starts to settle.

Now I am still in the mind set that morally and going by government guidance to be selling cars even remotely is not the right thing to do. However to just make sure we have enough money coming in (I am lucky the wife is still earning) I am currently applying for delivery driver jobs for the likes of Hermes/Uber/Iceland. I get that Iceland would be considered a key service but delivering something someone has brought on Amazon? It’s a fine line...

[LINGsCARS 24]

DCS01: Selling cars is perfectly fine. There are no "banned" occupations. It's just how you do it.

There are lots of jobs out there, on another thread I showed fruit-picking.

You're trying to find reasons NOT to do stuff... look at it the other way and get on with it.

8 minutes ago, DCS01 said:

So this is the thing I don’t get.  I am now technically unemployed as the job I was moving to cancelled the contract and my current employer being on of the big player  plcs have refused to keep me on and furlough me.

So my plan for a while has been to open up at my dads place. Seems like now is that time when this starts to settle.

Now I am still in the mind set that morally and going by government guidance to be selling cars even remotely is not the right thing to do. However to just make sure we have enough money coming in (I am lucky the wife is still earning) I am currently applying for delivery driver jobs for the likes of Hermes/Uber/Iceland. I get that Iceland would be considered a key service but delivering something someone has brought on Amazon? It’s a fine line...

Everyone here is good online... I mean you're all communicating effectively on this forum, eh? The miserable ones are often the most prolific.

What I'm astonished at is that so few of you are prepared to use your real name, or say who you are. Why on earth not? Why does (most) everyone think hiding their identity is a GOOD thing? Do you wear bags over your heads in real-life?

Edited April 17, 2020 by LINGsCARS

[DCS01 27]

2 minutes ago, LINGsCARS said:

Selling cars is perfectly fine. There are no "banned" occupations. It's just how you do it.

There are lots of jobs out there, on another thread I showed fruit-picking.

You're trying to find reasons NOT to do stuff... look at it the other way and get on with it.

Everyone here is good online... I mean you're all communicating effectively on this forum, eh? The miserable ones are often the most prolific.

I am using the time productively, setting up relevant trade accounts, re activating my old Facebook account (deal with the devil) to change for the business.

When this starts to blow over I will be ready to go.