'There is a positive adjective which you rarely see in any other industry which is very motor trade specific. 'Proper'. I do not think I have seen Wayne Rooney described as a 'proper' footballer or Snoop Dogg described as a 'proper' rapper. I would however describe all the people that I admire and respect in the motor industry as 'proper'.
Proper in a motor trade context means someone you can trust who acts with honour and integrity, someone who will help you out when you need a favour and most importantly of all, knows how this business works.
Unfortunately, there appears to be a worrying declining trend in the proliferation of these people. The first time I realised there was a change of mentality was when dealers stopped taking cheques from each other. I don't blame a business for protecting their interests, I look to those individuals who bounced a cheque on someone, did not settle a finance agreement or were funding cars that did not belong to them. What happened to honour amongst thieves?
It has now perforated even more trivial aspects of the trade. How many of you have collected a car from another dealer only for it to be mis-described? I am not talking about an alloy wheel scuff, one stamp missing in the book or a chip in the screen, I am talking six owners not two, lights on dashboards ('it wasn't like that when I appraised it') and even poorly executed approved manufacturer checks. There is very seldom a positive outcome to any subsequent negotiation, suffice to say it is another dealer or individual you will not do business with again.
The latest evidence in the decline of 'properness' is the advent of electronic used car disposal systems. I wonder how many times I have been used as some kind of fallback position only for a dealer to then try and use your bid to make a profit. I certainly do not have a problem with dealers making a profit, but if a car is not available to buy, do not offer it to me. Use your skill, value the car yourself and good luck. There is also the issue and I hear about it frequently, 'they put the car down to me, someone else rang them up and offered them more money and they sold it to them'. This is not good to hear.
There is also a shortage of 'proper' customers. 'I understand Mr Customer that you are not a motor trade professional but when you are telling me about your part exchange on the phone, I would expect you to tell me about the slippling clutch or missing service history as these are very obvious'. I heard a horror story from another trader the other day about a customer who wanted to return a car due to it needing a new engine, when the warranty company investigated, they found the car had been drained of oil, ran dry and then refilled once it broke.
I know that I am doomed to live in a world where in order to protect yourself and your business that examples like these are only going to become more common but the scary part of all this is I am only 32, how cynical will I be when I am 50...'
Monday, 14 February 2011
Sunday, 6 February 2011
Flaming Forums...
During my motor trade sales apprenticeship, I acquired the affectionate nickname of 'the geek' long before it was cool. This was purely down to the fact that I had been to university whilst my colleagues were alumni of the university of life and would be lucky to scrape a pass.
Back then, a geek was someone who had their name sown into their socks, wore the sort of glasses that could withstand an IED and who actually knew that a Bunsen burner was for something other than setting pencil cases on fire.
However, two years ago I bought a left hand drive Mercedes and I turned into a geek...
My website designer, for the sake of this article I will call him Adam, that is actually his real name so my apologies for the lack of creativity, had introduced me to the world of Google Analytics. 'You can do loads of stuff like checking entry paths to your website, check search keywords, geographical data etc etc' he told me. 'OK mate, will check it out' I replied.
This Mercedes was a minter, 25 years old, one owner, primrose yellow and proper history. Nothing too out of the ordinary but not exactly your every day retail fodder.
Analytics told me that there was a large interest in the car from a large motoring forum and my daily web traffic went bananas. I set up a log in and password to the forum and I officially started wearing trousers which were too short for my shoes.
If you have had no experience of motoring forums, they are like the masonic lodges of the car industry. Code words, inside jokes, regular meetings and special favours abound. I commented on the thread (discussion about a topic) and got absolutely no feedback. So over the next few months I observed, read and occasionally commented on various threads and gradually got to know the terms and inside jokes.
As I got a bit braver I started a couple of threads which were motor trade specific. At this point it is worth confessing to not being a car enthusiast like many. I am a trade enthusiast. As people had seen some of my posts and I was no longer a 'newbie' a few people started to comment, some with good feedback, a few with negative. Nothing I could not handle.
Then I started a thread called 'What planet do some car buyers live on?'. With hindsight this is probably the most incendiary title I could have written. In my OP (original post) I posted an e-mail conversation with a guy who had bid me £1500 off a £6000 car which had gone a little unsavoury. To be fair to the customer, he was as polite as could be before he hammered my twig and giggleberries but I bit and sent him a rather flippant e-mail back. Cue a bit of a slag fest where he questioned my business credentials and I - humble as ever- questioned his human worth.
Anyone who has ever sold cars for a living will hopefully understand the point of my question but the motoring masons did not. In metaphorical terms I was stripped naked, tied on horseback and paraded through the streets of London with the angry townsfolk hurling flaming turnips in my direction. In three days it drove literally thousands of people to my website. All PR is good PR or so they say. Not me, I was close to calling Red Adair to put out the fire.
After about a month and me begging the administrators to take the thread away, I could pick through the embers of what had been my forum life.
It taught me a massive lesson about how we in the trade are perceived and how I must empathise more with each individual car buyer. Just because I have heard 'what is your last price?' a million times this week, to that customer he is spending his hard earned and I must acknowledge and appreciate the opportunity for him to spend it with me....
Back then, a geek was someone who had their name sown into their socks, wore the sort of glasses that could withstand an IED and who actually knew that a Bunsen burner was for something other than setting pencil cases on fire.
However, two years ago I bought a left hand drive Mercedes and I turned into a geek...
My website designer, for the sake of this article I will call him Adam, that is actually his real name so my apologies for the lack of creativity, had introduced me to the world of Google Analytics. 'You can do loads of stuff like checking entry paths to your website, check search keywords, geographical data etc etc' he told me. 'OK mate, will check it out' I replied.
This Mercedes was a minter, 25 years old, one owner, primrose yellow and proper history. Nothing too out of the ordinary but not exactly your every day retail fodder.
Analytics told me that there was a large interest in the car from a large motoring forum and my daily web traffic went bananas. I set up a log in and password to the forum and I officially started wearing trousers which were too short for my shoes.
If you have had no experience of motoring forums, they are like the masonic lodges of the car industry. Code words, inside jokes, regular meetings and special favours abound. I commented on the thread (discussion about a topic) and got absolutely no feedback. So over the next few months I observed, read and occasionally commented on various threads and gradually got to know the terms and inside jokes.
As I got a bit braver I started a couple of threads which were motor trade specific. At this point it is worth confessing to not being a car enthusiast like many. I am a trade enthusiast. As people had seen some of my posts and I was no longer a 'newbie' a few people started to comment, some with good feedback, a few with negative. Nothing I could not handle.
Then I started a thread called 'What planet do some car buyers live on?'. With hindsight this is probably the most incendiary title I could have written. In my OP (original post) I posted an e-mail conversation with a guy who had bid me £1500 off a £6000 car which had gone a little unsavoury. To be fair to the customer, he was as polite as could be before he hammered my twig and giggleberries but I bit and sent him a rather flippant e-mail back. Cue a bit of a slag fest where he questioned my business credentials and I - humble as ever- questioned his human worth.
Anyone who has ever sold cars for a living will hopefully understand the point of my question but the motoring masons did not. In metaphorical terms I was stripped naked, tied on horseback and paraded through the streets of London with the angry townsfolk hurling flaming turnips in my direction. In three days it drove literally thousands of people to my website. All PR is good PR or so they say. Not me, I was close to calling Red Adair to put out the fire.
After about a month and me begging the administrators to take the thread away, I could pick through the embers of what had been my forum life.
It taught me a massive lesson about how we in the trade are perceived and how I must empathise more with each individual car buyer. Just because I have heard 'what is your last price?' a million times this week, to that customer he is spending his hard earned and I must acknowledge and appreciate the opportunity for him to spend it with me....
And the Oscar goes to...
If you want to see my ugly mug discussing whether car dealers should be engaging in social media then you can do so here:
http://www.cardealermagazine.co.uk/publish/video-should-car-dealers-be-using-twitter-and-facebook/48120
http://www.cardealermagazine.co.uk/publish/video-should-car-dealers-be-using-twitter-and-facebook/48120
Tuesday, 1 February 2011
Pope to a Dope...
I don't know about you but I was surprised to see the Pope rocking a converted Mercedes ML during the recent Papal visit. I expected something a little more Motability and a little less pose-ability. Still, if his boss is happy with his company car choice then who am I to question what car he stands up in? I even Google'd 'Popemobile' and saw that the late Pope John Paul used to have a modified Mercedes G Wagen. This latest German incumbant is not waving the patriotic flag for Mercedes, it seems the boys in Stuttgart are the chosen supplier of the Papacy.
It got me thinking about other unusual or unexpected modifications. Who can forget the Renault Espace with the Renault F1 engine rocketing around Silverstone prior to the British GP years ago or any number of Top Gear created specials? There is one converted car which very few of you will have heard about and even less will have see. My mate Bernardo's Vauxhall Chevette.
Bernardo is a free spirit, an enigma if you will. He disappears from the country for years at a time and returns as a new character. One minute a labourer in India, the next a Spanish bus driver. He is like the real life Mr Benn.
Bernardo's Chevette started life as a conventional red saloon. Bernardo however wanted it to have more of an identity. So he opened the shed (his real shed not the Chevette) and took out some tins of black and white paint. Paint brushes in hand, Bernardo painted the doors white, the body black and applied the words 'to protect and serve' on the front wings. That's right folks, Bristol's own LAPD squad car had been born.
A stickler for detail, he even applied a Sherrif's badge on the doors albeit that he chose the Star of David rather than a conventional badge but Bernardo was a multi-faith law enforcer.
The car was seen in the Bristol area for many months, Bernardo came to visit his brother and I (we were room mates) in Bournemouth and took us on a street cruise. People pointed, shouted and waved. One bloke even offered to pay us to take him to his office Christmas party so he too joined the patrol and was the envy of all his mates when he turned up to his hotel.
I will leave you with the best story. Bernardo, like his heroes from the American police dramas, was a flamboyant driver. He announced his arrival at B&Q one day by hand brake turning the car into a parking space. On entry to the store the security guard said 'if you drive like that on the way out I will call the law.''I am the law' replied Bernardo..
It got me thinking about other unusual or unexpected modifications. Who can forget the Renault Espace with the Renault F1 engine rocketing around Silverstone prior to the British GP years ago or any number of Top Gear created specials? There is one converted car which very few of you will have heard about and even less will have see. My mate Bernardo's Vauxhall Chevette.
Bernardo is a free spirit, an enigma if you will. He disappears from the country for years at a time and returns as a new character. One minute a labourer in India, the next a Spanish bus driver. He is like the real life Mr Benn.
Bernardo's Chevette started life as a conventional red saloon. Bernardo however wanted it to have more of an identity. So he opened the shed (his real shed not the Chevette) and took out some tins of black and white paint. Paint brushes in hand, Bernardo painted the doors white, the body black and applied the words 'to protect and serve' on the front wings. That's right folks, Bristol's own LAPD squad car had been born.
A stickler for detail, he even applied a Sherrif's badge on the doors albeit that he chose the Star of David rather than a conventional badge but Bernardo was a multi-faith law enforcer.
The car was seen in the Bristol area for many months, Bernardo came to visit his brother and I (we were room mates) in Bournemouth and took us on a street cruise. People pointed, shouted and waved. One bloke even offered to pay us to take him to his office Christmas party so he too joined the patrol and was the envy of all his mates when he turned up to his hotel.
I will leave you with the best story. Bernardo, like his heroes from the American police dramas, was a flamboyant driver. He announced his arrival at B&Q one day by hand brake turning the car into a parking space. On entry to the store the security guard said 'if you drive like that on the way out I will call the law.''I am the law' replied Bernardo..
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