7:32 am, July 29, 2024
The hardest part about running a used car business is buying cars – and it’s become somewhat of a full time job for me.
Some would call it an addiction such is my necessity every evening to spend far too long scrolling through the auction listings on Carwow and Motorway.
I’m a fan of both of these sites. I like the format and the fact that you get a second chance to look over the cars when you go to pick them up.
I try and collect as many as I can and that means targeting cars that come up for sale within my buying parameters locally.
I prefer it as it saves on transportation costs that eat into your margin and means you don’t waste too much time if they turn out to be poorly described.
Last week it just so happened that four came up mid-week that hit all my metrics. If you’ve watched any of my videos or listened to the Car Dealer Podcast you’ll know I like them to have strong Auto Trader Retail Ratings and be sub-£7k retail.
I find cars over a 90 Retail Rating sell very quickly for me. At the moment my average days to sell is 16.5 days and if they get to 30 I start to worry.
Popping up last week on Motorway were four cars that hit the numbers – an Audi A1, Nissan Qashqai, Vauxhall Mokka and Hyundai i20.
Using some help from AI, I worked out a bidding strategy. It’s something I usually do myself, but for the purposes of the AI Car Dealership Project I wanted to give it a go.
The results were interesting – which you can see in the video above – and AI gave me an order of preference in which to bid.
I won’t spoil the video and tell you what I won, but let’s just say I was ‘reasonably’ successful.
The week was also book ended with two handovers – a Suzuki Celerio at the start of the week and a VW Polo at the end. Both sold to nearly-new drivers who absolutely loved the cars.
I’m finding my favourite part of buying and selling used cars is meeting and looking after customers. I enjoy the customer service part of the job and keeping people happy is my number one priority.
It really does put a smile on my face handing over a car to a new driver who is incredibly excited to be starting their journey of life in their own vehicle. I remember that day myself and it’s one that sticks with you forever and it’s important I try my best to make it feel special.
It seems to be working so far and I’m incredibly proud of my reviews.
On the sales front, things were a bit quieter though. Despite a few test drives, nothing converted – but I suppose that’s the way the cookie crumbles some weeks.
You can keep up to date with the Clever Car Collection and my trials and tribulations in the motor trade on our YouTube channel or listen to our Podcast.
