Car Dealer Podcast Oct 10, 2025

Car finance customers to get £700, GVE London accounts laid bare, and a surprising car outsold the Vauxhall Corsa in September – with Lee Shayler, episode 226

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Car

Kia Sorento

The Kia Sorento is a type of vehicle called an SUV, which stands for Sport Utility Vehicle. The 2009 version is known for being roomy and practical for families.

Car

Suzuki Carry

The Suzuki Carry is a small truck that can carry things and is easy to drive in small spaces. It's often used by businesses to transport goods.

Car

Suzuki Vitara

The Suzuki Vitara is a small SUV known for being good for both city driving and off-road adventures. It's been around for a long time and is appreciated for its versatility.

Concept

petrol station

A petrol station is a place where you can buy fuel for your car, like gasoline or diesel. Many also have shops where you can buy snacks and drinks.

Brand

Lamborghini

Lamborghini is another well-known Italian car brand that makes very fast and stylish sports cars.

Brand

Ferrari

Ferrari is a famous car brand from Italy that makes fast and luxurious sports cars.

Car

Mercury Cougars

The Mercury Cougar is an older car that used to be popular for its stylish look and fun driving experience. Many people who love classic cars still talk about it today.

Car

Ford Puma

The Ford Puma is a small SUV that is designed for city driving. It's known for being stylish and affordable, making it a popular choice for many drivers.

Car

Volkswagen Egolf

The Volkswagen e-Golf is an electric version of the regular Golf car. It runs on electricity instead of gasoline, making it better for the environment and often cheaper to run.

Car

Kia Picantos

The Kia Picanto is a small car that's easy to drive and park, especially in cities. It's known for being fuel-efficient and is a good choice for people who need a compact vehicle.

Term

APR rate

APR is the interest rate you pay on a loan each year. A lower APR means you'll pay less money in interest over time.

Term

negative equity

Negative equity means you owe more on your car loan than what the car is currently worth. This can be a problem if you want to sell or trade in your car.

Term

A warranty is like a promise from the car maker that they will fix certain problems with the car for a set amount of time. If something goes wrong, you won't have to pay for the repairs as long as it's covered by the warranty.

Car

Škoda Yeti

The Škoda Yeti is a small SUV that is great for families because it has a lot of space inside. It's known for being comfortable and easy to drive.

Car

Skoda Yeti

The Skoda Yeti is a small SUV that’s really good for carrying people and their stuff. It’s known for being practical and having a unique look.

Car

Kia Sportage

The Kia Sportage is a medium-sized car that’s good for families because it has a lot of space and nice features. It’s also known for being affordable and reliable.

Car

Nissan Qashqai

The Nissan Qashqai is a small SUV that many people like because it's stylish and practical for city driving. It offers a good amount of space and comfort for passengers.

Car

Audi Q7

The Audi Q7 is a big luxury SUV that offers a lot of space and fancy features. It's a good choice for families who want a comfortable and stylish vehicle.

Car

Hyundai Tucson

The Hyundai Tucson is a small SUV that many people like because it's useful and looks good. It comes with different engine options and features to suit various needs.

Car

Volkswagen Golf

The Volkswagen Golf is a small car that many people enjoy driving because it's well-made and fun to use. It comes in different styles and has sporty options too.

Brand

BYD

BYD is a car company from China that makes electric cars and batteries. They are becoming more popular around the world.

Car

MG HS

The MG HS is a small SUV made by the MG car brand. It's designed to be stylish and practical for everyday use.

Brand

Volvo

Volvo is a car brand from Sweden that is famous for making safe and reliable cars. They make different types of vehicles, including SUVs and electric cars.

Brand

Hyundai

Hyundai is a car company from South Korea that makes many different types of vehicles. They are popular for their good prices and long warranties.

Car

Land Rover Range Rover

The Land Rover Range Rover is a fancy, big car that can drive on tough roads and looks really nice inside. People like it because it’s great for both adventures and everyday driving.

Car

Dodge Charger

The Dodge Charger is a big car that looks sporty and can go really fast. It’s popular among people who want a fun car to drive but still need room for passengers and stuff.

Brand

MG

MG is a car brand from the UK that makes sporty and electric cars. They have a long history and are known for being affordable.

Term

after sales proposition

After sales proposition means what happens after you buy a car, like if you can get it repaired or how long the warranty lasts.

Term

parts

Parts are the different pieces that make up a car, like the engine or the tires. If you need to fix something, you need to find the right parts.

Car

Range Rover Evoque

The Range Rover Evoque is a small luxury SUV that looks good and can handle rough terrain. It's a popular choice for people who want a nice car that can also go off-road.

Car

Jeep Wrangler (JKU)

The Jeep Wrangler (JKU) is a tough vehicle made for off-roading. It's popular with people who like to drive in the wilderness or on rough trails.

Car

Range Rover

The Range Rover is a fancy SUV made by Land Rover. It's known for being very comfortable and good at driving off-road.

Car

Defender

The Defender is another vehicle made by Land Rover, designed for tough off-road driving. It has a boxy shape and is built to handle rough conditions.

LIVE

The Cardiola podcast is sponsored by Auto Trader. John, do you know why I, like nearly 14,000 other dealers, work with Auto Trader?

No, but I have a feeling you're going to tell me.

Well, with around 84 million consumer visits each month, it connects us with more engaged car buyers than anyone else in the UK.

And there's the ability to reserve cars when the dealership is closed.

Ah, so you can stick to your strict 8pm bedtime.

Exactly. And the Auto Trader team are always on hand to offer their insights, ensure we get the very best from our package and ultimately sell more cars.

Well, that's good because you are going to need all the help you can get.

Oi, less of that. Dealers, if you want to find out more, log on to trade.autotrader.co.uk

Welcome back to the Cardiola podcast where we pick our favourite stories of the week and ask an industry guest to choose which were the best.

I'm John Ray and joining me this week is James.

Hello there, fancy seeing you here.

I'm glad you are because today I'm going to show you this beautiful 2009 Kia Sarento Bagot.

James, hi.

Have you been watching my videos, John?

No, it's just in my brain.

You've just been at the dealership when I've been recording them, haven't you?

Yes.

How are you, John? Nice to see you.

Yes, I only saw you 12 hours ago, so it's nice to see you again.

That is true. We've spent a lot of time together recently, haven't we?

Yes, we've had another mini break.

I've probably spent more time with you than your lady wife has.

Yes, that is definitely true.

Can you hear my builders in the background?

No, they're showing off now.

Well, yeah, they're smashing up my garden.

So if you hear that, I'm sorry.

I just wanted to make you aware that it's not me banging the desk.

No, I can't hear any of it.

Anyway, say what we've been doing then.

What have we been doing?

We've been buying more cars, haven't we, John?

And you actually came along to help me.

So we bought some more imported vehicles that we didn't import.

Somebody else imported, but we went and bought them.

So I bought 10 cars.

I bought seven cars and took a couple on sale or return that he can sell himself.

So before I give them a go, one of them quite excited, a Suzuki carry.

Yes, you were excited.

I was particularly excited by that.

Which is basically a very, very small pickup with a payload of 350 kilograms.

And I was telling my builders about that and they said that is probably about five bags of sand.

So it's effectively useless as a pickup.

So who knows we're going to sell that to, John?

Well, I think the thing is you've got quite close proximity to the Isle of Wight, haven't you?

And on the Isle of Wight, that's considered quite a large vehicle.

That is true.

We've been inundated with messages since we launched our WhatsApp number last week, John.

Have we?

No.

I had one message this morning.

I woke up this morning to write my sub-stack and I looked at my phone and there was a voice note.

And I thought someone has sent us a voice note.

And it's actually a customer who bought a Volkswagen asking for delivery on Monday.

All right.

So do you want me to feature that or?

Yeah, you can do.

But if people do want to send us a message, I'm going to read out the number one more time.

07463383310.

I won't be answering them because I'm going to be going on holiday on Sunday for 10 days.

So you will get in touch with Joe, who will hopefully pass them on to John.

He probably won't.

Well, this has been happening.

Well, car dealers side has been a little bit quiet, John.

A little bit quiet.

We had a very good September, but October has been, I would say, hard work.

It feels like the kind of the run into Christmas has started early.

But then we spoke to the dealer that we bought the cars from, the imports.

And they sold 30 last week.

So I was like, oh, maybe it's just me.

Out of about 300, though.

Yeah.

I've been doing a little bit of soul searching ever since.

So yeah, I've been chatting to a few people.

He's getting a little bit quieter, I think.

But yeah, I'm sure we'll cover some of that in the news because there was an

interesting chat that Bach did with AutoTrader this week about the market,

the used car market, which I listened to this morning,

which I thought was fascinating.

So hopefully what Catherine Fares was saying there about the market being

robust turned out to be true for the rest of the year.

Yes, certainly.

Well, shall I introduce our guest?

Yeah, please.

Lovely.

So our guest this week is Lee Shaler, director at Richley Motor Company,

of course, co-founder of DMS Provider Dealer Kit.

Hello, Lee.

Good morning, guys.

Good to see you.

Nice to see you, Lee.

Thank you for joining us.

We are here for a dual reason.

Obviously Dealer Kit has recently won our first car dealer recommends

product test.

We've been extensively using the DMS in the clever car collection for

the last year and we've started writing product tests of those

suppliers that we do use, you being one of them.

And we've been incredibly impressed with it.

You scored fantastically well.

Any supplier that gets over 90 gets a card in a recommended

badge of honor.

And you were the first to get that.

So we will come on to Dealer Kit in a moment because I'd like to

talk about that.

Let's talk a little bit about your business because Dealer Kit has

been spun off a car dealership, hasn't it?

Your car dealers first and foremost.

Tell us a little bit about that first.

We are.

So sort of just over 40 years ago, it was actually my mum and

dad's moved on to a site in Raleigh in Essex and they had a

little porter cabin.

Probably the story behind most kind of car dealerships, I

guess, but they had five or six cars, different time then

because they, you know, they always tell me stories that my

dad loved windsurfing and they would like go to the beach

and things like that.

And they'd leave their number on the door and they'd be out

and they'd get a call to say, oh, can I look at this

Suzuki Vitara or whatever it might be.

And then they'd come back to site to see them.

So it's like completely different time.

But obviously that site grew and grew and our site

in Raleigh at that time, where we still are now,

that's a two-acre site that was a petrol station.

And there's a really lovely story where the guy that owned the

site became sort of best friends with my dad.

And we rented it from him and his family for 38 years,

but we actually managed to buy it at the end of last year,

which was a bit of a challenge because obviously it's a big

piece of property and it pushes things like cash flow

and things like that.

So, you know, you've got to be very careful with the way

that you're spending, but it's been really beneficial to

us to know that we sort of own that site now.

But yeah, so kind of it built from there and my mum and dad

chose to not do the petrol station anymore.

And I think it was someone said to my dad,

Richard, why do you only just buy and sell five or six cars?

You know, you could do 10 or 20 or whatever the number is.

He said, well, you know, I don't have any money to do that.

And he said, well, you need to find some.

You need to go and get out and stop going on holiday

and windsurfing, I guess.

But then they did and my dad being very focused,

he came out of like a body shot background.

So he was that was his main business before.

And then really started to kick up with a car dealership

and stop selling a petrol because there wasn't enough money

in that and people would steal out the shop and it was all

sorts of stuff.

But and that grew and then it went to obviously all cars

and where we are today.

We've got the two sites in Essex and our auto centre,

which does all of our prep and sort of outside retail

work as well, which is in in Wickford.

So it's just just down the road from us.

So were you always going to follow your dad into the most trade?

Was there was ever a time that you weren't going to do it?

Or was it always something you just wanted to do?

The truth is I wanted to be like a musician.

That was like my main thing.

And I had three jobs.

I thought I'd love to be a pilot.

I'd love to be an architect.

I'd love to be a musician.

And now I'm a car dealer.

So I kind of it's the biggest the biggest difference.

But I think I love working.

I mean, me and my dad are like best friends and we're together

every day and we go on holiday together.

We do lots of stuff.

We're a really close family.

And I kind of left school and I didn't go to university

or anything like that.

And cars is what I'd always done.

And even before that, my grandparents were like

cattle, like dealers and things like that.

So I've always been dealing or trading.

I think I got a lot of good education from that.

So I actually posted a photo a few weeks ago

because I went to Aston Barkley with my nephew.

And I'd been to that same auction to buy a livestock

with my grandpa, cars with my dad and that with my nephew.

And then hopefully one day my son or daughter could do the same.

But yeah, I think it's kind of in the blood

and it was always destined that I'd do that.

I probably didn't know that I'd always go into

sort of software after that

because it's such a big difference.

But I do think though, car dealing sets you up for lots of

different eventualities, doesn't it?

Because no day is the same.

You always meet new people so it can go anywhere, can't it?

Yeah, tell me a little bit about the richly business

then in terms of the sort of stuff that you sell

and the numbers of cars that you have.

I mean, what's your bread and butter?

So we've always sold the family car really

or slightly moving into prestige

but a top end of about 30,000 is really where we are

and we have had some nice kind of super cars,

Ferrari, Lamborghini, bits like that.

But they're just not things that we tend to stock

and we always look at it, we'd rather have

rather than one Ferrari, we want ten full Cougars

or something like that to give people selection.

However, our site in Biliriki is a beautiful town

and it's a beautiful showroom

and our intention has always been to kind of

put the more upmarket car there

and in the last few weeks we've changed that more

to kind of Land Rover, Jaguar, kind of those type of products

something that's a bit more special

but still capping off maybe sort of 40,000 to 50,000

because that's always been our market

and where it's been good.

And probably our stock level has dropped slightly,

maybe slightly to do with buying the site

obviously we haven't got as much cash as we had before

but pre-COVID we'd stock sort of 200 cars

and we'd always have, I suppose we'd have

between 160 to 180 on site

and we'd hit numbers of sales, sort of 130 to 140

that was like our average.

However, obviously what happened over COVID

I think most dealers saw the strain

where cars just went up so much in value

and you couldn't physically buy the same number of cars

so we scaled it back a little bit

and obviously we were working out of a reduced site selection

so we went back to about 140

and that's kind of where we are today about 140 cars

and out of that we hope to sell 110, 120

although I've got to say it's just a roller coaster at the moment

and I think a lot of dealers would maybe agree with that

because we go from really big highs

we have a couple of months at 120

and then we have a month at 100 or a 95

and you think how can there be that difference

because there was never that difference before

we were always very consistent

I think James, probably you've come into the market

at a really tough time and I've said this to you before

I think car dealing is so different today to it was

and I sound like I'm making myself very old when I say this

but even to five or six years ago

the market's just different

and you haven't got that continuous flow of customers

I don't think it might be different for other people

but obviously with dealer care

I've checked hundreds of dealers now

and it's all the same

there's no constant number

it's just kind of, it is a bit up and down

and as you said I think last month was a bit of a challenge

for everyone to be honest

I do find that part of the business

really really difficult to manage

and also deal with personally

because in other businesses

you sort of do have a steady flow

but when you're in retail

and I've never really run a retail business before

when you're in retail

you're just waiting for people to arrive

you do the same thing

you buy the same cars

and hopefully in the same way as you've done in the past

you advertise them in the same way

but then you just sort of got hope that the phone rings

and I do find that

I find that a bit of a struggle sometimes

because you end up

at times like when we're a little bit quiet like we are now

when we were, it sort of happened to us December last year

you do end up doing a bit of soul searching

and start asking yourself questions

have I done something wrong etc

when you've been in the business so long

you've probably seen that many times before

how do you cope with that?

You do I mean I used to get

a Friday night

years ago I get a bit anxious

I think alright tomorrow we need to sell

10 or 12 cars you know on a Saturday

because that's our number we need to hit

and then we need to do 8 or 10 on a Sunday

and you put yourself under that pressure

and I think that's probably for everyone

wherever you've done it

even my dad's

December comes every year

and he always gets worried about

right we've got to make sure we're tight for the winter

make sure everything's you know

we're not spending too much

we'll look at our autotrader bill

we'll look at all of our other running expenses

and just check where we are

and I think that comes

I think if you lose that

you lose the appetite for your business

and it goes the other way possibly

but yeah I do think

you turn up on a Saturday morning

and you think right

are 10 fresh people going to come in today

to buy cars because where are they coming from

you know you think you've run out of people

in the end

but I think if you just

if you stick to what you're good at

and you make sure everything's prepped

and looks lovely we take a lot of pride

in the appearance of both sites

so we've got people parking all the time

we want to make sure layout

is really important for us and probably

over our online presence

we concentrate on the experience

at the dealership which I know is very different

to many people

our website

is 10 or 12 years old

at the moment and it is due to a massive upgrade

but

we've really kept being so busy

all of our time spent on

other dealerships at the moment

and making sure that's right and I always say to Matt

if Matt's got a queue of websites today

I just say well you can put ours at the back

and we'll just carry on

and I think where obviously dealers have to have

that better online presence

we've always concentrated on the site

mainly

I remember chatting to Ian

about your business

I remember chatting to Ian about your business

and he was telling us

Ian your colleague that is

for people listening

and he was saying that because you've been around

for such a long period of time you do get a lot of repeat business

we have people who just simply turn up

and want to buy a car from you

we're very different to that

we're so new we have to concentrate online

it must be nice having a show

where people just arrive to buy a car

unannounced

it is nice

what happens

we do advertise in all the

right places

but each month

if I look at our data

and I compare it to all of the

from dealer kit

I can look at a dealer that

advertises heavily and sells

50-60% off of auto-trader

for example

but if we sold 110 or 120 cars

we may be only account

for 15 or 20 of auto-trader

but I think a big part of that

is we aren't

we aren't cheap enough maybe

we are possibly a little bit expensive

but we do prep our cars

to a really high standard

that's people that come in

it's really about our prep

and I'm sure there's people that prep as good as we do

that are cheaper as well

but we really like to give a good experience

when people come in

we don't ever go

after being the cheapest

in the market

it is strange but we have

just got a big customer base

invariably they come in to see my dad

because he's been there for so long

everyone calls him Mr Richie

and he's here

you can talk to him

and they always think they'll get the extra deal with my dad

so whether they do or they don't

but yeah that does happen

and

you chat to a lot of dealers

through

the Delicate business

which we'll come on to in a moment

what are you hearing about the market at the moment

what's your take on what's happening out there

in the used car market

well a lot of our Delicate dealers are very busy

and that always makes me

worry sometimes because we have a quiet month

and everyone goes oh yeah we're doing really well

this month you think oh no like

what have we done wrong

but I think it is uncertainty

you know I think there's lots of

there is lots of uncertainty

and obviously I listen

to your podcast a lot

and come to your events and things like that

and I listen to the thing about electric cars

and stuff and I think

that is actually a really big part of it

something I concentrated on

from your last event

was obviously where I think someone mentioned about

maybe incentivising

the used car market for

now it's great for new cars

and I spoke to a customer the other day

she'd bought a new Ford Puma

£190 a month or something

you think wow that's such a cheap car

because we've got older petrol cars

that we can't do for that same price

but they've got so many incentives

to that dealership to buy that car

that it really puts

a used car dealer at a disadvantage

and not that we sell

tons of EV but obviously on dealer kit

we've got dealers that are just specialising that

and they do very well from it

but I think

a little incentive maybe to look at a used car

that's an EV might help us

in the market a little bit there

and I don't know what that looks like

but I think it could be really helpful

I sort of agree with you on that front

we have been dipping our toe in the water again

with electric cars, I bought an e-Golf

last week

it turned up on Monday

I think we bought it by a motorway

but yeah we picked it up on the Monday

advertised it on the Wednesday, sold it Friday

incredibly quick

and honestly we could have sold it about five times

so much interest in that car

and John actually came down in between

the period of it turning up

John you were not positive about that car

you said it's kind of small

actually range etc

I thought you were a bit niche

because even when it came out new

it was sort of behind a lot of other stuff

and only sold it about two years before the ID.3 came out

How quick that went, I was really really surprised

so yeah we've been trying electric cars again

and I think there is

an opportunity there but

I'm sure we'll come into that in the news headlines

Lee let's talk a little bit about

dealer kit then

you're running two businesses

very very hard work

firstly how did dealer kit come about

we obviously use it and we love it

and we've talked about that

how did it come about

just before you answer

the thing for me is it's clearly

built by dealers

that's the thing I love about it

it's clearly built by people who know

how to sell cars

was that the genesis of the idea?

No we don't know how to sell cars

we might as good players

I tell you what exactly happened

it must be longer than that, it's probably 12

maybe 14 years ago

Oliver who is my business partner

in dealer kit

he and his brother used to build

our website, they used to do our marketing

all of our paper stuff

like folders, design

Matt who is actually

working with us now that does

all of our website marketing stuff

you've both met

our original Richly logo

we've known them for a really long time

and basically

I went out to some of the

competition now

but at that time they were just other DMS

providers and we had quite an old

sales team

we were doing things on paper

at the start of the week

Jerry who was the manager at that time

would have his desk and it would be Monday morning

he'd have a stack of folders

Monday Tuesday Wednesday all the deliveries on them

and I just thought

we need to clean this up

we can't keep giving people paper invoices

for cars

this is not an item

that's a low value item

you expect to go to a restaurant and get a paper

written receipt sometimes and I thought

we can't do that when we're selling

something that's £20,000

and I knew that we could

do more if we're a bit more efficient

I went out in the market

and I saw a lot of young providers

at that time

and because we had an older sales team

I think everyone was probably

over 50

I was fairly young at that point

coming into the business I was

maybe 18, 20 years old

and we'd got a new website

and things like that

and I think even our mobile website

was probably one of the first ones

and I look at screenshots of it today

and it just looks old fashioned

and I couldn't find anything

that we'd be able to use

because it would have been too complicated

and maybe because we weren't that

advanced as a dealer as some of the main dealerships

but

used car dealers that were independent

weren't really using

any type of software at that time

it was very new, if you had a DMS system

it was a bit unusual

or you'd be like a supermarket

you'd probably be at that time a supermarket

it might have been 3 or 500 cars

or whatever

so I said to Oliver

is it possible just to deal with off the back of a website

a really simple invoicing tool

that we can just fill in online

and print it out

perfect and that is truly

how it started so

we got that part done and then it was kind of like

well, Jerry's got all these folders

on his desk and maybe we could get a bit of thing going

for prep so we kind of thought

well we'll build a bit of a diary for prep

and things like that

from there it went on

we're not recording customer data

real well so we'll add a CRM

and then do you know what

wouldn't it be nice if we could put them all on

to this platform which had no name

at that time it was just the system as everyone called it

and it went out to

all of our advertisers so we built

that in from APIs and stuff

and it kept building and building and then

eventually Oliver

who probably now is the best car dealer out of all of us

because he knows everything about the car business

so he's a bit of a threat I would imagine

not that he's got any appetite to open the car

because you see how tough it is

but he

he then came to us

he would come to us every Thursday and Friday

and he would sit on site

he'd spend a day with the sales guys

a day in the workshop he'd go down to the body shop

and he would literally he would write code

whilst he was there so someone would say

a technician would say Oliver

I need to be able to do this to a job card

can you do this and he would say

yeah no problem and he'd go away and he'd build it

and then they would demonstrate it live

on site and Oliver

you know he probably doesn't like me saying it but he's a genius

he's fantastic he's an amazing developer

and he's got a fantastic brain

even for car dealing and stuff and for accounting

he's a huge he was a huge asset

at that time because he was literally

developing on site

so then dealers would ask us

I'd go to the auction they'd say like what software

do you guys use and

I'd say well it's kind of our own

it's not you know not on aftermarket

or anything like that and

I said to Oliver like we could sell this

to people and

he said yeah he said like

you know we could so we kind of

asked a few friends initially

and there was a couple of garage

locals to us that you know that we knew

and we said to them just try it

you know there's not a fee for it just see if you like it

and they loved it

and then Ian

at that time was working for us

at Richley because he'd come out of

Jaguar Land Rover and he was running

he was like group manager for all the sites

and because I saw

how good he was with the system

we kind of said to him if we

go out to do a demo why don't we do it together

and we used to use the show

at Bilariki and we'd set it up and we'd get

like a Domino's Pizza in and we'd bring

dealers to site and we'd give them a full

demo and it was really cool you know

and we'd get some drinks for other things like that

and we just saw and

it was so fulfilling to see how people

responded to it and I still

get that feeling now if I go to a dealer

I love going out to do pictures

even though the guys probably don't like me going now so much

because they want to keep their customers and they're quite

precious over them but I had a lead

coming last night and for like a big

car supermarket and I was like guys right

next Friday we'll get down because

I love seeing the reaction from people

and I love knowing that oh yeah

like my dad thought of that part

or I thought of that bit or Ian did

or Oliver I know it sounds crazy

but even our

auto entry stuff where the invoice

is coming from the auction I remember

when we did that it was like a game changer

for us and then when I show that to other

dealers and they go oh that's going to save us so

much time and efficiency and things

like that so then

two and a half years ago we

we founded Delegate and then we said

right we're going to go out to market and

we're going to go for it and

since then it just hasn't stopped and then

obviously Ian came out of Richley he was

still doing a couple of days at Richley

initially but he was working

10 days a week you know and he actually

still does now as you both know anyway

and

then it started to grow so Ian went full

time for Delegate selling for us out

on the road and now

our team has grown to we're going to be

10 by Christmas

we actually made three hires

the last couple of weeks

and it's just such a different business to

we initially started it was always a bit

of a dream so I thought well maybe

it could work but

we used to get nervous you think will someone

buy this you know a little bit like the car situation

you get that anxiety of not really

knowing but it's it has gone

really well. It's

what an incredible story it must be

so exciting to see

it out there in the open I mean

I'm amazed well I'm first

amazed that you built this product

just for yourselves I mean how long

we're running with it just behind

the scenes at Richley

for a good

8 or 10 years probably

just with us so

and we spent

obviously tons of money on it you know we were

Oliver was still

working two jobs he had his own

business doing development for other people

that time and he was working for us you know

for say two three days a week

so he was you know

he was good value for us in that sense

because we were getting lots of stuff done

but we just found how we could give

such a nice experience

for our customers that we weren't really worried

about going to look for other

DMS systems we just thought well we can make

ours as good as it can be

and there's a

section on there called jobs and promises

and you'll see that as where you go through

the deal kind of process

and when we first thought

of that that was initially because we wanted

to give our customers a handover gift

or we wanted to give them you know some type of

special treatment when they collected the car

so there were things that maybe

other DMS providers wouldn't

even consider because we'd been in it

and we knew it we were like that's

that's important to us you know we want to

make sure customers looked after so

our DMS system was built as much

about the customer experience

as the dealership experience as well because

both sides are very important aren't they

and

we've seen years of just using it in there

but that's why we were so confident

in the early days

that it would work for people

however we have obviously seen that dealers

work in such different ways as well to us

so you know

when you've gone out there

and seen these dealers

I mean they're probably using other

DMS providers or might still be running

off a spreadsheet like we were

when you first came to see us

or bits of paper

part of the system is the one that

really wins them over

I know the bits that I love but I'm just interested

to hear what you think

is the bit that kind of what's the deal clincher

I know that

auto entry is massive

and probably depending on the

scale of business that you are because if you've got

say a hundred cars in stock

and you're paying someone to enter all these documents

if that can be scanned and it's on the system

automatically

some of the accountants won't like me saying this

but that does reduce a staff member

in some senses doesn't it, people do love that

but

there's so many bits that people look at on it

that

I look back now and I think well I forgot

how key that was for us

I guess

what is a favourite part of it

people love obviously

the single advertise as well so you can

put it on deli kit and it runs out to all the ad channels

because that does obviously save time

ad manager for pricing

so if you're repricing stock that's a really

simple screen to use

preparation is probably

where we are a little bit stand alone

when other providers aren't quite so

up on the prep side

but where we realise how important the prep side is

we've got that job screen

where you can look at each section of the business and obviously that

makes it a very slick process

but I'm interested to know

what do you like the most

I was going to say

my favourite thing

and it's just happened

is while you could be doing

absolutely anything and you'll get a text message

to say that someone's just sold a car

or that you've had a lead

and I think the bit that I

the really one me over

was when you get leads

into the business

without a system like this

you have to be checking your emails constantly

and worrying about how quickly

you're responding to people

when you get a lead

from auto trader into Dealer Kit

you immediately get a text message

saying you've got a lead

which means that Joe and I

can stop whatever we're doing

and go and deal with that lead

and I think for us that's the importance

that's really important speed of response for us

and Dealer Kit has helped us

sort that out

you could put only markets in if you want

yeah we'll cut that piece

so really actually you say that

and that's a key point

and it's something we do in all demonstrations

we always make sure we get in the mobile number of the directors

or whatever

because I know how important that was for me and my dad

because wherever we were

if we're at the auction out buying

and you saw they'd sold three cars

you think okay we can buy another three cars

or we saw deals being delivered

we know what's gone and where the money's coming in from

and things like that

ultimately if you're away from the business

but it's not always a good thing

because if you're on holiday and you don't get a text message

you can start to think you look at your phone

you're like hang on is there something wrong with it

is there a ring Oliver is at a sex working

but yeah

and people's faces light up

when you go in a room and we stack a deal

and you go and always Ian does

you know he's plastic he goes

so if you look at your phone there guys

you should have a text message and they look at it

and they'll say wow that's amazing

so that is actually a really yeah

key part of it

and just before we move on to the

to the headlines

how big is it going to get

we've got dreams of being the biggest

we'd love to be the biggest

but we don't want to

lose sight of giving

good customer service as well

for people because I think that's

been a really unique selling point of us

really going out to customers and making sure we do

a physical onboarding

making sure that we give

good customer care

and if I'm honest with you that's been a

struggle in the in the speed that we've

grown

and I'd openly say this with my heart to our dealers

I think there are times where

we kind of have slipped up with a bit of support

because we've been inundated with

with new clients

but we have now

put plans in to solve that and that's our next thing

and we take all feedback like that because we have to be

you know we want to be

the top of the market you know we'd love

to have you know a thousand

odd dealers within the next

18 months two years and

we'll only get that by looking after people

but we don't advertise really

it's really only you know obviously we come to your events

and we do stuff with you guys

but most of our business is really referral

and even the lead that came in last night

it's a referral from another car supermarket

and it's really exciting

you know and there's a lot of people

obviously that are friends of mine in the trade as well

who don't have Diva Kit

but I don't want to be the classic sales

person you know and I just say

whenever you're ready if you want to see it it's fine

and people get a bit precious over their data

I think it was always a bit of a

a stumbling block for me in the early days

because they were like so you're a car dealer

and we're going to give you all of our data

and I always said to them well

it's separate for me you know I've got no

interest in looking in your system and seeing what you're doing

I've got so much to do anyway

and

looking at a benefit from the market

you know I love going out to other dealers

and improving their processes when they're doing things right

and stuff and

I think now it's turned from a bit of a negative

initially, especially locally

to a really big selling point

as you said the made by dealers for dealers thing

because that's been really key for us

I do worry a little bit about Ian's phone

and the amount of time

he must have to spend on it

as well as being on the road

because whenever I send him a message

he replies so it is

he is unbelievable

and I can't just talk about it

our whole team is unbelievable

obviously Ian, Dan, Harrison, Matt

Brandon, the new guys that are coming

that I can't mention obviously

they are all fantastic

and I can't

I can't speak highly enough of them

they give you 100% every day

but Ian is a super machine

I've never seen you could be at a restaurant with him

and you'll see a text message

and he'll come in the group

and he'll nip off to the bathroom

and before he's even got there

he's replied three times

you think how's he done it

my mum always says to me

she's like where's Ian this week

I say oh he's Sheffield

he's there make sure he gets home

make sure he doesn't

I tell Ian not to work so much

but he loves it

but he loves the product

and he loves the customers

and we're lucky to have him definitely

you sure are

thank you so much for sharing

an amazing story with us

thank you guys

and the dealership

plug time

if people want to get in touch with you

not that sort of technology plugs

plug time

for people who want to get in touch

and they get in touch really

so they can inquire through the website

at dealerkit

on the social media side as well

but really for dealerkit is the best way

so go on to the website

and if you fill in one of our forms

we'll come back to you same day generally

to organise a demo or whatever

so definitely

you'll get a text message saying

you've got a lead and you'll be straight on it

like we are so yeah

yeah exactly

right John let's do some stories

we'll be right back

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with Dealerway

John guess what

you've bought more ducks haven't you

no ducks John wrong there

I've got a new habit

I've signed up for Dealerway alongside

more than two and a half thousand

other rated and vetted car dealers

to sell my trade part exchanges

the site is designed for dealers

to sell their part exchanges for more money

quickly and easily

there's no sellers fees and buying a car

costs just £99

one of the cheapest around

and when I haven't got the time to list the car myself

I can even watch out them the details

and they do it all for me

that sounds awfully familiar

so are you selling all your stock there now

not exactly John

but if I do have a sudden influx of

Kia Picantos I know where to send them

dealers can find out more

at dealerway.co.uk

now back to the podcast

so James and I are going to run through

our favourite stories of the week

and at the end Lee gets to decide

who's the best ones and who's the winner

I am going to start

I'm going to start talking about

I'm starting because I won last week

what's the score at the moment

do you know

I don't care James

I genuinely do

is it like an all-time score

or is it a score

we've got a new season running

we forgot what the old score was

I don't remember the new season

is this season autumn

I'm going to start talking about the stories now

because

important news this week

there's been some news from the FCA

about how payouts

will work as a result

of all the car finance

saga as I'm going to call it

I'm still going to call it a saga because it's not yet come to an end

this particular thing

I suppose it won't come to an end until

everyone's had their payout

so they came out with this

news this week while James and I were

in a spa and he diligently got

out of the pool to go and write this

story I stayed in because

my Apple watch hadn't told me that I'd hit my move

goal yet so we're both doing

very important work

but anyway I digress

so the news

is some 14 million car buyers

they estimate are

set to receive payouts they've set the payout

at 700 pounds

not sure how they come to that figure but that is the amount

is it not James is that a fixed amount

they're just going across the board so

that is a fixed amount you haven't made that

up excellent news because I read it in

this story so the total

bill to lenders is estimated

at 8.2 billion

pounds which is quite

chunky I think that's still probably

lower than a lot of the

lenders were estimating once upon the

time this is not a worst case scenario

for them I think they're reasonably happy with this

as happy as one can be

about handing out money to

you've already made

I mean the FCA have said

the majority of motor finance

agreements will not qualify for

compensation and that sounds

like not a lot will but actually it's

44% so yes technically

the majority will not

be getting any payouts but 44%

of all finance agreements

since 2007

well it's 2007

to November 1st

2024 so that's a big

chunk of what is it 17 years

worth of car finance and they reckon

44% of people are eligible

so the way that this is going to

work is the FCA have got three

tests to determine

whether

you're eligible to receive these payouts

and you only have to

tick one of the boxes so one

is that there was a

discretionary commission arrangement

which is the thing where the dealer is allowed

to change the interest rate in order to get

a commission so if that's

one box ticked you've got some compensation

the other one is a high commission

arrangement which they say would be

35% of the total cost of credit

and 10% of the loan

another is this

contractual arrangement or

tie between the lender

and the car dealer so in other words

which provided exclusive

or near exclusive rights

to the lender to provide credit so

presumably James that is you are

a franchised

Citroen dealer and you're not

allowed to use any

finance company apart from let's say

Stellantis Finance is that the idea?

I think so I also heard

that it could possibly be you know

sometimes when you have to use a finance provider

because you've got stock funding with them

it might be

those sort of exclusive relationships

that were a problem

but we don't actually know

I think it could just be as simple as

like you say

Volkswagen only using Volkswagen financial services

it could be something as simple as that

so to me that's the one that

is going to tick most of the boxes for this

these payouts

so that's an interesting one there

I mean I've sort of

outlawed everything about this story now

so I'm going to hand it over to you James in a minute

but I'm just going to point out one thing

which is Nicarathi

who's the chief executive of the FCA

obviously he's got a statement this came out as a press release

so I'm going to hand it over to you James

but

just sort of caught my eye and kind of

I think will annoy a lot of people

so as part of his statement he said

many motor finance lenders did not comply with the law

all the rules

now we have legal clarity

and alright okay well you can say there's been a court case

it's been decided that

it was not within the law

because that's literally what that

has got us to

but the rules

I think a lot of the lenders

would disagree that they weren't following the rules

they were the rules

this is the problem

this is the bit that's frustrated me the most

annoyed me the most about this announcement

it's the fact that the FCA

is sort of pushing the blame onto the car dealers

and the industry

well they're certainly pushing it onto

the lenders

and also the brokers

as they say which are the dealers

this is unfortunately

cars the industry with the same brush

and it's actually

the FCA are the ones that came up with the rules in the first place

this is the bit that cheeses me off

it's like they were the rules

nobody was doing stuff

that they weren't allowed

at the time

and also we've come up with this

we've said it before but consumers need to take

some responsibility to sign in these deals

they wanted the car

so they would have seen the documents

it's not like the documents were hidden from them

maybe the commission they didn't know about

but they certainly knew what they were signing up to

in terms of the deal when it came to

buying from a dealer

that just could only use Volkswagen

financial services for example

they had other options

if I had dropped a bit of a bombshell for you guys

and I'm not alone in this

our finance commission for Richley

more now

than it was

at the time they're saying all this was going on

when we can manipulate rates

and I always say and it does

it does get to me because it's like

the day before

theft was illegal

and someone was arrested

it's going back on a law isn't it

and like you said I think it was the law

and I think it was clear at that time

I know that we used to tell customers

that we are getting a finance commission

for facilitating this loan

but what we would do

is we would come in, we've got one customer

that's bought 102 cars from us

now

we would give him a super low

APR rate, he'd be on 4.9

5.9%

we'd have no commission out of it

but we knew that the next time he come to change

because even 6-8 months time that guy wants

to change his car again

we never want him to be a negative equity

so we think we're getting him on the lowest rate

and then there'd be other times where a customer

would come in and say look I can't

change the value that you want

but you are taking the finance with us

if I lift the finance rate by

half a percent or one percent

I get another three or four hundred pounds

from the finance company

they might not be exact figures

but it gives me the chance to be able to give you

the negative equity you've got coming out of your car

and we can get a deal together

so I think it's limited

the deals that you can do

but giving everyone this one fixed rate

I think it's even worse now

is rate for risk?

is rate for risk not more discrimination

than a dealer deciding how to do it

in their showroom

I know not all dealers are the same

and I know that it definitely was manipulated

and used

not in the correct way all the time

but I do a hundred percent think

that people need to take a bit

of responsibility at some stage for that

as you said James

it's not right

and for those finance companies

we pay out seven hundred pounds per customer

we won't only seven hundred

pounds per customer commission will we

nothing like it

so I don't know where the number even comes from

but

I think it's the average commission

plus interest

over those

I suppose

they've got to come up with a number haven't they

I do sort of understand

that it is very very complicated

because as you've perfectly outlined

all deals are different every single deal

is different and it's customer car

lender specific

so to come up with a redress scheme

that covers all

is very very difficult for the FCA

so I can see why they've just had to come up with a number

but I do think that number will be tested

by some of these claims management companies

because for some

it will be too low

and whereas for others it might be too high

but they do need to come up with one figure

and I think the thing about this scheme

is good

it's easy

the lenders are going to have to write to the customers

not the other way around

the customers are not going to have to do the application

I've had plenty of finance car finance

over that period of time

I think when we were talking about the other day John

probably five or six car finance deals

I have no idea whether it was with

a car dealer that only had one lender

I mean it's just

it should be up to the lender to tell me

which is what this scheme will be

people will get a letter

within six months of this coming out

saying you're going to be due to the 700 quid

well I should say

you can still write to me self can't you

because you've written about five times

since 2007 presumably

I'll tell you a funny story

because obviously we had a lot of unhappy customers

calling us and saying

you didn't tell me about its commission

and it was like well

we most likely did

but it wasn't even

we were told to tell you that we were getting commission

it was an agreement between us and a finance lender

and it's the reason we use that lender

we are a business

you don't go to Tescos and ask them

how much the tin of beans cost

but we had a lady

that worked for us for a long period of time

as our finance manager

and she tried to make a claim

against us for the finance commission

but I think she probably was

privy even to her own finance proposal at that time

because that was her job

and it was a car from us

and I was shocked, I can't believe it

but it's what people do isn't it

and it's how much time people have

to be able to go through their documents

but if someone's getting paid out £700

it's a lot of money isn't it as well

so people are going to be on it

and they're going to be chasing it for sure

yeah there's 14 million people

that are going to have £700 in their bank account

I mean it's a big bonus really isn't it

and I think

well what happened with the cash

fingers crossed

fingers crossed for the industry

well John I'll move us on shall I

I'll move us on

I'm going to pick a story about

the supercar dealer GVE

London

so this is the

supercar dealer that was

I mean how are we going to put this

very big on social media

they made a lot

I'm not John

but they were incredibly big

on social media

they shouted about what they were doing all the time

made a lot of noise had huge following

on YouTube and TikTok

and other websites

but unfortunately

they went into administration

as we've reported on this podcast before

about three weeks ago

the trouble

started off the back of

I mean these are all claims we don't actually know

but the sale or return

of the supercars

so this company when we went to see them did a video

John they told us

80% was it 80% of their cars

in stock were on sale

of return which is a huge amount

and that sale or return business

is very tricky to

to operate especially when

you're doing it with a with a consumer

because you know at what point

of time do you pay the money you know you take a deposit

from someone who

wants to buy that car you know it's like

when all this money changes hands

sort of up in the air a little bit isn't it

it also does lead you into big

problems when those cars

go wrong these supercars

are very very expensive to fix

I think even even they were

admitting that when we went to see them

in that for that video saying how they've been

caught out with this in the past

and when you're only taking a margin

that margin needs to be very big to cover

those potential claims because you can't

go back to the person who sold you the car

for sale and return

you are as the dealer reliable

to stump up those

sale or return must work if you're an art dealer

or something like that

something that's not actually got a warranty

attached to it and it's not actually going to go wrong

but it's dangerous

it's a bit of a different kettle of fish

or a McLaren you know or something notoriously

that isn't notoriously going to go wrong

so they were

clearly caught out

so what we've seen is that they have gone into

administration it was caused

a bit of a stir online

a huge number of people look to the

look to the story on our website

there was quite a few social media

influencers shouting about it

on TikTok which

kind of fanned the flames for this story

really

but we've actually now seen

the first administrators report

a little bit of a two pronged

story this one because the first administrator

has resigned after just 22 days

from the administrator

not sure what's happened there

but the first administrators report is out

it shows that

the company had 14

creditors

who erode a combined

£449,000

so that's company creditors

companies it owes

but the bit that worried me is there's nine consumers here

that erode

£700,000

nine consumers

£700,000 between nine people

yeah which is

just shows you this problem

what may have happened there is the cars come in

have sold

and they haven't had their money

so it's

that point that was very very

worrying for me

I think this story has got

a long way to run

apparently unsecured

and HMRC claims

are expected to be written off

and there's a shortfall

of around £1.8 million already

a disastrous

case here

and one that's seriously worrying

it's horrible to see a business

go into administration

but obviously off the back of that

you have a huge fallout

and nine customers

are owed a huge sum of money

so yeah I picked that story because

we've had a little glimpse

into what happened at GVE

and I think as this administrators

work continues

over the next few months we're going to see even more

on a different note

whenever we have a story about

a company going into administration now

which sadly happens now and again

I look at the

the amount the administrators are being paid

and I think I wish I'd become

an accountant

yes

oh my god like the administrator

who's gone after 22 days

22 days of work

or whatever

is £137,000

I'm not bad is it

I'm going to start my day rate I think

the thing that always gets me

when companies

when this happens

the fallout that you get from

other dealers or people in the trade

where they are

torn apart by people

online

it's so distasteful that people

express their feelings

openly about someone going out of business

because I just think

we all know business is really hard

and I'm not condoning operations

there I've got no idea about that business

but

obviously to owe £700,000 to individual people

doesn't take long when you're selling cars

that are £200,000 to £300,000

which is what happens

but it just amazes me that the people that get on the bandwagon

even for the kazoo thing

the kazoo wasn't the car's best friend

but there were hundreds

thousands of people losing jobs

steal people out of pocket now

and I just always find it so distasteful

to see people online

that do it for

I suppose presents don't they

and to get their voice heard

and you guys do a really good job

you have to report on this sort of stuff

but you do it really respectfully

but it's just incredible

and I always think well if something happens to anyone

they would jump on that bandwagon

sad bad they were doing all this or that

but that sailor return model is something

that we've never ever

we do it on the odd occasion

if it's a car that we're unsure of

that we wouldn't normally buy

if it's a bit expensive or whatever

just like those cars

I mean who really wants to

having stock 20-25 Lamborghinis

because the risk is huge

and the investment is

unattainable sometimes isn't it

with stock funding as well

if you look at platforms for stock funding

say where you have to put 25%

of the balance in

it always works slightly better

because if you're a dealer that's fully funded

and I'd call it living off the top

all the time

you still have your same running costs

but on a week where you might sell

cars that have got no margin in

if you've got no money coming in

you can't pay your staff and that's how I see

this has happened for GVE

at least if you sell a Lamborghini

and it's £200,000 and that money comes

into your bank and it's your money

even if you lost 10 grand that week

you've still got £200,000

but when you're giving back the customer

you know

near enough £200,000 for that car

or you've earned £2,000 out of it

and you've got your £10,000 worth of running costs

you've got no hope to pay it

and that's the slippery slope isn't it

but I think sale of return

could be linked to funding in that way

but we've got to be really careful

but it is a shame

but it's just amazing numbers aren't they

it's just crazy

you'd want a massive margin wouldn't you

to sell those super cars

the worry of them coming back

and you being hit with a big warranty claim

would be huge wouldn't it

and what's big enough

we have sold last itchy Ferrari

and things like that before

the customer's always super picky

and they should be because they're spending so much money

what do you take out of one

if you've got a £100,000 car

if you had 10 cars at £10,000

you'd want a £1,000 minimum

when you're out of those

so is £10,000 enough

to warrant a Ferrari

to put a warranty on it's probably

£2,000

it's so difficult

but obviously people that specialise in that market

do it day in, day out

they're very successful with it

it's always made me nervous

it would be lovely just to have just all beautiful cars

but not that

4K is not beautiful

because to that person that's their pride and joy isn't it

I love the Skoda Yeti that we've sold today

you know

they are lovely cars

is it finally sold?

that's the dealer kit notification I just got from Joe

fantastic

very happy

John I think it's here though

I think it's your go

quick because we're running out of time

I'm going to talk about some SMMT figures

which we've bundled up into the headline

of new EV sales

reach record levels in September

as the electric car grant

I'm quoting provides

added impetus

love that word impetus

but anyway EV sales have hit a record high in September

SMMT reckons

72,779

pure battery

electric cars were registered

last month

and the overall new car market has had quite a bit of a

shot in the arm as well it's grown

by 13.7%

I assume that's a year on year

to 312,000 registrations

in September which is the best September

performance since 2020

which presumably the September 2020 was that

like suddenly

all the pent up demand was back or was that

yeah I think it was

seems a long time ago because it was

so I thought this was quite interesting

and quite good news

I think you have to temper it slightly with

was September the first month

for the EV grant

I assume it was

and there was a little

well number one it's a September

you know registration anyway but it's

there was a bit of hanging on I think wasn't there

for the grant to actually

kick in so probably there were some delayed

transactions

for certainly for retail buyers

I don't know what the fleet situation is

with the grant I don't know if it quite applies

it's a little bit confusing

but I think it's there's been a bit of a

delayed reaction and that's happened so

that's all good I don't want to make you

talk about the EV grant James so I'm just going to

breeze past that because you're going around again

but I'm also going to talk about the top 10

best-selling cars in the UK

because there's been some interesting entrance

I'm glad you are glad you covered this

because it was crazy cars

yeah so I'm sure

people listening have seen it already but the

the top 10 in reverse order number one is the

Kia Sportage no change there

number two Ford Puma yeah fine

then the Kashkai then

the JQ7

which is only available as a petrol and a

PHEV was fourth

six and a half thousand of those

were sold in September alone

out selling the Vauxhall cars

you know Hyundai Tucson

Volkswagen Golf amazing really

and considering that arrived in

January

with no dealers whatsoever

pretty much so that is really

surprising BYDCLU is also

crept in at number

six is that yes

and the MGHS

so three of the top 10

are now Chinese in there

four if you count Volvo

I think if anything

if you want to get any idea

of how the industry is going it's that top

10 isn't it I mean that is just

I saw that

that data

JQ7 in fourth place and I just

thought that was absolutely crazy

and you see them everywhere now don't you

they are absolutely everywhere

but they're so cheap

they're so cheap and actually

for the people that want a car like that

and then many of them

and actually you look around

the Nissan Kashkai just above it

the Sportage in number one

also buyers

it's a rival to them

far far less

price well do you know

the JQ is not even that cheap

comparatively you know if you

I think there's some fantastic deals on it I'm sure

but it's not on list price

terms really really cheap

it's quite cheap

but I'm going to bang my drum again

about local dealers

because I think you know

what has helped the success apart from

a cheap car all right but we've had lots of cheap

cars come in before have we not

across the many years

what on about we've had lots of you know

like lots of brands have come in you've had your

Kia's and your Hyundai's and your Baradurs and

Protons or whatever and

it takes a long time for them to make an impact

and I think the difference has been

number one cars got really expensive so

your average Ford or whatever is now a lot

more expensive than it used to be

but also there's been

an abandonment of

a lot of retail sites

across the UK a lot of manufacturers have scaled down

dramatically and

people like buying from

the place around the corner and when there's

a sensible looking car for a sensible price

in that showroom that used to have Ford

Stellantis in it

they're going to buy that instead because they

trust the person that sold it to them last time

and I think that is a massive

thing and like Cherry JQ

say the same thing that's a really big thing

for them is that they've got all these local dealers

on board you know small

generally speaking

family run dealer groups

have had a punt and have had tremendous

success with them. Kicking the teeth for

agency sales, isn't it?

Absolutely, absolutely.

That list

actually I think for a used car dealer

is a bit of a concern as well

because there's cars on this list

like the JQ's that we haven't really seen

in the used market where they're too new

for it

but it's interesting you say that obviously

the Puma being number two

because like I said earlier that

190 a month through a new electric

Puma is just so cheap

but are these cars

selling vast numbers

because of the deals you know because they are

so cheap it's a no brainer isn't it

you aren't going to look at a three year old

Puma at 250 a month when you can have

that new one and you'll put up with it

being electric if you're not really an EV

because you'll think you know it's

it's a benefit for everyone

but that's really interesting

really interesting. I mean those JQ's

are available for 250 a month

just doing a quick search.

I mean it's a lot of cars for 250

quid a month.

So this podcast will be brought to you by JQ

JQ the car of tomorrow

and you mentioned the Puma League

because I was just I was

scribbling my review the other day of

the JQ 5 which I

you're very good. Thank you

very much which is the sort

of Puma size one that they've just brought out

which still looks like a tiny Range Rover

and actually

the Puma electric beats the

JQ electric on price just

by virtue of the enormous

grant that's on it.

So quite interesting so I think maybe

the grant on the Puma electric is well

definitely the grant on the Puma electric is making a big difference

because what three and a three and a half grand

off. It's a big chunk of my Puma isn't

they think you're a charger at home

I think as well so it's like

it's great and it will get

it's forcing those electric vehicles into the

marketplace isn't it which is great

but I don't think

we're seeing the appetite on the used car

side still but we don't stop many

so you kind of I can't

measure it but obviously I look at the dealers

we go out to for dealer kit and

they all say very similar

and I think actually dealers would be very

nervous with the exception

probably of the Puma and the Sportage

and maybe the cash guy

do could I honestly

say that dealers would go out

with a

JQ a BYD or an MG

with confidence to buy it

as a used car

I don't think so you know

because they're terrifying me at the moment and not because

there's anything negative about them but I would be

if I was you know in that

market it would worry me definitely

it's early days isn't it that's the thing and it's

like what's the after sales proposition

that like at this point what's the parts

what's all that we don't we don't

really have clarity on all that stuff yet and they'll all talk

a good game of course but there's

doubt there's you know as we know with MG

we've spoken to lots of MG

well no not MG dealers James we've spoken to lots of dealers

who have bought second hand MG's

and have been waiting for a long time

for parts to arrive have we not

just want to tag on to the end of this

story I mean I wrote about

used car prices in my

past that this week and part of it was

about Chinese vehicles

and I think that you've absolutely hit the nail on the head

there because you know you mentioned

about used cars

and why would you go out and buy the used car

if you can get the new one cheaper

and it's the same with a lot of these

Chinese entrants they're coming in

offering these cars at very low prices

250 pound a month I mean

Darren Martin who

does some consultancy for Pikeso

the pricing company

said to me and when his quote was

if you use one year old Range Rover Evoque

with 10,000 miles cost say

37,000 pounds and a brand new

Jku 7 cost 28,000

pounds the Savvy buyer

is now actively considering the latter

particularly if finance

rates are subsidised what effect

he said does that have on the

one year old Evoque it has to have an impact

so it's going to hit

used car market as well

when these really cheap new car deals

are out there and consumers are lapping them up

yeah for sure

for sure it's quite funny as well

I was in the high street with my dad

last week we walked past the car

said you know what he said

I'm supposed to know what I'm doing I'm a car dealer

but I don't even know what that is

you know and you see cars

you think what an earth is it

you buy a BYD but I don't know if it's a seal

or if it's a 7 or whatever it's going to be

and it is a bit

hot luck for that at the moment isn't it

but they are fantastic to look at

I mean some of those jacos just look really

like you said they are like a mini

Range Rover they make a

is it the bigger one they make this a bit like a Defender

don't they it's quite square and quite

quite complex

is that the Yang Wang

I think it might

I think that's BYDs isn't it

I can't be like I'm the same as you

they've each there's about

I don't know 20 different Chinese

car companies and they each have about

five different sub-brands that I cannot

possibly comprehend

I'm driving another electric Chinese car next week

says our Chinese car

I don't think we can

move on John I would love to wedge one more in

but we're well over time so maybe we should just call it a day

oh lovely

right well then

Lee before I ask your verdict are there any stories you think we've missed this week

no I don't know

I think it's very difficult

to hit between those

but the FCA thing is a huge

it's a huge thing

for all dealerships or finance companies

and it's been a long time in the making isn't it

the GV story

obviously is important to the market

and it's very sad

and this hope that those people can get their money back somehow

but

I think that top 10 list is actually quite

important to car dealing

going forwards

because

that could pave the way for the future

and I see the FCA things the past

the people have got their payouts for it

we probably won't hear any more of it

and the GV is obviously sad

but there's lots of companies that have struggled that might be

you know less famous than them

that are going through hard times

I would pick probably the top 10

because I think that's going to transition

and pave the way for the future

of car sales

and I think that's where we've got to sort of look now

so I'll pick the top 10

Sounds like you've won that John

All right we'll take it

I'll see you next time I promise

Thank you

I need to find out what the scores are in the series

I expect us to do that for the next podcast

I'm not here next week so

hopefully whoever feels in for me can win

I won't be looking at the scores

Lovely

That's sort of jolly nice isn't it

thank you very much

all that is left for me to say

is thank you to Lee for coming on today

and sharing your story as well about Delacit

I look forward to watching Delacit the movie

in the same kind of social network

that sort of thing

That would be amazing

I don't think anyone wants to know about me but we'll see

If there is can I play Ian Cooper please

You can

I always say this

If you watch the film Blackberry

I think it's quite good

it's quite good about tech startup

and I always think Ian's that guy that goes out

that just wants it all now

but you can have that part James

No problem at all

Lovely

and thank you as well to James

for letting me win

and thank you for listening

We will be back next week with another episode

Make sure you're subscribed to be notified when that goes live

Don't forget to phone James

while he's on holiday

using the number in the show notes below

please send us some voice notes

and then we might play them

If you want to check out the stories I mentioned today

they're also in the show notes below

or you can head to cardiganmagazine.co.uk

for all sorts of news

besides what we've already talked about

Thanks for listening and goodbye

Thank you

0:00

70:45

Car finance customers to get £700, GVE London accounts laid bare, and a surprising car outsold the Vauxhall Corsa in September – with Lee Shayler, episode 226

Kia Sorento

Suzuki Carry

Suzuki Vitara

petrol station

Lamborghini

Ferrari

Mercury Cougars

Ford Puma

Volkswagen Egolf

Kia Picantos

APR rate

negative equity

warranty

Škoda Yeti

Skoda Yeti

Kia Sportage

Nissan Qashqai

Audi Q7

Hyundai Tucson

Volkswagen Golf

BYD

MG HS

Volvo

Hyundai

Land Rover Range Rover

Dodge Charger

MG

after sales proposition

parts

Range Rover Evoque

Jeep Wrangler (JKU)

Range Rover

Defender

About this episode

Original notes