Dieselgate is back, BCA's Aston Barclay purchase under more scrutiny, and why Rebecca is angry about crisp packets – with Joe Wallington, episode 227
Car Dealer Podcast
Dieselgate is back, BCA's Aston Barclay purchase under more scrutiny, and why Rebecca is angry about crisp packets – with Joe Wallington, episode 227
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Brand
Leap Motor
Leap Motor is a car company from China that makes electric cars. They try to offer good technology at lower prices.
Term
battery technology
Battery technology is about how batteries are made and how well they work, especially in electric cars. Better batteries can store more energy and charge faster.
Company
Stellantis
Stellantis is a big car company that makes many different brands of cars. It was created when two companies, Fiat Chrysler and PSA Group, combined together.
Car
Suzuki Carry
The Suzuki Carry is a small truck that is great for carrying things around. It's known for being useful and easy to drive in tight spaces.
Car
Nissan Leaf
The Nissan Leaf is a popular electric car that doesn't use gasoline. It's designed for city driving and is known for being eco-friendly and cost-effective to run.
Car
Suzuki Jimny
The Suzuki Jimny is a small SUV that is great for off-roading. It's popular because it looks cool and can handle rough roads really well.
Company
Dealerway
Dealerway is a website that helps car dealers sell cars they take in trade. It makes the process easier and cheaper for them.
Term
part exchanges
Part exchanges are when you trade in your old car to help pay for a new one. It's a way to make buying a new car easier.
Term
sellers fees
Seller fees are costs that you have to pay when you sell something, like a car. They can take away some of the money you make from the sale.
Car
Kia Picantos
The Kia Picanto is a small car that's easy to drive around the city. It's known for being affordable and good on gas, making it a popular choice for people who need a simple vehicle.
Company
Aston Barclay
Aston Barclay is a company that helps sell used cars at auctions. They work with car dealers to make it easier to buy and sell vehicles.
Company
BCA Constellation
BCA Constellation is a big company that helps sell cars at auctions. They make it easier for car dealers to buy and sell vehicles.
Car
Ford Capri
The Ford Capri is a classic car that was made by Ford a long time ago. It's known for being sporty and stylish, and many people still like it today.
Brand
Vauxhall
Vauxhall is a car brand from the UK that makes various types of vehicles. It's popular in Britain and is known for being reliable and budget-friendly.
Car
Ford Puma
The Ford Puma is a small SUV that looks stylish and is easy to drive. It’s popular because it offers a good mix of space for passengers and cargo while still being fun to drive.
Term
fix or repair daily
This saying jokes that Ford cars might need to be fixed often, which can make people think they aren't very reliable.
Term
EcoBoost engines
EcoBoost engines are special types of engines made by Ford that use turbocharging to save fuel while still being powerful. However, some people have had problems with them.
Car
Ford Fiesta
The Ford Fiesta is a small car that is easy to drive and good on gas. Many people like it because it's affordable and practical.
Brand
Land Rover
Land Rover is a brand that makes fancy SUVs that can drive off-road. They are known for being tough, but some people worry about how reliable they are.
Brand
Renault
Renault is a car company from France that makes different types of vehicles. They are well-known in Europe and work with other car brands like Nissan.
Company
RCI
RCI is a finance company that helps people buy cars from Renault and Nissan by offering loans and leasing options. They make it easier for customers to afford their vehicles.
Term
dealer agreements
Dealer agreements are contracts that car companies make with car dealerships. They explain how many cars the dealership can get and how they should sell them.
Term
parts
In cars, 'parts' are the different pieces that make up the vehicle, like the engine or brakes. They can be replaced or repaired when needed.
Concept
Dieselgate
Dieselgate is a scandal where Volkswagen was caught cheating on emissions tests for their diesel cars. They used software to make their cars seem cleaner than they really were, leading to legal trouble and fines.
Brand
Mercedes
Mercedes is a famous car brand from Germany that makes high-end cars and trucks. They are known for their quality and advanced technology.
Brand
Peugeot
Peugeot is a car brand from France that makes different types of vehicles. They are known for their stylish designs.
Car
Seat Alhambra
The Seat Alhambra is a large family car that can fit many people and their luggage. It's talked about a lot because some of its diesel versions might be polluting more than allowed in cities, which can be a problem.
Term
DPF
A DPF is a filter in diesel cars that cleans the exhaust to make it less harmful to the environment. It traps soot and other particles before they can be released into the air.
Term
emissions testing
Emissions testing checks how much pollution a car produces. It's important to make sure cars are not harming the environment too much.
Car
Audi A3
The Audi A3 is a small luxury car that feels high-end inside and has good performance. People often talk about it because some models have had issues with emissions, which can affect how they are allowed to be driven in certain cities.
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 favorite 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 not James Baggart, because he's riding his motorcycle to Benidorm.
Instead, please welcome founder of the Cardiola podcast, Rebecca Chaplin.
Hello, Rebecca.
Hello, Jonathan. How are you?
I'm very well. Very nice to see you.
How are you? It's been a long time.
Yes, I'm fine. Yes, I'm not seeing you for about a week.
Yeah, that's true. I haven't been anywhere near Gosport for a week, because I've been, where have I been?
I've been to Nice.
Yes.
And also, crucially, James hasn't said, can you come down to hold this camera for me for approximately five minutes and spend two and a half hours driving there to do it?
So I've not been down.
Yes.
So I feel very disconnected from the world of clever car collection at the moment.
What have you been up to, apart from planning his mini break that you'll know?
Yes, planned his mini break.
So I'm not going to tell all these stories about what's happened, because I'm sure you'll want to save them for next week.
But there's been some fun and games trying to fix some things for him that have not, where things haven't worked out quite as they should have.
So yeah, that's been a bit of fun. And just generally, I don't know, I don't really know where the week's gone.
I can't believe it's Friday. It's gone very fast.
Good feeling. I am going to spoil his, I mean, to be fair, he's put it on LinkedIn, so it's fair game.
Basically, his motorbike fell over.
Oh, did he put it on LinkedIn?
He's put it on LinkedIn, yeah.
Oh, he hadn't put it on Instagram, because he stopped using that, and I thought he's probably just not.
Exactly. He's given up Instagram and just moved all of his activities to LinkedIn.
Yeah, it's only worth it if you can make money out of it.
Yes, precisely.
Is it attracting new business? Not interested.
It could be, but he was very complimentary about the BMW bike dealer in...
Oh, that's one.
I don't know where it was.
Anyway, I don't have anything interesting to say about it.
I can't even speak, but I don't have anything interesting to say about it.
Or you're not allowed to make anything interesting about it.
I was driving another Chinese car.
Oh, yes. Nice and natural home of a car manufacturer.
Yeah, I did sort of think the French might throw things at it, but it was a Leap motor.
So it was a sort of honorary Citroen sort of.
But I don't know, I'm becoming a bit sort of jaded with them all, because I think,
like, you know, when Chinese cars started appearing, it was all quite exciting because
all they're really cheap and all they're doing things really well,
and oh, wow, you get a lot of clever battery tech for your money and all sort of stuff like that.
And then you drive about five of them
and you realise these are all broadly the same.
There's not much different.
I mean, they're all completely different companies, but you sit in it.
It's got a very squishy seat.
The handling is a bit rubbish.
It's cheap.
It's got a big touchscreen like someone's just gone to curries and put an Android tablet in the middle
and haven't really thought about anything beyond that.
Like they're all kind of the same.
Yes, I just like them.
Yeah, I'm starting to feel a little bit like the people at which must feel
when they review kettles.
Yes.
I do think just because electric cars are different doesn't mean they have to be boring.
Doesn't mean they have to all be exactly the same, but we're moving towards this world
where we're all going to have really boring autonomous cars that all do the same thing
apart from crashing to each other because the autonomous doesn't work.
Yes.
I was actually a little bit, I had to sort of drink through the press conference
because it was very kind of like really.
So because it's part of Stellantis, like Stellantis own 20% of it.
They will say they own 51% of it.
They own 51% of the distribution company is a different thing, but they own 20% of it.
So they'll say all this good game about, oh yes, it was all the French PR and marketing guys doing it.
And they're like, oh yeah, we've used Chinese technology, but we've injected it with our European DNA.
They have done nothing of the sort.
There is nothing European about that car at all.
So it was just, it was the press conference after you've driven the car as well.
So you sort of, you've made your mind up about it and then they tell you how wonderful it is.
And didn't quite work anyway.
That's enough about Lean Motor.
I am going to introduce our guest now, which will hopefully be a nice surprise for James
because I haven't told him he's coming on.
So our guest this week is Joe Wellington from, of course, the Clever Car Collection.
Hello, Joe.
Hello, John.
How are you?
Very well.
Very well.
Lovely to see you in what appears to be the shared office facility attached to your dealership.
That's exactly where I am.
I could, I could recognize that beige wall anywhere.
Opening question, I happen to know you've been at the Auto Trader Awards.
We have.
Me and Luke went in James's absence yesterday.
And how did you do?
Did you win anything?
We did.
We came, well, they call them finalists in the Auto Trader Awards.
So we were self-nominated for the Innovation Award, lost out to the winning spot to Acklam
Cars because of some very fancy dual AI video features that they are now doing, which
I'm yet to investigate, but they slightly pipped us to the post with that one,
but still came away with the finalist award, which is pretty incredible really
because it's the now the top 1% attempt, the Auto Trader Awards of all the dealers
in the UK.
So still quite an astounding setup, I think, for a corner unit in Basepoint with Luke
currently watching us as Luke, he carry outside.
Yes, he said, come on.
Am I allowed to say that Luke is slightly like the Cooper Caleb or Caleb Cooper
of...
Yeah, exactly.
That is exactly what he is in this.
I just remember live and he was just like, what is this?
Yeah, exactly that.
And he's very well in physical cars, like it's nice, but...
Taking him up to the 42nd floor of one of the tallest buildings in London yesterday
through the fastest glass lift in Europe was quite the eye-opener for him.
Aw.
But he's back doing what he knows, washing cars in the corner.
Bless him.
So, I mean, you mentioned the Suzuki Carry there.
That, of course, is the one of the batch that you've secured from the lovely dealer
in Norfolk, who you bought some intervals from.
So am I right in thinking that's now your new car, that Suzuki Carry?
Yeah, I might actually take it home this weekend.
It's particularly rubbish, but also very cool at the same time.
I mean, I don't think it's really destined for this country.
I don't think you'd get many miles out of it.
But it's still quite fun.
Yeah, I would imagine the fuel tank is not enormous, actually.
No, and the gearbox, when our mechanic looks at it, is about six inches off the floor.
So one speed bump, and you're probably going to leave that section a bit behind.
Oh, God.
OK, all right.
We'll do that very soon for your local campsite or holiday park or whatever you can find for it.
Well, I'm looking forward to having a drive around the, well, Gosport in it, to be honest.
Doubling its mileage.
So how are you getting on with the other stuff?
Because I know you've bought lots more ups.
You did.
That all didn't go very well either because they were all due to arrive on Wednesday.
So I arranged for Luke to work a slightly different shift to be here late,
because obviously they come down from Norfolk, so the driver will be quite late.
He phoned me at about four with me thinking he's going to tell me he's around the corner
to actually tell me he had just departed Norfolk.
And he needed to go come down but via his house to have dinner with his wife
because of his taco restrictions.
So long story short, before going to London yesterday,
me and our lovely mechanic, Darwin, turned up here shortly after 5 a.m.
to unload 10 Japanese imports from a transporter before then driving to London,
whilst James is still doing full broke back mountain round.
It's been a busy week.
Never a dull moment.
To be fair, I haven't had much chance yet.
We sort of packed them into the car park here like before
and tried to hide ups in amongst ambulances and anything else large enough
to discreetly tuck them away so we don't get in trouble for parking anymore.
Some have suffered some what appears to be tree damage on the way down on the transporter
that I need to look at and hope that Luke can polish out.
But yeah, apart from that, I think they're okay.
So speaking of the units, am I right in thinking it's about a year ago you guys moved in there?
It is exactly a year ago, almost to the doubt.
I can tell you that because I got a parking ticket here yesterday
which says that we've been here a year and my car is now not on the system.
Oh, right.
First of October, so just over a year.
So I mean you alluded slightly to the parking situation there.
Yes.
Have you found you've outgrown the unit yet?
Well, we haven't outgrown it but I think the management team here
are trying to tell us gently that we have outgrown it
because every time they speak to us about parking they do say
oh we knew you were going to outgrow it here at some stage
so I feel like we are being gently pushed out of this particular establishment.
I see.
And is it that actually you've outgrown it?
Have you got more stock than you had a year ago?
Well, I mean the whole tent at a time on the transporter I don't think goes down too well.
It's not the biggest of car parks.
I mean that was one good thing of them arriving at like a half past five was no one saw
but last time they literally the transporter without us telling him
just pulled into the car park in front of everybody in the middle of the day
and dumped 10 cars off so I think there's been a few questions raised
from the other people here about parking and lack of
and we've definitely stopped but then this site has also got busier.
We took it over when their capacity wasn't full
and I think they pretty much have rented every unit in office now so.
So it's also been a year.
I'm guessing you joined roughly about the time of the unit didn't you?
Literally that was give or take was the first job was moving into the unit.
So what have you learned in your year of being a car dealer?
I shouldn't have bothered.
No, I should have said no.
What is crazy really I was thinking yesterday and talking to Luke on the way up
just how mad it's been from just before the first of October
before we took the unit on I was involved from sort of September
and I remember vividly washing Vauxhall courses on James's driveway.
For many an hour whilst he's trying to show me how to use the auto glim polish
which I don't think he knows how to use himself but somehow kind of vaguely showed me
but yeah it's mad when you think back to sort of those days
and where we used to do our prep and such like and how it's kind of all cycling now.
And you'd had no kind of car sales experience before presumably?
No lots of yachty stuff but nothing in the car side at all.
Is it something you're still enjoying a year on and I'm hoping you say yes
because it'd be a very awkward podcast?
Well yeah it might get but no absolutely I think we're obviously going to have to work out
where it goes going forward it's obviously a sideline for me and James
but it's definitely now we keep saying it's a sideline as if that makes it okay
when we're both here 10 hours a day and five days a week.
So yeah but no it's definitely very interesting and it's been an incredible journey
learning about all the different aspects of it and obviously the import stuff
has had its highs and lows but yeah it's been weird.
I mean where do you see it scaling? You personally I'm sure James has always said
he'd like to have a new car franchise and he's spoken to various people
since then who've said don't do it do not do that but and of course that is a way
you know way in the future thing and you know we're talking about you need to
not be in the site you're in you're not going to have a JQ franchise
in an industrial unit in Gospel are you but is that something you could see happening
do you want to scale it to that size?
I don't know whether the new car I mean we've always said the nice thing about
how we do at the moment is whilst there is stress neither of us are fully
relying upon it and whilst we need to sell a certain number of vehicles a month
you know that we don't have the same pressures that you would in the new
car world. We've spoken about a site with a service and MOT centre and obviously
then the additions and the benefits that that can bring
but everyone you speak to including people you have said at the awards
if you ask them what they've learned or what they should do
they all say stay at a fairly small level and actually
incrementally you've got to grow a lot I think to make the kind of big
big changes in there and whether the stress is worth it who knows.
I talked to a lot of people where they
because you guys working what up to 15 grand normally
sort of cars and like people who are up to 50 or whatever and they say
oh I couldn't do what you guys do because of this like the headaches
when things go wrong but in a lot of ways I look at what people are doing
with more expensive cars and think like at least you know where you are with your cars
and when something goes wrong it's not like a 10 grand engine or something
I don't think that's happened yet.
So it's funny isn't it like the nuances of different
parts of the market and the jump that you would
I don't know if it would be a jump. When James talks about having a franchise
I just think he's mad because he doesn't like being told what to do
and fundamentally you can start being told what to do by people.
To be told you've got to spend X 100,000 pounds and changing the colour you show them now
or designing it differently I don't think it's for me and I certainly don't think it's for him
whether we go I think eventually we're going to have to go
to another site and that's obviously going to bring opportunity
to the corporate service MOT centres whether the stress
is worth it but then hopefully that reduces it with some of the prep and the warranty work
and all of those lovely things that at the moment were obviously outsourcing.
I just want to talk a little bit about the used car sector
as a whole. Like in the last year
have you seen any changes to either
quality of stock or the price of stock or
well let's start with that but I mean even customers changing in what they're looking for
or how they're behaving have you noticed anything in the last
year really? I think and as was kind of it again explained
yesterday when Auto Show did the thing getting stock is just getting harder and harder
and they were talking about the obviously the lack of car so
Covid and now they're very soon going to be the ones
that we would be buying the kind of sub 10 grand 5
6 year old car so I think getting stock is definitely harder that
you know we used to do very well on car while motorway we're really struggling at the moment
to find anything that kind of suits our profile or anything decent on there
and I think as always customers want you know they come and buy a 5,000 pound car
but they expect it like a new car so I think the expectations of what people
think they're coming to get and what they're actually getting need kind of carefully
managing. It's fine we kind of jest between ourselves about it
but it is important that they understand you know what what they're purchasing
and managing those expectations is sometimes quite difficult
Yes I mean one of the things I've noticed popping down having a wander around
as I often do on video in fact is
like the stuff that James set out to
start buying a year and a half ago whatever it was
he was always very like very specific about and it needs to have
full service history needs to have been not really damaged at all all this sort of stuff
and it's gradually got reasonably far away from that
isn't it? Is that like as you know if you made that conscious decision
or is it just something that you've gone there is no stock that's nice
I think James sits on car well over an evening and on the third evening
of not being able to win anything just goes a little bit wild and buys a
Nissan Leaf with a completely dented side for example
without a frustration more than anything because yes occasionally I turn up and think
where has that come from and why have we bought it
and then why have we even accepted to buy it when we've gone to see it I mean it's a minimum
of a two-stage process yet somehow it still ended up in our
possession which is crazy weird really. I do think there's an element of him just not
reading it as well because with that Nissan Leaf when he was like
they didn't say it about any of this and John was like well it was on the list
of all these pictures and mentioned here yeah no it's
definitely interesting sometimes seeing what's turned up
I mean I do wonder if you know we went off to an
auction didn't we we went well I've been to one with James and one with both of you
and I think those are the only physical auctions that you guys have been to
and I think we had a bit of a shock as to what the quality of the stock was like
but maybe I don't know
I keep banging this drum occasionally saying it will be much more efficient
to just go and buy 10 cars in one go have you been tempted to wander back
to the auctions. I have more tempted because of the way we're
doing the imports and just the you know not being here all
the time having now to manage Luke's workload and making sure the kind of
flow is maintained it's very nice to unload 10
put them in the car park and sort of not worry about it and know that
we're going to be advertising at least one if not two vehicles every day
he's then self-sufficient and it kind of takes the stress off of knowing
that our slots are going to be filled on auto trader we're going to be you know
fully advertised across it and I think definitely looking at the lack of
cars that suit us on car while motorway I do
think we are going to have to encroach back towards the auctions
it's interesting isn't it because so many dealers just refuse to go
and buy anything from well not so many but a lot of dealers refuse to go and buy anything from
BCA, Mannheim etc but it is
successful for a reason that's the thing aren't they it's the amount
of stock you can buy in a short amount of time just going back
to the imports because of course James and I went off to
Japan in February which seems like a very long time ago and
got very excited about all these cars and then they took quite a long time to
arrive did they not you've now just about got rid of
all of them haven't you or have you yeah the last one
which was the new green Jimny left us on
Monday you went in February
yeah early for I think we bought he said he bought on something
like the 14th of February and we shipped it out
yeah 14th of October so what were the challenges
with that then was it pretty much came down where you had a lot of challenges didn't you
had things with the dials etc etc I mean there's been some learnings
on that front but I'm sort of leading you towards saying
the DVSA or the DVLA they were a big part of it so absolutely
for us it was obviously some learning so we had to get the vehicle here
before we could understand what we needed to do to it our mechanic had to do
a fair bit of learning to understand what modifications it needed to have
this is all the problems that come with importing anything that is less than
10 years old because for reasons I still don't understand anything less
than 10 years old has to be more scrutinized by the
than anything more than 10 years old through the IBA test
which does seem very backwards and then yeah the amount of
form filling waiting around for IBA
test slots being told that one of the tires has failed so then
you could take it away and amend that and take it back
just goes on and on and on and has literally taken that long and then you can
once you've done that side of the process you can then obviously apply
to the DVLA for registration and then you have to wait to be issued that
and then you obviously have to physically order the plates for it and it takes a while for it to go through
onto the insurance databases so even though you might think it's ready the customer
can't insure it and yeah the story goes on really
yeah so I mean the IBA bit was a real nightmare
as you say wasn't it because I mean like it wasn't just
the grey jimmy that you imported which had a few modifications to look really kind of off-roading
cool I remember that came back into the showroom with like
lots of bits missing from it but weird stuff like it had a little table
in the back for the back seat and that wasn't allowed
that had to be removed for the IBA test because
that had to come off something like that yeah the tyres I don't think had
an EU stamp on them because it had sort of off-road tyres on it
so we had to take those off and yeah as I say it goes on and on
the modifications that either need unmodifying
or just the paperwork side as well my favourite one was that it had
too many indicators yes yeah it was showing
it was turning a corner too much yeah
yeah it was basically because it had the it had like
indicators in the wings and then it also had indicators on the
mirrors and that's not right was yeah that's too much for the IBA
apparently they don't like it they don't know where it's
too much indicating can't be doing it but of course coming down
the track at the minute is this IBA privatisation
I don't think we've talked much about on the podcast or on the website
but so when you've been dealing with the IBAs at the minute they've gone to what
one of five government centres yeah so they have to go to a
designated government run centre by government
employees where even to the point where somebody was telling me that if
you've got a slot for a vehicle and for some reason as a dealer
that vehicle you haven't quite finished the modifications on you can't still use
your slot for another car you can't say well I've got an MOT or
slot so I'll just take it and put this car through because the system doesn't allow
for that so if you miss your slot with that vehicle that's it at the moment
and then you have to you can't well I like the the tester just sits there going
well I could test that but the system doesn't allow me to do
that so I just wait another 12 weeks for the next slot
then because what the guys at Nitschabur have been saying is this it's
moving over to privatisation so they'll be allowing companies
to open up their own IVA centres but there's going to be this gap in the middle
isn't there where nothing will happen and there will be well not nothing but there'll be
a backlog of IVA testing presumably. Does that put you off
the idea of more Jimneys for example for in Japan
or is that a separate thing all together
of maybe you know we've talked before about
you've done quite well out of the Jimneys that you have without going into the exact details of how much money you made
is reasonably profitable and worth bringing in I presume but yes I think
for us we've discussed at length you know what
proportion of our stock should be important I think whilst the numbers are
amazing comparatively on something like the Jimneys we've brought in
we mustn't forget we tied that money up in February. Yeah
we constantly debate well okay we've bought that in February and
absolutely it's paid dividends in October but if we reinvested that same money
in our normal stock profile from Carl how many units would we have turned
with a profit of X that may or may not have out shone the
Jimneys and I think there's now a lot of people on the kind of
Jimney bandwagon bringing them over
will the market eventually become saturated with the supply
or what is the actual demand you know they're fantastic cars they're great fun
but they're not most practical things in the world and it's not like it's going to be the new family
car that everyone's going to buy as it's I think there's definitely a ceiling for the kind of
riding the Jimney wave yes we've just had another one delivered
so let's hope for that
but in terms of more more general impulse less expensive
less niche stuff you are kind of keeping that you've got
back on that bandwagon now haven't you because there was nothing you hadn't ordered any from Japan since
James and I were there basically in February no now we've got a bit mental and I think we've got
eleven ups that we've bought in like a week which we haven't really thought about
and then I think it's like a Christmas present they're all going to turn up at once
around Christmas but yeah I mean trying to get into
the kind of system with it because I definitely think they work and I think that
you know the ups are a great example of the small autos that you just can't get
the same availability of in the UK market with the driving test changes
with more people doing automatic licenses you know I think that kind of thing
they work fantastically well they come over in great condition with an improved
you know enhanced spec and they sort of do fly out
but it is trying to find that rhythm of how many do we buy and when do we buy them
to make sure we've got a nice kind of cycle and supply of them
dripping through each month rather than none for ages and now
ten on their way. Yeah it's a difficult balance
I mean just before I move on to our stories how more generally
is October going we're halfway through now what sort of things are you seeing is it busy
quiet? It's steady I would say September was
manic I think September was our best ever month since starting
October is good it's still happening there's still sales
there's lots of appointments over this weekend but I do think we'll start seeing that steady
decline for Christmas now as we edge ever closer.
Yes so it's about stocking up for January of course isn't it?
There's lots of ups John it's going to be up January.
Well you need one more and then you can do the 12 ups of Christmas.
Perfect. Problem solved.
Right I'm going to start talking about our stories now.
Everyone's alright with that? Good. Yes lovely.
Lovely. We'll be right back. Now a quick word from one of our sponsors
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paid partnership in association with Dealerway. John
guess what? Oh God you've bought more ducks haven't you?
No ducks John. Wrong there. I've actually got a new habit.
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The site is designed for dealers to sell their part exchanges for more money
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And when I haven't got the time to list the car myself I can even watch out them
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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 Rebecca and I are going to run through our favourite stories of the week and at the end
Joe gets to decide which one of us chose the best ones and who is the winner.
Apparently I won last week. So I'm going to start
with news from Aston Barclay
and Constellation because of course there's the Aston Barclay
takeover by BCA Constellation whatever you want to call them
it's fundamentally the same thing which has been going on for a little while
I think they announced this a few months ago that they were
planning on doing this and since then the competitions and markets authority have
waded in and said well they're screwed out. We don't really want
you to own another auction house without doing a reasonable
investigation of this. So they
I think it's been at least a month since they started investigating this
and we've heard largely nothing apart from the fact that they've told
Aston Barclay and BCA you cannot merge your two operations
or start jumping staff between the two or
merge any of your systems. It all has to be separate as though you are two separate companies for the moment
even though I think they are actually now
conjoined in some way. But there's been a slight update on this
this week and it's not great news for BCA because
the CMA have referred the case for phase two investigations
they've called it which in effect means
they're going to do more in-depth investigations and more in-depth checks
of how a merger between these two or a purchase
would affect the market or markets
they say because the CMA can investigate something not just on the
strength of how it will affect the whole UK but they can even look individually at
let's say the town of well the city of Leeds
if Leeds has an Aston Barclay and a BCA they can
look at that and say right well that's the central hub for
car auctions in this area is there going to be a problem if all the car auctions
are provided by the same company so
it's all going to get a bit more complicated than we imagined it was going to
already and I think probably BCA was
I would imagine they were hoping this would be wrapped up a bit sooner than this
did you see this Rebecca? Yeah well I was going to ask you some questions because I was trying to
remind myself about exactly the situation but
what are Aston Barclay doing at the moment are they still operating normally
I'm glad you asked me that question because I'm going to type it into Google
Yeah I was thinking that when I was reading the story because I mean they
weren't sorted out isn't it? As I understand it yeah they are still going auctions are still happening
and they've not I assume changed how they do things
they've still got physical auctions unlike BCA so
I guess they've just sort of carried on but of course it's difficult
because my understanding of this was that Aston Barclay
had struggled a little bit more financially than BCA
shall we say and of course all the time that this is on port
like BCA won't have bought them to do nothing with them or they'll have bought them so that they can
do the usual... That was the rumour that I don't know if I've just imagined this but I thought that
Well I think there's some noises were made about because they closed one of
their sites I used Leeds as an example but I think I used Leeds
but it was quite a small auction site just for vans I think
I can't really remember Leeds was a big one wasn't it? Or was it a
second Leeds one? I think it might have been a second one
but anyway I think you know BCA will want to come in and cost cut
and that doesn't necessarily mean removing jobs but it does mean
streamlining of systems and all that sort of stuff is a big behemoth
I want to say well I don't know for example stop
using this particular provider we've got a much better deal with this provider and
whatever that may be for hosting or for
security all kinds of you know day to day boring things that you have to pay
money for and they can't do that. The tech at Aston Barkley is obviously really good
so I'm sure we talk about this at the time I can see a lot
of opportunities putting those two together
but also I do think you sort of look at it
look at the scale of BCA versus the scale of Aston
Barkley and go like is that really going to make that much difference to their
their domination of the market but
yeah I don't really kind of
can't quite fathom why they'd want to have them know Aston Barkley
I know it's not like they're a bad business
it's just they are going to be a small cog in what is a massive machine that BCA
have already got but I suppose when you're
a big company with shareholders as well you need to keep looking at ways to improve your
technology, grow your footprint and all this sort of stuff
it probably is the gross thing isn't it? Yeah even just have more space
for more cars isn't it? I mean the question that is still answered about
all this because it's all on pause is what will happen to turning up to a
physical auction which is not a thing with BCA is a thing of Aston Barkley
oh maybe that's what the thing was in my head about what they were
going to do with them but yeah because what
the truth of it is it's expensive to run a physical auction house isn't it
because you have to put on the teas and coffees and you have to keep the place warm
and etc etc you don't have to do that when it's all
online so I would imagine they'll be keen to make that bit go away
yeah it's funny isn't it when you think about
car dealers who like to go along and smell the fumes and all this sort of stuff to
actually get to grips with the cars but then on the flip side
they want to sell cars almost completely online and want customers to turn up
knowing everything about that car and not needing to know anything else about it
but then go I need to go see it
Exactly Joe what do you reckon?
Yeah I mean just thinking like you were saying to us about you know would we go back to
the huge aren't there and I think as they absorb more and more you hear very
let's say mixed reviews on in particular the BCA auction
and their way of doing things but I think they say it is the way that
it's got to go it's no different to how we buy from some of the other outlets
albeit it's in obviously a much much larger scale
but yeah it's soon going to come to the point that we will not be able to avoid
not using somebody like BCA when they've got that much of the market
but you know perfectly pointed out minimal interactions with our customers
is what we want so why is that different from the buying side
we are definitely hell bent on going and seeing everything
but that's only scalable for us to a certain point so I think it's inevitable
really that we're going to have to join in
Very true sad but true over to Rebecca for another story please
Oh God what am I going to choose first
I was going to choose a story which was
the biggest story or was very popular this week I should say
about could there be more job losses coming Evans Hallshore
because they've closed another pair of Ford dealerships I
can see why this is popular because people get very worried
about this sort of thing but it's a sort of
slightly normal thing we've been seeing with Ford dealerships isn't it too
losing a lot of them but yeah some concerns that
they've closed their sites I'm not even going to try and say where they are
can you say where they are John? I can say the second one which is Batley
Batley I suppose
but yeah so they've got risk of redundancy at these sites and
there's obviously been some contraction hasn't there at
Evans Hallshore since Lydia took over and some people have lost their job so
you could be seeing some more job losses but I don't know if you have any
thoughts on this John. Well like you said I don't know if you can pin this
one on Evans Hallshore itself or on Ford
because I've started to I think I bang
on about this quite a lot how Ford might as well have disappeared from the UK at this point
like it's just contracting contracting contracting
and contracting its products as well like there's less choice
now than there was five years ago certainly
so I don't know I think probably it's more of a Ford thing
this but it doesn't make it any less sad unfortunately.
I saw Capri on the road this week and I thought that's it.
Well do you know what I was looking at the Puma Gen E not in person but on the
internet and because of the lovely grant
not in person I didn't get it.
No more interactions John. Yeah no no more electric cars I'm fine
but like on price it actually undercuts a lot of Chinese stuff because of
this government grant which is now so chunky that I think it's
quite well priced to begin with. That's the one that's got the full grant isn't it?
Correct yeah so they might have a bit of a
shot with that but of course that's still an electric car
I just find it so sad all the Ford stuff because you just think about how many
people were just like I will buy a Ford like didn't even need
convincing they were just going to at the end of their contract
they were going to be buying another Ford. They liked their local dealer
and I suppose you can't hang on to customers forever because people don't last forever but
you have like very strong you look shocked at that statement
No I agree with you I absolutely agree with you.
But yeah I just think it's really sad that you see that and
the same vein like not that I love Vauxhall's but I think the same thing with Vauxhall's
like there are a lot of people who just love their local dealer and
they trusted the product and now we're seeing less of them
Yeah and that all impacts the whole cycle
And I know as you say it's almost an old fashioned way of looking at it which is that
probably from the 70s to the 90s or the 90s everyone just kept
buying the same make that their parents bought etc etc
but also I think there was a consistency and I think that's just gone out the window now
Yeah you know I think the same like Vauxhall are making probably
well it's certainly a better range of cars than Ford are
but they've changed quite a lot I would say a Vauxhall now doesn't
really feel like a Vauxhall. Well no because really it's a Peugeot isn't it
most of them and maybe it's not but
yeah whereas Ford I sort of feel like they've completely lost the plot
I don't well actually to be fair the new ones I do like the look of but the sort of
previous gen Puma and stuff I just
they all just look horrible to me so they just went lost their way with it but yeah
Fiesta and Focus were good looking cars even Mondeo I think was
a good looking car
and now we're moving towards more boring electric cars
I actually don't think the new Ford's look that boring but I just don't
feel like a Capri not being a Capri. No I know and it's
fundamental VW isn't it I'm sorry to say. Yes. Joe what do
you make of the contraction well this story but the
contraction of Ford and Vauxhall and someone in the UK
Yeah I think like Beck was saying you know that we've spoken many a time
weren't we with the kind of brand loyalty thing for people is definitely disappearing now
and the kind of age old of like you say buying a Ford because your parents had a Ford
it from the local dealer called Adam down the road who's looked after you for years that you know I just
think even from our side you know trying to have that brand loyalty either
to a brand or vehicle or to a dealership just isn't the way of the world
anymore and you know you never want to hear about job losses and anything but
people are less likely to actually go to these big sites and
buy things you know everything's trying to be done online and running dealerships and stuff
as expensive isn't it so I think as you know as horrible as it is
for the people losing their roles you can kind of see how the world is going that
people don't want to go and look at a car and be spoken to by a human they want to look at it
on a screen and watch a YouTube video and turn up to have minimal interaction with
other humans which is sad really and ultimately does
end in less humans being needed in certain elements of the process
I guess you guys don't really buy Fords as well do you
or at least certain Fords and I wonder if that is partly
paid into in particularly like owner's minds where they would have
had some issues like you I thought you were blaming us for the reason they were closing then
no what I mean is that they don't have I mean I'm not that
Fords like had a long history of being known as a reliable
brand it's like fix the repair daily isn't it but
I don't I do think when I just like say that was satire
if any of Fords lawyers are
I think that's fair comments
yeah slightly rusty but yeah but anyway I just mean that
I can't even remember which particular engine it is that James is scared of
he's very anti the eco boost engines
which I'm less anti because they are very popular and I get that there is
problems with them but sometimes I drive around and see
hundreds of fiestas stuck on the side of the road because they've all gone bang
same about Land Rover but I still wouldn't buy one of them
you do see a lot of them on low levels though going back to dealerships
just being delivered Joe just being delivered
that's a delivery transporter
I'm gonna move us on before the lawyers get involved so
I'm gonna move us on to a story about Kevin Mackie who is back in the news
slightly this week so this is gonna be a difficult one for me to try
to go through with not much caffeine in my brain but
he's taking the ways continuing his legal fight against
Renault, Nissan and RCI which is there it's the Renault
finance company which also Nissan use
because I mean we've covered this before but very brief bit of background
he was a long standing Renault and Nissan dealer
and he alleges that one day Renault pulled
funding from his site and locked him out of all his
well not locked him out of all the systems but stops him being able to order any cars
etc etc which is quite difficult if you're a Renault dealer to suddenly
not be able to order any Renaults or offer any Renault finance for example
so that's quite tricky so he's been through various legal
steps with this I think this is on like court case number 4
now but we're starting to see some of the statements
coming out from both him and Renault and Nissan
and RCI in terms of
what's been going on and I mean the story we've got here is that
Renault and Nissan have said as part of their defence that they are not obligated
to supply cars to dealers which
is interesting because I suppose that may
strictly be true you know somewhere in the contract I'm sure that is the case
but that will come as you know reading that sort of statement
comes as a bit of a blow to all the dealers
you would think it'd be a bit like if you had a KFC franchise and KFC said to you
well we're not obligated to actually sell you any chicken you know you could
just have a shop that says KFC over the top and not
actually be able to sell anything so I can understand
the frustration here I mean this has had some
reception but I'll just I'll read out the actual legal
statement so the defence from Renault and Nissan RCI etc
it says it depends on an assumption that the dealer
agreements entitle Macky Motors to receive certain minimum
of cars or parts from Renault and Nissan absent
such entitlement Renault could simply refuse to supply any cars or parts ordered
by Macky Motors by the platform services
but in other words yeah you don't have any rights to order anything
what do you think of this Rebecca? Well I was going to tie this back into
a few things we've talked about but this is the going back to
why would you want a franchise to have someone take it away from you
in the same way we've seen in the previous story I mean you don't know the whole situation
with the four dealerships where they might have gone actually we don't want this anymore
but still to when you have a deal like that
it's not like the KFC example you're the person
in the shop and you have to buy the stuff from them to be able to sell them you're not the customer coming in and going
oh no actually I don't want this I'm gonna go buy a burrito or something
stay instead so to turn someone's
business off fundamentally because you are the only supply
to their business with like no notice I don't
think that's right you would have like at least a wind down period
for them to be able to operate normally whilst there's an investigation
but on the flip side I understand that they had concerns
that it was money laundering or whatever and they have to do
what they have to do to protect themselves in that situation I don't think it was done right
and they're obviously not going to turn around now and go we hold our hands up have
5 million pounds compensation for the fact we
trade our business into the ground but that's right so I just
don't think I'm on that so Renault or RCI or Nissan I can't remember
allege that they were investigating Mackie motors for
potential money laundering so that's how this is all come about
but I'm just going to read the statement from RCI which is the bank which said that it
values its relationships with its dealers very highly and pointed to previous
court decisions they said we're not able to comment
further on ongoing litigation however it's not worth noting that
the courts including the High Court and the Court of Appeal found in favour of our actions
regarding Mackie motors
Renault has also said that it's seeking to dismiss the latest proceedings at the earliest opportunity
etc etc and Nissan has said
three separate courts including the Court of Appeal have dismissed Mackie motors claim
etc etc etc we intend to see the dismissal so they're all singing from the same
hymn sheet on this but I suppose you've got a difference between
what is legal and what is moral haven't you yeah and I do think
I mean I don't I'm not speaking on behalf of Kevin Mackie but
I do think a lot of the reason he keeps fighting is because he just wants to clear his name
yeah I'm sure it's obviously not a not a nice position
that he's been put into that his family business was sold off and
lost in a matter of months or whatever
but yeah to keep fighting it in court I don't think I'd be it's a better man than me
I think I would have given up a long time ago trying to go up against those big businesses
Joe not to make you comment on a very complicated story
but would you like to put yourself in legal hot water buying out
absolutely just on James's behalf but no I mean it's yeah it's back to like
you were saying earlier isn't it that whole kind of new car dealership and quite rightly
you know if there's no smoke without fire maybe but whatever's gone on there to
have the ability to strip someone's livelihood and business so instantly
left with a empty showroom that's being dressed in the way that these manufacturers
dictate and such like is seems pretty unfair as you say
whether there's some some wrong doings down there or not but again never nice
to hear of having your whole business ripped away by by one supplier or
one manufacturer overnight basically
yes not ideal over to Rebecca
I am going to talk about another court case
but of course dieselgate has gone to high court this week
dieselgate I know
it's back in court I feel like Joe has employees that are younger
than dieselgate I look back and I remember
it's happening and I think like how are we still talking about this
but I guess people just keep bringing
this is over a million motorists
major global car makers accused of using technology to manipulate emission
test results and we've done a couple of stories on
this this week because obviously it's been ongoing and
they accused them of
basically saying that car makers would rather do bend the law
to sell cars than
do what's right which I think was a bit cutting
but yeah I mean they obviously want to win lots of money off them
but yeah it's just
I just can't believe we're still talking about this like I know it's awful to say
because obviously people were lied to and that's why they're upset
but you didn't know what was happening and your car was more efficient and saved you money
because of it can you just take that as a win for now
well my thing with this is so this is being
the day
which represents some of the motorists actually in this case
but this is all the sort of stuff you see on google ads on
I just don't want to see them anymore
if so you might be entitled to compensation
there's a lot of well I think
there's five manufacturers in this but it
there's a lot of a lot of manufacturers could be affected by this
I mean the list we've actually I don't know
it's Mercedes, Renault, Nissan, Ford, Peugeot and Citroën who are particularly in this case
but other manufacturers
of course are likely to be bound by whatever the ruling in that particular case is
so the funny thing
but the strange thing about this is how actually
all of these manufacturers are in there how it all got centered around VW
well yeah it obviously all got
centered around VW because they I don't know if you remember the thing that
kicked it off was the that German car magazine come in which one but they
took it apart to like properly test it to find out what was happening so they were the one that it was
like they are definitely doing it and
but I guess also a lot of people buy what I mean when you look at like
Nissan with Renault on the list as well
Renault is on the list and Mercedes they obviously share technology with oh no they don't share
they share technology they don't share technology
do they with VW in any way no
but yeah you can see how a lot of manufacturers
do share technology so you might have used something
how do you prove exactly what was
doing yeah anyway I just think this is the
you may remember when I saw you last John I had a rant about Chris Packers
you need to rant about Chris Packers
Chris Packers but I just
it annoys me so much that car makers are
the like held responsible for
pollution in this world when there are so many
companies in other areas of the market or like mainly
packaging is the one that annoys me
airplanes are sort of affected big like shipping containers they don't seem to
really factor into how polluting they are so many things
that like farming obviously they come under it they people
say farming you're not doing that well enough but these businesses where it's like
sucking the life out of them but Chris Packers which cannot be recycled for some reason
and can be very easily replaced with paper which can break
down for some reason that's too much effort to make them change
same thing with paper straws you've got to paper straws
have to be done but leave the little plastic there on top
that's very true that is very true it's just like it's the hypocrisy
that gets to me and this is the reason I just think it all boils down to diesel gate
and the fact that you can see the fumes coming out as a back of cars
it's very easy to go oh yeah I see that that's the pollution over there
not the big factories making plastic where it goes in the
ground and doesn't break down I suppose if I'm just going to be contrarian for a minute
yeah I suppose all the other stuff is much
slower in terms of effects because we just send all our
Chris Packers off to landfill we don't see
that's a problem for the next few decades that's not for us right
now whereas if you're driving around in
diesel set Alhambra in London and it's pumping out more
knocks than it should be then you can point to well all these
children playing outside in the playgrounds are going to be getting asthma etc
which I think is a thing
yeah so
I do agree I just don't think I don't understand why I do understand
I also don't think it's fair that car manufacturers are demonised in such a way
and forced to change the way they do things when other people are
I think it's fine if everybody's forced to change that's fine
but if you're going to force car makers to change and re-read all of their factories
and their production and change everything over and tell them what they have to sell
then why can't it be done for other people
what I would level at this is that my frustration
is that maybe some people and you know when this all kicked off
I remember watching like ITV and the Tonight program came on
with or without Trevor McDonald and it was you know somebody had bought
a Alhambra or a you know big MPV thing from VW Group
and was saying oh it's an eco motive on the back and I was
I'm really shocked and upset to hear that it's actually quite polluting
and da da da da da da and I sort of think I
don't think you genuinely thought that at the time and I
just wonder how many people in this lawsuit are not there for
ecological reasons I think they're there because they've seen a Google ad saying
they can have 700 hbs is the bottom line of it and I would
tally that with the amount of cars that you see driving around with no DPF
because there's clouds and clouds of diesel
smoke coming out the back that wouldn't have been there from the factory
so yeah I just
I think on also that
I just find it ridiculous that car makers now put so much stress on being eco
friendly when it could all come around again
and they'll be like well those kind of electric cars you were selling they weren't really eco friendly were they
because you're building them in big factories and they're made of all these things aren't very good
well it's like I said it's emissions somewhere else in the world
made by slaves somewhere
allegations
diesel gates
I don't want to say too strongly because I drive personally around in a
prime example of a diesel get car and like Beck I find it crazy that
in the world we live I can now go on Facebook and put a claim in against a car manufacturer
that I bought and have benefited from the low road
I really haven't paid as much tax from my vehicle and now I want some more
money back and tell me I should have paid more like
what a world we live in we yeah there was obviously some stuff done
and bits and pieces when they manufactured them and the ones that did
manage to kind of get around the emissions testing but again with the I just
don't think it's the biggest fight we need to be fighting at the moment there's some much bigger players
out there that need to be dealt with before we're wired about my
Audi A3 and what emissions it's kicked out
why people worrying when they could be going after car dealers you didn't
pay too much commission there's so many places
that people give you money these days
I see mad as I say fill in a form in Facebook to get paid to be
reconciled for less money that you've spent on a car that was less tax
it's madness
and of our stories I think so
sorry thank god
they were so difficult
you know it's just time
so Joe before I ask your verdict are there any stories you think we've missed this week
I mean I didn't see a headline about you winning your lovely award at Auto Trader
obviously it's yet to go that actually hasn't brought this will be the press release
for that news John so if you want to be the first to write that news story
I can send you the names on that immediately
with the award very shortly if that will help
I think you've picked out the good ones from this week there's nothing that
became glaring when I had a look through this morning
so I'm going to have to ask you who chose the best stories or
who is your winner or what's your favorite story any of those three is fine
Rebecca was definitely one this week for me with the dieselgate story
I'm a strong believer in most of her views that she echoed there
and also about the crisp packets weirdly and also it was the last
story so easiest to remember yeah I can't that's the one that's really
stuck in my mind thank you I was really hoping you'd
strongly agree with most of your views and then just open a packet of waters
if I had some to hand I definitely would
I am part of the problem but I get very angry every time I eat them
well on that very strange note
all that's left for me to say is thank you to Joe for joining
us today and taking an hour out of your day from washing
tiny Japanese cars and putting them on auto
it's been lovely to see you as ever thanks for coming on
thank you very much good to see you as always lovely staff and thank you
well to Rebecca nice to see you to see you nice
and thank you for listening we'll be back next week with another episode
so make sure you're subscribed so you can be notified when that goes live
if you want to check out the stories you mentioned today take a look in the show notes below
or head to cardiomagazine.co.uk thanks for listening and goodbye
About this episode
The latest Car Dealer Podcast dives into the resurgence of Dieselgate, the scrutiny surrounding BCA's acquisition of Aston Barclay, and a passionate discussion about environmental issues sparked by Rebecca's frustration with crisp packets. Guest Joe Wallington shares insights from the Auto Trader Awards, where his dealership was recognized as a finalist. The episode also touches on the challenges of the used car market, the evolution of dealer relationships, and the impact of new regulations on the automotive industry. It's a mix of industry news, personal anecdotes, and lively debates.
Original notes
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