Ferrari's controversial EV, Arnold Clark sells car for £1, and when is the 2CV coming back? – with David Gott, episode 260

The Cardiola podcast is sponsored by AutoTrader.

John, have I mentioned that we sell more cars from adverts on AutoTrader than anywhere else?

Yes, I think I read that somewhere.

Well, with over 84 million consumer visits per month, they connect retailers like us

with more potential buyers than any other platform.

But it's not just about the numbers, is it?

Is that what you say to your accountant?

Because the support and the value we get from AutoTrader is, well, invaluable.

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each customer, incredible amounts of data about the cars that we'll sell in our local area,

and around-the-clock service support from our account manager.

It sounds like AutoTrader is basically doing all the work for you, James.

No, John, I still do some things, like take out the bins.

Anyway, to find out more about how AutoTrader can help you, visit autotrader.co.uk

slash partners slash retailer.

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 anyone called James for a change.

It is, of course, OG podcast host Rebecca Chaplin.

Rebecca. Hello. Hello, John.

Hi. How are you? I'm fine. How are you?

I'm very well. I'm actually, I feel, I'm looking at myself in this camera,

thinking, when I look a bit sunburned, I feel like I've caught the sun.

Yeah, that's obviously all I've done this week.

Yes. I feel like you're slightly to blame as well, because we have been touring,

while the other two were hosting this, we were off touring around Europe.

Yeah, I was going to say, do you have, like, a rebuttal to Batch's claims last week?

Yeah, I mean, well, I'd like to say that I, yeah, I do try and tune in where possible,

but unfortunately, we were on the road and I didn't really fancy doing this podcast

from the back of an Audi A6, comfortable as that would have been.

So, I'd just like to take him up on the Elocution lessons as well.

I mean, really, come on. Anyway, let that one go.

So, what have you been doing this week, Rebecca?

Well, it's obviously been a bit of a weird week, because it's half-term,

and we've had a bank holiday, so it's going to be quite an interesting one

when we get to the news later, a bit of a struggle, but we'll see.

But yeah, nothing particularly interesting, apart from complaining about the weather,

or saying how nice it is, and then complaining, and like everyone I think has been doing.

Yes. This is normally the point where I would ask James how busy the dealership has been,

but he's not here. So, I'm just going to move us on and introduce our guest.

Oh, thank you. Because, yeah, I don't know, anyone really cares.

So, joining us this week, I'm pleased to say is owner of the lovely car company, David Gott.

David, thanks for joining us. Hello. How are you?

Very well, thank you. I love the name. I don't like to introduce you.

That is actually the name. It's not just John complimenting it.

A lot of ladies say that. The ladies always love the name, and then a lot of men go that

of it. Oh, can I set you back? That's a bit of a gay name.

How did that... Well, firstly, I mean, I've got a load of questions on, I'll ask you,

but firstly, how did the lovely car company come about then? Did you found it? Is it the

name that you've come up with? So, when I first started about 15 years ago, and I live in Sheffield,

and everyone calls you love, and everything's lovely. And at the time, I was just buying cars

that were under, like, three grand, and I just wanted to sell nice, clean, low mileage, lovely

examples. And that's where I came from, the lovely car company. And I've always wanted to change it,

but then as we've got more reviews online, got bigger, I just can't bring myself to change the

name. But that's the honest truth. That's what it is. That's what it's about. Yeah, I'm stuck with it

now. That's it. I quite like that, because you can't really, I think lovely is a generic enough

term that you can't have the ASA having to go at you about it, because you kind of say,

lovely car, you know, might not be pristine, but it's lovely.

Unique. You get a lot, whereas they're all very similar. I'm not like an example right now,

but I can't think of any other. Well, like ABC cars, or ABJ cars. Yeah, I never wanted to be, you know,

like, like, I don't know, like, like you said, AB cars, it's just not memorable. That's all.

I know me, Danny Von's watching DB Ottermore. Sorry, Danny.

It was always a bit forgetful, but now I've just got a shit name, and it's rememberable.

Well, anyway, tell us a bit about your motor trade journey. If that doesn't sound too,

I don't know, ranky, you know, like, how did you, how did you end up doing what you do now?

Yeah, so, so, yeah, I was a DJ for 25 years, worked all over the world, worked in

big club in my golf court BCM. After about 12 years of doing that, I came back to the UK,

and then whilst I was DJ during the day, I needed something to do. So I started selling cars from

home, and two or three on the drive, and they're just built up from there, basically. And then

when COVID kicked in, the DJ work was no more. And I mean, I was sort of full time when COVID

kicked in. Yeah, I was full time, we had like 20 odd cars. But when COVID kicked in, got really

busy, and then I like really focused on getting the business bigger. And now we've got about

50 cars in stock. And like I said, we've built it from sub 5k cars, where now everything's over

15k at the minute. So it's been a really good journey. It's been really enjoyable.

Lots of ups, lots of downs. But I'm still alive.

Am I right in thinking you guys mainly do Teslas now?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's all we're doing now. So about a year ago, I just said to myself,

I'm going to test it for one year. It was from last September. We already had about 50%

of our stock with Teslas or electric cars. And I said, you know what, I'm just going to try it. I

thought we're small enough. Because we're not, I've always tried not to be like a car suit back,

but I've always thought that you need a selection of cars, you know, you need a few small ones,

you need some big ones, you need some four before, you need some automatics. And then last September,

I said, I'm going to try it for one year. And we're just going to sell Teslas.

And to be honest, it's been the best thing I've ever done.

I mean, you've timed it very well, I have to say.

Bit of luck at the same time. However, last year, when that car tax,

nice, sorry, law came in, the new car tax, whatever you call it,

I didn't get to it at the same time, because we didn't sell half as much as what we normally sell.

And I thought, oh, God, is this it? Because it is sort of on the time of electric cars.

I just thought I've got to stick with it, because it is, everyone's got to have an electric car,

sooner or later. So I just stuck with it. And I'm so glad they have because the last three months

has been fantastic.

I mean, it's probably fair to say you're a bit of a Tesla expert by this point.

I mean, over 150 you've sold, did I see the other day?

I mean, what are they like as a product to sell? Presumably pretty good.

Otherwise, you wouldn't want to do it. You know, when I get in a part exchange vehicle

with an engine in it, I'm like, oh, what's that noise?

Is that the gearbox or the clutch going? Normal cars sound really rickety when you've been in.

When you're used to driving Teslas as much as we are now, it's getting to the point now

where I'm thinking the part exchanges, we're just going to trade them all on.

Because that, for us, being this sort of specialist, where we know we're onions with the Teslas,

then when we get like, we've had this Mercedes part exchange coming, an E-Class,

and we've bought it back once, and then we've sold it again, and then the customers complain

again about something stupid. You know, a 10 year old Mercedes E-Class for the 112,000 miles on the

clock. I think why am I wasting my time? I'd rather have a Tesla with 199,000 miles on the clock,

and I know it'd give you less hassle. This is the mad thing, because I think, like,

we in the motoring press gave Tesla a bit of a hard time for, you know, when you get in a brand

new one, I think there was a bit of noise made about perceived quality. It's that horrible

term we use, where everything's maybe a little bit plasticky. I don't think it's that bad, to be

honest, but some people kind of, it was the shut lines and things like that, people go, oh, they're

not very well made or whatever. But actually, as you say, I think they were surprisingly well. This

just sounds like an advert for Tesla. I only say this because James has taken one in, has he not,

miles on it or something, and it feels like a brand new car in lots of ways. It's not actually

worn. It's miles very hard at all. But what about reliability? How are you finding them?

Amazing reliability. So when you think about it, there is, I mean, I'm not mechanical

in any shape or form, but I feel like I now know all the things that go wrong

with the Teslas. So your face has just got a battery. And touch was, all of them have been

absolutely spot on. We do tests on them all. They're all above 90% of the battery life.

Most of our cars are not more than five year old. And then it's just changing tires,

suspension arms and bushes, but it's more bushes than anything. And they're not expensive.

And then that's it. And then you get the occasional window switch that'll break,

steering wheels, the older ones with higher mileage, you know, because it's a heated steering wheel

that'll start to open up and it'll start to peel away. So yeah, you might need to replace the

steering wheel. And but that's it. And the stuff was black ones, especially stuff with

stone chips. Bonnet on them are terrible for getting stone chips. I know a lot of people

are like, Oh, there's too many white ones out there. But the white one, the Griggs can't see

the stone chips. You know what I mean? And yeah, windscreens occasionally have to change the

windscreen on them. But that is it. This is a far cry from all the like, Oh, you know,

when it goes wrong, it's a 10 grand battery or anything like that. That, you know, it doesn't

sound like you've had too much bad luck with them then. Touch was. So how do you go about when

you're buying them? There's this perception that as you say, they're all white, and they're all

identical. But they're not really are they because there's quite a lot of subtle differences between

each. It's not even modeled. Well, it suppose it is model year of, let's say a model three,

but they've been making them for what 10 years now nearly. But there's a lot of difference

between one that was made, you know, eight years ago to one that's just come off the

factory floor now. I mean, what do you look for? Like there's things like heat pumps and there's

things like, has he got the new chip in it for the infotainment and all that sort of stuff?

Not to give you trade secrets away, but what do you look out for?

That is basically it. So it's the, if we sell anything over six year old, we would try not to

unless we take it in part exchange. The first question everybody asks, hasn't got the heat pump.

If it hasn't got the heat pump, then people seem to be more prepared to pay that little bit more

to buy one with a heat pump. Then the rise in chip, they all want the new rise in chip because

it's got better software on it. But I mean, me personally, I would get an eight year old one

just for the range, even the range on the older ones is still really good on the long range ones.

And so it won't put me off at all. But I see we're being in that price range of the older ones

yet. So I don't know their cell, but I assume the cell just as good as the newer models.

What's interesting there is it sounds like people coming to buy these are pretty clued up about

what they're buying. We've only done all this because of the customers. That's it. It's like

being a DJ. The customers will tell you what songs they want on and I'll be DJing thinking,

what's this song they're on about when I look for it? I find it and I play it and everyone's cheering

and oh, what a brilliant DJ he's playing the best song ever. That thing, it's just this fan that

told me, oh, have you got that song? It's exactly the same. Everyone's come up to us and they're like,

as you've got the E-Pub, as you've got the rising chip, as you've got this and I'm saying to salesman

right, we need to do this, that and the other and just follow the market. And that's sort of what

we've done. Well, that leads me nicely on to customization. Because I noticed you're quite

good at jazzing them up and wrapping them, I'm guessing, and putting a kind of body kit on the

front and all that kind of stuff. How many customers are coming to you wanting something a little bit

different from the average Model 3 or Model Y? I'd say it's 50-50 at the minute. So we get a lot of

people that absolutely hate the body kit. Oh my God, they're terrible. And then you'll get a retired

65 year old chap and he's like, oh God, I want that body kit. You never know. It's 50-50 down the line.

Is it something you're putting on the stock that you have and then just waiting for the customer

that wants the one in? It's a bit off. We can just look at one and we think, oh, do you know what,

that needs a body kit. Sometimes if we've had one in stock for quite a while that hasn't got a body

kit on, we'll stick a body kit on it. Let's see if we can get it out the door with that.

At the same time, I think the body kits now, I think the plateaued, especially with the Model 3s,

I think it's been overdone a little bit now. So we tend to not put the body kits on as much.

But we just give the customers the option at the minute it's all out. Oh, we're hearing at the

minute, the last month is, I'm fed up with putting all this money in my car, petrol and diesel and

they just want to save money. But for us, it's just an added bonus that they can customize the Tesla

as if they want to. How long do you think this is all going to last then, this sort of

good times with electric cars? Do you think it was going to carry on or

see that load down? Yeah, that's it for now, isn't it? I think that is. I mean, I've never seen

this podcast with a bloody diary of a city owner and he was, he got this picture up over in New

York in the 1920s and it was a picture of New York with all the horse and cart and then the

10 years later and it was New York just full of cars. And that's the same with electric cars.

You know, we have the everyone hates electric cars for the last maybe 10 years we've had it.

But now you can just see it. It's just changing like week by week, especially now people getting

hit in the pocket with the fuel. Nobody likes losing money. So, so, so yeah, a lot of people are

you can tell by looking at the auction as well, you know, auction prices Tesla's are now two grand

into book BMW one series. I was watching one last week, it was grade two, and that went a thousand

pound behind the book. Normally, I'd be thinking, oh, great, I buy that because it's cheap. But

even for me, I'm like, the times are changing now.

Is it just Tesla's or are you kind of, I know you've ventured into some other EVs before, but

are you at this point, are you kind of like, right, no, I'm not doing any Merck's or BMW's or

whatever, you know, an EQC or an iX or anything like that. Is it, is it just Tesla's you've

headed your bets on now, going forward? Yeah, yeah, well, just because we're only a small deal

of shit. Again, when people come here, they're here to buy Tesla. So if I just want, we've done it

before where we've had like a Coupe Reborn thing, that looks nice, that Coupe Reborn, and it's just

sat there forever. And then we've bought an Audi Q, God, I'm so bad with this car.

An Audi Q-tron or whatever the bloody hell it was. And we bought it and it was due to service.

So we had to take it to Audi and it was 600 pounds for the service. And I was like, what are you

doing with this car? It's just got a battery in it, you know? Yeah, but you need to, if you don't

do it, the manufacturer's warranty isn't valid and all this. The other way, we got invited to the,

like the Tesla red place when it's through Auto Trader. And we asked the question about like,

why the charging 600 pounds and the Tesla block, it's absolutely con, like these cars do not need

servicing. And Teslas don't need servicing. If it needs anything on the dash, like it needs a

HEPA filter, you book it in, get it changed and that's it. So that's another reason why I want to

keep selling them because it's just, yeah, we've got a massive team. So it's just the floor keeps,

everything keeps flowing easier. Well, before I could like, we've got to get on the phone to

Mercedes and we've got to try and chase up this service history. And before you know it,

you've wasted like two hours of your day just trying to get some service history.

So all that time, we're getting back.

I mean, you sort of answered my next question, which is James's absolute favorite one to ask,

which is, what cars will you not buy? Like what will you actively avoid? Or, you know,

so you get it as a PX, what are you going to get rid of immediately?

You've got some JLR products at the minute.

It's easy, isn't it? It's just like, yes, like two litre miscellaneous,

eco boosts. Yeah, pretty much all of them at the minute. Yeah, I don't really like any of them.

What's the car you've had the worst experience with?

Before we, that was another thing doing the Teslas. Don't get me wrong, I would never,

because I'm not the type of person to give up on anything, but it was getting to the stage where

what else could I do? You know, this before we signed the electric cars, because it was just

relentless gearboxes. Every time the foreman and the customers ringing, oh, we bought this car

a few weeks ago. And the thing is, we'll always fix it. And then you just see your profit margins

go down. But I have still got one car in stock that I've had for nearly three years now.

And that is a Kia seed. And everyone thinks Kia Seed. Yeah, is this the famous, is there a

YouTube video you did about this Kia Seed, if I imagine this? No, I've not done a video about

this one yet. What's wrong with this seed then? So I bought it, no. I mean, James will have it,

it's a Kia, he loves them. Well, yeah, I think you hear Kia, it's the most reliable car in the world.

And it's a 19 plate, 40,000 miles, so it's still in the Kia warranty.

It's just got an engine management light on. It's going to be nothing. It's going to be a sensor.

So we've took it to the garage, it knocks sensor, changed that, then like, oh, it must be something

to do with the DPF. Well, they can't be the DPF because it's only at the time. It was only

three year old, something like that. And it was like three year old. I thought it cannot be the

DPF. So they've tried to do all these different sensors. They've took everything off. I must have

spent at least two grand on it already. I took it to Kia and they said, oh, look, you've missed one

service. So it's out of warranty. I was like, oh, okay, right. So we're trying to fix it,

trying to fix it. This was the Kia, Rick Chesterfield, by the way, they're all a little bit

miserable in there. I'm sure the mechanics are all right, but the bloke at the desk, he's a right

miserable kid. Every time he sees me, he's like, oh, you again. So we've had it knocking on three

years. So last month, I like, we need to get rid of this car. Let's take a Kia at Sheffield,

because they might be a bit friendlier. So we've took it to Kia Sheffield. And after two days,

they ran up and they said, oh, look, the DPF. It's the DPF. There's something wrong with it.

I was like, are you sure? I'm like, you can't be. He went, honestly, it is. He said, you're two weeks

away from the car being out of warranty. He said, oh, we'll change the DPF for you. It would normally

cost three grand plus labor and fitness, but we'll change it. I was in such a good mood. Honestly,

I was like, oh, this is fantastic. This is like, oh my God, it's the last car I've got left. The last

car I've got a diesel engine in it. I'm like, this is just amazing. So he gets it. Two days later,

he rings up and he goes, I'm so sorry. He said, but the warranty's void. I'm like, why? He said,

you've never had the car before. They've took out the DPF. I'm like, you're joking. So idiot.

I was like, I had a problem with the DPF. Like maybe it needed re-genin, but then they thought,

oh, do you know what? We'll like drill it all in and we'll try and map it out.

But here, DPFs apparently are impossible to map out.

So, okay, I thought we'd have an earlier statement. He will not buy that. He will not buy that.

I say that. If you put it on Motorway and he finds out it's got a 99 retail rating, he will buy it.

I mean, how are you getting your, how did you come about the Kia? How are you getting your stock

at the minute? I didn't mind anything with an engine management value on.

Yeah, I just used to buy from auctions and I had my own car by the website as well,

too, used to do that. That was good for getting the older generation when they retired or

someone had to give up driving. You get some really good buys like that. That was sort of like

the lovely car company model, low mileage, one owner type of cars. But yeah, but now we just

buy from just, you know, my place is BCA, Aston Bakery and just other sources.

But it's a lot easier buying as well to just buy that one brand.

How are you finding coming up against all these really cheap lease deals on electric cars? And

he mentioned the Cooper born and that obviously lots of them are cheap. But you find in your stuff

sort of holds up against that because they are good dealers aren't they at the end of the day?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think, again, it's just trying not to pay too much for one of these cars,

like getting a Cooper born at 25 grand or 20 grand, second hand, you just go out and buy a flipping

new one, wouldn't you? Because the dealers you get are great. When we do try and stay in that,

if it was Cooper born, I'd be staying around the 12 and a half, say in Grandmark.

It's the same with the Teslas, we've got to be in the right price bracket. We don't want to price

ourselves out of it. Yeah, we're seeing so much Chinese product, particularly around here.

It's like Spot the J2 at the moment, just feels like everybody wants. I mean, I spoke with some

dealers who mentioned that they're having a great time at the moment buying stuff because people

want to trade on their petrol diesel car. But they then want to go buy from, they want to buy a J2 or

something cheap, past times are hard. What do you guys like, when you look at

the cars on the road, like, do you think in your eyes, drives that J2 or do you think?

I think the JQs are a little bit like,

I don't know, they're a bit new build, Mrs. Hinch kind of,

you know, they're very Instagrammy and all that sort of stuff. I mean, we're like...

It's like a cool team of Range Rover, don't they? Yeah, like it's all image, isn't it?

What I can see though, like if I was, if I had three kids and a budget and I wanted a new car,

I could see myself going for like a Cherry Tigger or something like that, though.

Yeah, I think the Tigger looks slightly better. I can't remember if I talked about this last time

I was on the podcast, but because like, I love electric cars, I've been banging on about a podcast

for years and years and years, but the Chinese ones, I just think it looks like no one's designed

them. And even I drove past a brand new transit the other day and I thought like, you can see how

something, you know how they like carve them out of clay, like you can see the design work that's

gone into the front of a transit, but when you look at a lot of them, they're just like someone's

sketched out and they've gone, okay, go make that then. When we're in Dunton in Essex as a Ford

designer, go, yes, yes, I've noticed. I've been to enough factory tours to be shown, look how we

are. Well, I mean, I've not driven one probably at least for five years, but they were awful to

drive. I don't know if they've improved at all. The Capri as well. I'm not a fan. I don't think it's

like world car thing where they make them like a car that everybody will like rather than going,

this is for this person and this is for that person. That Mustang, I just think is a bit.

Because we found that they were really popular, the ones that we had.

You don't see a lot of them on the roads and I always think like, who's actually, I have seen

like one Capri since they've come out, but we just don't get many around here, but then we don't,

I was talking about this the other day because obviously we used to have the Southampton factory,

so we used to get a lot of Fords and we had a lot of Ford dealers, but that's sort of because

that's fatal, the factory's gone and a lot of the dealers have gone. We don't really see as many

Fords on the road and it shows a lot of Fords family discount, didn't you? That's people.

I think the Copras look beautiful, you know, blue ones, but whatever I like, I should never buy.

Well, and also there's this weird thing, isn't it? A bit like with the Mastangs, like they might

have sold not that many of them, but you find three years later, suddenly everyone wants one

with high demand because there are none. That's the sort of the weird situation we find ourselves in,

like when you, I think James finds it at the minute with like, say at me, electrics,

like I can't get enough of them, but they only sold, I mean, there's only ever about 15 for

sale at any given time on AutoTrader or whatever. So yeah, you find yourself looking at these weird

little niches of cars that you'd forgot existed, but suddenly everyone's searching for it's really

weird. But then they attract the strange customers. I don't think James has any that aren't strange, so...

Great in Gosport really, isn't it? No, he seems to buy strange cars and have strange customers.

I mean, one final question before we move on because we've got to do our stories,

not there are any stories this week because it's been very slow, but in terms of advertising,

so I know you guys are quite big on social media and YouTube and so on, but in terms of, well,

firstly, how does that bring you any sales? Are you finding, like for James, for example,

obviously he's got the benefit of our lovely Cardi the Magazine YouTube channel that we've had for

15 years or so, but he's suddenly getting loads of inquiries on Jimneys because he's done a video

about them, completely unrelated to not an advertising video necessarily. Do you find you

get the same kind of pickup from YouTube? Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. I think when people, because,

you know, it takes people 23 months to decide whether the, you know, when they actually

pull the trigger on a car. So if they've been on our YouTube and seen us talk about

Teslas and then they'll go on to Instagram and they'll do this and it's just constantly at the

back of the mind, isn't it? Last week, it's every week that we sell, like Saturday a woman come in,

she's come in, she's like, I didn't want to go to the big car supermarket, the faceless people,

she said, I wanted to come to you, so I'd seen your videos, I'd seen your, I just like everything

about what you do and, you know, the days of us just advertising a car, it's gone now, isn't it?

You've got to do something a little bit different, you've got to get your names out there and it's

just like a funnel, isn't it? Like, I used to think, oh, if we do loads of Instagram stuff, we'll sell

loads of cars on Instagram, but it's not like that, you've got to do all these different things

and then if you do all of them, it's all like compounds over time.

So, in terms of your general advertising platforms then, what's working for you guys?

What's bringing you the most leads at the moment? Do you know what, I'm going to be totally honest,

if I'm going to say leads or enquiries, what I get in that email, it's mortars, if I'm being

nice. Really? I'll show them all.

As I believe they're now known. Yeah, Ramri, with them for four months, but every day there's a

calls really, or a trader, but the messages that we get like emails or they're not great, no?

From motors, is that from auto-trader? Auto-trader.

Right. Yeah, yeah. Interesting.

So, you've obviously got a very specific stock profile, I suppose, so it's hard to

sort of, because I find, well, from second hand from James, you kind of find some

stuff works better on different platforms, don't you? So, I mean, like, I think for him,

the higher end stuff seems to do a bit better on auto-trader generally, but then also, of course,

if he's following retail rating staff, more so than anywhere else, but it's, yeah, it's just

interesting, isn't it? It's different bits of the country and different stock profiles, and

it's just a question I like to ask. I honestly think it's to do where you are in the country.

Traders down, like, your way of the south, they can have 25 cars advertised and they'll

turn over that stock twice. They'll do 50 cars in a month, where if we have 25 advertised on

auto-trader, we'll probably just sell 25. I think that's just because we're in the mid-life.

Honestly, I don't know. It keeps me up at night thinking of it all. So, what I just try to do

is keep, so before we used to have 50 cars on auto-trader, and we've just cut that down to

the starter pack, and it's 25. We actually have 20 plus five, what do you call it, the five

adverts, where you can just add tactical stock. Tactical stock, that's it. So then, when it gets

to August, I'll take them five adverts off. When it comes to December, I'll take them five off,

and we'll just have the 20. And then with mortars, we'll have 40 advertised,

and then Instagram, obviously our website, Facebook, Instagram, Facebook, all that. That's

just for like getting us out there and YouTube. It's not trying to sell cars, it's just trying to

show, look, we're here, we're nice people, and we just want to sell you a nice car. That's it.

That's it. So, it's just, it is you've got to keep the advertising to a minimum.

Interesting. Right, well, we're over halfway, so I'd better get on and do some stories, I think.

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trade.autotrader.co.uk. Now, back to the podcast.

So, Becca and I are going to run through our favorite stories of the week. And at the end,

David gets to decide which of us chose the best ones and who is the winner.

I think James won last week. But due to what I'm going to call a technical error,

the end of the podcast got chopped off. So I'm going to take that as a sign that

Ashley, I should go first. So I'm going to. It has been a bit of a slow news week as we've

said a thousand times, but I'm going to start when it would seem appropriate to start with an

electric car. Sorry, sorry. So I'm just going to briefly talk about this new Ferrari, which

will be of no relevance to anyone listening because I think they're going to make about,

I don't know, probably a few hundred of them and they're all going to be bought by people who have

made millions on YouTube, I would imagine. David, you could be, you know, in for one, I don't know.

But it has caused a storm because nobody really likes how it looks. I think I've seen maybe a

couple of positive, well, suggestions about how it looks. But the rest, the rest of the

internet seems to be up in arms that it doesn't look like a Ferrari. It looks like a sort of,

to most people, some sort of Chinese electric four door thing that they've put a Ferrari badge on.

Some people have said it looks like an Apple mouse because of course,

Johnny Ivers had some, some involvement in the design. I think the interior, everyone seems

to love, it's just the exterior. We've seen the interior before, haven't we? We have. I think

because it's got this sort of like retro styling, everyone, that's like half the problem. Everyone's

expecting something that was going to look kind of retro and like a Ferrari. I do think like

the Ferraris have looked so different over the years, not that I want to jump in and defend them

because I don't really like it at all. But they've made plenty of cars that people didn't like over

the years. And then they still sold because people just want to buy a Ferrari. They have,

it's true. And I think, I don't know if some of the hate has come from the fact that it's

all electric. I actually think a lot of it is just to do with the shape of it and what it is.

If it had a V12 under the bonnet, I think people would still hate it. And I can sort of understand

why because it's very, I think proportionally, it's all over the place personally, but I'm

I'm not really a Ferrari person. It's a family car, isn't it? Well, it is a family car. But I think

even like the, what's the four by four, the Puro Sangway. Yes. I think even that at least

looks Ferrari-ish, even if it is an SUV. This doesn't, I don't think. That being said, what

Ferrari say about this is that it's supposed to attract a new type of audience altogether.

So this is why it looks different. So this is not for your average person with a red Ferrari in

the garage, some of whom I know are listening. This is for, yeah, I suspect it's for people who are

maybe, dare I say, five or 10 years younger than us, Becker, and have made lots of money

on cryptocurrency, et cetera, et cetera. I think it's for a different type of audience. People

who really love Teslas, but want like something more luxe. More expensive. Yeah. Anyway, David,

what did you make of this? I'm guessing you've seen it. That's answered that.

I don't really like cars, if I'm being honest.

Fair enough.

Well, that's put an end to our story. I mean, do give it a Google and see what you think,

because it is well worth a look. I was just going to say my favourite thing about this is,

and this is obviously not a story that's corroborated. I just read someone posting about it,

but when everyone really didn't like it, all of a sudden a lot of the same posts saying how great

it was with the same picture being linked in again and again. So someone,

it sounds like someone has been paid to send a load of bots out to say, it's so great, isn't it?

Wonderful Ferrari doing. I just love that about it.

I see what I will say. It's taken the heat off Jaguar for a bit, isn't it?

I know. I saw someone else comparing that as well, saying like, oh,

we'll see if they're actually doing the right thing.

Right. Well, anyway, I won't dwell on this for any longer, because it's a Ferrari and none of us

are ever going to drive it probably. So, Becca, move us on. Oh, I'm going to move us on. What shall

I go for next? A story that I wrote this morning actually I'll go for,

which is about used coupe prices increasing more than any other body style. Very important news,

I know. But I did think it was quite interesting because, again, sort of reflecting about that

last story, things changing. People are new car manufacturers aren't making as many coupes.

Actually, there are only a third as many on the market today as there was a decade ago,

which I thought was quite interesting. And because of this, prices are going up.

This is according to CarGurus, who said the Jaguar F-Type was up 16% year on year. The Porsche 911

is up 14% and the Audi TT is up 4%, suggesting demand for performance-led vehicles

is going up because they're becoming harder to source. I don't know if it's sort of potentially

because of the time of year as well. But yeah, I don't know what you guys think.

I wonder how far that goes. Like, the 911 is always going to go up in value, aren't they?

Yeah, I do. Different types I can understand because they're still pretty good and they're

not made anymore. Do you think, like, the 1990s Renault and Megane coupe in bright yellow,

you know, does that count? I don't know. The original Cougar, whatever it was,

all the Puma. Yeah, I don't know because they only really talked about it from 10 years ago.

But the other thing that's sort of interesting is that of the ones that are on sale today,

half of them are made by BMW. Oh, okay. I've always struggled with a four-series coupe.

If we ever get a four-event Audi TTs, I would struggle to sell an Audi TT.

Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, to be fair, I've had a few people tell me that recently,

they can't get rid of TTs. But yeah, they can't get rid of it.

The dorms seem to be made in convertible cars anymore, don't they?

No. No, I can't think of many. No. I mean, the coupe thing, do you know what? I'm not a big fan

of coupes, I'll be honest, because I just think they look a bit posory. And I like, I don't know,

I just think if it's a four and a half meter long car, I just want some space in it personally.

Like, fastest state car is where I'm at personally. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I do sort of agree when you like

compare the... That's why no one's making them anymore. Oh, yes. Obviously, there is a reason

that that one's making them anymore. Interesting, though. You're still drawn.

Shall I move us on? Yeah, go for it. Trying to squeeze in as many as possible in the last 15 minutes.

So, I'm going to talk about Arnold Clark, who have opened their first Welsh dealership, which is

surprising. I was surprised they hadn't made it across the Wales, because they're kind of creeping

down the UK, aren't they, Arnold Clark? I mean, they're not big in the south yet. But I'm sure

it's only a matter of time. But, okay, so that's somewhat interesting itself. But what I thought

was quite interesting and why I'm talking about it is how they've celebrated the opening of this

dealership by selling a car for just £1. So, I think the way that this works is that their new

motor store car supermarket thing, one of the cars in there, like a mystery car,

is a pound. But they've left like, I don't know, £14.995 or whatever in the price board. And whoever

buys it is going to be told at the point of checkout. Good news, you're not paying £15,

you're paying £1, which is quite a nice little surprise for them. And I thought that's an excellent

way to perhaps get rid of a car that you've... Well, it doesn't apply here because they've only just

opened, but a car you've had in stock for a very long time has secretly priced it as a pound.

DS4 Crossback or something that's in the corner that's been there for nine weeks. Like, yeah,

advertise that you're selling one car in your stock for a pound and wait until someone buys it.

But they might never buy it if it's that car that's in the stock, but...

Well, that's true. But then you'll sell lots of other cars and people trying to get the one that's

a pound, you see. So I thought I was a clever bit of marketing. I mean, David, if you planted

trying that to get rid of your seed with a dodgy DPF... Well, I've always started doing that on

Facebook, I'm just from, you know, when you get a cheap part exit and then you say,

we're going to give it away. You know, if you've nicked it for like 400 quid.

But they've never been like mechanically okay to even give away.

Yeah, that's the thing when they come back and they say it's broken. What do you do? Do you just

say, well, you did get it for a pound? Exactly. And they probably would come for you as well.

Yeah, it would probably attract the type of customer who was going to go, yeah, but it's

that's why I've never done it. So I thought, why do you want all the likes for people just

trying to get something for like a pound? They're never going to buy anything from you, right?

Yeah.

Right, is it? No, it's not. That was my go, Rebecca.

Yeah, I'm just trying to remind myself if it is definitely this week.

Oh, it doesn't matter at this point. Have you done the two CV one yet?

That was on my list. That does count. I didn't know if that was overlap.

Yeah, I love this. So Citroen have decided they're going to bring about two CV.

But I just I'm so we have no idea about anything else about it at the moment. I don't think.

But obviously they've already got the AMI. So this is they're supposed to be their like really

accessible affordable EV car. So is it going to be like a slightly more practical AMI?

Yeah, this is because I was reading the same story and all you get is the two

horses at the top and that's their interpretation of launching a two CV.

And of course auto express auto express have been running renders of a new two CV for about 20 years

on the front covers. Finally, we're right. Exactly. I don't know. I the way that it's written

yeah and the way that they've it's suggested that it's going to be the spirit of

two CV which got France mobilized during the Second World War and all this stuff.

I'm not sure they use those exact words. Yeah, anyway, it's in our story.

James Batchel has written this so he's slightly he's probably gone for the history angle.

He has. Yeah, he loves it.

Yeah, it will make me think that it's going to be very cheap.

I know what I don't want is like I don't know if anyone remembers

they won't I don't know why I'm saying this but Citroen a couple of years ago launched

like the e-mahari which was basically like a rebadged plastic quadricycle that somebody else

made. It's a bit like the Ami really like it's not a real car. It only does 28 miles an hour.

That sort of thing. It didn't really look like the old Mahari.

Not really. No, it looked like a C4 cactus. Yeah, that's what I was going to say.

All I can have is had in my head was like a C4 cactus with like no top on it.

Basically, yeah, but it's C4 cactus but made of plastic after a deadly accident or kind of

like if you put a C4 cactus and the little Tykes car in like that machine thing from that film

The Fly and they converged. That's what you'd get with the e-mahari. Anyway, hopefully it's

being a little bit more practical than that but what I've got in my head is the EU has set up this

attempt to get European manufacturers to make smaller and cheaper EVs and they're going to get

these things called super credits where to count against your EV threshold basically a teeny

a small I say small I think it means under four meters which is not actually that small because

a Toyota Yaris is under four meters but electric whatever kind of car is going

to count more against the EV quota than a big EV basically so that's for them to make them.

So I suspect it will be something like that which is probably going to be okay.

When I first saw it I thought oh this is Stalantis thinking how can we make a Renault 5 rival.

Of course like the Renault 5 is a slightly cooler looking car. Obviously I know the two CVs

are very popular but I don't think anyone would call it a cool looking car to get the inspiration.

It's very hard to reinterpret it isn't it without it looking really really ugly and

I think they like if you remember the first generation of C3 that was supposed to be a

slight reinterpretation to two CV because that was sort of round and unfortunately just meant

that grandma's bought it and no one else. But then I was going to say we obviously went to France

didn't we where they can the AMI they can drive from 16 and I was amazed how many of them when

you go into the little villages and stuff there are these kids driving them round and I know it's

not going to be the same thing but there obviously is that particularly in Europe that sort of market

for cheap run-arounds. Yes we're not so good at that over here we should be but we're not.

The thing is will they be quick enough to do it or will the Chinese sneak in and

do it anyway that's the thing. That's who's got the intensity to make small cheap EVs a thing.

Well yeah but we've also got the potential they've obviously got the

what tie-up have they got Leap Motor. Oh yeah Leap Motor over something else but

they've sort of got a Chinese tie-up so you never know. They did say didn't they that they were

going to be using their buying power of having Leap Motor and Stellantis together so maybe that

makes something cheap. What do you think is going to be like the larder of the electric car?

I think yeah that's a fair point like I think they've kind of like that because what was a larder

a larder was like a rebadged old fear wasn't it. I think we've moved beyond that now haven't we where

like all the like there's no nation in the world that's making like maybe like in Iran or something

there's no nation that's making old rebadged versions of cars from 20 years ago anymore are they

like they're all all the Chinese cars might be a little bit rubbish in some ways but at least

they are kind of like brand new. Shall I try and sandwich in a final story? Yes if you've got one.

I say a story I mean it's going to be about chips isn't it. No it's not. I was actually going to just

briefly allude into James' substack which I know he likes me to do because then somebody

subscribed to it possibly but he's been talking about why legacy car makers are jumping into

bed with the Chinese and I'm not actually going to go into his thoughts on this because I haven't

read it but I'm just going to give my thoughts on this news that's been floating around you know like

there's been cherry and JLR launching the Freelander name as a entirely Chinese

developed product I think it was designed by a JLR designer or a former JLR designer or something

like that but there's all this talk at the moment isn't there of Sunderland, Nissan, Sunderland

plants closing a line and Nissan's boss even saying we will find hopefully a partner to go in there

he's not explicitly said a Chinese automaker but that is the suggestion is perhaps a Chinese

automaker could do that. There's various musings about cherry making things in JLR plants because

they have this tie up as I say there's all this news about I think was it Leetmote said last week

they were going to start making things in Europe in Stellantis factories? Yeah they're going to do it

together. Yes which of course is great news for all those factories that have our under capacity

at the moment as most car plants are because the relative is you shut them down which nobody wants

what I kind of can't quite work out is surely with these Chinese cars at the moment the reason

they're really cheap is because they're made in China and I mean somebody suggested to me that

China does not have that cheap labor rates but I think it's probably cheaper than here

and they have access to cheap electricity to power the plants and lots of subsidized things I

would imagine from the Chinese government and they're all you know a bit like BYD to use that

example they make everything apart from the tires and the glass I can't remember two things in their

car that's all they don't make or the tires and the windscreen wipers something daft like that

they've got very they're very well integrated in their supply chain they've got the whole supply

chain if you take half of the production outside of China how can that how can elite motor be as

cheap if it's made in Slovakia or France or somewhere like that where the labor rates are

higher and the electricity prices are higher and so on I just don't quite understand how it's going

to work can I give you my really pessimistic view go on that if you make a very small part of the

process or like finish the cars in the UK or in Europe at a point where you're potentially

going to have to pay very high tariffs to import them don't know if that changes anything but it

does give you sort of power when we look at Nissan particularly whenever the government does something

that Nissan doesn't like they go well we'll pull out a sundal and all these people will lose their

jobs or the same thing with other factories to where to JLR they like to wave their flag around

and be like we'll leave and all of a sudden everyone's like oh no and they get in Nissan's case a lot

of money or JLR have over the years as well and Vauxhall and Stellantis and all this sort of thing

so I think from that perspective are they going to save on potentially an end process thing if

they can do that and I guess when you look at things like Leap Motor where they're already

they've already got like a Europe tie up it might make sense for them within Stellantis.

The Europe one I can kind of see because there's the tariffs and that's the only reason really

that everyone starts making things in various countries isn't it the reason that JLR is in

China and is in India and you know and so on it's like locally made stuff yeah being air quotes

doesn't hit doesn't get tariff I mean it's the reason Nissan is here really isn't it they wanted

access to Europe without tariffs making the bluebird or whatever it was so yeah it's a similar

sort of thing and but what I don't know is how clever European politicians are now about what

quantify is being made in that country like to use the bluebird example when they came over it was

yes it arrives in a crate of all the bits from Japan and you just screw them all together

and I think two years later they built a paint shop and then they kind of gradually expanded

it and so on but yeah I don't know how made in Europe it has to be not to get a tariff and so on

for the UK there's barely any tariffs at all on Chinese stuff so

I don't know I just think it's probably slightly better for them from a visual's point of view

if you start making in these countries what do you reckon David do you think people will be more

well people don't need an incentive gone by a Chinese car at the minute do they

do you think it'll make any difference making them in say the UK

but anyone care they're nailing the head but they want to do it daughter because there's some

advantage finishing them off in some sort of tax advantage but I've seen something on YouTube

about the BYD's and you know they've made out so they've made like millions and it's the most

successful electric but car in the world but it's just the government like funded everything and they've

like they've done something with the balance sheet where they've bought all the cars and they're just

parked up on airfields and stuff like that so you can never believe anything can you what

these like government say or what not and it's up to them with who you know

they'll know someone in the government it's some sort of where they're saving some sort of money

so I don't know I really don't trust them

I do think that you just can't really quantify how much it is costing them when things are being

subsidised by a government that doesn't like to necessarily tell the truth I mean I know I've

not looked at that I've not spoken to the Chinese government but I do get the impression that

no but I assume you'll be doing that immediately after this no we're like yeah it's one of those

things where how would we ever check that is what is what I mean like it's almost impossible to know

but it's kind of easy to believe that it's not maybe as good as they like to say it is all the

time like any government likes to say how good things are all the time yeah quite positively

um well I think we're running out of time so uh David before I ask your verdict are there any

stories you think we've missed this week that we should have talked about

as long as you can't name them that's fine that's all

I don't know how you're going to win I'm like the worst guest you could ever have on

you're doing great honestly off the news well I actually do well I'll tell you what I'll tell

you how great you've been depending on who you choose the winner um what was your favourite story

of those I'm guessing not the Ferrari no I'm not feeling that I really I enjoyed that last thought

about uh the China and that because I'm not really interested and your knowledge

excellent news the blue bird when he's mentioned blue bird I thought you're too young so not even

know what blue bird was do you know every Nissan ever produced if you asked him to right now

and probably all the spec evils pretty much yes I will cop to that um well is that a victory for

me then yes I will absolutely take that uh well on that on that delightful note um I suppose it's

time to end uh thank you very much to David for coming on today and chatting about your business

and about how you came to be in the motor trade and how the lovely car company got its name

it's been lovely to have you on thank you Becca thank you as well to Becca for joining me this week

after our lovely road trip uh and thank you all for listening hopefully we don't chop off the end

of this particular podcast um and you're here to hear me say we'll be back next week with another

episode so make sure you're subscribed so you'll 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 Cardi

magazine.co.uk thanks for listening and goodbye

Ferrari's controversial EV, Arnold Clark sells car for £1, and when is the 2CV coming back? – with David Gott, episode 260

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