What happened at Car Dealer Live 2026 Part 2 – with James Baggott, episode 250

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Welcome back to the car dealer podcast.

Now, I'm James Bagger, and in this podcast, I'm going to bring you some more highlights

from our car dealer live event.

We've had some brilliant discussions at the British Motor Museum last week,

and you'll have caught up with some of them in our first highlights episode we published

just after that.

But there's so much more to come.

In this episode, you'll hear from some of my headline speakers on the day,

which included Peugeot's MD Nicola Dobson, Sohib Gafori,

he's the man behind used car dealer Infinity Motors,

and Ginny Buckley, she's the EV expert behind Electrifying.com.

Now, we'll hear how AI is radically changing car dealerships.

We'll get advice from two used car dealers on how social media

can play a real part in your marketing plans,

and we'll learn more about the Chinese brands that are dominating the new car market.

Now, if you want to watch any of the sessions in full,

you can log on to the cardealerlive.co.uk website and bag yourself a replay ticket.

There, you'll be able to watch back all of those sessions in your own time.

But for now, let's start with that chat batch had with Peugeot's Nicola Dobson.

Putting it mildly to say, it's a bit of a fractious world we're in at the moment.

There's some dreadful events happening in the Middle East.

Of course, all wrapped up in all of this, of course, is the automotive industry.

I mean, what do you think is one of the biggest threats to the car industry at the moment?

I think, I mean, it's challenging. It's always challenging.

There's always new things that happen, and clearly one of the big challenges

that we've all been facing in recent years is the move to electric, and that will continue.

And we are in a good position, but it's one of the challenges that we're facing.

And I think all of us, hopefully in this room, are completely aligned with the direction of travel.

But yeah, that is one of the challenges that we're facing, and that we're all working to achieve.

Well, on that point of electric vehicles, I mean, do you think the government needs to

offer a little bit more support or just understand the challenges car manufacturers are facing?

I think, yes, is the simple answer. We work really closely with the government,

and we try and ensure that we're always collaborative with the government as well.

But clearly the direction of travel is correct, but the speed of that move is challenging,

because the move towards electrification is, and the touchpoints that we have,

or the targets that are there, are working ahead of the natural demand.

So we need to do more for the consumers, for that transition to happen.

And we, Peugeot, along with this wider Stellantis group, with the SMMT,

are calling for a review with the government to look at that.

But we are fully aligned with that move towards electrification. It's the right thing to do.

Yeah, I know, because there was the big SMMT conference last week, and I know the government

did come out and say, look, there are no plans to actually bring that review any sooner than

it's currently scheduled for. The fact that they've said that, it's clear that they are aware that

there are some problems and some challenges. And would you say that it's actually a little bit

welcoming that the government is aware that just because what was set out two years ago

doesn't necessarily mean it can follow through for the next five or six, seven, eight years time?

I think what's really positive is that we're in discussion, and that's the really positive thing.

And we continue to work very closely with the government on this and other topics. And

yeah, it's really positive that we're in that discussion and there's open dialogue,

and we're working collaboratively with them. And that's key, I think.

Yeah. One of the big things that came out of the autumn budget was this announcement about

paper mile for EVs. And what's your take on that? Because I've been talking to a few people,

and it's almost a bit like carrot and stick. There's the mandate and the government grants

for particular EVs, and then all of a sudden there's paper mile. I mean, what do you think?

It's potentially the wrong measure at this point in time. We want more people to transition to

electric vehicles, and we need to ensure that the incentive is there to do so rather than putting

potential barriers in place or reasons not to. So I think at this point in time, it's potentially

not the right move. Well, of course, a lot of focus and rightly so is on the new market when

it comes to EVs. Do you also think there should be a little bit more focus on used EVs as well?

Because used EVs, not everybody has the wherewithal to actually go out and buy a new EV, can they?

Used EVs are often a way to go into the electric car, experience electric cars. It's perhaps a

cost-effective route for somebody moving into electric for the first time.

We're seeing positive used vehicle sales in electric within Stellantis, within Peugeot. The

vehicles that come back to us go out again into the network, and the sales are good.

We're in a good position with Peugeot. We've got the eight-year Peugeot care warranty,

so there is that reason to continue to buy not just new but used as well. So definitely,

there is a market for used and it's good. Nicola's take on the market was an interesting one,

and that electric car theme ran throughout the day at Cardia Live. There are still lots of dealers

not touching used electric cars, and that does surprise me. Later, I carried on that EV conversation

with one of our other headline speakers, Ginny Buckley. You'll have heard her on this podcast

recently, and we chatted about her recently carried out research with the AA.

Yeah, it's a really interesting thing we've been doing with them since we launched the

brand actually in 2020. So we do it every year, and we've been trying to gauge where the non-EV

buyers, where they sit on the, you know, what the push points are. So we did this at the end

of 2025. It was 13,000 UK drivers right around the UK, and they were not EV drivers, which I think

is really important. If I was organised, I'd have been like Phil, I'd have had a slide to kind of

put up now, but I've been busy driving cars, so I haven't. So I'm just going to read you just some

of the top lines, because I think they're quite interesting. So from this survey of 13,000 drivers,

we've got a real confidence issue still. I think it's really easy to think when you look at the

numbers of cars that are being sold, of EVs that are being sold. But actually, 30% of non-EV

drivers will tell us they don't feel confident just at the prospect of driving one. 22% will say

that they, also only 22% will say that they feel confident about charging one. Now those numbers

have been pretty stuck over the last five years, so there's definitely a core there of a lack of

confidence in just the experience, because it's new technology, right? So I think that's one really,

sort of interesting area that no doubt we'll come back to. The other thing is something that's

really out of all of our hands. It's the charging experience. So we know that people are not confident

in the charging network. So there was a real peak in 2023, where 70% of people were saying that they

didn't think public charging was reliable. That's dropped now, but it still sits at 50% of people.

So again, it's a problem to everyone in this room that we can't solve. So I think that is

something else that adds another sort of pressure point on to dealers. And again, affordability

is still an issue. New electric cars, 57% still think they're too expensive, despite the fact

we know we're getting to price parity. I think we're seeing a bit of a light at the end of that

tunnel is unused. Only 30% now say that used EVs are too expensive, and that's come down massively

over the last couple of years. So that message is getting out there as well. But I do think there's

a lot more to be done around used EVs. In this last survey, the stat that really worried me

was when we asked people if they were confident in buying a used electric car, only 3% said they were.

3% of non-EV drivers, were they confident in a used electric car? And that was down from

8% when we first started doing this. It's an extraordinary figure, isn't it?

It is. What's the problem there? It's batteries. Yeah, there's a real lack of understanding

in the battery. And I think there have been so many

scarce stories out there about it. I mean, in this survey, people were telling us that they

still think our battery doesn't last as long as a petrol or a diesel engine. And we know that's

not the case. So I think there's a real education piece to be done around all of those areas,

but particularly around the use market. Around, you know, we've just driven a Tesla that's got 91%

of its battery life left, and it's done 250,000 miles. And I know you guys are doing brilliant

jobs with things like battery health certificates. 65% of people told us that if a car had a battery

health certificate, it would really give them the confidence. So I think we, you know, you've

got to not underestimate how hard it is for people to think about making the switch into used.

One of the topics that came up in that was this growing concern about this pence per mile EV

charge. I mean, you've obviously been very close to that. I mean, well, firstly, do you think it's

putting buys off? And what are your thoughts on it? I mean, we've got a lot of drivers in this

room. And I think everybody here will say that you don't get very far with one foot on the break

and one foot on the accelerator, do you? And that's what the government seems to be doing,

to be frank. You know, on the one hand, they're saying, here's some money for grants and let's

spend millions of pounds on a not very good public information campaign, telling you all to switch

to EVs. And then with the other hand, we'll go, oh, but okay, but we might tax EVs in a couple of

years. I mean, what kind of messaging is that? It's not helping anybody. And we did ask that

question. We specifically said, would paper mile put you off making the switch to an EV and 55%

of non EV drivers came back and said, yes, it would. And I was at the SMMT electrified

conference last week and I put that to the transport minister and he didn't have an answer for it.

So I strongly suspect that there'll be so much pressure on this, they'll have to drop this policy

because it's quite frankly just ridiculous. It's too soon.

What would you like to see from the government to help support electric cars then? I mean,

what do you think would be the thing that makes the biggest difference? I mean,

obviously we've got the electric car ground at the moment. Is that any good?

I guess it's where you, you know, what you feel about the electric car ground depends

whether in this room you're benefiting from it or not. Doesn't it? I think that's the

really thing. It's been so divisive. Personally, I think it was implemented really badly. It

caused a lot of confusion. I think it's skewed the market really. I think, you know, some brands

have benefited massively from it. Others not so much. And I actually think that money could be

spent better elsewhere. I think you could do much more value with that money if you were

saying to invest in the used market. So if you look at Scotland, what they've been doing up in

Scotland, they've run a transport for Scotland, has run an interest-free loan for EVs. It's been

running for many years. And the last time I looked, it was £28,000. You've got an interest-free loan

for a used car van or motorbike. Now, I think that money could have been better spent incentivising

the used market because we, you know, it's as if the government doesn't understand the whole cycle

and how it works. And I think if you look at how prices have dropped on used EVs, I mean,

the last time I looked, you know, more about this than me, but £20,000, £24,000 average price

to be used EV, I think an interest-free loan to help incentivise that market would be something

that would be really welcome. What do you think is the thing that's needed? I mean, if you were in

government, what would you put in place to incentivise the EV market? I think for starters,

I think we'd put so many consistency. I think that's bad for everybody. It's bad for car makers.

It's bad for all of you out there selling cars. It's bad for the consumer. So I think the mix

messaging and the flip-flopping from one thing to another is the thing that really causes the

issues. So I think we need, you know, we need to stay in lane, but we need policies that are going

to help people make the switch. So we do need some incentivisation. I think, like I said,

I'd like to see more done for the used market. I think we should bring back some support around

chargers. I think as we're looking now, you know, lots of you in this room will be selling great

used electric cars that are, you know, £8,000, £10,000. And if you're moving into your first EV

and, you know, you sold me, you sold a Nissan Leaf, what was it, £7,000? We've gone for selling

them for £5,000. Right, for £5,000. So that might be you coming out of petrol for the first time,

you're going, making that move, and then, oh, but you need a home charger and that's £1,000.

Well, that could be the thing that keeps you in petrol because that's a big expense.

So I think it's just about, I think they need to listen to the industry more. That's what I would

urge them to do. But I would also urge them to really look at helping, you know, the bottom end

of the used market because I think that's where we need to see the growth. From electric cars to

social media and our panel with two used car dealers who have been making their mark online.

James McConville is the Liverpool-based used car dealer behind solo car sales. He's built

a social brand around himself to bring buyers in. Danny Bond runs DB Automotive and he's sold more

than a thousand cars, actually it might be 3,000 cars on Meta's social platforms. At one stage,

he didn't use any other marketing channels and he's purely sold these cars through social media.

Becker chatted to them both about how they do it.

I realised that we were getting to a point where the consumers of now were a lot more

shy than they've ever been and the actual showroom experience wasn't what there was wanting.

So I'd seen a few companies online that were doing it and put my own kind of put my own spin on it

and employed a lot of technologies early doors, what the other companies weren't doing, which

talks about like what Impel talks about where I think I built my own chat bot maybe six years ago

like years ago and just kind of realised that this way of selling the conversion rate was low

so you had to be slick and I think it was I've been going nine years now it was year five before I

went on to AutoTrader. Wow okay and what made you make that decision that you were going to go on

to AutoTrader? The market got very crowded and when the market got crowded I just I started to look

at other avenues so I'm with AutoTrader now I do a lot of business through AutoTrader

but social media is just a massive part of our business still because even today when somebody's

searching us on on AutoTrader they're going to google us and if they google us if that social

media is strong then that's going to be like result free in the in the campaign so that then

it all marries back up so it's it's been a big part. Just a quick reminder before I go on please

do send over your questions if you've got any for these guys I'm just going to carry on with Danny

quickly before we jump on talking to James but do you think you actually saved any money by doing

it through social media or did it still cost a lot to advertise that way? Well obviously here I

can imagine everybody grumbles about when AutoTrader put the prices up by what they have to do each

year the the only downside to meta is it's literally its PPC so some days your budget might get you a

lot of inquiries and other days might get you nothing so that's it it can be challenging you

know like if you're ever advertising around the end of November when it's anything when it's like

Black Friday you're gonna pay double for the lead so it's I wouldn't say it saves money but it kind

of puts me in front of a consumer that might not have been on AutoTrader because it's like I say

there's so many people that they want to communicate on WhatsApp that this new generation of consumer

coming through now which I'm sure people in dealerships they're shy they're never they don't

really pick up the phone like I was I was using voice notes years ago because I realized that

that was the kind of gateway into building trust with somebody who didn't want to pick

up the phone that they could hear that was a real person but I still had AI going at the same time

so it's just just little tweaks along the way which have helped in my day-to-day business today.

That's really interesting. James how did you kind of build this platform and why did you decide to

start building a kind of social media thing around you as as the brand you guess you are solo cause

that is your brand as well. Yeah I think you know most of that change actually only happened last

year probably when I got more confident on the camera I don't think anyone really likes filming

themself even me today don't like filming myself but I kind of realized that we could we could you

know we could run some sponsored adverts on the platforms I could get that adverts in front of

lots of people but it get very boring and very repetitive and I think that's where there's

lot to talk about AI in here today but genuine human connection and feeling like you know someone

seems to matter a lot more I think I think you know the rules haven't changed where people

buy from people and we kind of noticed that if you know we're spending a couple of thousand

pounds a month on social media adverts I thought well we could just drop them completely and it

can create more genuine authentic content around the Liverpool area and try and turn us into the

go-to place and I would even say it gets us the sales it just gets you the the opportunity

because I think really it's just it's free attention and I think everyone's competing for

attention already for these customers I think back to everything 20 years ago how much would

it have cost you to get in front of like in the last three months our Instagram profiles being

seen by 11 million people I'm pretty sure 20 years ago that would have cost you a pretty penny

that cost me nothing I just pick up my phone and film wow so you're very focused on the local area

yeah why is that because if we a good year for us would be stocking let's say selling let's say a

thousand cars a year if the average person changes the car every three years well we need 3,000 loyal

customers and we you know based in Liverpool we that's a city with 500,000 people in it if I can't

get 3,000 people coming to us to buy a car then we're doing something wrong and we don't need the

customers in Cornwall Essex and Newcastle we just need the customers in Liverpool we need the city

tobaccos which over these last 12 months our profile is skyrocketed in the city of Liverpool

and people want to buy a car off our business which is I suppose that was the goal just so we get

the opportunity and then the team and and you know all of our different managers and the team

we've got to convey that then but yeah it just gets us the opportunity Danny what sort of thing

are you looking at are you looking at national local yeah so we've been we've been sort of national

all the way through but that is that's amazing like what you're saying about the city because I'm

very proud Leeds person you're very proud liver but it's like I do love that but everything is you

know we're all the statistics you'll hear today when all said and done we're buying cars and we're

selling cars and it's about trust and it's just it's about being able to have that person who

no one's doing anything unique really do you know it it's just about that person who's

sees us somewhere and then like I say with James and then they see one of his posts and then the

algorithm then goes more and more and then that person is comfortable to pick up the phone because

they want to see James don't get me wrong I'd be a bit worried for screamers but

it's it's one of the and I feel that's only going to get stronger as it goes on just again

it's just down this this shy consumer and the way that they like to do business I know all we've

talked about is AI it comes up all the time but so are you targeting a particular type of person

or do you just let the AI face matters sort of like decide who's the best customer to see your

no so some matters matters advertising platform will kind of figure it out for the cells but the

way I use the way I use AI is I've used WhatsApp chatbots for years and I realized again like on

the the impel presentation most of my leads are coming in between 6 and 10 p.m. at night so I and

the mostly coming through the WhatsApp icon on my website so I use chatbots that that integrate

but one of the chatbots I use actually has my voice at the start and it'll say this is Danny

from DB Automotive whoever's took that just letting them a real person but then it actually

hands off to AI to ask them the questions and the qualifications because it takes them down the

funnel then when we come in in the morning then we're in a much more suited position that it's

not just a cold inquiry and so that's that's kind of how I used AI but in terms of like advertising

and obviously it matters like AI sort of the advertising has got that advanced it'll work

it out for you as long as you've got the budget attention call dealer podcast listeners do you

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John have you ever wondered why I along with 14 000 other dealers choose to partner with

also trader well actually I didn't think so I'll tell you anyway with more than 84 million consumer

visits every month it connects us with more engaged car buyers and delivers more deals than anyone

else in the UK and now with the launch of buying signals we'll have brand new insights on every

deal showing how likely a customer is to buy the car they're interested in plus as someone who set

out to use AI and data as much as possible in my business I've found their technology data and tools

genuinely invaluable but when I do get stuck which is let's face it most of the time

auto trader is always on hand and committed to supporting us to get the very best from our

package to find out how they can help you visit trade dot autotrader dot co dot uk now back to the

podcast there was plenty of talk about AI throughout the sessions at cardio live but one of the

partners impale knows about it better than anyone else impale provides AI solutions to dealers to

handle leads and chat to customers in fact my clever car collection businesses

there was plenty of talk about AI throughout those sessions at cardio live but one of the

partners impale knows about it better than anyone else impale provides AI solutions to dealers to

handle leads and chat to customers in fact the clever car collection uses the latter on our

homepage and it's remarkably adept at handling those customer inquiries certainly saves me

picking up the phone now james lease uk boss rimpel was joined on our stage by available cars CEO

michael bell and they talked a batch about the leads and how AI can help the the great thing

is that we all do a fantastic job trying to look after the consumer trying to respond to the content

that they sent us because we are people first businesses we look after the consumer

the hard part is as you've heard in previous panels you know it's very hard to have that

consumer response 24 7 to be open 24 7 so when you can see a customer been nurtured out of hours

that's when it gets really exciting and for me been able to offer that consumer experience because

we all shop at different times in the day no matter what the product is you're trying to buy

so how can you keep that going as a business how can you make sure that customer

that's fallen over your product online how can you make sure you're keeping them engaged within

that product and certainly you know now marketing the tokens that you got for marketing back in

2019 are very different tokens that you get today for that same price so we need to make sure we

maximize out of every single lead that we get into the business and this just helps us consistently

nurture a lead now james i mean the mystery shop focused on website email inquiries

which are usually prioritized i mean what do you think happens when you layer in every other

lead source so that's you know oem third party portal social text on top of that volume it gets

even more challenging for the dealer so you i mean i was looking at some data this morning

and so looking at michael's data and in the last 30 days the amount of lead flowed through the system

and you'll see in the report we talk about how many touch points does it need to engage a consumer

to to bring them through the sales funnel and when we looked at the data for the amount of leads

that are flowing through the system for a human to sit there and and do that we were looking at 75

thousand actually interactions that was happening over that 30 days will you bring that back into

man hours and you layer on even more leads into that i think it worked out as something like

on average you would need five people in your business for eight hours a day seven days a week

to send that amount of leads so this isn't again it's not it's not the challenges isn't

putting it out there that says people aren't wanting to engage they just don't have the time

i think as well what's really important is the technology allows consumers to choose

where they wish to go next so as you do layer those different points you know we look at an email

lead coming into the business we call it email lead but it's just someone clicking a form on the

website they're not sent as an email so what does that customer want to do and 80 or plus percent

of our customers they're online on their phone so they want a whatsapp they want a text message

they want to engage with you how they are engaging with you and the fact that it's great that we want

to phone people and we love and nurture our customers and make sure we try and touch point

with them in the ways that they want to be spoken to and i think that's what fascinates me something

like over 60 percent of our leads that come in switched text message we would never do that

traditionally so it's it's amazing that it's allowed customers to engage how they want to

to make them more effective in the customer journey in practical terms where does ai

add capacity in that gap and and and where should it stay out of the way well it should

definitely stay out of the way in certain areas so you know don't let the a try having a conversation

about price so um and it also likes the last word it's like being at home sometimes but

but it is that so so the capacity gap it could feel we've already talked about the fact that it

can do those tasks that humans just don't have time to do and it's very consistent in the way

that it does it so so there's a huge opportunity there to say it's not about replacing people take

those people i think we heard earlier on from either richard or sam you know if i can have people

spending an hour and a half with a customer when they come to pick up a new car or they come in for

that appointment isn't that brilliant well actually you can create that capacity now by letting the

tech do all of those mundane title the the challenging tasks that sat behind it but actually

yes you need to control it as well because you don't want it journeying off down the road of trying

to have a conversation and negotiating with the customer so getting the balance between the tech

handing off to the human at the right time is hugely important i mean michael where where have

you found um ai to be genuinely genuinely helpful i mean is that a day-to-day workload or customer

handling or both or i think there's opportunity in many places but but like all things it's going

to be different for different companies and different consumers and how you implement that

the customer always is the biggest priority um and no different to your staff are the biggest

priority in how they can maximize their day just like james said it's very much about trying to

support with the humans like robots aren't going to take over the world they're not coming in in

drones it's an element of actually how do we allow our team to be the best that they possibly can be

and for us that nurturing consumer along the journey we you know we've said this many times

we've traditionally used to handle the three times which is what the industry standard is and where

we think is fantastic that we're looking after customer touch points the carbine journey is much

longer than that and so many customers you know won't transact with you or or have that conversation

with you for a few weeks if you think of any major purchase that you make you

rarely make it on a whim unless it's a distressed purchase so having that customer and being able

to nurture them along the journey is really important um but i think there are opportunities

in multiple areas the key is just having the confidence to but also putting the right guard

rails in is your data clean are the basics there and it's no different to how we sell a card the

process are the basics right are you following that and if you're doing that in the right way

you'll have success but also be prepared to fail occasionally things will go wrong you have to then

work around that and as long as you look after the customer or the staff that are working alongside

that technology um but we're all under cost pressures so we have to find ways to make sure

that we're as efficient as possible while delivering the exceptional service the rule trying to do

yeah i enjoyed that session and can see how ai solutions are rapidly changing the way

car dealers are running their businesses it's also clear there's a big divide between those

that are engaging with ai and those who are ignoring it another interview i hosted was with

sohib gafori he's built infinity motors in swindon from a five car operation to a 300 car site in

just three years his story is one of remarkable growth and determination to make it happen

sohib thank you very much for giving up your time fascinated to hear your story i mean firstly for

those people here just just give them an idea of how you've grown your business so quickly

there's a multitude of things that i could tell you but fortune has come into it a lot of hard

work um passion i think that's the key thing for me it's the job as hard as it is we all know that

the industry is incredibly difficult i'm not from the trade through and through so i've had to come

into it and learn a lot of the a lot of the ropes so to speak um but yeah work incredibly hard um

backed by a lot of passion and you do have to have a vision ultimately that leads all of this so

i think yeah i'd say enjoying what you do is incredibly important sometimes you do 17 18

hour days i mean especially the first few years that was quite often what my routine was like

mrs wasn't too happy at home with it but uh you have to live with it and uh you know short term

compromise for long term gain i suppose so yeah really enjoying what we do um where we started

previously in london it was a small outfit like i said just four or five cars at home on a driveway

just alongside a day job which i had um and it just grew it grew and it grew and it grew but like i

said the key thing for me in the fundamental was that i didn't have a strong interest in cars

that was always something that um i remember from a young age when my dad was buying a car

i wouldn't sleep for weeks thinking what this would look like when when it landed eventually

so it just continued from there and i always had this image in my mind that alongside going to

university and studying and you know graduating going on to jobs if i could just have a car that

i could drive for a few weeks a few months and then set it on and then move on to something else

what would that look like uh and ultimately that's how it started so yeah like i said a few cars um

in just after the covid period which was a bit of a blessing in disguise for me i know it was a

tough period in the industry a lot of people did make a lot of money through it i understand but uh

that's when i trialed the auto trader packages as opposed to doing the pay as you go um and

and that worked really well i tried it for a three month period and and at the time i was at jp

morgan and i made significantly more than those two three months and what i was going to get paid

at work and so for me that was the flick that sort of switched so i said okay i've got to give this

serious thought as well as being a hobby it's now got to be considered as a venture as an enterprise

um and it was in that summer of 2021 where i went back into work

handed in my notice and so i'm off um and haven't looked back since so yeah there are a lot of

challenges though aren't they when you when you're growing a business i mean it's like

managing a smaller car dealership compared to one that's selling 300 cars increases the pressure

at what point did you think i'm gonna i'm gonna do this i'm gonna go for this and i can make it work

to be honest some of it you don't really plan for it it hits you and then you just have to deal

with it you're in the thick of the moment um you're down in the trenches as they say and so you're

really having too much time to think about what you're going through yes you do have to try and

make sure that you plan as well as you can um and that you're as best prepared for all the risks

come with it because it is very very risky i'm not going to say that it's not um some people come

and ask for advice now and we've got some friends and family and other people that i've met in the

trade and uh and they say you know what made you take that decision that leap of faith um

yes you do have to be brave i think you have that there's a fine line between being brave and then

being reckless and only you can really decide where where you draw that line in the sand for you

so when we went into this new site in swindon that was exactly the situation a lot of people in my

in my circle and friends and family especially my dad who will probably be listening that's at home

he advised me not to go ahead and do it and he said look you've got to be really really careful

this is obviously a completely different exercise there's a lot of risk involved there's a lot of

financials going to it obviously is this something that you're prepared to do and i knew what the answer

for me was deep down so so i took the leap of faith went into an area in swindon with the

respect i didn't even know where swindon was in the map when i was in london so somewhere 84 miles

from home and for the first two years we were commuting daily seven days a week as it were

leaving home at 5 a.m and coming home yeah long gone on the sunsets um but that's because i wanted

to achieve this i had that vision and the site that we went into was a really really large site

so it was an ex telecoms building that was five stories high but then underneath it had commercial

units that were run down and dilapidated for the best part of five years i think it was just before

covid um when the previous tenets vacated and it was it was really really run down so we spent

six months of just construction and getting some builders together and you know putting all the

foundations in place and then from there it just grew so so the ultimate vision was to try and fill

the whole forecourt with the cars uh the building has all the site has stock holding capacity for

about 250 odd cars um next door there's a neighbor again a really large building where they've been

vacant for a long time so we kind of used their car park unofficially as well um and it grew so

month and month we grew there was a period where on autotrader we had i think it was 12 consecutive

months of package increases so every month i'd be calling the account managers ben and alex

we've been really great by the way um and say look guys can we have some more cars on the package

please yes there is a cost to it and overheads kept going up every single month month on month and

they got to a point where we talk about the planning piece uh and the risk that comes with it um i i

took stock and sort of took a step back and reflected and overheads was significantly higher than what

i thought it was but the great thing was that we were still profitable so there was more money

coming in than going out at the end of the month so it was worth it what would you pin the success

on i mean you've managed to do this in in a very short period of time what's the thing that that's

really worked for you so other people in the room here that run a run a motor trade business what

can they use to having the right people is really really important i can't clone myself 50 times over

and i wish i could but obviously i think we're a few years away from that um but ultimately having

the right people having the right sales team having the right um whether it's marketing or

drivers or validators you can't do it by yourself you've got to have the right individuals around

you you've got to trust them to be able to get that job which is something that i struggled with

initially um to be able to delegate some of these core responsibilities buying for example and sourcing

was obviously as we know in the trade you make your money you know on the way and not when the car

goes out so that was the very last fall that i uh handed over to ben who's now our stock manager and

buyer um and like i said it's a risk but that's one of the things that really was like a turbo

charger for us um but yeah it's got to again back to the vision piece it's everyone's got to understand

when they're coming into work every morning what the purpose is what the impact is that we want to

have in that particular area and and the in the work that we do on a day-to-day basis because

as we all know cars are the second most expensive purchase after after a house so you can't take that

lightly i found so hip session particularly inspiring and it was great to learn from someone

who has been there and built it the challenges he spoke of were all too familiar we later heard

from cox automotives phil notard and a panel which included weyland ceo john o hanlon and craig

ford who's the head of sales marketing and digital solutions at motability operations they were

talking to beca about our other big topic of the day chinese cars thinking about you know if you are

a dealer and you're thinking about one of the new entrants you know really do your research in terms

of you know where you're located what is your current customer base what kind of things should

you be thinking of in terms of that consumer perception of you as a business and the brand

that you're going to represent if you're trying to protect your established brand where are you

under threat you know what is your customer base what is your demographic base what is your age

profile what is the likelihood of those transitioning into the new brand if you're really reliant on

that 25 to 34 year old age bracket and those are the ones shifting to one of the new entrants

you need to be start thinking about do you need to change what you're doing so these are the kind

of things that we're thinking about going going forward so i think that was kind of enough for

me for some of this research everybody wants to hear a bit more from John's nodding a lot

how are you seeing this actually playing out in your dealership um does that sort of follow

what you're seeing or well i think it does um you know we've spent a lot of time positioning

the group um i know ian said we were um we were fortunate um but there was a lot of hard work

went into deciding where we would place the group and that was based around electrification

um and i think with volvo and with poll star um you know within the geely group we were able

to benefit from some of the strides they were making but the world has moved on um you know

and in politics there's this the saying it's the overton window where things that were extreme or

unspeakable and i think if you look at a lot of the chinese manufacturers 10 years ago people would

not have not considered them a quality car five years ago that began to change and now absolutely

we're looking and it is bmw, mercedes, you know vox wagon group cars that are turning up as our

biggest um pad exchange in terms of moda and jaco so um yeah i do recognize a lot of um what's in

that in the study and so yeah we're seeing you know real good engagement with um those

manufacturers that are on the scheme um you know particularly in the last few months so definitely

so younger buyers far more willing to switch brands while older buyers are more hesitant

how should dealers adjust their showroom experience their sales approach and their

digital journey to cater for this i'm gonna ask all of you well i think you know the previous

session and and steven the others sort of touched on it you know there's a lot of education to go

into it you know a lot of understanding you know these are brands that a lot of the customers have

not seen or heard of before but the new first time that they they're experiencing that brand

i think clearly you know from john's perspective you know they'll know walens they'll know the

brand they'll know the strength of the brand in that area then it's down to you know what is the

experience you know what is that offering from that manufacturer there'll be a lot of concerns

you know what's the infrastructure look like what's the backup what's the after sales look like

you know what if i have to get sort of spares are they ready or available if i get it repaired

what's that gonna look like so a lot of education to go on with this but i think clearly you know a

lot of considerations is that it is all about that experience and we're seeing a lot of that in

in a lot of the new showrooms coming into the market and you know i do have a view on this

you know all our showrooms are able to deal with young and old albeit i recognize that some of

our Volvo customers and Honda customers might be slightly older but i think one of the reasons

and i do take my hat off to a lot of the the new entrants coming in they're partnering with

great retail partners who actually understand how to sell the cars so the challenge is

getting that awareness of the product of the fact that you represent them in the area so

you know vicki touched on what we do hire up the funnel but still some of those basics in terms of

actually take the product to the customers let the customers see it where they may not

have recognized the car and then making sure you have that absolutely fantastic experience when the

customers do arrive in the showroom and especially when we're touching on some of those used car

customers coming to look at a new car for the first time actually make sure that it's that welcoming

warm experience and the teams are electrics savvy they do understand you know what the questions

they'll be asked and then to answer with confidence yeah i think for that the younger

generation it's got to be a great omnichannel experience you've got to invest heavily up front

in that digital experience you're going to make the content super simple you know the dealers

i talk to are telling me it's a really really different experience for your gen zeds when they

come in and buying cars they're interested does it it's got carplay is it going to connect

they're interested in the the monthly payment and simplifying the whole experience for them

is really important and in grabbing them online and then as you say when they come into the showroom

it's making sure that what they've seen online connects to that physical experience and and having

that great flow from online into your your showroom is absolutely essential and you know trust is a

big big part of that if your digital experience is great and that doesn't transfer into that physical

experience it's quite easy to lose a customer and to end this podcast just like we try to do

throughout the day at cardio live i wanted to have some positives we asked all our guests what they

were looking forward to the most this year and for some words of advice first two independent

use car dealers umesh samani steven douglas and george manning what would you say as sort of the

last last notes is the biggest opportunity for independent car dealers this year speak the

you know eis here at the state it's not going to go away you need to get on board because if you're

not you'll get left behind it's really educating yourself on it as well i mean what's coming now

is agentic ai is now going to be sort of mainstream the next six to twelve months where anything that

you can do on a computer with a keyboard and macOS will will be able to be controlled by an ai system

that will learn you that will remember everything you say that won't just rely on internet based

context it will know your personal data it will be locally stored and it won't get lost so that

that is the biggest opportunity ai unfortunately if you don't get on board you're going to get

left behind 100 you can see how quickly it can speed up when you spend an hour putting putting

something in it can save you six the next day interest everybody's talking about ai and things

like that i i just say go back to basics you know i i see so many adverts written by ai

and they're appalling honestly they're appalling at the moment they're appalling at the moment

because people don't know what we use the tools correctly and and some of the some of the tools

are at the beginning of our evolution give it a couple of minutes 100% i agree with that i think

technology is a big part to play yeah but i think it's back to basics you know if you

you've probably seen that you read some of the adverts and you think i understand you're trying

to get ai or chat gpt whoever trying to help you to write the advert but read it really back to

yourself is that a compelling message is that the right message to try and sell that go google's

huxley stewart had some practical tips to impart to in the final couple of minutes we've got let's

give some people some practical tips to take back to their to their to their dealerships their

businesses and the automotive industry what what what should they be doing what's what's the health

check that they should be doing when it comes to the google world yeah so it's again it's kind of

on that just doing doing the basics well so you know i've referenced um you know google business

profiles go back and check your google business profiles ensure that that is present correct

up-to-date and comprehensive that is what is being used when people are kind of surfacing

this type of information about your business then look at the way that your data is structured

on your website is it all there is it comprehensive is it readable is it in the correct format

those things are fundamental then we mentioned around the content and you know the the the

structure of your site so making sure that reviewing and analyzing the content you you

have on your website making sure that is unique making sure that is said in a way that consumers

are going to be looking for thinking about things from a consumer perspective consumers aren't

looking for necessarily just looking for a particular model so just giving them a model page

won't necessarily answer their brief what they're looking for is more lifestyle or

life-stage content so making sure you're speaking to them in that way so i think there's a big thing

about content there's a big thing about data and making sure that those things are absolutely in

place and back to our headline speaker so hib and what are you looking forward to the most

this year where do you think the big opportunities are for the for the use card either

i think we touched upon it earlier it is that customer interaction that interface that you've

got to ensure that your customer base um you're building a bit of loyalty a bit building a bit

of reputation trust there um but there there should be a lot of excitement in my view i think

there's lots of good things to look forward to in this year me personally i've got a positive

mindset so i'm always a glass half full type of guy sometimes it works in your favor sometimes

it doesn't but uh there's a lot of good things to be done out there there's a lot of people who are

who are still there needing your help as a dealer so you know you've just got to try and now get

through to those people and it's never easy you do have to work for it but yeah we're positive and

and the last word has to go to our headline speaker Nicola Dobson from Peugeot finally and

let's try and end on on a positive um for the dealers in the room sitting here uh today i mean

what would be your advice to make 2026 a success quite good to say that 2026 a success

um use all the tools that are available i would say we we are we recognize that we need to do more

to help our network to give our network more opportunities to to sell our vehicles so one

of the things that we're working um particularly hard on is is supplying more opportunities more

leads to our to our network and so grab every opportunity because we have i'm sure it's the

case across the board we have a kind of range of um those that get on board and speak to those

dealers and speak to those customers um and really work those opportunities well and others less so

so it's take every opportunity to speak to those consumers because not everybody could

walk into a showroom now as we know and they haven't for many years so the engagement is is online in

many instances so use the tools that are available we're trying within Peugeot to supply many many

tools to our network um and work together and that's what we're trying to do work hand in hand

with our network partners to move forward now Cardi live was a truly inspirational day and one

that i learned a lot from i hope this second highlights tape has been of interest i listened

back to the first one we published because i'm sad like that and i even then learned some extra

things that i didn't pick up during the day there were some real nuggets of information in there

and that's what Cardi live is all about really bringing the motor trade together

to bring you insightful sessions and tips you can take home to your business my thanks have to go to

our event partners auto trader google motorway impale key loop and cox for their support and help

making this event happen we've been covering lots of their sessions in detail on the cardila

websites so go and check those out and Cardi live will be back next year and you'll soon be able to

book tickets for that on the Cardi live website right now if these taster sessions and these podcasts

have helped wet your appetite you can check out all of those sessions in full on video with a replay

ticket it gives you access to the entire event and you can get there a Cardi live.co.uk website

so click on that website Cardi live.co.uk and you can book a replay ticket to watch them all

if you'd like to check out the rest of the motor trade news from this week you can find that on

our website Cardila magazine.co.uk or subscribe to my weekly sub stack comes out on a friday it's

cardila.substack.com right thanks for joining me thanks for listening or watching this on youtube

i'll see you next time goodbye

What happened at Car Dealer Live 2026 Part 2 – with James Baggott, episode 250

About this episode

AutoTrader

buying signals

move to electric

government needs to offer a little bit more support

electrification

Stellantis

Peugeot

transition to electric vehicles

AA

battery doesn't last as long as a petrol or a diesel engine

EVs

used market

transport for Scotland

conversion rate

social media

PPC

Black Friday

WhatsApp

DB Automotive

sales funnel

cold inquiry

AI advertising

lead

handoff to the human

data clean

AI solutions

five car operation

Infinity Motors

300 car site

forecourt

Volvo

BMW

back to basics

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