Anyone in the motor industry?

[dub18]

Last friday i along with half the workforce at my place of work got laid off due to

not enough work, it was a refurb centre and also has contracts with jag and landie.

Carcraft was a major contract there and as half of their places are shutting it was getting

less and less cars each week. Just seems like loads of places are letting people go and im

struggling to find any garages in my area that are taking on. Depressing isnt the word i want

a job!!! lol. Also not that i blame them for coming over here as i'd do the same in their

situation but the entire valet bay and 80% of the bodyshop now has polish workers in, and the

week i left there was one in the workshop??

[Boy'dup]

loads of people i know through the trade have been laid off in my area recently, and other people are just leaving to do other things

i think its more to do with the way cars are made, and the fact that people are more or less forced into taking to dealership garages and then continue to use them, the smaller local privately run garages dont look like the best place to be in the near future, my dads talking about selling up for early retirement as it stands, i mean its all good at the moment but icant see the business lasting forever.

stupid rules such as the water based paints and stuff are really pissing people off, our best welder left last week because he couldnt hack the amount of work involved.

i think its more changing attitudes and technology to blame, not the polish lads

[dub18]

I agree with the small businesses thing, alot of them will go out in the near future.

But i think the lack of work at the place i was just at was that people are just not buying cars

at the moment, hence why so many carcraft places have shut down. And i know its not the polish

lads fault, but the fact they are here working for £3 less an hour or more means that at this time

so many employers are laying off to take on polish just to keep going like. gaynessssss

[Boy'dup]

thats one thing my dad couldnt do, he hates the polish, tbh i worked with one guy and he was the most arrogant stuck up lovely person ever but you cant tar them all with the same brush, some of them are highly skilled and im sure very nice people.

we will have to wait and see about the motor trade, something may happen to get it back to what it was

[2001gti]

a m8 of mine works for renault and alot of them have been laid off, but its gettin to half 11 and they have no work.

[Boy'dup]

purbeck motors near me's the same, theyve got 19 mechanics including the foreman sat on their arses most days....

[cardaft]

Most garages say the majority of cars coming in are for waranty work, people are not bringing cars in for services, probably due to the increased costs of living.

[Tigz™]

I work in the commercial maintainace industry.

We've not seen any difference really, if anything we are struggling more and more to find good commercial fitters, our depots in Scotland especially. If it wasn't for the Polish we'd be struggling badly.

TBH we are sending fitters from durham all around the UK to help out with the holidays!

I think it's only Joe Public who's panicing and causing the issues your experiancing.

Although I won't be sorry to see Carcraft go under.

[lupo_1.0]

one word: recession! its like it all over, the building game is one of the first to drop away along with the housing market. the company i work for is ok because its small and we have gone into freehold side of things as they see this coming.

i surpose cars are first to go as spending money on them is more of a luxury than a need.

altho if it was a refub center i would think it would be good as a lot of people invest in things and classic cars hold money and a lot of the time raise in price as they get older, housing is a losing battle at the mo too so there has to be investors in something. maybe number plates will become big?

[timboc]

Im in the agricultural/horticultural engineering game and our workshop is soooo quiet at the moment been there 4 years and never seen it like this, were joined onto a car workshop and there the same. it's not good at all never thought i would say i was bored of standing about doing nothing lol!

[NBR]

Motor trade is a funny old game... If you speak to anyone thats been in it since Pre- 1998 they will say "its not what it use to be", "do you remember the good old days" etc... Yet more cars are sold each year now than 10 years ago.

If its Main dealers laying off people, you may find a hidden agenda with the manufacturer... Which small family run franchises are more open to being bullied by the likes of the manufactures etc... they want "groups" not "individuals" franchises, its so they can control the Products value and future value... long term its better business for them.

It also depends who your talking too... some people i know are one stage off slashing their wrists... Others are having the time of their life...

Salesmen are also the worst for talking themselves into a rut... "quite ain't it", "whats this time waster want?" even when the bloke has 10k hanging out his back pocket because he NEEDS a car coz it got written off last week... Their in the wrong frame of mind before they have even spoken to anyone... so they sell less cars.

Cars now are a essential to most people.

I think the recession is mostly in peoples head... and if we're not careful we will talk our selves into it. The media are mostly to blame for this. I personally won't be paying any attention to anyone in this frame of mind until i'm personally on my hands & knees. Until then i'll keep going forward and adapting making the best out of every option i have.

My 2p worth... flame me down if you feel different.

[foxy]

I think the recession is mostly in peoples head... and if we're not careful we will talk our selves into it. The media are mostly to blame for this. I personally won't be paying any attention to anyone in this frame of mind until i'm personally on my hands & knees. Until then i'll keep going forward and adapting making the best out of every option i have.

^^^I want to project that onto every building in the country, I couldnt agree more.^^^ There should be a law passed to stop the media saying/publishing the word Recession.

Edited July 29, 2008 by foxy

[McBandy]

And credit crunch, i hate the media!

I work for a Mercedes main dealer and we're ok, but one of our rivals 20 miles down the road (where i used to work) are making redundancies and have sold the other half of their business - Smart, Alfa and CJD sales and aftersales, and BMW and MINI servicing - to the Jag/Land Rover/Subaru dealer in town, things looking bleak for them as redundancies are in all departments, with the workshop grinding to a stop by 11ish!

[Crusoe]

if petrol and diesel go up people tend to do less mileage, cut out some of the weekend driving to see friends and family maybe cycle to work some days etc. Hence the usual cycle of people coming in for servicing has probably been extended a few months. Still expect them to need a service but they might only need one once a year instead of hitting their mileage limit. I'd expect a low then for it to pick back up a bit. Speaking to a friend who bought a tidy enough 325i automatic three months ago for £7500, only been offered £4000 for it as a trade in. I'd expect people to keep their cars longer and not buy new ones as often which might mean less cars around in the longer term which will bring prices for tidy examples back up if dealers hold their nerve and don't discount hugely. See Renault already offering huge cash back deals though so expect it to continue downward for a while. Conversely the independents might pick up a lot of work as people shop around more to save money keeping their old cars on the road rather than trading in or facing dealer prices.

[ash24]

I can speak from a manufacturing perspecitve having just left the GM plant in Luton where the Vauxhall Vivaro van is manufactured and that place seems to reflect exactly what's going on in the industry. More people being layed off than ever before, everythings being moved to Eastern Europe where everything is cheaper and as a result, morale is at the lowest I have ever seen anywhere I've worked. Morale is low, therefore people don't put as much heart into what they're doing and it all becomes one viscious circle.

All this credit crunch b*****ks is doing my head in, there is no recession and yes, to some extent we are talking ourselves into it, whilst others are cleverly using it to their advantage (see BP's profits), and if there happens to be a recession, it won't be the value of assets in the UK thats to blame, it will be all of the red tape and bureaucracy, its almost like I need to sign some sort of form to go for a s**t these days.

I'm done getting depressed now, just my 2 cents worth!

[Tigz™]

if petrol and diesel go up people tend to do less mileage, cut out some of the weekend driving to see friends and family maybe cycle to work some days etc. Hence the usual cycle of people coming in for servicing has probably been extended a few months. Still expect them to need a service but they might only need one once a year instead of hitting their mileage limit. I'd expect a low then for it to pick back up a bit. Speaking to a friend who bought a tidy enough 325i automatic three months ago for £7500, only been offered £4000 for it as a trade in. I'd expect people to keep their cars longer and not buy new ones as often which might mean less cars around in the longer term which will bring prices for tidy examples back up if dealers hold their nerve and don't discount hugely. See Renault already offering huge cash back deals though so expect it to continue downward for a while. Conversely the independents might pick up a lot of work as people shop around more to save money keeping their old cars on the road rather than trading in or facing dealer prices.

The man speaks sense.

Great time to buy a new car.