Anyone left the Motor Trade?

[em177]

From selling, what did/are you now doing?

[Sammo123]

I was a car salesman for 7 years and decided I'd had enough. I left and went to work for a well known grocery delivery company. I managed a year before ending up back in the motor industry but this time in the service department as assistant manager.

If i decide I've had enough of this place at some point in the next few years then I might try and get out again!

[ChrisDT]

I got out in 2009ish - Went to work for Sussex Police in the Custody Suites (For a private security firm) did that for 4 years and now work for a Porsche Specilist sourcing and selling Porsche and some other fun cars. Definatley don't miss main dealers though!

[wildoliver]

I went self employed for a period, that was a long and boring story, but it did at least allow me to get my head straight and sort some fairly serious issues out with family etc.

Then I went and have been working for the last 10 years for a local bus company, worked my way up to a good position after just under 2 years with them as they obviously saw some promise and I've been here ever since. I like the reliable income and the plan able time off and not being at work all the time, I miss the "good" months, the "craic" and the chase. I really miss the chase.

Long term who knows what the future holds, I would never go back to main dealer sales as for a start it's changed too much since my day and a lot of the fun has gone, would I go back to a prestige private company sales based job like the poster above...... Maybe. Would I go back to self employment? Again maybe.

[Yipper]

The car industry will shrink by about -50% over the next 20-30 years, as everything goes electric, so it is definitely not an industry to be in longterm if you are in your 20s or 30s.

[Jag_NE]

Yipper said:

The car industry will shrink by about -50% over the next 20-30 years, as everything goes electric, so it is definitely not an industry to be in longterm if you are in your 20s or 30s.

why do you think that? if anything as people are pushed/incentivised to change there may be a general up turn on new vehicle sales and warranty obligations will mean that regular servicing needs are required, whether the cars really need it or not!

[ChrisDT]

Yipper said:

The car industry will shrink by about -50% over the next 20-30 years, as everything goes electric, so it is definitely not an industry to be in longterm if you are in your 20s or 30s.

Not sure it will shrink that much - companies that don't evolve with it may disappear but that's their choice.

[lotusmad2001]

I did! 5 years in the trade, then got sick of the stress in the bad months. lost my hunger (didnt have many outgoings at the time) Chopped in the company car and fuel in to go for a standard job in a building society which luckily managed to hitch me a job within I.T (same company) that came up within a month of starting...

then I qualified as an Optician.

lifes weird

[Yipper]

Jag_NE said:

Yipper said:

The car industry will shrink by about -50% over the next 20-30 years, as everything goes electric, so it is definitely not an industry to be in longterm if you are in your 20s or 30s.

why do you think that? if anything as people are pushed/incentivised to change there may be a general up turn on new vehicle sales and warranty obligations will mean that regular servicing needs are required, whether the cars really need it or not!

All major car companies have 25-year plans and the ones I know of all expect dramatic reductions to global headcount from the 2030s onward.

Electric cars have massively fewer parts, most faults will get repaired by over-the-air software from AI / ML bots, cars will be bought or rented via online virtual-reality, and vehicles will be autonomous and shared.

An electric world means far less component manufacturers, garages, mechanics, drivers, dealers, financiers, and vehicle makers.