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mechanic costs ? no, there responsibility is to return the car to you for inspection, why would you pay for example a company that offers a "free safety check" for your customer to be then faced with a bill for some fitter on a bonus scheme ? mileage, if they're taking the piss, and you genuinely believe your being had, then YES. otherwise no, refund, move on.

Jimbo, you need to make sure you do the right prep and checks prior to the car going out, a new MOT and PDI. My cars are mot'd and independently PDI'd. If there are faults, I state them in my video and the invoice / PDI as it forms part of the contract. The way I see it is very clear, I tend to sell cars which are prestige, high mileage and 10+ years in age, with this age of vehicle "wear n tear" should be expected and the expectations should be very very different to newer cars which haven't been to the moon and back.... The CRA works on a sliding scale, age mileage condition and price paid and the expectations should be befitting of the above. At the end of the day a car is just a machine and they can break at any time, irrespective of whatever prep. My job is to make sure the car is right on collection and that the customer is happy and confirms this in writing. I also educate them that anything that constitutes "wear n tear" is their responsibility to repair. I do not offer a warranty / insurance policy, because you are just asking for endless hassle. To answer your question, if I have a problem customer within 30 days who has ignored the above, I tell them to return it me to me for a "statutory inspection" with the reiteration that "wear n tear" is not covered. It's all about expectations and education, if you are transparent and explain your stance and your reasoning behind your stance they will respect you.....

Comes down in part to the running costs down here though. I definitely charge more for an Astra than a guy up North but my rent and rates are crazy in comparison. Mechanics charge more per hour, paint is more expensive etc. I often look into the Midlands area, the other halfs family live in a nice bit, and I recently found a 40 car forecourt I could buy outright for the same price as four years rent on my site down here...never quite as simple as just that but it's always interesting to look around

What do you guys do with complaints? (treat this as an opportunity to show them why they bought from you in the first place and not from the guy out the back of the petrol station at 9pm step up and sort the fault promptly a simple fix coil pack sump gasket what ever it is will be the cheapest form of advertising you will ever have) if the car is within the first 30 days and you get moans about any kind of issues - oil leaks, drop links, misfires, coolant leaks, etc etc (take your faults as you listed them, oil leaks well these happen from time to time on older stuff even more so but part of your pdi you should have been under the car checking for obvious signs of things starting to go wrong, drop links again don’t just fail unless you live on a mountain with pot holes the size of craters should have been noticed early, misfires well coil packs plugs and leads have a mind of there own not a lot you can do there, coolant leaks yikes ! do you usually pass over to the warranty company and ask them to step in or try and sort repairs yourself? (for me dealing with stuff sub 5k I do all my own repairs in house never needed a company) Looking at last years come backs the biggest was the c1 /107 with clutch faults, so do we stop selling me hell no, it’s the kind of car that attracts first time drivers who are going to be hard on the clutch, the peddles are stupidly close so even I sometime ride the clutch with my big hoofs, but we spin it around change the clutch same day if its done a lot of miles and been driven hard we ask for a contribution, I have a massive percentage of those people coming back next year to upgrade to something bigger once there insurance comes down, if I told them to take a running jump with there clutch faults I very much doubt I would have hardly anyone back. Now what you have to remember is everyone runs there business different the above is how we operate doesn’t make it right doesn’t make it wrong but works for us.

Jimbo, In all reality 30 days issues you should sort yourself and not expect warranty company to sort, their argument would be the car should not have some these issues in such a short time after delivery if the car was inspected/prepared correctly prior to sale. It also depends on how you want to build your business going forward, I don't know what price range/vehicles you sell, however my philosophy has always been to look after the customer and build a business, if you look after them from day one, sort out issues the chances are they will return / refer others to you. If you try to simply pass them on to the warranty company, some of these items i.e oil leak' type' will not be covered anyway and the customer will think the warranty isn't worth the paper its written on and still come shouting back to you.

Back in November I was at BCA and I watched a trader I know from Harrogate buy ( on a hunch )an 03 75 Ambassador diesel Auto estate with leather about 70k unwarranted,no reserve etc,but it looked fairly original.I think he paid £400 hammer down for it.I recall saying let me know how you get on with that......He did ,it was right mileage ,2 owners......and I think he got £2500 for it !

Do the right thing and take it straight to the breakers, make sure you see it crushed No offence intended