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So local rag cocks up on price of a car that we advertised, should be £19995 and they put £1995, phone never stops and they were actually serious, one woman actually threatened me with trading standards if i didnt honour price!!! Then I had guy this week on a 2004 smart car wanted me to take it to Mercedes for inspection,,, i said no, so he arranges for RAC to come here and inspect it, nice RAC guy came but as he said the car is 14yr old and guy seems to be expecting the earth,,, he faults it on few bits,, so I have just got e mail off the "customer" who says "I will not be proceeding with the purchase of your smart car due to numerous faults (car was MOT,d Monday) I do obviously expect you to reimburse my £300 RAC inspection fee" FFS,,, then to cap it all guy just e-mailed me on 99 Bentley Arnage at £20k I am prepared to purchase your car subject to inspection I will want finance over 5 years with nil deposit,,,, how the fcuk does he expect to run a Bentley if he cant find a dipper.... RANT OVER ITS FRIDAY I AM GOING TO GET PISSED,,, HAPPY WEEKEND FOLKS.

Not a part time job. Requires too much time you can't sit back doing other stuff its all reactive. Go from being sat about drinking brews all morning to selling 3 cars out of the blue with no prior customer contact all hands on deck. When I first started I worked 7 days and about 100hrs a week to get things moving. I work less hours now and have a bit more balance but I am still here 7 days a week. Not a part time job.

There have been a couple of occasions where I have had a 2 seater (TT, Smart etc) and a mature couple have arrived and obviously both want to go out and I’ve had more than 1 set of punters to deal with. In this instance, I have let them drive themselves around (both times leading to a sale). Or on a real old PX shitter, I just can’t build the enthusiasm to lock the office up, put a sign up just to listen to their pitiful bullshit - to make a couple hundred.

Yes Len I think it is.To give you an idea of how tough this job is,take a look at Big Motoring World.Huge operation,vast stock and debt but a successfull company in your area.If finance commission and sales of warranties were removed from their financial results it appears they would not make any money.I know it is hard for electrical contractors with all the regs (we have plenty also) plus I understand you guys need £5m insurance liability cover which is expensive so you can quote for good jobs etc .You should take note from the guys on here,they are genuine with their advice.

Or just get your kebab ready for you with plenty of mayonnaise and lots of salt and vinegar on the chips - FFS, when will they learn, that’s all a bevvied up man wants to eat. Amazing Umesh - didn’t Saab go pop at least 3 years ago, where can you find these nearly new ones?

or do the same to the car they are collecting and watch their faces take the spare wheel or gunge as well

Just had one woman ring us is the Megan Cup for sale still . " yes " We are weekend cash buyers . " Ok " Are you in a position to take 85 " 85 what " 8 50 , " you mean £8,500 " Yes "Its £9,495 my dear so you want a thousand pound off the price" . Yes " NO " "You want more than we do out of it " But your getting £8,500, what more do want out of it " She says " Customers this week are all on drugs I reckon , had the most dopey requests ever Number 2 I like your Z4 , Its a px 04 plate . Customer request , Can you send me a price to have my sat nav and canton sound system took out of my dads car and put into the Z4 , I will send you my post code so you can arrange to remove the unit from dads car ,also I think the speakers need updating so can you arrange the purchase of 2nd hand ones from ebay as I'm short of cash till pay day . When your man is here to remove Sat Nav i will send you £500 deposit back with him . Then collect on 14th Nov . Its a 14 yr old Z4 , his dad has a 15 plate Octavia , and he is 200 miles away . The resounding reply sent back was " NO " what a plonker Some funny people out there reading what every one else has had Number 3 Email this morning Hi we bought a fiesta off you Thursday . "ok " It catches when going over speed bumps . Reply SLOW DOWN THEN . Email back , Thanks for the advice , its a lovely car by the way . Totally Bloody NUTS they are Number 4 Young woman comes in for MOT yesterday Aygo ,, takes it for her this morning , failed on de laminated tyres on both rears . Hi Marie its failed on tyres , both rear ones , £40 + Vat fitted each , oh have you got any you can lend me , er no . Suppose I can stay in this weekend if its totally necessary " There Fecking tyres and its winter " ffs girl get a grip . Waiting for one more customer and I'm off , out for dinner

I hate it when you ask them to see the service book / history and they bring out the V5 with a blank expression on their face....... Although last year I bought a cheap runaround for myself, bought privately, the seller couldn't have been more helpful. Picked me up from the train station and even brimmed the car with fuel!! But yes, 99.9% of the general public, are lying, cheating crooks.....

Had I read this thread before you Dealer, my reply would have mirrored yours almost word for word. Same sort of stock holding, site etc but my advertising is less (as I don’t use Autoraper. Used to do up to 40 a month, with an average of 30. Now I’m happy with a 20 month! To the OP- I would stick to your current job for sure or diversify as has been said to property or something in the same ballpark As EPV says, you can make a living if you work it very hard, but part time is difficult (unless you specialise maybe?) and don’t need the money/are prepared to lose quite often. Part time is good to learn the ropes and build it slowly, but it’ll take much more of your life and dough than you imagine. Keep us posted though!

I like the latest expression, never heard it before but makes perfect sense. I am yet to meet a dealer that doesn't exaggerate their stock holding or their sales figures or their profit margin or a combination of the above. Obviously it's not so easy to do on this open forum when all stock is on a website and all stock movements are there for everyone to see.

A few weeks ago I thought I saw some light at the end of the tunnel with regards to buying. I'm now back to banging my head against a wall, even the prices in Scotland are off the charts. Sadly, like you say, it's only going to get worse. Jesus, can you imagine what January will be like? With that in mind, unless something changes dramatically I'm going to write January off. Sack off AT for the month, two weeks of housekeeping prepping for Feb and then if I can get the right deal, two weeks in Barbados taking in the cricket while most of the trade blows their brains out in the hall.

Isn’t that his point?

If your business is dependent on selling cars on finance then that could be a big worry, also if you have significant borrowings the banks can just call them in...….bastards!! The overheads never have a bad week, keep your costs down!

Plodding on with just one old relic this week after a couple of very busy weeks & a strong couple of months. The trouble is is the latest sale always feels like it could be the last sale because, although I’ve had a good couple of months, enquiries are thin on the ground & most of my contact is from total & utter nutters. Oddly enough just about every other small 1 or 2 man operation I’ve spoken too are claiming the last 6 weeks have been desperate except for those working for peanuts & selling unprepped cars.

nobody seems to have access to cash anymore this is the problem if she blows you can have a pitch full of anything but if they aint got the cash and the credit taps is off then its the old manage with what you have till its repossessed

All privates are liars.... no matter how sweet they seem they tell lies

I shifted two but very nearly only shifted one and wrote off the other.

i saw one of my old girlfriends the other day she was just like an old cortina all the trim bits had dropped down and she had a saggy bottom now thats a classic