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Are you over prepping on the cosmetics? you are in a market place where it is very price driven.your competitors are, as you say, not prepping, but you would assume still selling. So there are people out there who will buy cars with MINOR scuffs, scratches and trolley dents. in fact most will. So try and work out what you may be able to 'get away with' at your current price point. But Dont skimp on mechanical prep. EPV is spot on that cosmetic prep needs to be better on 5k plus. So you may not make much more per car. But you can get a better quality p/ex which you can go again with. And you wont be in a bidding war to buy that. But do be aware that if you decide to go to 5k plus you are competing against some bigger dealer groups on smaller cars. so dont go stocking up on 14 reg aygos and expect to do any better. you'll still be looking at them in 6 months time.

Agree with you there Met Had a guy ring us in panic , been told you guys repair cars . Er yes whats your problem ? Cars chucked oil all over my drive . Get it down here then . He tows car down to see us . Last time it was serviced was 4 yrs ago , 3.0 litre V6 petrol S type Jag 128,000 miles . The oil filter was hanging on by a crumb of rust and that was the leak . It also had tape round it to attempt a repair The guy asked us if he could get his own oil from Asda , I told him to collect his car and take it to ASDA for the filter too 4yrs and 40,000 miles on same oil , never heard it running but it must of sounded terrible Charged him £50 + vat diagnosis too

Welcome Miles. This is the first time I’ve heard of this happening. I didn’t know it was possible to reverse a bank transfer? It’s extremely worrying as the majority of us receive large amounts via bank transfer on a regular basis. It sounds as though there is a mistake somewhere! However the customer has noticed it and taking advantage. Personally I would phone the bank again and not put the phone down until you get an answer. Once you have an answer I’d be going round the blokes house and having it out with him on his doorstep without prior warning. This is bang out of order and makes my piss boil just thinking about it.

I see. I actually think his defence is wobbly. Instead of answering why the car is fit for purpose (a shagged gearbox on a 2012 plate 61k MPV isn’t fit) he should be arguing his case that the fault couldn’t have been present at the point of sale because here is my signed PDI mr judge and 10,000 miles since that PDI was signed strongly suggests that the fault has developed many miles after the point of sale and mr customer has been unlucky.

Wait until you start selling cars LUCAS

BCA have just nabbed CarShop off them so I think they're probably losing ground. Between AT, UKCGR and BCA there's not alot left of the car trade

my fear with online bidding is the hex details are kept on every transaction whether you win or not and they can work out to a shoe size how much you might be willing to bid up to so the system takes you there did man land on the moon really by the way

BTW, regarding DVLA, if you tax a vehicle after normal hours it can take 5 days before it goes on the Database, more over Xmas !! I always print the EMail Receipt and chuck it in the Glovebox, yep, just before Xmas I taxed the SLK I just bought, got tugged by plod a few days later, who was getting quite stroppy until I shoved the EMail under his nose Same applies to pp transfers

Yeah but eventually everyone will use sniping software, who wins?

Exactly what I was thinking. I also don't believe it is as accurate as manually bidding. I think it does it with a few seconds remaining rather than THE last second.

What happens when everyone is 'sniping'? Is there 'super sniper'?

Personally i think its a load of crap and regardless of how you spin it none of it of treating customers/traders fairly. You do less work if a customers takes 3rd party finance as really all you need to do is generate an invoice, no proofs, no docs to sign, no legal scripts to cover so the only reason you charge a higher fee is your being pissy about no being able to sell a customer into your finance and you've been beaten on the rate or by someone who can sell better then you. They are just fees to generate question's "so if i take your finance and not 24/7 then my admin fee is less ??" "yes Mr customer let me get you a quote" customer thinks they are saving money but still get slapped with a GAP and extended warranty. New year same shit ...

1st for me! if money is in your account surely that is not correct??? Was told if its faster payment it cannot be recalled back - keep us posted as I'm sure everyone on here needs to fully understand how this can happen, if thats the case none of us are safe.

It could’ve been a previous out of date logbook with no valud reference numbers (if the Jag had a private plate after) so don’t get too excited :-)

Its super hard work being on that platform, I can only imagine how much more difficult my work life would be having to scavenge all the places i would need to be to replace this one platform

Who? Why would a professional dealership even begin to consider leaving THE ONLY advertiser in the UK that consistently delivers??? I think anyone that thinks of saving £3-£4K per month advertising (that works!!!) from a multimillion pound a year business is certifiable. I am yet to see a single dealer that does better AFTER leaving AT.

Their fees were out of this world, only BCA private buyers pay more! I am surprised they have dropped them completely. This is an absolute outrage, like showing the trade "the finger". Not that any trade customer would ever want the CarGiant "no prep-mega mile-basic spec" lease returns...

A lot more people are completely strapped up. With the ease of PCP deals “rent a car” schemes used cars aren’t so attractive. But the ones who can’t get PCP can’t afford to maintain their own cars, it’s a vicious circle. The whole game is changing, as I always say it’s a rollercoaster.....

Me personally I cant imagine being off autotrader , Car guru doesn't work for me , Ebay is expensive if its run along side AT and I don't sell enough to warrant thinking about it , I personally don't think i should pay two platforms to advertise the same car BUT it does depend on what you choose to sell , My stuff doesn't sell on Ebay , Motors or CGuru , People know where to find what they are looking for in my opinion and that's where your stock needs to be for sale . All work at different levels . 10 yr old Corsa , EBAY NO Brainer , Three yr old Jaguar XF 3.0 litre Portfolio and its AT NO Brainer , Two extremes I know buts that's my thought on why it works for some and not others . Your job is to find YOUR customers , not them find you . Dangle the bait and the fish will strike if not you need another river or a lake .

The main reason an owner of a car sells it now days by 98% is there is something that needs doing to it , New Brakes , Cam Belt , Turbo Whine , Shocks , Tyres , EGR , and the list goes on . So in my thinking any car price range will need something doing It wont matter what price range your in its going to be a similar story as regards expense of prep mechanically , the only benefit is the more expensive a car the cost seems to be more justified as the parts are the same cost as a £1,999 banger and profits should be higher , Look around on the roads and see what customers are driving , look at the affluence in your area and where you might pull customers from . If they are all on 50cc mopeds or maybe Audi A6's , you might have the answer. All the best and a happy new year

Nothing really, ebay and gumtree are a waste of time. Autotrader charge us this much because they know they can its like buying a nissan gtr it's fast but its not a ferrari hence they have got us by the balls.

This is so true, don’t worry about other people and what they are doing, if you start comparing you’ll just end up changing your formula for success every month, week, day and then before you know it you’ve lost your identity. One of the problems with this job is you always think the grass is greener on the other side, but in most cases it isn’t. In this day and age you can either be a race to the bottom dealer with little prep and just running round like a headless chicken or you can somebody who sells good quality cars, prepared to the highest standard, providing a service that deserves profit, these are the customers we want not the bottom picker customer who 9 times out 10 end up being a nightmare anyway.