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Threads about AT.

First he wanted to be a car dealer... then he wanted to be a car dealer and a garage owner.... Now he wants to take on Autotrader! What next? Should Richard Branson be looking over his shoulder in case he starts selling day trips to the moon! Watch out Elon! .... Lucas is coming!

So so true. Don’t think just because you’re buying a car a £1000 more expensive it’ll be fault free. Absolutely. The other week I sold an £800 Focus with a DMF rattling its tits off (advertised & signed for as such) to a punter. They HAD been intending on getting a nice, shiny, brand new one from Ford on the rent but at last minute they’d been declining so ended up buying a piece of shit from me. The best thing was, they’d been to see 4 others first & mine “was the best by far”! FFS, what are people selling out there?

It really bugs me when I get missed calls with no message, sometimes multiple calls in a short period of time... What is wrong with these people, it’s so fecking rude.

Well I had a right old head scratcher in our workshop between Christmas and new year. I had given our main mechanic the week off and I only had my 23 year old fitter/ question asker / torch holder in to assist me. We had a customer bring a Ford Kuga back in for a re occurring DPF fault that we had in with us in September and had fitted a new glow plug to the vaporiser and given a regen, I thought we had seen the back of it. It came back in with a blocked DPF (300% full) and a faulty temperature sensor this time. It was on the bones of its arse in regards to diesel too (I had educated the customer in September... but chose not to listen to me). Anyway we couldn’t get the car to do a forced regen as ther was a code that wouldn’t clear in the ECU. Translated it said that the vehicle conditions were incorrect for a DPF regen. It didn’t matter what we did to clear the adaptions we couldn’t get the car to read less than 237% dpf saturation. Anyhow, we ended up using our Bosch KTS to to a pass thru software update from ford over the internet. £21 for the software from Ford and it reset all of the learned values, new temp sensor and a regen... now reading 15%! The he good news is we sorted it without a visit to ford where no doubts they would have wanted to fit a whole new car before doing a software update I have never really bought into the software update theories, anyway... our younger tech wants to do software updates on everything now, even for unevenly worm tyres!

The vast majority of punters are nice straight forward people.However,the odd one who lies about a warranty claim does get me annoyed.For instance,I remember being well down the M1 and an Astra we had sold went past doing about 100mph.Sometime later the guy calls in ( he was actually wearing a Ferrari Baseball cap) and asking if we could repair his exhaust under warranty.I said yes and asked him a few things like has he been far etc.He said no and always drove carefully etc.You can imagine the rest. Its not the punters,it’s all the other stuff,suppliers short changing you or just being incompetent and the bullshit explanations. I never liked flash traders,they are usually frauds.When you are struggling for a parking spot at the auction then some dickhead with the Range Rover Sport with vanity plates,fake tan and Rolex ( all the optional extras) arrives. The security gate just opens and they are allowed in because they are a big time operator,when you know they haven’t got a pot to piss in. That’s all for now.

People

Scumbags, the height of rudeness. I’ve stopped ringing them, if they can’t be assed to leave a message then they aren’t genuinely interested. Anyone with a modicum of education knows it’s rude not to leave a message.

It’s the ones that call again and again and again when you’re dealing with their complaint or fixing their car. I always ring them back like “I have 9 missed calls from you?” They always reply like “yeah I was just wondering...” I then say something like “9 times though?”. Just to highlight their neuroticism. I’m not legging it or ignoring you I just don’t have Bluetooth or i’m with someone else or i’m taking a shit. Calm your tits.

People not turning up to “appointment only”, then switching their phone off.

People should spend more time learning how to use AT properly rather than moaning its expensive or trying to find a cheap alternative.

are we using shooters

That's unbelievable!

Some of these so called traders sell some right sh!t, some of the stories I get told are quite unbelievable! I had one guy come to buy a Kia Sorento off me and the one he'd just been to see had a starting issue, the seller had bodged a can of easy start into the door panel with a tube from the can nozzle end, he'd drilled a hole through the side of the door into the engine bay where the pipe was fed to the air intake, so every time you got in to start the car he said it just needed a couple of squirts and it would start without even opening the engine! Hahahaha

Exactly, if you get outbid by a sniper on eBay then what’s the issue? It’s obviously gone over the highest entered bid you was willing to pay anyway. Even a sniper tool will only bid to the other bidders highest bid, so if yours was higher you would still win regardless of how last second it was.

Will definitely have paperwork right. Sold the touareg on new yers eve to some Romanian fella who said he was driving it 1600 miles back home he asked if it would make it our response well its being sold as spares or repairs or export only and we can't guarantee nothing as we require you to trailer the car away and written on invoice spares or repairs or export only to be trailored away. From now on all part exchange stock going to block, not worth the headache.

It’s a masterful plan - I can’t believe no one ever thought of it before?! ☺️

/\ /\ /\ These I've said it before, my experience of Small Claims / Civil Proceedings is that the "decent and professional" party always gets shafted and the pond life always get away with it Sad fact is, with 9 / 10 Powershifts I've ever fixed they only need Brushes in the Motor, but most "Gearbox Specialists" don't know that or charge a fortune for "this and that". I used to buy Brushes for a Bosch Wiper Motor and sand the edges slightly, fit Brushes, do a "Re Learn" .............. Jobs a good un !!

I think it’s information worth repeating. I am 100% of the mindset that court is to be avoided at all costs unless it is a chancer wanting brake pads changed after 4 months and 4,000 miles.

Without “we buy any cars “ bca will be struggling.

No way. Danny was / is a legend. I miss his spelling deeply.

Wait until you start selling cars LUCAS

Lost count of the items we have found over the years done great on some not so great on others. had a fiesta last week with a receipt in the center console for timing belt and water pump change result. Had a clio three weeks ago with two shitty nappies in the drivers seat back pocket.

Actually I think you will be moving into thinner territory. It stands to reason the more expensive a car the fewer buyers (still plenty though at that price point) Knowing what to fix and what not to (cosmetically) is an art i’ve only recently mastered. I used to mint everything up, now I just get it to a state where it looks half it’s age and that is plenty better than most out there. A condition video appraisal stops the picky fuckers arriving at your door, as the video weeds that out and bobs your uncle.

I suspect we might see some poor sales figures on new stock over the last quarter, which explain the stupid deals last month. I got a ring from Lancaster BMW at 9.00am sharp on the 28th December...... If that's the case then BMW/Audi, etc won't want to be busy fools and will adjust down their RHD production allocation for next year and some of the amazing deals will disappear which will help the used market. If credit is tightening then the market for PCP's will decrease a bit too.

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

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.

Focus more on what you are good at.Work harder on the buying side,it is the same for everyone.Its not just cheaper stuff that comes with big bills.Don’t believe other traders too much,the job is full of bullshitters,it always has been.