trade vet

Nothing has changed in donkies years.Most franchised dealer ,sales managers and sales staff are incompetent when it comes to describing stock.There will be a big list for naming and shaming.Most of them are just’passing ships in the night’,you would not want to employ most of them.If you described a 100k 12 year old Micra for valuation,most would reach for their Glasses Guide.You have to be in the ‘risk business’ if you are using Dealer Auction,there will be no little gems,they probably still go out through the back door.

Hang on free meals....need to know about that ? A few weeks ago at Newcastle a guy in front of me in the canteen was getting a free meal.He was a buyer for some recent start up car supermarket,so I said what about me,account holder for over 40 years.By the time they go bust,I will still have bought twice as many as them......appeal fell on stoney ground !

Kinross to Cheshire ,excuse me but that is not a bad run late at night weather permitting.You can go a long way in 3 hours after 8pm.Before on line buying,the guys who were any good had to be up and down the length of the country at least twice a week and often buying nowt.Now you can do 4 different sales at once sitting down,that is what our guy does.

Why do they do it ?.....It has to be a great income generator for auctions aswell as to encourage online buyers to pay more and please their vendors.They have also worked out that they do not necessarily need to be accurate as their complaints fob off systems appear to work.

Great location shot.Disco looks good,just keep it and use it for background for stock photos at this location,put a false plate on it like IM 20 or similar.It would conjure up an image of credibility and wealth and encourage longer distance punters to make the effort to come and view your stock.

BHM,you are fortunate to operate in the Republic of Teeside,which appears to have closed borders,no CRA and where traders have immunity from comebacks........only joking ....calm down !

Hi Grant Thank you,that is exactly the point I am making.You bought it ‘right’,but then you killed it at £5450.This stock is plentyfull,you could have bought and sold 3 similar ones at £4999,the time you have had it....Car supermarkets often work on £7-£800 mark ups,don’t be influenced by ‘gobshites’ telling you they are taking 2 grand out of this and that when in reality they probably do not have ‘a pot to piss in’.We all know these people.....Good Luck.

Looked at your website on AT,nicely presented stock but I have to say not enough ‘bullshit’.Picture of you,CV ( embellished),better descriptions of stock etc. Also the Passat should do £4999 but it is described as 119k when your photo appears to show 121k.That does not inspire punters confidence.Also,what is your average mark up,I find a lot of start ups with low costs make the mistake of overcharging.

Shooting breaks or Woodies..they could bring them back but with clip on synthetic wooden panels these days,call them limited edition Hickstead or Sandringham spec Mini Clubman £40k or Discos £65k,they would sell.Give one to Meghan and ‘jobs a goodun’.

Out of interest,have you noticed that all sorts of dealers mainly have 5 star reviews.Most of us probably have a subprime outfit nearbye that get better reviews than Nelson Mandela or the Dalai Lama...I think I now know how,I got a call from some people who described themselves as an ‘on line reputation management company’ offering 10 five star reviews for £25.I thought it was some sort of wind up or review blackmail if I said no thank you,but apparently not.Anyway,with no intention in mind,I asked if they could possibly do 30 bad reviews ( for chosen dealers in our area ) for £50 .....it will be interesting to see if they get back....

Nightmare punters....We had a similar situation on our first pitch,which was a town centre 25 car open site.We could not reason with this women.We said we would prefer to deal with her husband but she said he was in the army and abroad.She said something like,I am sure he will sort this out.We were expecting a call from her husband but heard nothing......About 6 weeks later,early one morning we got a call from the Police......there must have been a team of guys gone in during the night and totally vandalised our stock,every panel,all the windows,we were wiped out......It was headlines in the evening paper,we had no proof who did it,but it was a professional job.

Hi Mark...Will that not do good money in Brightwells if you cannot retail it......5000 euros for a turbo ?

In this case,it appears to be the seller complaining to the buyer.That must have confused Trading Standards.I would not be surprised if this guy had told ‘the family’ that he had done a straight swap causing them to go off lt. I think the legalese wording in AD’s response is excellent but I do have one or two reservations with that language where punters are concerned.From experience,there are some punters who may think you could be ‘ taking the piss ‘ who are not bothered with CRA or Trading Standards and they could be connected to the wrong people.....However,the next time I’m in correspondence with BCA,HMRC or the council,I might ask AD if he does consultancy work.

I agree,what about older 3 dr Rav’s and Vitara’s,you can get top money for them and they appear to be getting dearer.

Past glories...Fastest sellers,most profitable and least comebacks,going back a long time,I can think of a lot of ordinary stuff great sellers which most of you will have never heard of.To give you an idea,in the mid 90’s we were knocking out 3/4 year old ex police Peugeot 309 diesel patrol cars for £3250.Does not sound much,except we were buying them for £2k,doing 30 per month and 75% of them were attracting prime full chucky with £500 commission.......However,by far the best seller I can recall,no body believes me.....Reliant Regal 3 wheelers,they were gold dust,attracted queues of punters with motor cycle licences who kept failing their driving test but were qualified to drive 3 wheelers..!

Who spends 2 hours with a punter ?

Finding the defendant guilty,in his summing up,Judge Arfur Dealy said.......

Cars you can’t get enough of...that the rest of the trade don’t want.I think they are the best.I was talking to an old pro trader recently and he does a lot of Insignias.( 14 plate under £6k) he is also into subprime chucky and these are apparently ideal.I said you must get a lot of torcher with those aswell as awfull sub prime punters.....His response was classic....’.well if you want to make money in this job,you have to swim upstream ‘.

Yes ,in that case MOT’s are not exempt from VAT

Mikey.......I would check out West Oxford ,they have good cheaper stuff from good vendors,if you cannot buy there,I would do something else.2 night sales per week.

Out of interest (or not) make sure you are being correctly invoiced for MOT tests.We had been subcontracting MOT’s and PDI’s and a typical bill was for an MOT,oil change and filter,cambelt etc at £x + vat.It was several years later when we realised we had been paying vat on MOT tests which are zero rated.I think we were paying £35 for the MOT’s and we had overpaid a lot of VAT.We tried to reclaim the VAT but we just gave up after being passed around various HMRC offices...So just in case,make sure you are being correctly invoiced as MOT tests carried out direct to you from a testing station are zero rated.

Long ago,when I was a junior working on this busy pitch for £10 basic plus commission for doing 10 per week etc.The best sales guy was a Blake Carrington lookalike ( anyone remember him) who sold so many he had his own young ‘cocky’gopher to do all the paperwork and hand overs.So Blake being so busy gives the gopher a strong sales lead for a Sunbeam Tiger which were hard to get.He says we have had a Lord on the phone,give his Lordship a call insist on speaking to him,be polite and offer to show him the tiger,it’s a guaranteed sale.The cocky gopher must have got through and got a real ear bashing .He did not know he was calling Lord Lambton whose stateley home grounds included his Lambton LION park.

If you are in the Midlands you are fortunate to have a huge choice within 2 hours drive.We never got many from Peterborough.While not knowing what you sell,if it is older stuff for instance,as long as you have a good paintshop and workshop etc.....

I have done a bit of doorstepping,the better the doorstep,the easier it is.I was just talking to a sales guy this morning who I have known for years.He works full time for a doorstepper ( his description) who operates with a ‘grand name’ and they do 20 per month doing heavy stuff.However it is from a palatial residence with huge grounds.

Whether you do BCA or Manheim or any of the others,there is always plenty of stock about.If you are not an online buyer,you have to ‘get on your bike’ to get the stuff you want.It always amazes me when traders just rely on their local block and constantly complain.We used to drive late at night up and down the country every week to get the right stuff.Buying is a lot easier now than it was.