trade vet

I thought we had to guess how much it should be to make it sell.Instead we have a ‘lovefest’ for a ‘dogdick’ red 5.0 litre Yank.with some nice ‘top gear’language.I thought we were here to sell cars,not fall in love with them.I am interested to see what the profile will be for the punter that buys this,what the swapper is,will they take chucky or PCP.Seeing where Rory operates,it could be a Premier League YTS footballer !

Same thing Lonsdale,owned by Sports Direct !

You could market it as a ‘Jeremy Kyle Limited Edition’

Hazard a guess......£27999 and I don’t think it will hang about.(I have no idea, we would be terrified to buy that ) good luck,hope you get a cracking swapper

Can you imagine having a Ford franchise and you get a wagon load of 5 litre Mustangs at £40k each foisted on to you .......and you think we have problems !

I would say that a good per centage of £8k stuff will have a swapper,so any negotiation will be with the swapper and not the selling price.Cap GUIDE is a long way out on a lot of stuff and when mid Feb comes it will be outeven more.It has always been the same whether it is Cap,Glasses or the other one ( if it is still around )which they used to flog at the old Chelmsford !

Cracking put down !

Ha Ha....Andy,it’s been like that forever,unless of course you bung the yard manager for a good position followed by a bigger bung for the auctioneer for a good build up.Then of course if you ‘ring the bell’ there is an extra success fee for the auctioneer.Am I right or am I right,that was the way it used to be,has it changed ?

If our guys relied on cap valuations,we would not have a business.Most of our stuff is well over Cap clean.I get tired of traders complaining about missing stuff because it was over Cap clean,when what they were after might have £2000 worth of extra spec.

Thank you for explaining,I think even I might have won that one.She must have been a ‘nutter’.

Arfur,you did well.Would you be able to explain roughly what the case against you was and why the judge threw it out.I have been to small claims court 3 times in the last 25 years with punters and came second twice for no good reason and the other I won because the punter failed to appear.While I have won cases with builders,architects and notably BCA where I was the plaintiff.

There appears to be a misconception that small claims court judges are fair and reasonable regarding the CRA where used car dealers are the defendants.I doubt there is anyone on here who has successfully defended a small claims case brought by one of their punters.

To quote the peripherals who hang about every block.....We are busy,doing loads of Ssaang Yongs,Insignia Autos,any French stuff.......and McClarens,we are knocking them out as well ......Good sellers from the door !

I always took the bonuses in this job with a pinch of salt,because lurking around the corner there is another major problem to solve.It could be merchandise,staff,HMRC random investigations,creative assessments by VAT inspectors,banks or accountants letting you down,or things like the council under charging for business rates for 3 years.I recall the utility company mixing up the off peak and peak tariff readings for years and trying to claim £1000s.I can go on and on,so any bonuses you get, I think we deserve.

If we couldn’t get a reported problem to reoccur,I would always let the punter demonstrate what it was by getting them to drive in their NORMAL MANNER .You know the sort of thing I mean,’it hesitates in top gear ‘ or it shuts down ( goes into limp mode ) for no reason.If they cannot demonstrate the problem,do nothing. I have had them doing over 80 mph and saying did ‘you feel that ‘etc.I recall One guy being furious because his Golf Gtdi was going into limp mode for no reason ,causing him to miss a flight.Our guy plugged it in ,got a print out and it clearly showed that our punter had been travelling in excess of 90 mph.on various occasions when it shut down. I would usually say to these types that owing to their clear demonstration of their normal driving technique,the company would have to withdraw the extended warranty on their vehicle and off they would go with their tales between their legs (we do our own warranties )

Corsair V4’s ! I had forgotten about them,Tradex I hope you are not as old as me !

Andy ,Who are you being prosecuted by .OK so it’s the DVLA,that’s better than the police.I would still be inclined to PAY IT after what happened to me.I dodged a flawed speeding prosecution (£65 fine).Months later I was summonsed to appear at the magistrates on the charge of not completing the documentation correctly.It appeared to me,that I had completed it perfectly correctly,so not having any previous convictions,I went along without legal representation and pleaded not guilty .On the paperwork when inserting the FULL names and addresses of the directors ,I had stated my full name and my wife’s first name and address.By missing out my wife’s surname ,this was the offence.I am too embarrassed to admit how much I was fined,but to give you a clue,I was ordered to pay prosecution costs of £400 ! The fine must have included a standard premium for car dealers !

Mitigation etc.What if it was booked in for an MOT via your mechanic and getting clamped prevented the MOT taking place.

We are inland ,but did get plenty of seagulls as well,but since our bird scaring owl with rotating head was placed on a tree branch close to the stock,all the birds keep well clear.For £10 it’s worth a go.

Andy ,Who are you being prosecuted by .

Grant ....birds mess......get an ornamental eagle owl ,available on line for about £10.If they are placed properly,they work well !

Ha Ha..stately home overlooking lake etc,that wouldn’t work,your punters would feel outside their comfort zone.You would need to move up to over £50k stuff ! It’s amazing what you can get away with.In the AT mag days,we had 3 dull units on a trading estate and after seeing the film ‘Wag the Dog’,it gave me an idea.I got the agency to create a new heading for our ad with CGI making our units look vast with a massive forecourt and dozens of punters.It worked really well and no one complained.I think it is known as ‘artistic licence’....,sounds better than ‘a load of bullshit’.

Simon,I would continue with your home video presentations which are unique.The reason being that from a punters perspective it provides them with an image of stability or ‘air of respectability’ from living in a desirable neighbourhood etc.Unless of course,you could recreate a presentation that shows you coming out of your property or front garden,walking down the drive past one or two nice bits of stock,then into your unit.This would create an image that your unit is in the grounds of your property......

£4.5k ! ,might you be able to tell us how you were stitched up?

I agree 100%,sounds like a very articulate punter,he might agree to the terms ‘under protest’,then go to small claims court later on.