BHM

You can't advertise as offering a test drive & then stating it's spares/repairs/scrap etc. I thought I occasionally employed the odd sharp practice but I obviously have much to learn. I suppose it's "Fuck Trading Standards", let's get on with it.

Too bloody true. If it's more than about £150 I drive it.

I've came across them before and was always unsure how they get away with it, eBay's a publicly accessible forum and they're clearly selling everything under trade conditions with no comebacks.

It'll of been of more interest than the overpriced lots on offer.

Yeah, in his bedroom via Facebook because that's the mentality of the fuckers. Innit man!

Pink (was red), 9 days MOT, 2 bald tyres, not a scrap of service history, stank of fags, filthy seats & to operate the clutch pedal my left knee was up beside my ear!! QUALITY STOCK!!!!

Haha, Arfur will you be heading to CDX to see what you're missing?

Exactly. And if you give a discount they smell blood & torture you for weeks. It's easier telling them that's the price or it's no longer available - I honest would rather a car stood there than deal with them.

They love a diesel Toyota, although the avenisis must be the cream of the crop. I've a cheap Auris diesel with nice miles - I've had a few greedy parasites on the phone from the 'heavily accented, last price' brigade. Funnily enough its cheap enough for these bastards to phone but yet they always want lumps off the price & ask about every mark & scratch etc. They're lucky if they get 20 seconds of my time, although tbh one of them tricked me with his waffle and got 45 seconds the other day until I told him to "phone back tomorrow & don't expect a discount". I'd rather it sat there than try to thrash out a deal with these chancers.

True & true plus it always seems to be a desk jockey with no experience who feels that they can get to grips with this industry milking us for information with the intention of creating either software or an advertising website that will be the new panacea. I love all of these theoreticians, the think every industry can be sorted from a desk space in their bedroom because they have little understanding of the mechanical & human aspects. They should get themselves to the block, buy a few shitters, get them sorted, advertise them & then deal with a greedy idiot who values his 03 Fabia p/x at £800 - write me some software for that!

Snap! All I'll say is it's buying that's a struggle, not overstocking & as for cars that can't shift they get their price slashed which will attract some greedy horrible scumbag.

It's £300 from your profit. If it's close to home then fine but as Arfur says it's the time moving a-b. Time is your biggest enemy, it's ok saying you'll pop down for a viewing but if the punter says 2.30, you really need to be there from 2.00 and jiggling cars about if you're 15 minutes away means even just a car change is half an hour. £300 for 3 car spaces & a desk wouldn't get my vote but then I don't know your set-up at home - if you're in a cramped street rather than a large detached property then it may make sense to you.

Andy, there'll be plenty of Birmingham or Bradford based gentlemen torturing you with insulting offers and wanting to visit mob handed at 11 o'clock at night. You know the sort, the sort you don't really want visiting.

My experience is that once these arseholes start texting & don't get an answer they disappear. I've said it many times before & will say it again, DO NOT CONDUCT BUSINESS BY TEXT MESSAGE. It's the preferred contact method of arseholes, thickoes & chancers and when they don't get a response they haven't the balls or the gumption to phone.

Always the potential customer - then I know if they're realistic or in la-la land.

To be fair your mechanic is correct with his comments. See what comes of it all, you could be misinterpreting his intentions on the text. Don't contact him again, leave the ball in his court.

Hahaha, I'm sure everyone else on this forum is squeaky clean & doing everything by the book

Yes, I get the impression that judges generally feel a certain amount of sympathy with the plaintiff based on the thinking that if they've taken it "all of the way" and waited 6 months-ish then they must have a claim. However I always assume that any disagreement won't end up there - it's generally too much hassle. I once "sat across the table" and despite the whole court building (not just the room) being a mobile phone free zone the judge allowed the claimant to switch on his phone & search for various facts - not once, not twice, but three frigging times! You can guess which way the judgement went . However I still won't bend over backwards & give the chancers short shrift - the idiots phoning 12 moths later whinging about their MOT & service.

Assuming he doesn't know you had the head gasket changed then he'd be getting well & truly sacked off here. 3 months on a 9 year old Astra & he thinks he's coming back - no chance. However if you advised him of your (pisspoor) repair then it's fair to say he has a point. However (again) how many people follow it through to the courts?? Finally, why are you offering warranties on cheap 9 year old cars? I've not offered a warranty in over 5 years & on the few occasions I've been asked about them I say "no but your statutory rights aren't affected". When I started trading it took me a year or two to realise punters took a warranty if it was free but they didn't want to pay for it. You giving warranties on old bangers is asking for comebacks (I'll await the comments from those perpetuating the myth that you have to warrant cars).

I think I'll leave the write-offs for others, as I've always done. They've never seemed worth the hassle to me when there are enough straight cars out there. The only time I've sold plonkers is when I've had a couple as p/xs and God Give Me Strength!!! The number of stupid questions by fussy bastards wanting something for nowt was incredible. I suspect the main market for them is Gumtree, Facebook etc. - UNDECLARED!!

Christian doesn't seem very forthcoming with his information.......... It could be an old knacker sold for for £200 or it could be a £200000's worth of Ferrari.

Too bloody right they would. Hall bidders get run up by the internet & vice versa. On watching the Simulcast you can see what's going on when the auctioneer is saying one thing & the bid section is two or three bids ahead of him

Groan! Yet another internet chancer looking to scam a few quid off the gullible, me thinks.

Well said, although I think it was said about 'opinions' rather than reviews. It's for that very reason I couldn't give a stuff about reviews & haven't bothered looking for a couple of years. P.S. sorry if this view offends those of you who have convinced yourselves that life is to be lived via social media, run your business with one eye on internet reviews and have convinced yourselves to dance to the tune of arsehole keyboard warriors, although I do sympathetise with those who's business deals with that demographic.

Absolutely true, personally if I could get enough DECENT p/x bangers I'd 'specialise' (ahem!) in them. The scrappers just want moving on to the spares-or-repair crowd but on stuff half decent it's so easy to double- or treble-up on them. If you've no overheads you can make a good living selling shite, as long as it's good shite that's clean & recently MOTed.