BHM

I think 95% of cars are getting chopped-in cos they're half-knackered (and retail money repairs make them too much to repair) or punters have skipped a service a year ago & now they're due another MOT and now a big service sondecide to get rid. Just about everything needs a few quid chucking at it nowadays. Funnily enough the Mrs. yesterday asked was I losing my touch cos all the cars I now buy "are knackered"

Just budget for the £500 oil pump drive assembly at 90K and you'll be fine. That's assuming it's not already burning oil cos of worn pistons. Fine German engineering. Lovely car, just a shame they didn't stick Honda engines in them.

Plug it in first - it could be a variety of problems (split pipe, regent needed) although with them Mazdas I'd fear the worst if it's got a few miles on it. A similar repeat of the problems they had with the 6 diesel. Good luck!

I see your point but my approach is different - I don't feel the need to deal with difficult people and/or fibbers. I sack them off firmly (tbh I've normally weeded out the undesirables on the phone) & occasionally give them a few home truths regarding their aspirations with regards to their budget. My personal feeling is that retailers who entertain the idiots etc. make it worse for the rest of us. In my opinion the industry would benefit from more straight talk. Perhaps you entertain greedy idiots to make a sale, I'd rather not. Different strokes, I guess.

Only take the bloody things p/x. Almost as bad as VAGs.

Why are people wasting time on this pillock?

Hahaha!! Nothing truer said!

A roaring start to the week! 3 so far, however cheapies but a small wage from each one. Absolutely no interest whatsoever in any of my better stock. As seems to be the norm nowadays, a few pillocks with raging hard-ons for cars who feel the need to phone every day to say they're "coming tomorrow". However tomorrow never comes for these tosspots.

Exactly. A typical greedy punter whinging cos he thought he was getting something for nowt. TBH I'm surprised people have wasted their sympathy on him.

Would it be wrong of me to suggest you may be a greedy bastard who went for the cheapest you could find? Sorry, but you get what you pay for in this life.

Hahaha, I once had a punter turn up 2 hours late when I used to entertain them on a Sunday - he had about a 90 minute drive which took 210 minutes. He said they'd stopped at a pub because they'd wanted Sunday lunch. I answered "So did me & my Mrs." His fur-coated Mrs got out of their £200 p/x & said she wasn't sure if she liked the colour. I told them to think about it on their way home because I couldn't be bothered wasting any more of my time. They looked aghast as I locked the car & walked back inside. All in all, 45 seconds.

Funnily enough on a test drive today a customer asked me how long I'd been in the game. To cut to the chase it was because, as he put it, "everyone's having a go at it, you see various cars outside the same houses". "Too true" I answered, "However how many are getting them mechanically right & safe with a GENUINE new MOT?" He must of agreed as he bought. Although the shitty Peugeot 307 he'd bought 3 months ago & then the Focus 1.6 diesel (!!!!!) he replaced it with 2 months ago that has subsequently eaten 2 turbos helped me somewhat! I love them Gumtree/roadside traders, once a punter's had a taste of their cars they usually stump up the readies.

Some unscrupulous traders would fling a Mickey Mouse one in the glovebox. It'd be the new owners problem come tyre change time.

Not worth a toss, it needs to be cheap to sell to the cheap-flash/not-much-cash brigade. Even diesel estates are only worth Vectra money. As always, you make your profit when you buy it. If it's March 2006 onwards & a petrol automatic check the road tax - I know some of the 9-5s are in the £500 bracket = only disabled tax entitlement punter will be interested.

You. If you didn't make more than a few hundred quid on a £9K car you've worked for too small a margin/given the Civic's original owner too much. As for your small profit, as a previous contributor commented, that is irrelevant, as it would be even if you sold it at a loss. Many years ago as a fresh faced trader I was called in by the local TS for a chat. As they put it to me "Just because you buy a cheap loaf of bread on its sell by date from Tesco for 20 pence you, as a consumer, don't expect it to poison you. It has to be fit for purpose, i.e. safe to eat. The fact the bread is being sold at a loss is irrelevant".

Nice in theory however debate will inevitably lead to differences of opinion - how those differences are expressed may be the issue. Unfortunately the world isn't all soft & fluffy and full of niceness.

Haha, I don't open Sundays & my phone is off!! Life is much easier now. As for the Sunday email arseholes I deal with them robustly (this is an offer on a £1500 car);

If you believe the car was right at point of sale you should stand your ground. Admittedly everything's not black & white and any trader knows cars can sometimes bring up faults so if a punter phones up two days later to say his car is suddenly running like a bag of shite, then fair enough. However these chancers phoning after a few months should be firmly brushed off. The CRA can state what it likes & as for people threatening you with the court service, TS, etc. I always tell them to go ahead. Call their bluff, 99 times out of a 100 that's all it is, bluff. On a sideways note I seem to get a couple per year who phone up 11-12 months down the line threatening court etc. because their car has failed the MOT on trivia like drop links or brake pads etc. and then quote some ridiculous figure they'll settle for (£1100 for Forester discs & pads - I suspect I could get a Jumbo Jet freshly shod for that money). My response is "Crack on, and its VOSA you need to speak to, goodbye" Unfortunately 50% of the general public are as thick as pig shit & are horrible, lying, greedy bastards. Sorry if that sounds harsh but I genuinely believe this.

The trouble is cheap stock is no longer cheap after the auction house has added on their bit & as for some of the scrap offered on Dealer Auction lately this jobs getting hard. Is everyone finding that just about every car has a couple of hundred quid that needs shovelling into it to get it right?

I often wonder what happens if the bank says no to a remortgage - I guess that's when you make an appearance on "Can't pay, we'll take it away" On a rare sunny evening a fortnight ago I was sat in a pub beer garden. A young couple + baby arrived in a newish C-class Merc, big alloys, AMG bodykit (on a friggin c220 diesel), the stench of finance wafted across the car park. After their first drink they fancied a second drink. Listening to their conversation, it seemed they couldn't scrape together enough for another round & she thought her cards (I assume of the credit variety) were on stop. Off they trotted into their nice (to some eyes) prestige (ahem!) German car cos the poor thick sods could afford 2 rounds of drinks. I can understand people being on the bones of their arses (I remember 25 years ago breaking down wooden fencing one winter to keep the fire going cos I was skint - my apologies to Teesdale District Council) but being on the bones of your arse whilst running around in a German taxi waving around the latest smartphone beggars belief.

It's because many act on impulse, basic arithmetic escapes a good percentage of the population and far too many are interested in appearances - making out they're financially better off than they are. Thats why there's plenty of mid & older folk who own nothing, their car's on tick, even the sofa they sit on they're paying off over 5 years. I'm not judging, however most of us are in whatever situation we're in because of the choices (good & bad) we've made throughout life.

Tell 'em to go to Halfords & but a cheap pushbike.

Sell as a 3. Too much liability especially if it's involved in a accident & the seat and or belt anchorage(s) fail.

Dead. 2 gone on Saturday morning but since then just a handful of eBay idiots sending emails & a couple of tossers on the phone. A car trader (I Googled his mobile no.) giving me a load of B/S claiming he is retired & wanted a cheap car for charity work to take the elderly/sick to hospital etc. I was suspicious as soon as he said he'd send a transporter to collect. Is this normal behaviour from traders from Birmingham? Depressing.