BHM

Yep. Although this sounds sarcastic it’s absolutely correct. You can talk this job through until the cows come home but the best education you’ll get is when you start buying & selling.

You might get a better response in the private lounge rather than everyone discussing their business practices for all to see.

Really? You’re letting customers on 18yr old cars grind you down over one key. No offence intended but you need a course on managing the aspirations of punters on old cars. ‘Screamer’ springs to mind.

More like an increase

+1. I can sell just about everything I can lay my hands on anyway, tbh it’s a bit embarrassing because whenever anyone comes around I’ve space for 25 but constantly only have 4-6 at any one time. It looks like I’m going bust. The law of supply & demand. When supply is low prices will always be up. Any buyers that don’t appreciate how a market works won’t buy, but there’ll be those that do. They’ll always sell for a few quid profit. However there are plenty of people, even shopping at the lower end of the market, who realise there’s a catch. In my experience many of these customers have a tale of a past ‘cheap’ purchase & don’t wish to repeat the experience .

The main problem at the moment is buying but..... ....all of a sudden the cheapie buyers are cheaper than ever & I've had a few customers downgrading to my £3-4K stock due to redundancy.

Mind you, the potential new buyer wasn’t bothered until he found out because, by the sounds of it, he was clearly unaware. Sometimes ignorance really is bliss. Looking at the type of owners these cars attract nowadays & the traffic lights Grand Prix they participate in I’d be surprised if half of them haven’t been nailed back together at some point.

I guess it’s not a £2999 Focus but nothing would surprise me. I’m afraid greed and/or incompetence are in every walk of life, even present in car main dealer groups!

I’ve never been asked for a CoC by an Irish buyer. As for tax, insurance etc. none of that is our concern. As you’re handing over the full V5 you could ask him for identification but either way, the moment the car leaves he can collect as many fines & ANPR photos as he likes.

I’m wondering why anyone would write about a bit of boot carpet on a PDI.

The car was no longer yours so all you do is write to tell them this. THEY need to get the ownership details from the dvla.

As some of them strip the lining from your throat I guess Covid19 wouldn’t stand a chance

Wouldn't most of us be a metre away anyway? Much closer & you're in their personal space, or fornicating.

Ultimately it’s your decision, you can operate a 5mtr zone if you wish. Tbh for some punters I’d like to introduce a 100 mile zone!

Perhaps they’re on the hey diddle diddle

Three cars parked up for months here. Unless it’s a cheapie & you don’t want a car parked up for potentially months I suggest you don’t take a car without a V5.

I don’t know why you’re concerned. You’ve said you’ve purchased a Motorcheck report & I've just looked & their website clearly states every check comes with a data check guarantee up to £30,000. KERRRRCHING!!! At 9.00am precisely I’d be on the phone to Motorcheck rattling their cage for money. Manna from the heavens, surely?

Rather than trawling through the dodgy privates & traders on FB & Gumtree I’d rather take a punt buying blind from the block. Obviously trade-ins are the best source. As for do-er uppers I always have punters for £1500-2000 cheapies. For a few hundred quid you’re not risking much & most get through an MOT for another £100-200. Most selling these cars sell them for a few quid profit with no prep & a few months MOT. I find if you spend on prep & an MOT you can often get close to a four figure sum out of cars in this price bracket for a few hours of your & a mechanic’s time. The profit to outlay ratio is superb.

Oddly enough I saw one last week - but it was the first one I’ve seen in years. There’s also someone local who uses a 30yr old Maestro. It’s just a scruffy user, what a strange choice for a daily driver.

As always it depends on your stock profile. 10 minutes with the G3 & the MOP does a good enough job on my stock - it brings them back to about 85-90%. I’ve seen a colleague MOP them, then manually rub down with fine (1200 grit I think) sandpaper, then rebuff again with the MOP & half an hour later they looked like new. To be honest, even if you don’t possess a polisher then some G3 on a rag & 15 minutes of elbow grease will improve them which is good enough on an old banger like a corolla.

Are you sorted now? I assume you’re not still on the phone since Wednesday!

Effort-wise I see the market akin to selling 17 year old, bottle green Puntos with 170K on the clock. I had the 'good' fortune of taking an MX5 trade in at Christmas - dear me, the sort of punter that attracted was pitiful, tbh I wouldn't describe many of them as men.

You’ll definitely need a welding machine & plenty of sheet steel. I’d suggest for this market, invest in a college course in how to deal with the general public, specifically on dealing with time wasting, dreaming, middle-aged dickheads. However if you like answering gormless emails every night this is probably a good market to be in. Good luck in whatever you do, you must have the patience of a saint.

Reading section 1 tells you were this is heading. Rightly so. ...and not before time too.

Eh? The longest it’s ever taken one of my adverts is about 10 seconds.