BHM

Is that really as surprise? When I occasionally visit these places they always APPEAR to be over staffed & half of what they employ looks like deadwood to me. The staff merry-go-round twirls as fast as ever, these places are generally fuelled on bullshit & the whole new car industry is selling a product that about 90% of the populate can’t/won’t pay for. I may be incorrect but I also get the impression certain new cars only get a private bum on a seat if it’s via Motability. I’d of thought serious change is long overdue.

Haha, really? Obviously I don’t know the deal or the customers but I’ll make some assumptions and ask how many PAYE men looking at an old Focus, THEIR old Focus no less, do you know who would be happy to see you wipe a four figure sum across it? Imagine selling it back at cost & getting a claim! “Spares or repair, trailered away from the premises, no warranty given or implied, MOT certificate not valid”.

Doesn’t Manheim do it on their vendors’ behalf?

So you’re expected to work for nothing? The customer obviously doesn’t realise secondhand cars are at a premium at the moment or how self-employed people make money to live - if you’re running a charity give it back to them at cost. However the next time you go through a quiet spell try going around to their home with your begging bowl & see how charitable they are. I see your predicament by at the end of the day it boils down to they pay whatever you decide the price is or they go away. The actual decision on what that price is can only be decided by you. They wouldn’t be getting it back at cost here!

Haha, little charity there!

The few times I’ve had anything to do with Merivas (boxy old shape) I’ve found the owners couldn’t give a shit about tyres, or the bodywork & mechanicals for that matter! Do these type of owners ever attempt any repairs or even basic maintenance if it’s not related to a failed MOT?

I think half of it, and the 10K small business grants, has already been spent on overpriced stock from Dealer Auction and much of it pissed up the wall on shabby 'prestige" cars, various blinged-up vans and quad bikes. From what I gather the 10Ks were handed out like Smarties to anyone renting any unit on some deadbeat industrial estate irrespective of any genuine business activity - all of these private men (that's what they really are) have spunked away the money already.

Never thought of that but I'm sure you're correct. I guess many of these 'no quibble money back' promises that our industry is allegedly awash with are just the usual B/S. I'll stick to being honest, upfront & straightforward with my customers.

£695 & “you should get a refund in 14 days” ain’t what I’d call a no quibble, 7 day money back deal. Quite the opposite - even I’d almost be comfortable offering those terms!

Tbh I still don’t know anyone actively trading who advertises as such. Anyone currently thinking of adding such a ‘courtesy’ to their customers? I won’t hold my breath.

I’d say I was staggered. Part of your business model is advertising that you take back cars, no questions asked, within the first 7 days? I don’t recall any car dealership, new or old, offering such generosity.

Sorry, but that’s one of the worst suggestions I can think of.

He needn’t bother on my account. Hasn’t the IMDA got its own forum for AT propaganda?

Unless you were an unashamed pervert, the only place you could wear a gimp mask & rubber gloves in public without attracting negative comments was in Amsterdam’s Red Light District on a nighttime. Now they are de rigeur for the fashion conscious. I’ve even seen blokes in supermarkets with full face respirators that I assumed they’d pinched from work. If I was that scared I’d stay at home. I guess banks will soon be asking for motorcyclists to leave their skid lids on.

I thought this thread must have been started by AT judging by the large font emblazoned at the start.

Our local Asda, and all other shops, are rigidly policing the numbers shopping. At the local Asda they've erected barriers for queueing, you're instructed to sanitise your hands on entry (hahaha) and anyone caught not following the arrows is given 50 lashes with the cat o' nine tails. I believe they've also applied for planning permission for a gun turret so any transgressors of 2mtr distancing will be shot without warning.

I've found customers have no problem at all signing/paying outside - everyone expects things to be different. I'm sure our uncommonly good weather has helped. If it was howling a gale & pissing down it might be slightly different

Dear me, some of you like to make life hard for yourselves. The supermarkets have done the spadework for us & just about EVERYONE expects to be instructed on what to do when shopping. If your business is generated remotely surely every single one of us is capable of qualifying most customers - sorting the wheat from the chaff. Yes, a few will slip through the net but at the point you realise they’re tyre kickers you simply show them the door & tell them to return when they are buyers. If you’ve got an open pitch & your business is mainly generated by walk-ons then surely a half-hour trip to a supermarket will give you a bloody good idea how to operate. This isn’t rocket science, a couple of signs printed, a bit of bunting (remember that?) or chain and even some rubber gloves to placate those who want them. All this bollocks about showing some tyrekicker a car then having to leave it 3 days for the next tyrekicker you’ve let in is just that, bollocks. If you’re that bothered can’t you lads stretch to a £2 bottle of spray bleach & some kitchen roll?

......I don’t imagine in his book he’ll be slagging off & naming the difficult punters, telling us about any brown envelope deals or of any mechanical bodging that I’m sure hasn’t gone on in the past. The trouble is, with many of the best tales many of us wouldn’t dare put anything in writing. I guess the tales may be similar, just the sums of money different.

Too true!

Hi, your guess is as good as anybody’s.

Glaswegian schoolboys must of got good pocket money, my parents couldn’t afford a Range Rover in 1971.

Perhaps true but he obviously doesn’t give a toss about reviews & why should he? Buyers buy. Simple. Only arseholes with too much time on their hands & sellers pathetically obsessed with social media who don’t know any better take any real notice of reviews.

Getting the stock is the problem. Actually, it’s not just the buying, it’s also the preparation & then getting a half-decent margin across them. Plenty at the lower end will manage to buy but their prep levels will be even lower than usual (if that’s possible).

Eh? What’s decent about that?