BHM

One size fits all here for my gems. I use Finish for everything. Inside, outside, wheelarches, tyres & under the bonnet. Tbh it’s bloody good stuff & really does finish off the cars (pardon the pun). More than half of my cars go to the valeter but the rest (the quick & easy ones) I do myself.

Most definitely! The number of people who lift the bonnet, see it beautifully presented (usually better than the bodywork tbh) & then declare the engine perfect is a surprise. I pressure wash every engine bay, usually when hot & running, then finish off with Finish. However I know what not to spray the water at. Only ever had one problem & that was just in January on an Alfa 159. Parked up afterwards for a month, found to be in limp mode, found to be the engine fan had seized - full of water.

Every cloud has a silver lining - perhaps I might have a fortnight away this year instead of a week. Funnily enough on a similar vein have you ever tried explaining to a punter that when times are hard car prices rise? It sounds counter-intuitive because they think; lack of customers = buyers market. I then tried to educate this chap in the laws of supply & demand; lack of customers = lack of cars (poor supply). I wish I’d not wasted my breath because he then educated me in the fact the local travel agents are screaming for his business. I knew at this point I’d backed a loser & politely sent him on his way to book 10 days in Benidorm. Quite how a self catering holiday in that shithole gets you to work when your current car is fucked is beyond me but that’s his business.

Quite frankly some deserve to. Absolutely. I’ve got as many waiting in my repair queue as I have for sale but a few more at nice money never go amiss. (A few more not quite so knackered would also be a bonus )

Imagine dealing with this mentality

Nah. If memory serves, some nutter resurrected one a few months ago that was about 4.5 years old.

Screwfix must of realised they’re selling a good vacuum with the Titan - about 4 years ago I’m fairly sure mine only cost £35. AT must be running the show.

+ do not conduct business by text messages and don’t be afraid to sack off difficult and/or undesirable punters - knowing who not to sell to is half of this job I reckon.

Absolutely. When I offered warranties that’s exactly what used to happen so I dropped them years ago. That was basically my point of view.

Are you really prepared to recommend another business on the back of yours? I’d suggest you need to know & trust them implicitly & obviously getting paid handsomely for the inevitable cries of “The garage won’t fix xxxx & xxxx on that plan you sold me 12 months ago” that you’ll have to deal with.

Car washes/valeting centres work in the cash-only black economy. Young staff at £60pw (I overheard a conversation & was staggered but these folk are claiming from the DSS or whatever it’s called nowadays) or immigrants being paid a pittance by the big man. It’s a totally horrible industry & I genuinely feel sorry for anyone working in it. My cars (my better ones that is) come back almost like new after a valet - due to the man hours it OBVIOUSLY can only be done on abusive pay levels.

Quote of the week. My longest in stock is 15 months which recently left me - a 2.4 petrol 2wd Antara. At least I still got £500 gross from it. The funny thing was, the week the Antara sold I sold a total of 3 cars, all 3 had been sticky (15m, 4m & 3m) so if I hadn’t owned them the way I look at it (rightly or wrongly) is that the £2500ish I got that week would of been sweet f.a. - At least that’s how I justify my pisspoor buying!

I very much doubt it & I can’t see the youth of tomorrow lusting after a five year old Corsa of the new vintage. Absolutely. New Corsa, Astra, Insignia, Grandland, Crossland - I ask myself who in their right mind, with £xxxxx to spend finds any of them at the top of their list. To my eyes their offerings are about as appealing as a bowl of cold spew. I do see plenty of them horrid Mokkas but I think they can only shift them via the Motability scheme.

Absolutely agree. Unless you are short of money or space there’s no need to bomb every sticky car out at a loss. Mind you, I’ve never had one get to anywhere like 2 years

Aren’t the new car sales side of main dealers not heading to becoming an anachronism? Apart from test drives, what do they offer that can’t be achieved by a punter logging in online and using their bank details (or more likely, completing the finance questionnaire) to order their car direct from the manufacturer, ESPECIALLY with the more bread n butter manufacturers. Admittedly the introduction of scabby old p/xs muddies the waters but that can be overcome. Times are a changing.

I think you’re over-analysing CRW’s comments. My guess is he looks at his (minimal) advertising costs simply as an overhead rather than breaking it down per car per month. Rather like myself tbh. The way I think of it is I fork out the pitiful sum of just over £220pm (+VAT) on advertising whether I advertise zero cars or turn over 60 (impossible but you get my drift). The advertising cost doesn’t change. Different strokes I guess. The last thing I’d want to do is mentally apportion more money to a sticky car that’s been sat in the corner for 6 months laughing at me.

Are they their own engines? It makes me think of a few years ago a young lad in the pub chuffed to bits with his brand new Chinese scooter - I think it was just over a grand retail, they must of cost tuppence to make. “Them Hondas are 4 times the price, you know. They’re taking the piss” was his greedy warcry. I was surprised to hear he actually intended to use it for commuting good distances. Well, that was his plan anyway. The engines in these things were barely good for 1000 miles. When the engines weren’t eating themselves some mechanical or electrical malady reared its head. Total & utter cheap spew.

I’m not sure who’s summed it up the best, Trade Vet or David Horgan, although a special mention must be made for TVs post

How many do MG sell per year? About 4 dozen? I very very rarely see one & even if I pass MG showrooms half of them are filled with more traditional fare. A distant neighbour does own one, however they’re less car-savvy & brand aware than me which is saying something.

In the public forum. Really?

So so true. You’d have to be absolutely fucking desperate, or stupid, to contemplate dealing with someone who is already thinking of bouncing the car back before they’ve even bought it.

What on earth is wrong with just telling a punter like them to ‘Fuck off’?

For the last day or two when viewing catalogues on my phone it often reverts back to page 1.

As others have said move into another market! Unless you specialise in such cars, from what I see at the block, it’s impossible to even try to make a proper wage on such items. After saying that I’m sure plenty make their money on newer small cars with finance etc. but the sub £3K small car market nowadays is dominated by the Gumtree/FB lads working for £2-400 a bonnet, sold ‘as-is’ off the back of a succession of £20 PAYG phones.