BHM

Saab must of copied the idea for 9-3 amplifiers under the passenger seat. Ideal when the Vectra, sorry I mean 9-3, scuttle drain bungs up and floods the carpet along with shorting out the fan and then said amplifier. Who the f*** comes up with these ideas? I know! Probably the same numpty who also put Saab fuel filters near the cill in the path of road spray & debris thrown up from the o/s/f tyre.

....I hope their servicing is better than their descriptions of their p/xs on DA.

The comments MAY be removed depending upon ebay’s judgement but the rating will not be removed. Tbh I’m not sure why people get so upset about the occasional bad rating - any half reasonable person/customer understands you can’t please 100% of the people 100% of the time. I know it’d be nice to face up to these people & scare the hell out of them but as most are faceless keyboard warriors I realised years ago that there is no point getting wound up by their opinions.

What’s this? Hollow threats of court action? You sound like a mug punter! Sorry but do you honestly think Google will be shitting themselves receiving a solicitors letter & bend over backwards to satisfy your every wish? If so, think again. Btw, in the case of eBay if negative feedback hasn’t breached their policies then eBay require a court order before they’ll remove it. Perhaps sleep on it and here’s a serious suggestion - DO NOT SEARCH & READ REVIEWS. I stopped giving a toss years ago about the views of disgruntled idiots. If you think a few bad reviews are going to torpedo your business then I suggest you need to take a step back and start thinking rationally.

Co. Durham & Cleveland forces use local main dealers for their panda car maintenance & have done for years - I used to chase up the dealers for the service history. I suspect as times have changed & the chill winds of cutbacks bite so the maintenance regimes been ‘slackened’.

You are absolutely correct not to refund his deposit. Half you got it off your chest I suspect that in order to remove the feedback you’d have to get a court injunction (or something like that) in order to force Google - let’s be honest, you won’t go to them lengths. Would this be the correct place to yet again reiterate “f*** reviews, they aren’t worth a w***, they can write whatever they like as I’ll never see it because I don’t read reviews”? (I will await the inevitable comments saying I live in the dark ages from those of you who kowtow to keyboard warrior scum).

Cash is king. Potless credit card punters can sling their hook, there are still plenty of punters out there with “cash on hip”. An old fashioned view but they haven’t made cash undesirable - yet! Although that is the eventual aim of governments.

Every week or two when this question pops up I answer “use your trade plates”.

Yes, not too long ago they had a full service before being blocked & anything with “issues” was clearly auctioned as such. All of a sudden it was as if someone flicked a switch - no declaration of problems, service history no longer given, no pre-auction service. God knows why or how they now make book money.

Years ago I used to flog quite a few ex-police & ambulance service cars. All faults would be declared on the lot sticker, they used to be bought for sweet f.a. at the block, destickering, replace the radio & spend £150 on a painter for the roof and whoosh! Out of the door for a good profit within days. Then all of a sudden about 5 years ago they started making bottom book money with no fault declarations made & whenever I’ve taken any notice they still do - no good to me at that money. If I’m buying a scruffy Focus estate with holes in the roof, screw holes in the dashboard, no radio and a needing a good wash & brush up then I expect to pay peanuts for it.

Some are leased and some (usually the early ones that were sold at big money) are owned. I’ve never got involved but I’d GUESS a Nissan Dealer would point you in the right direction.

True. Very true. The engines are often choked-up and low mileage punters usually don’t like spending on maintenance.

Hard work, generally bought by the usual potless small car punter who wants finance and expects the Earth. Very fickle to get spec/miles/colour/price right, not for the likes of me.

I agree with everything EXCEPT your last paragraph - steer away from the leggy German dross if you want a quiet life. I used to be scared of the miles but if it’s low owners, historied & relatively tidy then high miles are good bets with real profit on them. 4x4s, Galaxies etc. (that would retail at £8Kish with low miles) that trade at £2-2.5K and retail at £4-4.5K are a no brainer but forget anything smaller. I use my stock for transport but the family car is a fully historied Honda, 160K, super condition, drives like brand new and being a Honda doesn’t give any surprises. Compare that to a fellow trader’s BMW - he gets a bill every month & it still isn’t 100%. As for buying a low miler & watching the ££££s fall away every month in depreciation, well sorry, but in my opinion that’s a mug punter’s game.

Very very interesting. How refreshing that a member of this industry is prepared to back-up what they’ve stated & can clearly be seen to be correct. A round of applause for Arthur thicken!! Sorry but you must of opted for the shittest deal ever, although I’m not on AT a fellow trader is on a 15 car deal and before Christmas the invoice was just under £1200 (I can’t remember if that was before or after VAT) which I thought was bad enough! Perhaps I’m just cheap

Very sad for those concerned if true but I guess as the retail landscape has changed drastically then there are always going to be casualties along the way. Cars are no longer a luxury good, they’re a disposable consumable so expect more & more changes over the next decade as how they’re retailed alters - one thing’s for sure, it’s only going to get harder.

Amend f.a. - the price is the price. These cheeky chancers boil my piss - a deal’s a deal and that’s the end of it. Years & years ago I remember a fellow trader who did a cash deal with a private buyer over a VAT registered van. Over two years later, said customer phoned out of the blue “Remember me? I bought XXXXXXX, I now want a VAT invoice cos I’m now VAT registered and I now want to slip it into my books & reclaim the VAT”!!! He was told to sod off but even the fact that he only became VAT registered 2 years later didn’t sink in - he seemed to think every penny of VAT he’d paid since leaving school could be reclaimed. F***ing idiot. The only reason anyone ever phones up after driving away is for THEIR benefit - not yours.

You can always tell an “auction friend” - they always want a favour from you to stand aside but it’s never reciprocated.

French dross, I hate it. Somehow I’ve ended up with a 1.6 16v engined Shitron. All seemed too good to be true. It was, “Ping!” EML makes an appearance and it’s Code P0011. That’s tomorrow’s job I suppose it could be worse - it could be one of VAG’s finest acting up

Yes but the parents are clearly also arseholes for letting the little prick conduct himself like that in public. Justina3 must be nicer than me cos at that point I’d of told the little turd to piss off & told the parents exactly what I thought of their jumped-up spawning.

Physical. There’s no way they’ll get me to buy online. Funnily enough Manheim phoned last week asking was I interested in bidding online farther afield. ”No way” I cried, “your appraisals are crap”. Rep: “Perhaps you aren’t aware but the appraisals used online are exactly the same as a physical auction”. ”I am & as I said, your appraisals are crap”. At this point I should say my stock profile is £1000-4000, so I’m more interested in the mechanicals rather than how pretty they look. Anyhow the next day I’m at the block looking at a low mileage shitty 2006/2007 Zafira on a silver assured. The assessment stated all tyres where at decent tread (of course no mention of the bald edges - to my eyes they were 4 that wouldn’t pass an mot) The car started on 3 pots, the fourth eventually spluttered into life, the exhaust was blowing loudly at the manifold which resulted in blue smoke from the half-knackered engine billowing out of both ends of the car! Quite an achievement for a car that scored 37 out of 37. Oh yes, and the clutch pedal was up by my ear! So gone on, if you’re buying year old stock it’s probably worth a punt but if you’re buying cheaper stock, good luck- you’ll bloody well need it!! Sorry but in my opinion the assessors couldn’t describe a lump of coal.

Some of the punters are absolutely stark staring mad, and you’ve got one of them! These arseholes will say absolutely anything to attempt to muddy the waters - f*** knows why cos you’ve offered them their money back. Best of luck!

Fufu valve or the thingamajig. F*** me, it’s bad enough diagnosing faults with the car & code reader in front of you.

Haha, I know what you mean but the rozzers have much better things to do nowadays than pull over cars that are clearly taxed & insured on the MID - the days of Dixon of Dock Green are long gone

Funny, I thought that too but I chucked in my two penneth worth anyway.