NOACROSS

Looks to me like there’s lots of cars not making reserve on there. Is it the same at BCA etc at the mo?

Yes! Had one guy back in a few times. Every time we put a new sticker in, it was missing when came back Ended up shelling out for an auto gearbox rebuild (guess the nationality of the car) you’d have thought he’d have been grateful

I like seeing them when out and about- particularly cool (do people say that anymore) if a bit out of the town. Speak to them? Don't be silly! 'It's been a good car, apart from I had to replace a tyre the other year, and the brakes....'

I should think it's a good time of year for a day van?

Not that I have ever understood them like cars- but any van in PX seems to have done well over the years for me. No-doubt if I had a site full of them, they wouldn't prove so popular. (I wonder if van sellers sell the odd car well on the site when it comes in px. 'Cheapest car on the pitch scenario is another one.)

Both. Annual fee and a buyers fee. It’s not a lot though.

They were acquired by Cox Automotive (own Manheim) a while back. Cox also owned Motors until recently so maybe DA could get sold on again. Wasn't there some time up between DA and AT happening or did I dream it?

I think he's just taken a hiatus from contributing on the forum? Hope it's temporary as it's not the same without him. Sytner has a rating system, but who knows if it makes any difference. It's not to be forgotten that WE are not DA's customers in their opinion. Same again with AT (and Car Gurus) where it's all about the punter- not the people actually spending money with them. I will say again though that there are some great Dealers on DA.

Must be a Canadian thing. (Terence or Phillip- yeah, what’s that all abooot guy?)

For balance, are there any good DA stories? Times when they have come through and been on our side? Be nice to hear some . I’ll start with that I feel that they’re very helpful and nice people (sorry BHM) when you need to speak to them, and they appear to work hard to get you the junk if it’s provisional. Like AT, it’s all about the bottom line, and the more dealers and buyers they have on there, the more money they’re likely to make -this MUST obviously be their underlying goal. Keeping us lot placated isn’t gonna be a major target (if at all) & whilst trying to keep the dealer happy, it will be a balancing act, with us the little kid up in the air on the see-saw with the fat kid (with pointy shoes) on the other end laughing. As I said before, you get to know the good Dealers and I have no issues with them. I don’t buy nearly as much off there as I used to, but this is mainly because of the high prices they fetch nowadays. Again, as a business model, it must be fantastic-wish I’d thought of it. It’s just the aggressive and unreasonable stipulations that get me and, as has been stated, a quick drive and report isn’t asking for much and the ones that don’t are either stupid or liars. Paying up front is similarly ridiculous, although there are a couple of dealers who I have got to trust and would do so if they wanted (they don’t) . The answer will remain: if you don’t like it, don’t bid.

Love it. :0) Yeah, you’re right- nice guy is irrelevant, but he was, and he listened to me - I’m under no allusion that anything will change and, in the grand scheme of things, we’re nothing to them compared to the dealer. He said it wasn’t true so make of it what you will. I also thought it might encourage others to complain where necessary if they thought they might at least be listened to Well it’s because of said chancers that we DO need to drive the junk before handing over our hard-earned. You do get to know the good ones as I said, and Emporium (Pointy Shoes) BHM Ltd would no-doubt be one of the good guys. ;0) It’s not an auction really per-se except that it is as long as they know how to describe a Kit Kat. You need to check it’s not my dog’s crap wrapped in tin foil. If you bought a Surecheck BCA /Manheim car that states mechanically OK and it in fact wasn’t- then you don’t keep the junk. These DA chancers are crooks.

Car Gurus is years away from being able to be the sole advertiser solution for sure. If ever. I’m interested to see what happens with the Motors/Gumtree/eBay merger and how much dough they throw at it. They’ll probably just put all the prices up rather than streamline and reduce.

Ha. Et Tu Brute?! ;o) No worries mate, was brave of you to try to give up the addiction and you did really well your first month without them as you say remember I still sell cars via AT apparently. According to the odd punter every so often. It’s been a quiet few months for many (on and off AT) so will be difficult to gauge scientifically, as peaks and troughs are the name of the game. Just because you may (I honestly hope) get busy soon, may or may not be a consequence of going back on with the robbers of course. Did you try Motors Mark ever? I think if you’re not on AT, you need to be on a few others (still at considerably less spend of course in my case with 50 plus stock). Maybe (and probably) if you are on AT, you don’t need to be on anything else.

I dunno who they are as never bought off them. And not likely to ever be buying from them either. Suzuki Jimny Auto, finishing tomorrow. Yorkshire. To be fair to them, they’ve not tried to hide their (outrageous IMHO) stipulations.

Ticking over pretty nicely. No records being broken, but much better than the previous two months.

Whilst I was in a ranting mood with Car Gurus today, I also made a complaint to DA via their contact us button. Thought I’d hear no more about it as usual, but, to my surprise, the head bloke called me. Nice guy. Whilst he understood my point of view and somewhat sympathised with me, the nice conversation ended with no remedy. The dealers basically list what they like, and say/stipulate whatever terms they like. All DA can do is try to educate them as to how to best go about the listings to attract the most buyers. My suggestion of not having that dealer on their books fell on stony ground of course. Things like ‘absolutely no test drives or inspections’ and ‘payment in full in advance’ etc are what they are it would seem. NO TEST DRIVES - IT’S AN AUCTION – SOLD AS DESCRIBED – NO TEST DRIVES AT BCA ARE THERE?!! I said that in my head that means ‘ car’s shagged and I don’t care-you can go forth and multiply you trade scum’ and surely goes against the two way trust that should exist on DA, and, to be fair, does with many vendors on DA. Whilst its called an auction, it’s a bit more than that, and it’s only right that we get to check the descriptions and the lack of descriptions before paying. That and checking there’s an engine is always advisable. How long does it take to start the junk up, drive it a few hundred yards and then neatly report your findings I asked? (You can be damn sure the said dealer in question has indeed driven the junk before doing the deal on the car they sold. Or transporting to their compound etc) Anyway, I said I’d draw their attention to this forum and you good people’s feelings about DA. He said he would be really interested in honest feedback, so over to you. I forget to mention the recently raised points by others where a shagged, seriously mis-described car is re-listed forthwith without any mention of said issues-despite DA being made aware of the offending dealer. The list of dealers not to buy off grows in the meantime of course.

I’ve been moaning at them again today. Days in stock etc and, as you say, their whole ethos is skewed the wrong way. They forget that we are the customer, not the punters. Same with Autotrader, but I’ll resist my bi-monthly hate-rant for now. ;o) Back to CG, I was also moaning about the upcoming price increase (it’s still cheap in comparison). The account manager is nice enough and agreed with me, but, of course can’t do anything about any of my gripes. I’ll put up with it a bit longer. Think I’ll end up spending some of the money with Facebook in the end as that’s doing well surprisingly.

It is weird that Nick. Have you asked them? For example, I know Rory has said he does alright with them also.

By the way- welcome Casper and thanks for the introduction! There's a fair few big names down here on the South Coast that are hurting too. I'm amazed that Westover got bought recently by Hendy - so I guess they at least must be an attractive proposition.Who knows. I wonder how we'll all look back on the 2015-2020 period in a few years time. Any previous era and words like 'squeeze, crunch and recession would maybe have been mentioned?' Or maybe it's just the transition from actual to virtual business a-la Amazon.

Yeah, maybe. Her Indoors is permanently welded to Amazon. I’m talking about a google search though. eBay is no nowhere by the looks from my non-scientific search.

It’s odd isn’t it? Bit of a coincidence that, once Gumtree came to the fore of their focus, then EMP starts to under perform. Wonder what the story is. Maybe they’re not spending on the eBay google rankings anymore? ( a quick search seems to prove me correct: Used cars local & up Pops my site, the competition and then Gumtree first, then Motors, Exchange & Mart, Autovillage (Motors), RAC Cars (Motors) and then a little fledgling company-Autotrader.) Ebay is nowhere! Smoke, fire? Interesting that the head company- Ebay isn’t promoting themselves, but they are pushing their purchases of Gumtree and Motors.

We’re on the paid package. Its ‘alright to good’. There is a price increase coming though, so I’ve called their bluff and not renewed yet. Gumtree is hopeless I think, but it does get a lot of views compared with just ebay MP. I was happy on just the EMP contract to be honest. However it turns out the phone number they’d given us wasn’t working! Each time I think about cancelling Motors, it sells a car. The RAC Cars part of it seems to be performing well. They’re quite up the google rankings. EMP has been quiet recently but over the years has done well.

:o)

You can still get them. John’s is very efficient. I buy deposit books and trade sale pads off them still. Johns Motorcare Supplies Used Car Sales Invoice Pad & Receipt Buying & Selling https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F250873851895

Zuto give commission? Quite respectable too I think -only done one deal with them so can’t remember how much it was Another vote for Mallard. Nice people. Same with Zebra (Autobahn now)