D&M

Hi All, Friends of ours have asked us to sell a 2002 BMW 325ci Individual cabrio on their behalf, which we agreed. They purchased the car in October, and have records of the advert and their invoice. Dealer told them the car had been in a minor bump and only needed a new front wing which was all done. We've started getting it ready, and found a further damage and HPI shows its a Cat D. Our friends were assured when purchasing that although the car had a little damage, the car was not an insurance loss. They didn't HPI the car themselves, they trusted the word of the dealer. They did ask the dealer all the right questions as they phoned from Spain to enquire about the car to make sure it was what they wanted, and the dealer had oppertunity to disclose but obviously chose not to disclose. They're gutted, they paid good money for the car and wouldn't have bought it if they knew it was in insurance loss. We're lucky we found out before advertising! The catergory on the car was from before the dealer they bought from repaired it, so now they know it's a catergory and has had a second. This isn't a case of buyers remorse. They are genuine people, and they think (and we do too) they've had to wool pulled over their eyes. Its a weekend toy that they've only coverd less than 300 miles since they've bought it. Would be interested in your opinions on how they can resolve this

Thanks all for the replies and tips - been run off our feet just recently! We called a place up in Cullumpton about it, but didn't get a good feeling from them, so we are going to get back on it on Monday and hopefully have it up and running soon! Nope, not yet.... That'll be very much appreciated, I will get the part number to you tomorrow to see if they match!

Thanks for the replies Yes, we've checked the voltage at the pump and it's reading the same as at the battery. - Should have put that bit in the OP Thanks again, much appreciated

Hi All, We've got a 2010 Mitsubishi Lancer 1.8 Auto, has ABS fault code C2116. Pump Motor Low Voltage. Checked the battery and alternator voltage and all good, so it would seems the pump needs reconditioning. Is there any companies that anyone here could recommend from past experiance? Much appreciated, thank you

+1 Not good showing if they don't even think the car is worth talking to the seller, even to try and knock a bit off

We've got one of those too! Awaiting prep at the moment

But by that time, its not your problem anymore!

Easiest sale we've made... Decided to have an afternoon nap - sometimes you just gotta. Phone rings (try not to sound like I've just woken up) Hello, is the X3 still for sale - Yes, it is. - Is it as nice as it looks in the pictures - Yes, it is. - Ok, email me your bank details and I'll transfer the money, if you could deliver it me later on that would be great. - Sure, we can do that. See you soon! DONE! - Made a fantastic mark up on that one too! - Why can't they all be that easy?

LIKE LIKE

That's what we have in our T&C's - can have a car for 14 days before adding it to the MID

Your next viewer on that one (VW Men) will be questioning whether its been in an accident as the headlamps aren't faded!

Trip-Tronic gearbox 180k - nuffin for these motors. Just had a new engine put in wiv 90k. Needs new turbo. - Can you tell we've been browsing the classifieds?

Our take on that is Dear customer it maybe a good idea to look at cars within your budget.

Our first PX we got in was so crap that we offered nothing for it, and they still accepted that - And paid full asking price. Sold it to the scrapper for £20 - Kerching!!!!

We've just got a new code reader after having just a £29.99 eBay jobbie. Launch CRP129. It's a bit more money at £260, but it also reads Airbag, ABS, Transmission related codes, resets oil service lights, and winds back electronic handbrakes. Paid for itself already! We used to use our mechanic to do our plug-ins, which he didn't charge us for but we didn't want to take the mick. Also helps if you buy something with lights on, read and delete the codes and see which ones come back on the drive home. We've had 2 EML's that once cleared haven't come back!

My mum bought a brand new 1994 Rover 214 SLi. Red and Grey. A year into ownership, her husband decides to give it a good clean as the neighbours had an open fire and the car had black spots all over it. Scrubbed the entire roof and bonnet with a brillo pad Another time, a neighbour of ours was just giving her Toyota Aygo a clean the day before handing it back to the lease company. Cleaned it using T-Cut diluted in a bucket of water and a scouring pad. Needless to say, the car didn't look its best after that. Spent the morning polishing hell out of it with her to undo what she'd done... Got away with it too!

Sorted. We set up from home, (currently in the process of moving to a unit) and haven't had any problems. The hardest thing we found was finding reputable mechanics/MOT tester/painters. Time consuming and costly if you have people working against you rather than with you. We think it is about how you sell the cars, upfront and honest. Don't promise the earth, as you are selling old, used cars. If problems arise, be reasonable with people. We don't have a problem having our home address available. We think it gives the customer confidence that we aren't hiding anywhere. If there are any problems, we can deal with them straight away as they come straight to us. Plus, like Mark101 said, the people who are coming to view/buy your cars know where you live anyway!

Apologies, didn't read the last sentence. I do see your point (reading properly this time), would be interesting to find out if a vendor can just bin a pants surecheck. I'm sure we've bought a car from BCA that wasn't Assured, but couldn't see the reason why it wouldn't be online. 2009, 50k miles. Bought it, knackered gearbox!

2 Lessons learned 1/ Always PDI (said C-Max was soon after we started and didn't PDI) 2/ Only pay customers out when they provide an invoice!

We used the Lawgistics PDI and always sell cars with the A/C untested. Our first moaner was about A/C - on a C-Max no less! just a £1,500, but a nice car. What sticks the boot in is that they tested in on the test drive, knew it wasn't blowing cold and were happy with that. A few days later we got the text message (no complaint via phone call, surprise surprise,) that an A/C pipe had snapped. £48 sent to the customer to buy a new pipe. Promised to send us the invoice to prove, invoice arrived the next d........ oh no, the invoice never arrived because the cheeky sods just wanted us to pay for the A/C regas.

Not necessarily. Car's got a burnt out valve - it's missfiring and has the engine light on. Surecheck says this. Buyers assumes it'll only be a coil pack failure... Same symptoms... Bids to account for a new coil pack and set of sparks. Can't have a moan, you knew the engine light was on and a missfire.

I think you should draw his attention to the part in the owners manual where it states that the owner of the car should operate the A/C for around 30 minutes once a month to keep the system lubricated and operational - seeing as he hasn't used the A/C at all for 4 months, against Fords advice. I wonder how happy he'll be when he finds out he has to sign a disclaimer at KwikFit/National etc to say that although they are re-gassing the A/C, they can't guarantee how long it'll last for!

We've been approached by companies telling us how to boost our online presence. They rabbit on about the importance of online reviews, we tell them how hard it is to get happy customers to leave reviews. They say to just post a review of what the customer would say if they left a review. Not convinced by a company asking us to act fraudulently. But, not so long ago we had a customer come out who didn't want to buy our 'crappy old van' because it had wear marks in the carpet under the pedals (10 years old, 140k). Threatened to post bad reviews all over good old Facebook to ruin our reputation, and get everyone on Facebook to come round and damage all our stock, report us to HMRC, Trading Standards and the local council for being dodgy dealers. Nothing come about from that. Googled the cheeky sods phone number, and they've 'privately' sold 3 motorhomes in the past 6 months.

I don't see what's wrong. Simons business model seems to be that he sells cars without faults. Reading the letter posted, customer complained that her mechanic said the headgasket had gone. Simon arranged inspection and found no fault so told the customer that he isn't going to repair something that isn't broken, or refund when there is nothing wrong. We're on board with that business model!

What he said ^^^