Nick M.K.

I have 13 + 2

I just called them. £17.71 per month is the complete cost (with my number of cars) There is nothing else to pay per check, unlimited checks subject to fair usage policy. So if someone wants me to do a check for them and pay me for it, this will breach AT rules and should make us both very happy for doing so

I stopped doing that years ago. I found it demoralising. I feel more motivated if I think I am more highly paid than I actually am :-) I don't need to know exact figures and with prep costs if the car needs it, the car gets it. I met another forum member recently in his office and he showed me a similar file. I told him the same.

Mine is only electronic so just a clever Excel file.

One of the many experiments from last year that actually worked. The other one was the table/board that you sent me. I spend almost as much time on it as on this forum.

That's not because they haven't read it. That's because they feel compelled to ask certain questions when they talk to you face to face and in a well written advert there should be nothing (important) that the customer can possibly think to ask which isn't there. Obviously there isn't a universal formula when people are concerned, some hate reading, some love it, some have approach to dealing with a real person, some don't. The only thing that never changes is the MOT question and What's the car like question. My answer: It's exactly as good as you are thinking... By the way: No one has commented about several of my ads showing sold cars marked as such. No one saw them or are they becoming the norm?

That's what I was thinking. CAP HPI can't be pleased about this as it will cost them a lot of customers / income.

Can we conclude that modern day buyers who spend upwards of £8-10K on a car don't bother reading the advert text these days (on AT at least)? I think some people spend a lot of time on car adverts before they make initial contact and by the time they phone they know everything, they've even found my personal facebook page, my limited company details from Companies House etc etc...

Even if I photoshopped my own photo to make me look slimmer? Thank you.

I doublecked, sorry, they are indeed £3.21 now, up from £2.75 one of the many industry price increases that have gone unnoticed.

It's an option on my HPI package, around £2.75 for a spec check.

Disabled class DHill. The text usually says can be taxed online. Well done for spotting it!

I will assume that his company was VAT Registered and that he recovered that VAT on the used van when he bought it. He now has to repay the VAT when he sells the truck so if he sells it to you for £4400 he has to pay back £733 of VAT inclusive in that price. It is exactly the same if he sells it to himself personally. It is depreciated very heavily I presume so his VAT liability will not be huge but he needs to keep a proper paper trail.

Because it makes almost no difference to my end advert look. If there is a big dent or a scratch I will remove it from that photo and then the dent devil / bodyshop will remove it in real life before the car gets anywhere near a customer. Simon picked up on the wheels not dressed here but they were, in fact you can see spots from the tyre shine on the plastic wheel arch trims and this is what made it look worse. I will tell Nicole, my 13 old daughter to do a better job next time :-)

I should've mentioned that I often take the photos before most of the prep is complete when the weather / light is good. The car had a valet after these photos and the the dent devil gave it the once over. MOT still to be done but we have looked at the car on a ramp and expect no advisories.

Thank you Umesh, you know I am all for getting in the highest possible number of searches (including price rounding sometimes but not here) and this one would get missed by some people for the sake of less than 200-odd miles. Do you see this as a negative James? On some other adverts I will have 4 locations including a different one for video. I'll go to one location, take 20 photos, struggle a bit with the light, drive a mile to the next, take 50 more, then looking at the computer some of the first 20 were not so bad and will get used.

Can I finally get a bit of feedback on my own ads please, I am looking for stuff that annoys and confuses or especially stuff that you want to see and it's missing. Be as blunt as you wish of course. I know my video quality is not great but I have videos on each ad anyway, will work towards improving them a lot in the next year. Shot with my iphone at the moment. https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201902265331507

Yes eBay just bought Motors so will probably rollout a package deal shortly for eBayMotorsPro + Motors + Gumtree. I think it will be between £450 and £600 per month for 25 vehicles. This is purely a guess though...

Pays for itself for the year with just a few deals, yes.

Tell him you know another dealer who also pays £100 per month but has a 20 car package. True story. I get a few calls and emails from them and for that sort of money will keep them.

I did. It reads like I am the best of the best. Probably sent to 5-10% of dealers depending on their reviews stats and how friendly they are with their account manager :-) Now they will mystery shop us, usually they will send an email and see what we do next...

The amount per month is based on your current advert level but the checks are indeed unlimited.

There you go! Not only I don't have it free but the price is £8.99 per check, presumably for the consumer. Maybe I need to ring them to include it free or maybe my £175 pm (25 cars) are too low to pay for that...

Thanks for the kind words chaps. The not-so-kind ones will promptly be ignored on a permanent basis.

I don't have Gumtree Tony, my package is just for eBay Motors Pro. I do get some enquiries from it but a small amount compared to AT. Last year I thought of ditching eBay but then I did one single deal where I made great money on the p/x, then bought the original retail car back from the customer for a fair bit less (Electric BMW) and instead sold him a Jag XF diesel estate (very nice margin again) and then sold the electric BMW two days after it came back for slightly more than I had sold it for the first time. The thought of missing out on that one customer (travelled from Liverpool) makes me keep eBay where he found me.