Nick M.K.

£3000 sold for £9000 or £300 sold for £900?

At a place like Blackbushe it doesn't matter. There are so many cars and so many people that no one can keep tabs on everything like they can at Bedford for example. What I like to do is have a look under the bonnet when the car is started and all other "interested parties" are near it. I will let the bonnet drop (not slam it!) quite loudly and then will walk off very quickly as if I saw something that I didn't like. Or sometimes I will attract some interest on purpose :-) When I am with my wife (sometimes she drops me off at BCA and stays for an hour to show some interest in the business which is half hers) I will tell her very loudly and from some distance away "This is your car today, whatever it takes" and the look on some of the private punters that are checking the car (and some young dealers) is priceless. They will literally turn away, hands in their pockets towards the next car on their list... What does everyone think of bids which are deliberately too high? Cap Clean £6500, Auctioneer starts with "Who's got five?" and someone raises six fingers to scare some people off on purpose???

Don’t. You will lose your like and edit buttons and some photo upload options. In return you will read how he only has an automatic licence.

Comission bid? Dear oh dear... They will always bid up to that max or often start there so you end up missing it for £50 and missing out on the ££££ under book bargains.

If a dealer that has the need to tax their stock it's a nice little loophole. Tax 15 cars per month for the price of a single trade MOT.

You might be pleasantly surprised. My own car is LS64YRZ, logbook ref 2 8101 672 0598, check it.

"Excuse me, I will pay you the deposit now but will travel to collect in two weeks. Would you mind taxing the car for me in advance to save some time on the day as I will be travelling long distance" Of course Mr Customer, we will be happy to tax it for you today, no problem. I will add the £30 cost to your invoice.

Will he pay you the tax or are you throwing it in? Either way the tax will continue until the 12 months expire and the new owner will receive a reminder. In the future do it by direct debit, will cost you a couple of quid for a months use instead of £30 :-) Just cancel the DD after the sale and use the same V5C reference to tax it again.

Live or Online auctions... How and when do you place your bids?? What do you do when the call comes for the "Provisionals"? I personally used to wait until the last moment to wave a catalogue (or my phone) but these days they call so many bids off the walls that the price jumps £700-£800 before the first real bidder joins the party. I would put a bid straight in provided they start low enough and will wait a few extra seconds between bids to slow things down a little if I think we are still away from the reserve. This is slightly tricky in UKCGR sales as their reserves are too loose. I would also pick a place in the hall where most bidders won't see me but the auctioneer sees me straight away.

Warranty booklets, Test drive forms and PDI Pads - Lawgistics Invoices - Lawgistics online or my own Word file as back up Printed materials - Vistaprint Anything else - my own Word or Excel files

Water condenses on the inside of these diffs in long cold periods of little use (I don't know how) and dilutes the diff oil which of course is "for life" so the problem is more common in very low mileage cars. On the plus side it's relatively easy to take them off and send away for refurb.

Good for him! He is not going anywhere near my retail cars though :-)

I am in the same position so often have a queue of 5-6 cars to be advertised. I think I need a driver / runner / valeter but working from home it is not ideal. Have to be someone very part time in my case. An active retired person who drives like Miss Daisy should be ideal. Except the valeting of course :-)

Rear diff possibly, I’ve changed 2 on coupes innthe lasyvyear, both low ileage. Also this Bmw 2ltr engines make a whiny noise at 2-4K revs, sounds like a high pitch metallic whine and it’s just how they are. Drive it to 40-50 Mph, then put it in neutral and let it coast to a stop. What happens with the noise?

I asked my customers in the last 4-5 months about how long had they been looking for a car and at MY advert before they called to arrange a viewing or leave their deposit. Less than a week in total was the answer for most, a couple did say it took them over 6 months but a couple said started to look (adverts) on Sat and bought the next day.

Was the picture wrong? From another vehicle added to this advert by mistake??

Had even worse. Someone from the South West on a £6500 2011 Honda Insight (big demand for hybrids in London now, he had missed this news). Quoted Parkers £5000, finally admitted he had seen AT Retail £6350 and the fact that my Honda has leather and sat nav and was the one he wanted. He then said: "I am doing my homework now, I am also looking at a number of Honda Insights sold by other dealers for less and closer to me and I would like your very best cash price please". I said to him I prefer a finance buyer and that we also have £300 deposit contribution offer if he was interested. He had a go at me for now wanting to reduce my price for cash and sounded really annoyed that his tactics were not working. Hang up on me when I said we don't take Credit cards (what happened to the cash offers!!!). I googled his number later and he has a liquidation goods business, buys unsold stock from failing shops... You'd think they would know how to get a good deal Oh I want the EDIT button: should read "He had a go at me for NOT wanting to reduce my price for cash"

Most Mercedes after 2011 have a button next to the audio unit saying NAV. On some of them when you press it it says No Navigation Module Connected. Requires a separate optional unit which was £400, used for around £140. The customers can not assume the car has NAV just because it says NAV on one of the buttons!

This is very important! You didn't advertise Bluetooth, they didn't ask specifically and CRA states that a car needs to be fit for a SPECIFIC purpose. If they had said "We want Bluetooth" and you had written or said "Yes it has Bluetooth" you are in breach of CRA. In this case however it is not your responsibility. I would offer to fit a system for them if they agree to split the cost with me as a pre-Christmas gesture of goodwill. Around £100 should get the job done, £50 each it's hardly the end of the world and certainly not the end of this deal.

Yes. It's also a good idea to not display the number plates on the main photo (or even all photos) as some customers remember them and know it's the same car and assume something is not right with it. Change photos, change price slightly (up or down) and the AT attention grabber and if you had it say two months and it says FULL MOT on your advert (because you did a new one in October) change that text too.

Same here but for my benefit for the 30-40 mile journey back from Blackbushe.

1) In your advertising does it say by you that it HAS Bluetooth? 2) In your talks with your customer did they ask and did you TELL them that it had Bluetooth? 3) If both above are YERS buy a Parrot Bluetooth kit from ECP for around £90, it's a much better kit that the one supplied with some Polos from the factory! *both above are YES

Well summarised by Mojo above.

If she’s whacked the casing it’s not for the supplying dealer to offer a remedy on an end of life vehicle many momths after the purchase. A Dekra or Ace inspection is a gamble at this point as it could simply state that the gearbox was “likely” faulty when sold. Go to the garage where the car is and ask them to see the damaged casing and take some photos. Show them to your trusted garage first for an opinion. You also have the option to offer to buy-back the faulty vehicle at a much lower price to eliminate any legal repercussions. Then fix and re-sell. £350 for an exchange refurb box depending on how damaged your casing is.

They are never “out of nowhere” :-)