Nick M.K.

shell helix hx7 professional 5w-30 in a 20 litre box.

I got 20 litres for £45 so much better. BUT the f/s Shell HX7 Ultra is low spec and not really suitable for newish diesels as it is not low ash.

I recently watched an online sale at Paddock Wood. £1000 (CAP Clean) petrol Mazdas, 11-12 years old were selling for upwards of £2000! The brand is certainly enjoying a resurgence

Reminds me of that scene in Schindler's List where Ben Kingsley asks Liam Neeson: "They put up all the money, I do all the work, what, if you don't mind me asking, will YOU do?" "Presentation" "That's what I am good at"

I promote it very actively on AT including automatic application from my website. Finance customers typically ask for their finance options immediately although some leave this "secret card" until after their viewing.

It will be a trip down memory lane, sure, but when they turn up at my place surrounded by shinier metal they don't do the overalls and torches routine. That £200 Golf? That's not motor sales, that's scrap territory :-) Did it sell?

That's exactly what I thought :-) 1 office for Simon 1 office for a video editor 1 office with a "hot desk" for visiting dignitaries from this forum.

Not that I know of, my accountant just adds the commission income to the company income when they do the accounts.

I didn't mean that it says NO WARRANTY on my advert, I meant that it doesn't say my usual "Three / Six months parts and labour warranty also included"

No. You sell a £7000 car with £1000 cash deposit, you get the commission on the £6000 that were financed so £360 in this example assuming 6% comm. You get a cheque in the post at the end of the month or an immediate bank transfer if it's Blue.

The highest I've heard is 11% on an independent dealership with 200+ cars. 6-7% is more realistic for a small dealer, slightly more from Blue. I do 2-3 deals a month (13 stock) but I've also had months with 7 on finance and months with none.

I've decided to start using my two free "cheapie" ad slots on AT to make them pay their whole bill. While I can't confidently buy that stock at auction anymore I always get some part exes for £100-£300 that fit the bill perfectly. Easy advert, fewer images, less text, less options, no warranty and I can pretty much write what I want along the lines of "Don't ask about our last, best or lowest price please". My veteran mechanic that gets more and more scared of my newish "retail" stock loves working on these cheapies, he knows them well and I like the parts prices. Today I bought a clutch kit, filters, wipers, fitted floor mats, wheel trims and a couple of other bits and got change from £90 (and this includes the VAT). The downside: Spending ANY time driving those cars, no chance for finance, no chance for decent p/x and the level of English when the phones start ringing :-)

I am one of the smallest dealers on this forum and the three finance companies I work with (Close, Blue & First Response) are quite happy with me. If anything it is actually getting easier to "get in bed" with a finance company due to the very big players in the market getting bigger and the smaller players getting much more flexible and accommodating.

Only Codeweavers systems can autoprop to Close Brothers. In any case I prefer to submit applications myself to make sure all details are correct.

I think at proposal time they do a normal search but even with soft searches some customers just don't want them until the last minute.

I do that most of the time but sometimes the customers prefer to not have a search on their credit file unless they absolutely have to and are about to buy the car. Others have such a long list of cars ("I am thinking of an Audi, VW, Mercedes, Lexus or BMW but I might also consider a Range Rover Sport if the monthly payment is right") to look at that I'd rather not spend the 10 minutes proposing them until they tell me they want MY car and shake my hand on a deal.

When the car breaks and you sold it on finance the customer will complain straight to the finance company, not only to you. Finance company will then come back to you demanding you fix it.

Cons first: 1) You may spend an hour with a punter showing them a car and then they get rejected for finance. 2) 20 more minutes added to the average deal compared to cash buying. 3) Several hours added to SOME deals where you have to propose your customer to several finance companies if they have an iffy credit score or missing documents. 4) Comeback. You can get comebacks from a finance company which is sometimes more difficult to deal with if you are not used to it. Legally though it's easier with a finance company than a private retail buyer. 5) Zuto. Where do I even start. Now pros: 1) Money. Finance companies provide hefty commissions for our 10-20 minutes of work. So hefty in some cases that some dealers rely mainly on that income and have almost NO margin in the metal. 2) Ease of transactions. You are giving an expensive car to someone that can't save the money to buy it. They are NOT fussy at all, no more huffing and puffing for minor scratch marks etc. Selling a 20K car on finance is much easier than selling a £999 old diesel estate to a cash buyer. 3) Haggling. "What is your best price for cash?" I am sorry sir, we actually prefer buyers on finance because of the commissions. We can sell to you but only at the screen price. I hope you understand. 4) Stocking facility. A finance company that is happy with your volume will give you a very low interest stocking facility. This is sometimes cheaper than using your own money for stock. You can then grow much quicker. You need to know exactly what you are doing though. 5) Comeback. Because acceptance is so important to some finance buyers they don't suffer so much from buyers remorse and are unlikely to come back for full refund.

Ryanair flies to my home town Plovdiv which is an hour south of Pamporovo and that's where I go. Their flight times are so convenient that I go from Friday evening to Monday evening and get three full days of skiing. Beats the traffic to the Alps out of Geneva airport and certainly beats a weekend of showing cars to the "I will have a little think" lot.

This is fast turning into one of the most mentioned models on this forum. Closely followed by Astra. My highest mileage sale - Two stand out: My own 2006 Merc CLK220 CDI bought at BCA in 2012 at 180K miles (£4200) and sold in 2016 at 250K miles for £3300 after a flurry of calls. It was almost like new. Fantastic car. A Volvo S70 2.3T5 R with 190K miles I sold on eBay for £2200 to a buyer in Newcastle (I am in Bucks). I delivered it to his door and he dropped me off to Newcastle airport for a short flight back to Stansted. Delivered by me personally and free and I enjoyed every mile! Never again though, too risky :-)

100 cars a day? And here is me doing 20-30 kilometres of walking on an auction day at Blackbushe. 1500 average daily entries. Some very expensive, others DIRT cheap.

Although if you have a large enough oil leak for long enough it will keep corrosion at bay

You are so conservative :-) Last autumn I had a Black Jag XF, standard Chrome trim, Silver wheels. Advertised it at £11889 (AT verdict Above Market, CAP retail 11250) and had lukewarm interest. 11-15 ad views per day. Dechromed the side trim, painted the alloys black and the ad views shot to 45-55 a day. Sold within a month to a middle-aged chap from our area. He said he wanted a car that stood out a bit. And this is the BMW Ferric grey (over black primer here)

Huge difference in demand between the pure electric model (the white one) and the model with the petrol range extender engine. Even more demand for the (post July 16) 33KWh version (a lot more range) and needs high spec, Professional Nav, Turbine style alloys etc. Each of the three cars has something that makes me to not want it. (No range extender on white, Smaller 22 Kwh battery on Grey and basic wheels on Blue).

Should not be cheap or should not be tempted?