Nick M.K.

"Bums on seats" is the bane of my life when they've only come to our lovely quaint just-out-of-London location with picture perfect roads for a cheap Saturday afternoon. Bums on the two visitors chairs in front of my desk is what I aim for and what really helps me sell.

£400 across the bonnet when I only sell 8-12 a month will not get my pulse racing and get me glued in front of this computer (and on the M25) for 80+ hours a week.

I have a stocking facility with Close Brothers. 3% interest (annual), more than double that in finance commission (per deal, NOT annual) at the top sell-out rate and at over 35 months lend. Costs me approx £35-40 to finance a £10K car for a couple of months which when sold brings as much profit as 5 newish superminis sold by the PLCs. IF the sale is on finance it brings a few hundred extra in commission and after doing this for a few years I personally think it's NUTS not to go that way (while it exists because it won't always) and continue working with your own money exploring the buy for £1200, prep for £300 sell for £2795 niche. It is the same as buying a house with a mortgage and buying it with your own money. Yes, the mortgage company charges their interest but you will take ALL of the profit margin after you sell it without putting up the capital to buy. They work for you, their money works for you, NOT the other way around. Not a good starting-up strategy though...

I like the latest expression, never heard it before but makes perfect sense. I am yet to meet a dealer that doesn't exaggerate their stock holding or their sales figures or their profit margin or a combination of the above. Obviously it's not so easy to do on this open forum when all stock is on a website and all stock movements are there for everyone to see.

Some days at the auctions I will "overbuy". I will buy 5 instead of the one or two I went for just because I can and because a week later when I really need the stock it may not be there. I prefer to pay BCA a couple of days of storage and my stocking provider another £30-£40 if I can get a car for a grand or two less than usual.

Oh I tried all of this for a while before ringing them to ask if there is a knack to starting it or a hidden switch somewhere but no. Plus, the other day when I went it started immediately as soon as I turned the key the first time. I have two keys, same thing. Starter motor or the wiring to it has had it.

"Yes but it's depreciated further since the call! Lost £18,000 on day one so another £300 for several hours sounds possible. Send me your bank details and I will transfer my £50 deposit. I assume you will be happy to hold it for me until payday?"

Sold a Merc E250 CDI today to a very nice retired couple, just returned to the UK for good after living in Portugal for 15 years. The part ex looks very nice too, 2006 Jeep Cherokee 2.8 CRD Limited Auto, Left Hand Drive, lovely condition, huge spec and mine for £1800. Market price (not that there will be any competition for this here) will be over £5K. I saw and drove it the other day when we were agreeing this deal. Perfect! They were supposed to come and collect yesterday but couldn't. They arrived in the Jeep today, parked it in front of my garage, paperwork was done already so they jumped in the newer Merc and drove off. I waved them happily, tried to move the Jeep and it doesn't start. At all. No cranking. You press the brake, turn they key and nothing at all happens. As if the starter motor has failed. The way the car is parked disrupts my entire operation so my mechanic is coming early tomorrow morning to get it started and fixed but my question is: Do you think they knew??? Or are they the luckiest part exchangers in the world where the car lasted them exactly until the moment of being traded in I am only suspicious because they couldn't arrive yesterday as agreed so maybe it failed to start then. Bless them, I hope that Mercedes serves them really well!

I shifted two but very nearly only shifted one and wrote off the other.

Well, soon enough but I wasn't THAT specific

Nearly had a collision on a test drive in a TT this afternoon, 2 mins after complimenting the lady how confidently she drove. A mile from our place outside the showroom of my only competition, I was looking left at their stock, she must've been looking right, the Cayenne in front of us stopped after turning left from the small roundabout (maybe people were crossing), I yelled and she only just managed to jump on the brakes, an inch from his rear bumper. She shook my hand after the test drive, apologised twice and said "It's the adrenaline talking but I'll buy it, thank you". Hats off to her, didn't even look at her husband. If she had bumped that Porsche I would probably offer to pay out of my own pocket for both bumpers assuming he didn't press the insurance angle.

A recession can hit the new market hard and will be beneficial for the used car market, as long as you know what you are doing. People need their cars and when they can't buy new (if the banks don't play the PCP ball) they'll come straight to us. Be optimistic people!!! The new Klondike years are coming.

Me too. With my limited English years ago if I was asked to think of another expression to describe them I would use "Money pit"

That it does and perfectly! But I don't want that. I want them to come over, have a coffee, relax a bit, sit in my office, hear the phone ring several times in several minutes for other cars, "Sorry, we just sold it", talk cars for a while and because I have some very nice ones in addition to the 10yr old whatever it makes them feel better for getting an opportunity to buy it from me. How can I sell myself if my video shows several chips and a couple of alloy wheel scuffs and the buyer never rings me assuming the car is just average and a tad overpriced... Had a call from AT two days ago on a new advert, strong Scottish accent. "I am 350 miles away, can you describe the car to me on the phone?" I said Have a look at our video on the AT advert, he had missed it so I texted him a link to the video below. He never called back. I don't know what put him off, maybe the location, some wear on the driver's seat if he didn't see it in the pictures or my large Eastern European head reflecting in the paintwork. I'll never know. Could've been just a dreamer...

I think this is where video DOESN'T do it for me. The good photos create desire and demand, buyers spend a lot of time looking at the ads online, then get in touch. An average quality video showing what looks like an average quality car (because of my limited video skills, the cars in the metal are great!) probably scares some people away. I do it because of what I read on forums but don't see the results. I watch videos of cars offered for sale and some of them actually put me off.

That and all the DIESEL and PETROL scaremongering that just pushes people into buying hybrids. I don't see myself driving anything other than a diesel for the next decade.

So after months of experimenting, talking to customers, punters, competitors, £££ spent on gadgets and hours in front of a computer screen I can confidently say that while video MIGHT be the future we are not quite there yet. Yes, it is currently overrated. It's a bit like Boris Johnson and Borat from the thread the other night. Lots of noise. Not a lot of result. I am on target for my best month ever, videos (albeit short) on every car, on every ad, nice desirable cars, lots of calls, ad views and interest but very few video views. "Did you watch my video?": Yes I saw it for a couple of seconds but it was your pictures that mainly drew me to your car although it was more expensive than others. "What made you travel 80 miles, was it my video?": No, everyone does videos now, it was your ad and the exact spec on your car. "How did you decide to buy from me and not from somewhere closer to you, was it my video?": No, we saw many adverts, sent several emails and your reply was the first that came back. Your car had the right spec too. So you can be Steven Spielberg and a magician with a video camera but the fact of the matter is: People are still searching for used cars in quite a conventional way and for the moment it's probably best to spend more time writing effective ads on AT than editing movies. The above is my own personal experience of course, maybe affected by my inability to create astonishing video content and I know there will be replies that "videos sell cars" etc etc. All I am saying is that for me, today, they don't. Something else drives my buyers.

I went through their whole sale catalogue and can not see that car in my list so have no idea what section it was listed in. Something from Moneybarn for example I would not touch. Cap Clean for that car would've been £8925 so £225 under but yes at £8700 I would've been a buyer if I was there on the day, if it had good colour & spec and if the condition was good. Have a look at the graph below with trade prices going UP! CAP retail hasn't caught up yet as I would not offer it for £10K.

So it's ONLY £3000 not $48,000,000.

It's the interior condition which gives a driving school car away plus in our area most driving instructors are Indian (mine was too in 2004, Mahendra Pandoria, a great guy). This Auris's previous owner is called Nicholas John ****** and hopefully he wasn't a driving instructor.

I feel as a dealer of used cars this a wrong approach. You need to think what might be desirable to the majority of buyers and in this particular case what might be desirable to just ONE person out there. Because ONE is all @david gott needs to sell it (unless at auction, then it's TWO). I'll prove my point. The Ferrari 250 GTO is not desirable to me as a classic. It does nothing for me. I don't like the way it looks, it's not especially powerful by today's standards and quite frankly I don't know what all the fuss is about. BUT one just sold for $48.4 million. $10 million more than the same model sold 4 years ago. (maybe this is what the fuss is about) https://edition.cnn.com/2018/09/30/cars/ferrari-gto-most-valuable-car-auction/index.html

What??? Someone will lose sleep over this, for sure. @david gott, list it on AT at £3000 exactly and publish the weekly response stats here please. +1 That's a valid strategy, sometimes the "it's too good to be true" brigade needs reassurance that they are looking at something really rare and genuine. What better reassurance than asking the highest price in the country.

It would be ideal for it but this one is in pristine condition, looks like it's done 20K miles and doesn't have any signs of the pedals in the passenger footwell.

This is what I've been doing for years with my daily drivers, always managed to sell them for above market after a few months. When I need a quick sale it never happens for me but when I hope to have a car to enjoy it for a while it goes immediately.