Nick M.K.

Here is the story I promised a few days ago when we chatted about the cheap old p/x Micra... I have a very close friend and for many years I've supplied her cars, she went through a divorce years ago and gradually moved away from big gas guzzling BMWs to small cheap automatic Jap superminis. The Micra in question was owned since 2013, she did over 45K miles in it with little maintenance, it still drove well but had to go, looked a mess and needed some TLC or a replacement. She rang me a month ago to talk replacement and her boyfriend (of 6 years) must've overheard the call. She set me a budget of around £2-£2.5K and a deadline of 30 Sept "because the tax and insurance expire then"... We also agreed a p/x valuation for her Micra. Her boyfriend then called me secretly a few days later to say that he wanted to surprise her and that he would pay for a newer, better small automatic, up to £8.5K. My discretion, whatever I choose. I worked my magic and with a bit of auction luck got a white 2013 Polo 1.4 (not TSI!) auto, 20K miles for just under Cap Clean, price to them was £7500 including the old Micra in chop. I went all out on the prep including new branded tyres knowing her obsession over driving in the rain, Bluetooth for her phone, paintless dent repairs etc etc etc. And included free delivery to them in West London as her insurance would've lapsed for the p/x car during that weekend. I turned up early on Sunday morning 30 Sept with the Autoglymed Polo and as soon as she walked outside the house and saw me, my grin, the shiny white car and her boyfriend's even bigger grin she went ballistic, mainly towards the boyfriend! "This isn't a £2K car, I am a grown up, I can buy my own car, You know I hate surprises, Why are you going behind my back meddling in my deals with Nick, I told you I wanted something cheap, How much is this Polo, I'll pay for it myself, I am independent etc etc etc" Do you remember Will Smith in Hitch (2005) after his disaster date: "I saw that going differently, in my mind..." My thoughts, exactly. It was a surreal scene with me standing there on the street with my trade plates not sure if I am going back 30 miles in the Micra, the Polo that I had just spent 2 whole days prepping or a UBER... She gradually mellowed to the idea and took it for a spin, after much discussion in the house (an hour at least) we decided that we'll tax the VW with DD, she'll have a longer drive in it and decide the next day what she wants to do. Needless to say I hadn't collected any money for the car yet and had an unpleasant Sunday fully anticipating my deal to be reversed and the overprepped Polo to hit the open market on Tuesday. Luckily for me I got the call by her boyfriend that she's seen sense and loves the VW and keeping it. "I'll transfer the money over to you as soon as I can mate, probably on WED". Got them yesterday pm (THU). This deal has the distinction of being my first deal where I got my part ex money with profit BEFORE I even got paid for the retail car as that Micra sold on AT within 90 minutes of being listed. So be careful with FREE NATIONWIDE DELIVERY where the car is bought as a surprise...

I've only been to Walsall once, earlier this year. Won a Santa Fe online (for a client) and I decided to go and collect it. Decent price, a grand under cap and the car was clean. The place though... don't get me started. The taxi driver from the station insisted we lock the car doors "just in case", BCA, well, tired mess it was, staff couldn't be bothered with directions, two people sent me to the payment office to pick up my paperwork, waited 25 minutes in that tiny room and when my turn came they said, oh, this is paid online so you can go round the back where we have a dedicated window. The wait there was 20 seconds. Then the key office lady (for lack of a better word) took my pass out and sent me to the windiest hall entrance to wait "just for a few minutes" for a driver to bring it. 45 minutes later he turned up, tossed the keys at me from 10 feet with a reassuring "drives well mate, must've cost a few bob" and off I was, past 4pm in the late afternoon M6 traffic. Even in the busiest Mondays at Blackbushe with the queues all the way to hall 1 I would've collected quicker...

Yes, just in case this is exactly what someone did in the auction yard hoping for a bargain on sale day. P. S. BCA Walsall is my least favourite auction place anywhere, I went there once this year in person just to collect and I will never go back there. Ever.

It is red. As seen on a couple of his photos. The grey is just primer :-))))))

It's really easy: M Sport, AMG Sport, AMG Line or simply AMG, S-Line, Black Edition, Night Edition, Black Package in white, black or fifty shades of grey. With leather. Preferably Automatic and easier to sell at highish miles if newer. You have to offer finance though as the people that want them don't like to save. I like Honda CR-Vs like you do. Really good sellers even (and especially) with 100K+ miles.

T H E K E Y I S L O S T I thought I knew everything about writing advert text but just learned something new and useful :-)

Why do you worry about a fault that you're not even sure is a fault. Probably someone turned it off completely :-)

If Autotrader keeps delivering I will pay them what they ask. They work FOR ME, not the other way around. It's like a very good employee. If they deliver it means I am doing well also. I could cancel my package tomorrow. My loss in year one will probably be greater than my package cost for the next 10 years. I have said this before: It doesn't work for everyone simply because not everyone puts the same amount of work into it. Because I sell all sorts of stock including my £100 part exchanges I have seen it work consistently for all types of stock since I started using it in 2010 or 2011. And I keep seeing ABSOLUTE RUBBISH ads on it and I think: why do they not make any effort if they pay £100 per ad slot???

If you are looking for the best listing deal go straight to motors.co.uk. They are so cheap, they don't need to give special discount. £90 for 20 vehicles per month. Can't beat it. If on the other hand you are looking for an advertiser that works have a look at some of the other active threads.

So it's a personal decision not a business one? How can the option of multiple websites that DON'T deliver be cheaper? They still cost money. eBay + CarGurus (paid basic) + Motors will be around £650 per month for 20 vehicles and you'll get a quarter or a fifth of the enquiries... Is it not better to pay the "Autoraper", "beast", "robbers" or whatever else they are called their £1300 pcm, sell more cars, get more and higher quality leads and save the time and energy required to manage multiple ad platforms... You should be able to pay half of your AT package cost just from the part exes that you advertise free under £1500. Also, if you have a stock of 40 but don't fancy paying for all stock you can have an "auto rotation" where 20 vehicles are advertised at any one time and the ads are rotated by software. Car Dealer 5 and Click Dealer provide something similar.

Many thanks!

I love that sort of stuff, just as we thought we could see where things are going :-)

+1. October is usually busy as is the beginning of November. Then from mid-November it gets REALLY REALLY quiet and it's the best time of the year to re-stock if you auction buy. Sometimes it will be just you, the vendor rep and the auctioneer in the hall so make sure you don't bid against the walls. Garages are also quiet so then is the time to fix some troublesome cars that you've been hiding in the back of the yard. Early December also quiet and the phones start ringing after the 15th-20th. If you are not away on holiday it can get really busy from boxing day onwards. I think punters have been off of work for a few days, stuck at home in front of their laptops looking at Netflix and cars. Xmas puts many in a shopping mood, especially the ones that got cash gifts, bonus etc.

If a customer mentions Pistonheads while they are viewing a car I go back in the office and leave them to look at their leisure with my expectations for a sale slashed by 50%. "Have been looking for 8 months now" "A mate of mine got an identical car, newer, lower mileage for two grand less" "Do you mind if I plug my scanner in quickly, I looked at one last week and shock-horror it had one fault code in the memory about a CAN communication problem. I really need the Bluetooth to work" "The n/s front tyre has 5.5mm thread, the o/s 6.5mm, do you know if the car was involved in a major accident or was it something minor"

A bit yes. A C5 HDI, wouldn't be worth huge money so just deliver it to the shipping company when you have all funds and that's all. Done deal. Also if you don't mind if you can pm me the details of the company as I have a customer from Cyprus (a friend) that wants a car from here but has no idea how to transport it.

In our leafy area just outside London forecourts work incredibly well. For the property developers that buy them to build blocks of flats on. Around here £1000-£1500 pcm might find you a two bed bungalow to rent but certainly not a forecourt, pitch or anything like that in a decent location.

My advice: You are more likely to succeed starting an airline than to create a new e-commerce platform for car sales. I do wish you luck though.

Autotrader works absolutely superbly. You don't have to be top of the page. It's the best investment a car dealer can make, a single advertising platform that works and that is reassuringly expensive so it deters some bargain hunters but more importantly it deters a lot of bargain basement offers. Costs me £12K a year (I must have fewer cars than you) and these £12K are the only reason I even have a business. I also advertise on eBay Classifieds and Motors.co.uk and CarGurus have put me back on their free package after I cancelled my paid pack. eBay 1,2 a month Motors 1 every couple of months Car Gurus 2 in a year. Stock of 14 and around 9-10 sales a month, most from AT. And not cheap.

This was my exact line of thinking. Buy a couple of accessories on ebay and something from a DIY store and "over-engineer" a solution.

Auctioneers get familiar with a few dealer faces over the years and it's only natural to want to knock the car down to a friendly dealer who you've chatted to for years...

"it's still YOUR bid SIR, the one before was the lady standing right next to you"

The chap in Blackbushe Hall 2 standing nearest the exit doors, always doing UKCG Select and usually starting the bidding from Cap Clean.

I've never heard the BCA Account and the FCA reg to be done in the same month. EVEN if FCA give you a reg number you'll struggle to find a finance company that will consider working with you with no existing trading. They are terrified by new small dealers because you can do several false applications, take the money and disappear.

Everything is in the catalogue in this Live On Line day and age but the beginning and the very end is when you can nab a bargain. Oh and 11:30-11:45 in the slowest of the three halls which changes day to day and sale to sale.

The Blackhorse section at Blackbushe yesterday looked like the Geneva motor show a few years ago. Lines of gleaming Range Rovers, Mercs, BMWs, Audis and Jaguars, some of them in really good condition, no doubt recently prepped to death by the supplying dealers. A car is a car, whether they make their payments or not. Also with PCP they are not all repos. They are just cars that the last owner didn't pay the balloon on.