Nick M.K.

I don't envy dealers that stock a lot of newish cheap superminis and have to deal with that "market" all the time for 30+ years. Actually I'll tell you what else REALLY BUGS ME: When my buyer calls on SAT afternoon, leaves a deposit and wants to come as early as possible on Sunday morning to view and collect. Because It's very important they do it as early as possible. Is 9am early enough for a Sunday? Em, 8am would be better but ok, let's do 9. The time is now 9:13 and the text has arrived: "Running late, will be with you in 30 minutes. Sorry".

In no particular order: 1. The way some customers (punters rather) have no regard for the seller's time or the seller's ability to earn a profit from a deal 2. The way they describe their part exchanges on the phone vs the actual condition of their chariots 3. Some of the questions they ask on the phone while reading the right answer in my advert text 4. When a finance company tells me the customer is approved on my £13K car but are only willing to lend them £6K 5. Wanting to go on a test drive before they've even shook my hand Hello 6. Saying "Milk and two sugars please" when I go inside to get the keys for the car they've come for 7. Being early, late or (God forbid) unannounced for a viewing They want to leave their deposit quickly. "Hi, you've reached the voicemail of Simon. Due to the high volume of calls if you are calling to urgently secure YOUR vehicle with a deposit please send a transfer with the funds to XX-XX-XX, account XXXXXXXX using the vehicle reg number as payment reference"

That track will only work if you are selling demolition equipment.

I bought a 2009 Prius T Spirit the other day, 95K miles, Cap Clean £6600. The exact same car in 2016 would've booked at around £5.5K at those miles. Petrol and especially Hybrid prices have become stupid high so I've switched to buying diesels. Great bargains to be had, thankfully I don't aim for the local market (just outside London). My Prius was an absolute bargain too because of it's burgundy colour and a couple of BIG scratches on the rear bumper.

+1 BUT I don't wish it was cheaper. If it was cheaper A LOT more private sellers and dealerships would be on it so it would instantly become less effective. Would I pay a bit more for a more effective platform? F*** yeah! Some pay £50K per year to their salesmen but complain about £20K per year to AT which can really open up a market in a way that no living salesman can. P.S. Unrelated (or it might be): I just ordered a potty-trainer for my daughter online. It's past midday and the delivery is guaranteed for this evening. In 5-6 years time we will sell at least half of our used cars in this way. No salesman at all. If you fancy effective nationwide online advertising of course. Many thought along the same lines, tried and failed to even gain a tenth of the response. CarGurus would kill them: Errrr, no. Facebook will put the final nail in their coffin: It didn't. Findandfundmycar.com will be the solution to all our problems: People are already forgetting it. Motors has a nice interface and is a tenth of the price: They do and they are and they only provide a tenth of the response. Use an advertiser that works, not one that is cheap. Same for any provider really.

This was my thinking as well. I didn't believe they would lie for something so obvious.

Thank you for that insight. Confirms what I've been saying on another forum for years.

As some of you know I don't rely heavily on video but I have a 1-2 minute full walkaround YouTube videos embedded in my Autotrader Ads. The Autotrader response tracker tells me that some of my ads have 30, 40, 100 video views. At the same time my YouTube control panel tells me the same videos have 3,7,15 views... Is this because AT are lying (CarGurus style) or YouTube simply counts all views on a certain video through the Autotrader website / app as one single view? I am just curious as to how many customers actually watch these videos as the adverts themselves are seen by a lot of people and the phones ring on the same cars.

As some of you know I don't rely heavily on video but I have a 1-2 minute full walkaround YouTube videos embedded in my Autotrader Ads. The Autotrader response tracker tells me that some of my ads have 30, 40, 100 video views. At the same time my YouTube control panel tells me the same videos have 3,7,15 views... Is this because AT are lying (CarGurus style) or YouTube simply counts all views on a certain video through the Autotrader website / app as one single view? I am just curious as to how many customers actually watch these videos as the adverts themselves are seen by a lot of people and the phones ring on the same cars.

There! You said it. Perception. The warranty gives your customer the exact same peace of mind. It's the exact same product. A sheet of paper with boxes and clauses, signed by someone authorised to sign it who makes a certain promise. A PDI can get thrown out in small claims court just as easily as I can say "This is not a covered component under the terms and conditions of our limited warranty". Spend the fiver, give them the peace of mind. Give them the bragging rights (because all other rights they still have anyway) to tell their wife or a brother or whoever asks them: "Yes, the car I bought does come with a warranty, it was a genuine dealer that I bought from, highly rated as well." It's all perception. Sorry, we hijacked this topic titled September. My September is OK. Not exceptional but I was away until the 7th and my first sale did not happen until the 18th. 4 sold, 3 on finance, 2 more on the go and 1 finance decline. Oh and one deposit refunded because I genuinely think my prospective buyer was crazy. Among other things he wanted two keys (2009 Merc), we have both but one isn't working. He said to him this was the end of the world.

That's exactly the debate. If you do offer a warranty that period is defined. Even though a clutch is a w&t part I would also replace a failed one. If however you don't offer a warranty how long can the customer reasonably expect you to help (if at all)... +1, no debate there. For a customer like this I will invalidate the warranty due to "unreasonable behaviour".

If I was offering £14K electric cars (it's mainly retirees that have bought them so far by the way) I would go broke. Mine are 17K and 19K. Nearly sold one yesterday but his VW Beetle 1.2 TSI p/x was in deal-breaking condition.

I know that different things work well for different set ups, mine is very similar to both James and Simon, a one-man-band, a dozen cars, I don't rely on video as much but I get a lot of finance interest in my stock. Each and every finance company that set me up asked "Do you offer a warranty" so I had to start offering it if I was to get the finance deals. After paying WarrantyWise for a couple of years (average of £150 per car per 3 months) I switched to the self-administered £5 per-car-per-3-months option and have not looked back since. In fact looking forward I think I'll start making revenue from extending my own warranties.

Just checked this last link, Caranalytics https://caranalytics.co.uk/, lots of useful free info, thank you for sharing.

I don't know why you and Simon keep repeating that mantra. We are not discussing a service-inclusive package here. We are not talking about maintenance at all. We are talking about the sudden and unexpected failure of a (non wear and tear) part which is supposed to last the lifetime of a car. An alternator or starter motors being a nice example. When a customer pays you a "Retail price" profit margin they have this expectation that if a part like that failed for a short period of time after their purchase you will have some responsibility to take on some or all of the cost. That warranty very nicely defines AND limits the time frame for this, the miles covered, lists the covered parts, even sets a price limit for the claims and leaves you a record for all this. How do you see a value in a PDI but can't see the value in this? Why don't you trial it selectively on just a few of your vehicles?

Just saw this short article by Lawgistics, an interesting read following the discussion about credit card payments earlier in the week: Chargebacks and their kangaroo courts We are starting to see an increasing trend where clients are on the wrong end of “chargeback” decisions made by weak individuals who will not stand up to consumer pressure. To clarify, a “Chargeback” is where a consumer complains to their bank about a debit card transaction alleging that they should be refunded as they goods purchased using that card are defective. Such chargebacks are not prescribed in law (unlike for credit cards) and so can be more easily abused. Especially in that banks – who provide the debit card to their customers – generally want to keep hold of them. So when they get a complaint about a car that has been purchased on a debit card it is very easy for them to simply reverse the deal and arrange for the monies to be returned – usually via the likes of “Worldpay” or “Elavon” (amongst others) who provide the selling merchant with their card machine. You would expect a car dealer to be given reasonable opportunity to defend any such allegations but they are rarely given much if any notice of the money about to disappear from their account on the back of a debit card based dispute as to quality of the goods. Even when Lawgistics provide overwhelming evidence to rebut the allegations, we find that the card providers pay little or no attention and find in favour of returning the monies back into the customer’s bank account. The point is they do not care about the fact that the consumer may be lying through their teeth but end up with a free car at the end of it. Now we are at the point of advising clients to actively sue the merchant provider for removing funds out of clients’ accounts when (we say) they have no legal right to do so.

+1.

Absolutely they do, none more so than the buyers of 10 year old 64k Miles or 8 year old 75k miles or 5 year old 127k Miles. £5 invested in a warranty goes a long way towards adding value to your product, your brand and your image. Almost as much value as the £2.50 for an HPI Check. The £5 you'd spend on a warranty booklet will also give you a great defence line against the "I've found cheaper elsewhere or privately" brigade... Give the warranty. You won't regret it. I know Simons says (no pun intended) not to but part of your profit margin comes from them buying an expectation. Give them a nice professional shiny legal booklet to go with that.

I don't know, I buy them directly from Lawgistics.

I tell them that all my retail cars come with a 3 month / 3000 miles limited warranty (30 days / 1000 miles on p/xs) which includes mainly the major mechanical components and that no used car warranty compares to a new car warranty as there simply isn't a manufacturer standing behind it. I give them a nice looking £5 booklet from Lawgistics which I promise you is worth every penny. Valid claims are very few and far between.

Sorry, can't help with that but Mr Trump will be happy to hear it :-)

Beat my BMW i3 collections from Leeds and Brighouse (195 miles): London to Leeds off peak train ticket (around 11am) - £13 The first 85-90 miles (on BCA electricity) - FREE The next 80 miles - £3 for a motorway electricity recharge The last 20-30 miles on BCA petrol for the little range extender engine - FREE

The numbers are straight from their Orders & Deliveries page on their website. They are accurate. The first two Singapore Airlines 380s were stored in France for a while, one just started flying for a Portugese wet lease operator. Numbers get updated monthly with new orders and deliveries, scrapped aircraft etc. They show thousands of planes that still need to be built (320s and 350s mostly) and it would take them approx 10 years to build them all. They have around 35 more 380s to build, another 5 years give or take.

I was close with my £110 then :-)

Not as quiet as Airbus.