Nick M.K.

On my Facebook page when I thank a buyer for their custom I always put WE. Looks better than me, myself and I.

I so wish the buying public were like you. Life would've been much much easier :-) Probably why Vauxhall called their most basic models "Life". As in "get a life" the cheeky gits...

When you said bad pics I imagined much worse. These "Bad" pics are actually better than the good pics of other people :-) Tricky to take photos in this sunshine but on some colours they come up well.

I guess in that case the pricing from their price list will show. Or the Parkers guide of course, they always know everything :-)

Yes and no. For your Civic the bad pics were enough to sell it but when you have 40-50 stock advertised (and we are talking specialist prestige cars here) you need ALL your stock to appear sharp. People that want to buy a £25K car might be put off by adverts for scruffy old cars alongside the ads for your retail stock. Some will not even know what p/x to clear means and will wrongly conclude things.

As soon as I get a new-to-me model I will download several UK PDF brochures from the year the model came out. And a separate PDF price list. Then you can easily see the model "rankings" and the price difference between entry level and higher spec models. Well illustrated with the previous Jag XF in UK spec: Luxury > Premium Luxury > Portfolio > XFR (and an S version of each) in US Spec XF > XF Premium > XF Premium with Portfolio package > XF Supercharged > XFR As far as desirability is concerned it's slightly harder. You can have a very nice and easy to deal with mature buyer that would NEVER consider an M Sport BMW because of the firm ride so for them an SE will be more desirable. If you ask several buyers if a gold 330i SE Auto with creme leather is more desirable than a black 330i M-Sport manual with black leather the answer will not be same for everyone. I just look at what would appeal to a larger number of customers and because I have a preference for finance deals my stock is chosen so it appeals to the slightly younger audience. And even then a 70 year old chap comes and buys a convertible german-whip with dark alloys :-)

Yes, as EPV says, photoshop scratches and scuffs and advertise before the car even goes into a bodyshop.

Yes, it did look like they fuelled them up, then the next day they loaded them onto the BCA transporter

Must've been years ago, I've bought a few from there lately, all way behind book, all matching their grades, certainly better than my daily haunt Blackbushe. Wish it wasn't 200 miles away from us.

I do now too. Not because of bad reliability (that too!) but because I've sold so many of the things over the years - I can't stand them. Back in 2009-2010 I was buying 2-3 year old very basic spec Astra Life 1.3 CDTI ex MoD cars from LEX in BCA Bedford. At 2-3 years old / 70-80K miles they were £2700-£3700 on the block and selling for £4500-£6K. They came with no reg numbers and needed registration with the DVLA as if it's a new car, logbook took weeks to arrive. Everyone else avoided them but they were quick sellers, always with new tyres and brakes, always fully serviced and almost always with a full tank of fuel. I had 5 sets of photos for each colour (they were all silver, blue and 50 shades of grey) and instead of a number plate I had a plate that said DIESEL (huge selling point only a few years ago). When everyone else was struggling for stock after the scrappage scheme I could buy 3-4 every week. The smell of that cloth interior makes me sick these days.

I've done it once. BMW i3 from BCA Brighouse, my advert was live around 20mins after I had won the online bidding, a record for me. Only 4 of their external photos were usable but they were very good, photo booth, white background, car was spotless and luckily I had a set of interior photos of the same spec and condition i3 so my advert looked pretty complete. 3 calls before I had even collected the car. The person that eventually bought it only got in touch after I had done my usual 100 images session so I can't say that I benefitted but at least I tried.

I have this long-standing debate with a friend, outside this forum. He thinks that all prep should be completed and the vehicle ready to go before he publishes his ad. I think that a vehicle should be advertised as soon as it arrives provided you have the ability to show it as it will look when ready. Photoshopping scratches (that will be repaired in a bodyshop) a classic example so there is no misleading involved. My thinking is that customers often spend several days looking at a car advert online before they first make their contact. It's these few days I like to save by placing my ad, then finish the prep and not have so much waiting time. Bear in mind that all my viewings are by appointment with no walk-ons.

I've had this chat with same dealer and I think that for CG to work for you you need higher stock levels. I'll be very happy to be proven wrong though.

I didn't even know they had that many...

Your car being insured and being on the MID are two different things. It gets nicked without keys, you get paid, MID or no MID. Being on the MID also does not help you as far ANPR is concerned. If it's on SORN and you drive by ANPR you'll get a fine if your plates are not displayed correctly. If it's "stock in trade" no problem.

Not bought any DSGs or Pug / Citroen semi-autos? Probably for the best.

What will you take in coins?

Maybe you have more cars advertised or I just caught their rep on a good day when signed up with them about 18 months ago. To be fair their price seemed so much lower than everyone else's that I didn't see the need to push them on the price like I usually do with everything else.

Absolutely. £96 per month for 20 vehicles (I have 12-15) and the adverts from there go free to a couple of dozen other motoring websites. Every month a have a few leads and at least one sale. By comparison my £225 per month mid-level package with CarGurus brought me 2 confirmed sales for the whole of 2017. Have given them my notice now.

My broker from Aston Scott said that although this is correct it is better if I don't add all. In the event of a car being sold and being involved in an uninsured accident with the new owner (easy to happen after 5 day Driveaway product expires) there could be a claim against the dealer as the last recorded party to have had "insured interest" in the vehicle.

I could've guessed these results even by the average time it takes me to find a parking spot for one of their sales.

Or rival start-up dealers going from pitch to pitch to see what gathers dust and what actually sold.

Tradevet, I think you are right and at the same time I think that now in this "digital online retailing age" it is different. Presentation is still EVERYTHING but now it's the presentation online that matters most, especially for something slightly rare that the buyers will travel hours for. Ad text, pictures, video (or three), reviews, your other stock they can see online etc etc. People here have said that they never do wheel refurbishment as one example but their sales are still good and their customers travel and don't walk away because of minor marks here and there. The selling happens at people's homes long before they've seen that car in the metal. By the time they first see it they own it already. In their minds. Done insurance, bought new mats, booked window tinting next week etc etc.

Scottish guy on a Tuareg :-)

Oh yes, LR16*** Good value because of the miles, nice condition too.