Nick M.K.

I have a Karcher Puzzi wet vac. A couple of times the liquid in the waste bucket after I've done a deep valet on a seemingly clean car was exactly like engine oil from an old diesel. One of the reasons I prefer even a fake leather interior to a cloth one...

Text him and tell him NOT to travel to view it as you have another person on the way and very interested. Might make him more motivated. If he rings again later tell him the other person absolutely loved the car, it was the best of 5 others he'd already seen and he went away to "get his finances in order". Car still available for now but you have to be quick sir. I'd hate for you to miss out and have to go back to square one.

Do you mean what's in it for you :-) Satisfaction that you guessed it more than anything else but also if we ever do a pub meet, a round on me of course. I'll give one more hint. Should make it easier:

No Mark / Simon and I have attached a photo for tradegirl.

We have one of them in a similar colour but no, not an i3...

Another hint: It was actually Dark Grey metallic and sold for £19750 in 4 days. ABSOLUTELY not! After I sold my first (and last) Insignia in 2014 the customer wanted to take me to court over a failed DPF pressure sensor AFTER I paid for it to be replaced at his local Vauxhall dealer. I just struggle to raise my hand in an auction hall when one goes through.

Hi Adam, welcome to the forum, 3 weeks sounds good to me but I have no experience of vans at all. I've driven a Transit for a few days when we were moving house in 2013 and that's about it. If a customer asks me for a van I'll send them your way...

He had to make one single stop at the M6 toll services to recharge the battery (45 mins) and fill the small petrol range extender tank. If you depart with a full battery charge and full REX tank you have around 200 miles range so you can do the journey without stopping.

The French will be glad to read that Paddy... Interestingly this car came in p/x from the Wirral and I'll give you the most useless hint about it: the customer that chopped it in bought a BMW i3.

That's a valid strategy. Or: You can get the car up for sale immediately with images from the front, back and multiple interior and detail shots while you are waiting for the wheels to be refurbed. Write in the advert something like "19in Artura alloy wheels in gunmetal grey" and if a customer comes to view the car before it's done just show it as is. If they question the colour let them know that it's booked in and would they still prefer gunmetal or the original silver... https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201806067239104

When the before is like the silver and I want an after like the black I may have to keep paying for a while :-)

Ok ladies and gents, Have a go at guessing the car in the attached photo. And be specific... Don't just say "Alfa" or "Renault" :-)

Are you telling me that the £200 (+Vat) per set I've paying for the last few years has been a waste :-) This is the million pound education I was talking about in another thread...

Zebra and Blue keep getting mentioned so I'll talk to them both on Monday. We actually use Mallard every now and then and they often decline. We just did a deal today and Close said no (CCJ 4 years ago), Mallard also said no, First Response approved at a lower amount and luckily this customer could come up with the much bigger deposit required.

Your target audience is a 40-55 yo man (or a lady) that "always wanted one" and will most likely p/x something like a Mondeo or an older 3 series. They will appreciate a car that stands out and has a bit of wow factor. When they call you they'll tell you that they've looked for a few months and that your car just "stood out". Until you try it you'll never know :-)

I have attached a photo of an XF in Grey with the wheels in Grey just to give you an idea of how it looks. Depending on the wheel design it could improve the look of the car and make it stand out. Also attached is a photo of my £5600 TT I mentioned in another thread with the most basic 17" wheels that we refurbed in black. 113% increase in ad views compared to silver. And this is at £8K.

When you refurb wheels and have a colour choice what do you go for mostly? Again, assuming an exterior colour that goes with anything. I used to hate black wheels, now everyone wants them!

Yes, pay as little as you can, re-sell for as much as you can, learn how webuyanycar make their money so you have an answer ready when the customer pulls out their WBAC online quote...

I think the worst I've had was a couple of years ago on a Merc S350CDI that I bought for a friend (nothing in it for me after he settled his finance less than a month in) and he was super happy with. The only problem was that we'd paid £14K, a grand over Cap Clean and the service printout with 5 services, 5 main dealer (no book on the newer model) turned out to be from a Merc A180. They said that our correct printout will be sent through the post. It was, with 2 services only. I talked to the branch manager and they just wanted the car back (matey didn't want to give it back) although I said to him we can always buy it again for less. In the end the vendors Mercedes Retail offered £500 and matey accepted. Still drives it happily...

I was thinking more about the near-prime buyers that still get declined by Close because of stuff like "affordability" (they can afford £190 per month but can not afford £230!) or even "lack of trace". We are just outside London and get a lot of applications from people that have been in the country 4-5 years, however the lender can only "trace" them to a certain address for 1-2 years and is unwilling to lend. Even a couple of extra acceptances every month can boost my bottom line.

I like their systems and the ease of proposing, the only thing I don't like is when the buyer is "approved" but they will only lend say £6K on a £10K deal and my customer has no hope of finding a £4K deposit...

Did a deal last week and they had a 2002 BMW 330i that they owned from new, 80K miles. The stack of paperwork for their car was two inches thick including their original purchase invoice for £40000. Came in p/x at exactly 1% of it's original price.

We are with Close and currently send the declines to First Response or Moneybarn. I would rather use a brokerage though, someone with a reasonably good success rate but not CF24/7 or Zuto. Last month I have 42% declines so quite a lot.

That's quite a compliment Simon, thank you! I am sure the forum will accept me eventually.

Re-read that post again, that's not what it says: Absolutely right. I wish there were forums with as much info as this back in the days when I was starting up. Would've saved me a million pounds. Literally a million. Expensive f***** education :-)