Nick M.K.

Interesting points in this forum thread. Some say it's not worth the hassle at all to chase BCA for tyres, others say you have to go through all the hoops of getting the full invoice value paid out including threatening court action, which in case you didn't know entitles BCA to close your buyer account... BCA said that they will contribute to the cost of two brand new tyres. Since the old tyres were already half worn (and more) I am happy with a contribution. I don't expect an auction company to pay my full tyre bill. What I wasn't happy with was the time it took and the amount of evidence they required after the MOT fail. Not to mention the size of their "contribution"...

I don't specialise. I like Mercs but if I went to buy a Merc and I see a bargain Audi I'll buy it. 1200-1300 cars a day at Blackbushe, there are always 2-3 exceptional buys among all the crazy high prices there.

My stock is 3-10 years old (sometimes older) and that's what I aim for, yes. I avoid Grade 1 as everyone wants them and gives me no scope to add value. I also avoid cars that need a lot of bodywork as both bodyshops I use are not 100% consistent in their finish quality, not even 90% unfortunately. EML on? On a 7-8 year old BMW? Sure. If the chain doesn't rattle I will sometimes take a chance depending on the fault code that BCA provide or if buying privately I scan everything.

I wish they were an option but they are not and it amazes me how some dealers simply WILL NOT consider buying a car that doesn't come with the report...

Or to quote another start-up forum post: Learn to walk before learning to walk on water :-)

Just out of interest Trade Vet, when were the Klondyke years? Was it before I was born? I turned 40 this year.

Ben, the grading is (half) useful when you are buying online and almost irrelevant when you buy in an auction hall. While I am a huge fan of online buying I would not recommend it for a starting up dealer. Our job effectively is to buy Grade 2 cars at CAP Below or under. If you can do that consistently you can do well.

Call them directly on 01480 455500 and order them over the phone. Order one PDI inspection sheet pad while you are at it.

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 :-) If you take nothing else from this discussion at least take this: Buy a pack of £6 warranty booklets from Lawgistics and give one out with 3 months / 3000 miles warranty with a low claims limit (£300-£600). This gives you a very cost effective way to answer your customer's question about warranty. If your cars are half decent there will not be more than 1 in 20 valid claims which means you will be paying out or fixing stuff worth £300 (to £600) for every 20 sales you make or an average of £21 per sale when you include the £6 booklet cost.

Do you actually go through the branch to make a claim? They have a new system which goes through a customer service desk in Manchester and these are the people I've been speaking with.

Ah yes, with you on this one. Sometimes said time waster will actually call to enquire again :-)

I do really well out of 3 car models that sell fast and with a very nice margin. I often buy them at ££££ below book in an auction hall full of dealers that don't know what I know. Otherwise why let me buy them so cheap. The models are: now sold of course.

Would the NOW SOLD make the potential customers not to call you? Would it not be better to have them call you first so you can tell them you've sold one but you have a much much nicer one which you can let them have for a price similar to the first.?

Absolutely, they remind me of Ryanair. At least at Ryanair my £33 goes much further...

As per the title: Why do some dealers put NOW SOLD on their adverts? I use a lot of photos and a customer will sometimes ask me to leave the advert running so they can still look at the pictures after they've left their deposit. On those cars I'll write Reserved. The only time I will write that a vehicle is sold is if I have a similar car still in stock or to use the ATs price indicators to my advantage if there is any. I've always thought that if you leave a car marked as SOLD you are just giving away too much information to your direct competitors and when they identify the good fast sellers they'll be bidding against you at the same auctions for the same stock.

I agree with you here, £66 for hours of my time which would usually earn me a lot more... BUT they charge money for this insurance product and it's just not right to "let it go" when I know that the customers I sell to don't "let go". P.S. My BCA Assured charges every month are around half of my AT bill, this is not pocket change.

I tried the rounded pricing for a couple of years. It works well up to £5K. For dearer cars we appeared in more searches BUT we didn't get as many leads. The consensus was that the rounded price appeared "made up" where as a price like £10885 appeared to be carefully calculated to the last pound which some buyers believe means we analysed the market to price to stock very accurately. One thing which I don't understand is this: Why would everyone still end their price in '95 like 90% of the stock out there, why not '94, '90 or even '85. You can beat thousands of offers of £3495 or £4995 for example and because most punters manage to chip a few pounds off the exact price is irrelevant.

I almost never rely on the BCA Assured reports, in fact if given the opportunity I'd much rather save the £33 per vehicle that they cost. This time the car was a very nice very low mileage Jag with tyre threads reported across each front tyre as 4mm, 4mm and 4mm. In the auction hall I would put my hand in the outer threads of the tyres and they did seem even better than 4mm. However the car failed it's MOT on "cords exposed" on inner part of the tyre where the thread was way below 1mm. This is what BCA assured wanted: 1) Photo evidence of the failed MOT (picture of the certificate as if they couldn't see it online) 2) 1 day later: Photo evidence of the low tyre threads 3) 2 days later: VIDEO evidence of me measuring the tyre thread depth (try making that video without a third hand) 4) A week later (I've chased them on the phone every step of the way): They said that because their report is wrong by approx 2mm they will contribute to the cost of each tyre by 25% (a new tyre has 8mm so they will pay the value of the 2mm depth error which on a £132 tyre works out at £33. 5) 10 days later I've heard nothing and had to chase them again, three calls today until they finally confirmed that they will make the payment and a cheque will be on the way. Their error costs me £264 (not including fitting or wheel alignment) and they will contribute a total of £66. At least my customer will now get brand new tyres and alignment. The hard earned £66 will just cover the cost of the "Assured" report and the next one...

I don't know if it makes any difference but when the IMDA was formed Mr Nothard worked for CAP/HPI and it makes a lot of sense for someone other than a dealer to be a part of the founding member group.

With a few very nice cars on any pitch a customer gets a lot of confidence when buying cheaper stuff. They then tell their mates how they bought their £5K Golf from "this top bloke that has a pitch full of RS6s, AMGs and M3s".

With the hugest respect for trade vet I disagree. A LOT of people wouldn't set foot in a main BMW dealer and will comfortably buy from an independent working from home without too much reservation. You absolutely have to be able to offer finance if you want to sell (more) expensive cars. You can do it from home, depends on your provider and their rep. If I were you I wouldn't start with 10K-20K cars. Start cheaper. Gain some traction, confidence, knowledge and experience dealing with comebacks. No comebacks on newer cars??? Oh yes, there are :-)

"Why traders sell cat D cars for same price like normal cars? I don't get it." This title should either be HOW traders sell cat D cars for same price like normal cars? OR Why customers buy cat D cars for same price like normal cars?

Bingo!

Brisk trading with some buyer optimism finally creeping into the used car market after a dysmal 2017 with the uncertainties surrounding Brexit and Diesel engines slowly easing at the back of buyer's minds. I also think Used picked up because New slowed down after the April 2017 tax hikes. Recent surge in fuel prices will further underline the economy of modern diesel vs petrol engines. Market for Electric and hybrid vehicles is strong but EVs in particular are still very expensive and niche while the charging facilities remain limited.

Find someone that does vinyl wrapping and fix it for £30 and half an hour. Everyone seems to want a black roof now :-)