EPV

Paint the valence/splitter the same colour as the body. I can’t see many noticing noticing that

Yeah, why not. Or repair and wrap it.

My smart repairers paint plastic trim/diffusers. Bumpers are plastic of some sort of another, i can’t see why it can’t be painted. As for the “chrome” trim it’s probably plastic not chrome and will be best replaced.

And cars in straight lines

If you think your average car buyer knows that Eur 6 diesels are accepted in the ULEZ you’re mental. They don’t.

Oi, get orf moi paaatch i bought a hybrid today, going to see what happens with it and how much interest I have with it. I doubt the farmers round my way will want it but the middle class snobs might

Apparently diesel sales were on the increase last year. There are people in the country that have no idea about low emissions zones, never mind the notion of not buying an oil burner. There are people out there who love a 3 litre derv with all the toys. Granted in central London things are different.

“Has the car mostly been used on the motorway?”

If you're offended by people asking where you bought a car from you may wish to re-evaluate how thick your skin is. It's a commonly asked question, mainly for the reasons given above (most people think auctions are where old knackers end up) and they want to believe that their next purchase has been driven considerately, washed with filtered water from the Himalayan mountains and powered by unicorn farts. Tell them it came from a part exchange, or a main dealer part exchange that you carefully selected from. It's really not rude. I'll tell you what's rude; Someone ringing three times on the bounce, one minute after the next, then sending a message via chat, all at 3pm on a BH Monday, asking to see a car that day. When they receive a reply an hour later from yours truly, apologising for missing their call and when would they like to view the car, they read the message and then don't reply. At all. So desperate to see the car they were that they couldn't even be bothered to say "thanks but I'll get back to you" Or how about.. Someone calling at 4pm arranging to have a video call at 9:30am the following morning, on a car they are very keen on, have their finances sorted, only to text at 9:28am to say they have found another car? Both of which have happened to me in the last few days, neither of which surprised me, bothered me or made me want to rant. I have been in this industry a relative 5 minutes, compared to most. It doesn't take a genius to work out there are some right arseholes out there, just brush it off and move on.

Shock horror, buyer of car wants to know a little bit about it's history and where it came from.

It doesn’t help you, it never will. Somebody selling 5 cars in one day, 300 miles away from you, will have no bearing on whether you are doing something right or wrong. I’m completely with Justin, no point in knowing how others are doing and comparing it to you. I like to know how my trader mates on here are doing just because, well, they’re mates/acquaintances but that’s all it is. If you’re not selling cars is it ok, if nobody else is? Will that pay your bills? I had my best month last month. I’m possibly going to have my worst this month. A month is too shorter a period of time to assess your performance anyway. Three months minimum in my eyes.

Can you post any photos up? I love rubbing one out to smashed up Ferrari's even better if there's bloodstains on the windscreen

Ok mate.

Exactly. The figures are put on our AT adverts whether we like it or not. Anyone asking the question gets a “it’s depends” type answer from me. I don’t believe for one second anyone would be able to reject a vehicle on the basis of being mis sold a car that doesn’t hit the stated MPG figures but it’s just common sense to manage people’s expectations to save grief down the line when they return 40mpg instead of 50mpg that the manufacturers stated.

Absolute cobblers.

Even worse than boosting. Marketplace is a jumble sale for cars. I reckon FB works if you use it properly like Rory does, spend time and effort gaining followers, targeting adverts etc. Boosting them doesn’t work for me and is a waste of money other than to gain followers which may help long term. It’s a long game with FB. It’s not for quick sales. Or this, basically.

Doesn’t work for me.

Ring who? The auction house? Don’t bother, no one will be able to tell you anything further. If you really want the car then as said above, go and see it. Be prepared for it being an absolute dog.

Safe? Its got nothing to do with safety. As assessor has quickly walked round the car, seen so much damage and thought “fuck that” and put U down on the sheet and moved on. In other words is worse, possibly a lot worse, than a grade 5.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokeh To the OP, its nine days. NINE! Start wondering after 9 weeks.

Precisely that. When it’s busy, the proper buyers get all the attention. When it’s quiet, you convince yourself the messers are buyers and can be talked into buying something they have zero intention of buying.

My advice is unless you know what you’re looking for, don’t bother going. I have bought and sold over 120 cars as a relative newbie and i’ve been to one auction in my life. I buy purely online, have only ever had one true lemon (and my loss should have been half what it was but I wasn’t clued up enough to know what to stop spending) Another forumite whom I talk with a couple of times a week sells 30-40 cars a month and despite attending auctions in his early days, buys everything online. Some wouldn’t dream of buying online. I personally haven’t a clue for the most part about what to look for and smell etc so it’s a waste of time going. If you enjoy the cold, standing around for ages, listening to miserable old souls or bullshitters, you might like an auction. I can’t think of a worse way to spend a day. I did, however, get on me bike and bought a fair few private’s in my early days. That helped me along a lot.

I think everyone wants to know this before starting out don't they? How realistic is xyz per car? How many cars can I sell a month if I set my margins to xyz? It's understandable but firstly, no one ever openly discusses margins in public for several reasons, most of them rather obvious. A less obvious one being that if you are pulling good money from nearly every car then people don't believe you. So it's best to find your own way, be happy with what you're getting and don't be bitter and jealous of those that are doing better than you and try to find ways of increasing your margins if you're not happy with what you're getting. But £800 gross on a £6k car isn't particularly ambitious and to be honest, likely to lead to disappointment long term unless you're doing serious volume. Advertising, VAT, Tax etc will catch up with you and that's before you account for prep, warranty claims, the odd refund and some good old fashioned sticky cars that won't move no matter how many of their legs you chop off.

Welcome, nice intro, look forward to your contribution round here!

Probably the best advice you'll ever get, ignore other traders. Or more specifically, listen to a select few and ignore the rest.