Andy Entwistle

Had the obligatory few Friday night beers with my assorted collection of friends from around the trade last night. Everyone saying how quiet the last 2 weeks have been, From independent service centres to the franchised dealers, it seems that the service side of the business has been deathly quiet in and around the Berkshire area, with some large franchises able to accept cars on the same day. Is this just the time of year, or something specific to the area, or are you feeling this around the country?

how about sorting out taxation of motobility cars. At present it has to be at a local office, this is a real pain for dealers !

We're looking to launch a new feature in the mag next year featuring cars that we all loved, It might be because it was sexy or quick, easy to sell or it never came back for repairs. To help us choose some cars to feature vote for your choice here (you can choose more than 1) and keep an eye on the results

Lets be honest, start buttons ( particularly red ones) should be reserved for race cars, supercars and serious sports cars with pedigree... Its an unnecessary procedure on most cars to push a button and frankly, having a Red start button on something like a Mondeo Diesel Estate is just wrong !

143 recalled? That must be most of em in the country ?

had a Z4M coupe. It was like thunder, looked great, sounded amazing and went like the dark stuff off a shovel, but.... it wasn't easy or fun to drive and if you weren't in the mood for concentrating it was a pig. Heavy clutch, with a mechanism in the system to stop you eating clutch plates which delayed take up, made for awful in traffic manners.... I remember a friend from BMW telling me to get the normal 3.0si instead... should have listened.

I used to have a 205 GTI that needed a spanner and a contortionist to start it. You had to reach down into the depths of the engine bay and give the starter a clout, freed off the solenoid and you could then start the car..

Whats the worst car you've driven for starting? It used to be easy, get in, twist the key and off you go. These days its like some sort of initiation, press the button, press the clutch, hold the brake on, put your right finger in the cigarette socket and stick your tongue out.... We had a mercedes a few weeks back and it took me 5 minutes to get it running, i'm still not exactly sure how i did it either.....

Is it just me, or does everyone hate these. We had 5 premium hatches on test yesterday and it was a welcome change to get into the new V40 and find a real parking brake. My father in law finds the electric ones impossible to fathom out ( is it on or off, etc), he's 73, but he's ex trade, so should know better ! Manufacturers claim its to help people who don't have the strength to put manual ones on, but if they can't do that, should they really be driving. I now find out that these units are VERY prone to failure, water getting into the seals and shagging the motors. Given that they are £700 a corner, this isn't good news ! I have a mate with an off road vehicle from a well known manufacturer of "go anywhere" vehicles. He uses it for on road and a little very light and occasional green laneing. Its gone through 3 of these in the last 18 months. His local franchise told him not to use it off road !

A good friend, who has been in the industry since henry starting selling his little black numbers ( well, so he says) now runs his own independent garage with service centre. More and more cars are coming in with failed DPF due to the cars general lack of use, where a diesel has been used mostly for local journeys and not given a run long enough for the DPF to get hot enough to regentrate. Given that these units can cost around £800 a pop to replace, its rendering otherwise decent ( if not older) cars almost worthless. I now hear that Ford are making nosies about suggesting that the DPF should be replaced as a service item every 75,000 miles. Anyone got any views on this and what we can do. On one hand, we all need to be making money, but at the same time do we need to be doing more to help minimise these kind of outlays for our customers?

i was having coffee with a mate yesterday who admits to doing this if he needs to collect a car with a packed up alternator, however he put the bonnet down onto the pack and holds it with bungy cords....

I Met Stephen Tse last year and put to him the concerns that the industry have raised. he was convinced that we wouldn't; see any drop in service, talking about some of these type of process's being taken on by the local post offices. Sadly we're seeing it deteriorate already. I recently changed the plate on my wife's car, as a consumer experience it was fairly poor. I used to walk into Theale DVLA and come out half an hour later ( or 4 hours if it was end of month) with the new plate. As we've moved away and not near a local office i had to send it off. It took 4 weeks for the plate to arrive and another 2 for the V5 to be updated. If the post office are going to take on this, is the recent privatisation going to help ?

I've seen varying quality of chips away work, as with most of this stuff, it comes down to the nut at the end of the tool. A good franchise, with good experience can do good work, someone new or looking for high volume quick stuff, will leave you disappointed ! For small stuff these guys "can" do good work, but i think many dealers are trying to smart stuff thats simply too big.

Clio Williams 1 (unmolested) - Rock solid investment Escort XR3 (not the i) BX GTI ( one for Scroff) Lotus Elise Vauxhall Astre GTE ( Mk2)

I think this depends on the sales portal to a degree. I know that ebay did some work and the more detailed the description the better the response, but then this is an auction format, so no surprise. I have heard feedback that the more detail given, the better your chances of sale, but i can't say if this was detailed analysis or just someones qualified opinion. Put yourself in the shoes of the buyer. 2 identical cars, one with basic details, one that is lovingly described. Which one would you call first? A more detailed description tends to suggest the dealer is knowledgeable, cares about what they do and is more likely to be able to talk about the car in more detail

Are you having problems with the DVLA We are getting a lot of feedback from dealers that they are having problems with DVLA plate transfers, not only the turnaround time but also errors after the paperwork has been received, which results in delays on top of the already extended normal turn around. Swansea are farming out a lot of the work to the local offices which rather than help, seems to result in more delays. Are you concerned about the current levels of service from the DVLA, whats your experience and how worried are you about the pending closure of the local offices...

All People stealing cars from us, using fraudulent credit cards, or just simply being brazen enough to drive the car straight off the forecourt seems to be on the increase. We are seeing stories on a regular basis of dealers having vehicles removed from them through all manner of fraudulent means. Clearly, the first port of call should be to notify the police, who in turn will put this on the PNC so that HPI can update their records. However, this section of the forum is available for any dealer to place details of any cars that may have been stolen, or to help warn others about any scams in your local areas.

Why was he doing it in the first place. A jump pack is needed to start teh car, once its running it shouldn't need a jump pack connected.....

The problems Seem to be with substandard smart repairs. The guys that turn up on site to repair vehicles can never get the same quality of finish as a body shop with the right environment. Repairing a car in a tent on a forecourt is a short term solution, the paint finish will absorb moisture and simply won't last. Sadly more and more unscrupulous dealers are carrying out cheap repairs, which look great while its on the forecourt, but 6 weeks later, it starts to dull and the customer ends up with a shody repair needing to be properly sorted...