sparky

That is mightily impressive.

After watching that, I'm far less sceptical. Thought the guys came across well (although Stefan talked a bit too much for my liking) and you have to admire what Stefan has achieved in life so far. The comments about google were interesting and Jim seems to be impressed enough with their figures so it's worth a further look in my opinion.

I mostly do my own warranties, but for those customers who want, cough cough, 'piece of mind' or live out of the area I use WMS. The only reason I went with them was because my rep is my old finance rep who I always got on with. He knows I prep my cars well so allows me to have '5 star' coverage on cars that wouldn't normally be allowed it because of age or mileage. I don't up sell them or make anything on them so I'm quite clear in telling the customer what they cover and what they don't. I was a bit sceptical about using them at first but to be fair I've found them OK and I've got no complaints, more importantly, neither have my customers.

Don't be daft, who would tow a caravan with a Yaris? It was a horse box.

Just as a follow up, the car is going through manheim this week. Needless to say, it's been given a grade 5 and is non assured. Personally I hope the cambelt snaps as it's being driven through.

You buy a low mileage car without history but you take a chance and go with your gut that it must have some somewhere and there she is, tucked away with all the manuals that have been left at the entry office. Beautiful

Autosmart do a product called Odor control fogger which you spray into the vehicle. It's much cheaper than an aromatex and just as good in my opinion.

I agree about a feed back system of sorts, but that is never going to happen as turkey's don't vote for xmas and nobody cares about us lot. Auction4cars had a feedback system in it's early days and that got binned. To be fair, I buy a bit off DA and stories like this are few and far between, god knows whether that's down to luck or good judgement!

I take your point and if I hadn't of made contact (via DA) with the dealer to make sure there were no horror stories with it then I would not have bid. For them to come back answering the question saying the car is ok and as described on the updated splat, well as Danny Dyer might say, that's pwopa nawty.

A few weeks ago I was outbid on DA on a 10 plate grand scenic. No problem. A week later and it's back on and I got outbid again. No problem. This week, it comes back on again so obviously smelling a rat I rang up the guys at DA to see if they could find out what the crack was with it and to make sure there were no major nasty horror stories with the car. They rang back and said apart from a couple of issues which had been missed on the original splat, the car is ok. The splat is telling me to allow for £500, tops, and here is their brief description, "Here you see a 2010 Renault Scenic. This car has the added benefits of parking sensors, tow bar as well as having air conditioning and a wide range of features available. Drives Lovely. This car will go at Market value so don't miss out". I won the auction at Cap Clean and sent a driver in today. Now usually, I pay first and to be fair for one reason or another, I have not really been stung, but because this car had done a couple of sales I waited for my driver to ring me before pressing the money button. Well thank the lord I did. It turns out, the car is an animal. Mechanically, my man says it sounds rough. Now, that may be a matter of opinion, but what is a matter of fact is that the car looks like it has been painted by the kids at after school club. There are paper marks and over spray everywhere and in grading terms, it's a 5, not the three I was expecting especially after my phone call with DA to clarify what the car was like. Needless to say I've left it there and thankfully I'm only £100 down because without doubt, had I not been outbid before I would have been stuck with a Jamie Oliver sized lemon. Oh, the 'dealer' was Wessex Garages by the way. Bar Stewards.

yeah, but apart from that.... Just to add, a garage repair friend of mine has these in quite often for VVT pulleys and rather than order them from Mini, he saves his customers quite a few bob (£200 rings a bell) by ordering exactly the same parts from Peugeot.

Sorry to go off thread, but Mrs Sparky is adamant she wants a Mini, nothing fancy (apart from it being cream), for about 4-5k. Problem is, I hate the bloody things from past experience and see and hear so many horror stories about them that from a retail point of view in the under 6k bracket, I've given up on them. I've tried to talk her round into having a super sexy scenic diesel but she ain't playing. So as it will cost me too much to divorce her I'm going to have to bite the bullet. Apart from body control boards, power steering units, transmission and timing chains, anything else I should know about? Thanks in advance.

Sorry to hear this, I wish you well going forward. May your balloons go with you...

8695, and you chucked in some paint and fabric protection.

I thought they were terrible news until I saw one go through a couple of weeks ago. To be honest, I can't remember what exactly it was or what it made but (maybe I could get a job with AT valuations) but it started off low as you would expect and made way over book with two dealers fighting for it.

I've just had a dispute with them over a condition report. I wouldn't normally as I believe you have to take the rough with the smooth but I couldn't be let this go such was the unreported damage. The bottom line is unless you want to take it all the way, don't bother as the those with hand held computers and a list of terms and conditions don't want to know. I did manage to get a goodwill payment at branch level as a buy a few from this BCA branch but it has knocked my confidence in their product.

Fair play, you now have the joy of getting them ready on time. Good luck

Get your bucket and spade Umesh!! £2595. Which, if we are being generous gives a gross margin of £295. If we are being realistic, it's got £200 in it. Unbelievable Jeff.

I'd say he/she was on Platinum but let's be generous and say a flat £100.

Car sold at BCA for £2200 which was way over book as it was 10 years old. Not a car that I was interested in, but was interested to see what it went up for as it was a bit unusual. So, hammer price was £2200 plus indemnity fee only. I think it was grade 2. So, what's it advertised for? The winner get's an all expenses overnight stay at a luxury hotel in Rhyl, and get's to keep the rest of the tenner.

I was paying them close on £400 per month for the full hit package with a website but dropped it last month. Just felt dead money. I'm now redirecting part of that advertising spend on FB and so far that is getting far better results for half the money. The other half of that £400 is being spent on a full hit starkwood website which I'm expecting good things from.

How the hell can a well know dealer with the initials EH get away with selling a 9 year run of the mill diesel car for way over book and then charging £95 for a HPI check they would have already carried out? On top of that, then wash their hands of it when the car breaks down on the motorway weeks later, leaving the customer with a £300 bill for an obviously dodgy battery. Oh year, and that EML light, it's just a whats it thingymibob filter type thing that's nothing to worry about, but if it was, you've had your 30 days anyway so tough ****. Robbing bar stewards. At least their customer has now bought from a decent garage and has been persuaded to leave a review of their 1980's business practice.

Aye; I must admit, I've got quite a lot of faith in BCA LOL and touch wood, have never had a major problem. Then again, I do tend to be quite a safe buyer and stick to my tried and tested stock. If your buying 276 cars a year surely you should be on a platinum card? Just imagine all those free breakfasts your missing out on !

I hope not. I don't want to be anywhere near them.

A CarGurus advert came through on my FB feed last night. It was a 59 plate Corsa SXi with 70k on it. £3495 all day long. I opened up the link and there she was. It looked it had done 6 rounds with David Haye, and lost. Interior was filthy, glove box was broken and as for the outside, well you are painting a repairing at least 3 panels. I'd be amazed if the head gasket wasn't gone on it due to having no history. That said, at £1995 and being HPI clear it's a great deal. Oh, and it was advertised by a main dealer as a trade sale. Say no more....