sparky

To give you an idea, I've just done one with Motonovo. Customer borrowed £2500 over 3 years at 7% and commission was £135. Not going to get me fat but it all helps the job along.

I'd say it was a bit of a no brainer. If you only do one a month on finance then surely it has to be worth it?

I also packed up at 2 as bugger all was happening. Put a note on the door, transferred the phone and then put my foot to the floor to watch the mighty Wrexham (or was it Brazil they were that good) tear Aldershot apart!! In this morning to do my VAT, don't expect to get the keys out. If given a pass, I'll be on the golf course later on. High five brother

Cracking idea James. With you all the way.

I remember a few years ago one of these consumer protection TV shows showing some can of a poor punter who had been fleeced by a fly by night. The car in question was a Mondeo Ghia TDCi Estate with (cough cough) about 70k on the clock. A book car if ever there was one. Poor Johnny Punter then got his violin out and described how what he though was a bargain in terms of price from a 'repuatable' dealer had indeed turned out to be a lemon. Dominic or whoever it was then jumped in to the rescue to save the day and all was well in the world for Johnny Punter. It was as this point that of an idea for a new TV programme for people like Johnny Punter and the best price brigade simply titled ' You bought it, tough shit!'. I'm convinced, that hosted by GreenGiant, this would be a winner.

I think a rant about wheelerdealer1's situation is called for. Let em ave it.

That's North Wales for you. I'm fairly sure if we swapped locations, my hair would grow back and yours would go

I need to implement some sort of strategy like this, problem is (and it's a good problem in a way), is that I'm never short of space as I have quite a big forecourt which leads to me being somewhat lackadaisical about cars being sat. Another problem I have is that get too emotionally attached to cars. Like many, I fight tooth and nail to try and buy the right stock so to get rid after 10 weeks or so would be hard. I know what your doing is right, but bugger me it's going to be hard to do. May I ask, how do you get rid once 10 weeks is up and do you ever take a blow and also, if space wasn't at a premium would you still implement this strategy?

No advice, and I wouldn't want to teach a duck to suck eggs, but we have to remember in this day and age that when your man comes over to look at your car, in most cases he will have done his homework already and done some virtual tyre kicking. For whatever reason, he has come to see your car out of the hundreds that are out there so it's important, I feel, to have confidence in what you are selling and the price you are selling it at. Easier said than done, especially when it's quiet, but as George Michael once said, you gotta have faith.

Not for the first time since it's relaunch, I'm unable to open up simulcast, whilst BCA LOL just purrs along without any issues.

At least you get some profit out of an oddball. Every now and then I have a moment of weakness and buy a top tenner (usually a Corsa SXi) and end up regretting it when I only make a drink out of it. Sad thing is, I know I'll do it again like I'm back in 1999 when the current rules of engagement didn't apply.

Pretty sure that driving 'anything off the forecourt with tax and fuel in it' is seen by the revenue as a benefit in kind. No problem, as long as you pay the tax that goes with such benefits.

Just out of interest, what kind of figures are we talking about and what does that give you? I think most of us on here stock under 40 cars and I've always been intrigued what the big boys with three figure numbers are paying?ying t Edit. That question was for william whom for some reason I was unable to quote.

If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck. I think you would be quakers to deal this.

I've never been asked to do that so the answer is no. Every car sold goes out with a full ticket, service (including cambelt if required) and PDI so they go out as right as I can get them. I've made about four claims, one of which was not paid out on or not covered (a faulty instrument gauge) whilst the others have been relatively straight forward, although I may have had to tell a small porkie pie when I was claiming for an EGR valve when I said the fault with it was electrical (covered) as opposed to mechanical (not covered due to wear and tear). I take the points on here made by Max and Umesh and in the majority of cases I do self warrant, but no doubt that offering these extended warranties is helping me shift cars, especially when the customer is not local which can be a can of worms if you are distance selling with in house warranties.

I always used to self warrant every car sold until the past year or so until I joined up with WMS, the only real reason I joined up with them because of who the rep was (people buy off people etc). I've never been a fan of 3rd party warranties but I have to say these guys seem decent enough and gave me some confidence, so much so that in the last few months I've really pushed 12 month warranties and no question about it, this has definitely resulted in an increase in enquiries and sales. Interesting that in negotiations and given the option of more discount and the standard in house 3 month warranty or less discount and the 12 month warranty, most are going for the latter.

You are of course correect, I guess the key is then to have some stock which this doesn't apply to. Every now and then I get tempted to buy the odd Clio and Corsa like it was the good old days, and then I have to remind myself of the deals which are available on these things brand new, the urge to buy soon goes away. Whilst buying a 10 year old 4x4 or MPV has it's worries, one of them isn't worrying about about how much they are new. It would take a lot more than £99 per month and just adding some fuel to get into one of these beauties. I guess it's a bit of a trade off then between turnover and margin and in sleepy north wales, margin wins all day long. The job is ok at the moment, agree with TML that in houese finance is quiet although I'm doing quite a lot with Zuto (formally carloans4u) at the moment. Now that business is one success story, why didn't we think of that?

​ I've found i control a handy little tool but like you say, it is flawed and IMO expensive for what it is and that's why I've cancelled the product. I find the desirability tool quite handy (it's to be taken with a pinch of salt though) and if the price of it was right I'd stick with it. Sadly I can't justify £150 per month for it so it has to go.

Is retail checker the same thing as i control?

Good job Manheim didn't take it back then I had a little Kangoo van sat on death row for a few months (it was actually a sound enough van) but it needed a couple of jobs doing on it to make it ok. Loads of lads have enquired about it but I've been too busy with the cars to get round to it. Anyway, one bloke kept mithering about it and after establishing he was a local proper bloke I set to work on it. Two hours after a new battery and lock it passed it's test with only a couple of advisories, only problem was the speedo packed in on the way back from the test. I rang the bloke and he was cock a hoop. I explained about the speedo' 'not arsed, I've got sat nav' he said, and then told him the radio needed coding 'not arsed, I can whistle' and then told him I've got no idea when the cambelt was replaced 'not arsed, my mate will do it for a couple of scoops, can I pick it ip now?'. Just give me a couple of hours to clean it up for youI said, '**** off came the reply, I'll be there in 10 minutes'. I've seen him since and he's happy as larry and everything is now working on the van and it's belt has been done. Happy, stress free days

​I've got to be honest, I'd never heard of Trusted Dealers until today.

​That was my reasoning behind my decision to ditch AT and your probably right, yet when push comes to shove how come many sensible dealers (myself inculded) ignore this view and go running back to AT or simply refuse to ditch them in the first place when there are so many other platforms out there? I suppose the good news is the big players want a piece of that huge pie (one that keeps getting bigger) so in theory that should be good news for the rest of us. I doubt at this moment in time AT are worried, they don't do worry, Motors on the other hand, sadly I can't see this being good for them.

​Slightly off thread, but sometimes I feel like just selling vans instead of cars. I probably sell half a dozen a year and find it a breath of fresh air compared to the prepping and selling of cars.

​ You guys have no heart. Stand aside I'm going to let them out by using my sledgehammer. Well I was going to until my £5.99 ebay//fb/rhylcarbootsale/ sledgehammer broke. If only I had paid the extra for a bit of quality off a reputable ironmonger then the brick wall would be down by now. Oh well, guess we will just have to let the poor buggers rot...

​If they did, then I wish they would realise the importance of a car's odour. They obviously put a lot into their online appraisels, why they can't include a comments section to inform remote buyers the interior has been lived in by an Benson and Hedges smoking Alsation is beyond me.