Ian

We've been the other way round - rubbish till the end of August, blinding since.

I'm sorry, but can women actually drive? :P Seriously, I would think that as long as the salesperson does the job properly, it doesn't matter if they're male, female, orangutan or giraffe.

Good call. Also link to the forum - until it's built up - on each news article maybe?

Thanks for the feedback, advice and encouragement. At this stage in my career I'm frightened to death of deals falling out of bed so hate to push potential customers. I think I'll up my £100 deposit to £200 though, that's a bit more of a commitment. Problem is most of our cars are less than two and a half grand.

Lucky you! The wifelet gets a nice Brucey bonus in January so we'll be off for a week's holiday somewhere in Feb.

Slowed down from a great September & October, but still happy with it. December, on the other hand, has me reaching for the scotch.

We've got not enough diesel's at the minute. We've got a nice biegey/gold Octavia diesel estate that has tons of watchers on eBay but not one buyer. It's the right money too, one owner and FSH. In my short time we've only had one LPG and I sold that within a day of it arriving (an old Jag).

That title is begging to be punned to bits! There's *no charge* for this advice!

I'll be sure to enter James, but ours is a tiny independant dealer with just fresh faced (what? At 40?!!) me and my gaffer with a pitch of 20ish motors, so I'm not sure where we'd fit in.

I've only been selling for a short while, and confess to having lots to learn. I thought this thread could be useful to post - as the title says - thins I (we) learn with every deal. A week ago a couple appeared on the yard at quarter to five, looking at a very nice diesel Picasso we have for sale. Ten minutes later I'd persuaded them that buying it was the Best Thing In Their Life. They asked how much deposit I would take, and I said £100. £100 later I asked when they wanted to collect their car and pay the balance..."we're waiting for our insurance payout, we've wrote our car off". OK, thinks, I, not a big problem. The gaffer gets back and although pleased, says be ready for them to cancel. Sure enough, this week they did - they have only been offered £800 for their car, leaving them £1,200 short. So now the deal's fallen out of bed and they're borrowing a relative's motor that is unused anyway.

Some more focus on small independant used car dealers would be great. Happy to help where possible.

They can recall the bloody old Passat we're stuck with that's cost us our trousers in prep work!

Huge congrats to all who won, nearly won, and organised. Sounds a great evening and some well deserving winners.

All old fashioned here - visual, test drive, inspection of engine, CAP, gaffer's experience. "You're not gonna like this..."

Some right blummin' advertising going on there!

Wouldn't touch 'em with a barge pole. Worms Can A Of.

I've been tasked with making our site better, which isn't difficult given the lousy existing one. I've gone for a WordPress theme (so user friendly) but will make sure it works for all devices.

I don't know bud, it's all new to me. Please don't say January is going to be bad too, after a stellar three months I want to stay on a roll.

EDIT for double post. The emotion made me do it.

Urgh you've reminded me of a horrible drive back from Barcelona in a Cooper S, with a broken seat that wouldn't move back (I'm 6' 2") - whoever thought that might be fun? Oh, hang on...I did! I wished I'd never sold my first car - a FIAT Mirafiori - that was handed down to me, when I say sold it what I mean is the fact that I wrote it off four days after passing my test. I was heartbroken and sat amidst the crumpled remains sobbing. I vowed I'd never drive again, I was so upset. My Dad offer of driving his XJS did the trick though and I was soon back behind the wheel. But, for all it's rust, dodgy carburettor, rust, joke/choke, rust, rust and er, rust I'd love to see that old beauty drive round the corner and back into my life. With that car went my driving dreams. Well at least for a year or so. RIP my X reg Mirafirori - Rust In Peace.

He holds the purse strings James, so no can do!

Our local newspaper has a pretty poop web offering though. I guess if the TV campaign Motors have planned works then it will get much better results. I'd be interested in opinions though.

Sadly we had our recovery targetted and attacked causing us the best part of two thousand pounds wortth of repairs. More could and should be done to crack down on scrap metal sales.

I've had a flying three month start to my career, but this month (December) it's gone deader than a graveyard at 2am.

Renault's are a pain in the arris.