MarkTVS

We generally put the scrap on gumtree/scumtree and it sells within a week, though it Is made extremely clear that it is sold as spares or repairs. Usually we make £100/£200 on them aswell, they always get at least a basic valet. For example we got a 2009 Ford Fiesta Zetec S in last wee with 110k cap below was £1950 but I gave him £1100 for it as it was BCA grade 6 or 7 if it existed, 2 dangerously bald tyres, needing near enough every panel painted and a few replaced, interior was filthy, quick valet and sold within 2 days for £1250 signed as spares or repairs.

I think we are about 13 at the moment which is bang on where I want to be, one a day is good enough on average, finding it hard to replace stock at the moment, all the Scottish auction stuff at the moment is crap. Mark

Burst flexi pipe?

Thanks for the advice and feedback, the location is a bit of a sticking point, currently our turn over of cars is circa 20/25 a month, however as we are in a densely populated area there isn't many options for good photo locations as I have to factor in Scottish weather which means about 60% of the time it is damp or wet therefore going further afield the cars would be dirty by the time I got there. The MOT station in the background is not mine, it is just a neighbouring business. A bit more of my background I am fairly young to the trade, I am 27 years old, I started out as a mechanic and selling cars was just a hobby that grew beyond proportion to the point it came a full time business, so I have not worked on cars personally much in the past 2/3 years however I feel it does give me a slight advantage when it comes to recognising faults etc. However I am in the process of purchasing the repair workshop where I served my time as an apprentice as with the amount of money we spend monthly in mechanical prep per month it makes sense to have our own workshop. So as of May I will be leaving to run the workshop day to day whilst still managing the car sales to an extent, I will still be purchasing the cars but I wont be dealing with the purchasing customers face to face as that is the bit I least enjoy. We all have cars we like and dislike, Vauxhalls for some are head aches but when the common issues are second nature it doesn't present too many problems with regard to comebacks. Thanks all Mark

Hi all, Fairly new to the forum though I have been browsing for a while, my name is Mark and I run a small independent dealers in the southside of Glasgow, I like to sell older prestige and performance cars but also sell run of the mill small hatchback such corsa's and clios etc to keep the bills paid. We stock generally 20-30 cars. I am fairly new to this trade and although I came from a motor trade background it was mechanical as opposed to sales. Here is a link to one of our stock Astra VXR Nürburgring's: https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201902154963684?advert-type=dealer-stock&advertising-location=at_cars&advertising-location=at_profile_cars&fromDealerSearchResults=%2Fdealers%2Fglasgow-city%2Fglasgow%2Ftotal-vehicle-solutions-628741%2Fstock%3Fadvertising-location%3Dat_cars%26advertising-location%3Dat_profile_cars%26dealer%3D628741%26onesearchad%3DUsed%26onesearchad%3DNearly%2520New%26page%3D2%26sort%3Dprice-asc&dpp=628741 Here is a link to all our Autotrader adverts: https://www.autotrader.co.uk/dealers/glasgow-city/glasgow/total-vehicle-solutions-628741/stock?onesearchad=Used&onesearchad=Nearly%20New&dealer=628741&advertising-location=at_cars&sort=price-asc&page=1&advertising-location=at_profile_cars And here is our website www.tvs-glasgow.co.uk I would appreciate comments, advice, suggestions good or bad and help on how to improve anything. thanks Mark

My opinion, not necessarily saying I am correct here but the negatives I can find are: The video, just music, a bit of commentary would be better, and it could do with being slightly shorter aswell as showing some of the interior. On that particular car I think some slightly glossier tyre shine and bumper dressing would have made it look slightly better as in the video the wheels and paintwork look amazing ad glossy but the tyres and arches look slightly dull. The write up on the advert is good but could benefit from slightly better word choice, for example "car has very nice spec" using a more flamboyant word would brighten up the text a little. Other than that everything I would want to know is there and the pictures are great!

I had issue with one years ago, I cant remember the ins and out but I had to replace all 4 with genuine BMW items as the aftermarket ones were crap. Might be worth checking if all injectors look the same incase one or two have been changed before.

Were these cars not bad for injectors aswell?

That's good to know, thanks for the information. I was surprised they didn't mention this at the Autotrader masterclass I was at last month.

Not a fan of new portal especially when it shows stock funding as outstanding finance! Surely customers will not know what that is and it will put them off?

We sometimes source cars privately and at least 30% of the time the ones that seem good have something to hide whether it be cat c/d or finance. I had one recently where I called the girl selling the car asking about why she hadn't mentioned it was on finance she said oh yeah that's fine don't worry im going to keep paying it I just need the money for other things. She wasn't in anyway bad it was just a case of she didn't know she wasn't allowed to sell a car on finance, just a bit dolly!

We are on the free package with Car Guru's, we get lots of enquiries but as mentioned previously of very poor quality, reply instantly and very rarely get anything further. I told car gurus to give me the upgraded package for free as a trial which they did with all the customer information on display and full dealership branding but I didn't feel it gave much more benefit. I don't think it justifies the money they are asking even if it is cheap.