CRW

That's where I am, around 15-20 units, but in the £4k to £10k bracket, anything heavier is buy to order. Run it by myself, working 7 days a week, by which I mean tied to the site unless i'm away collecting. Always aspired to go bigger, but these days can see the benefit of holding steady. Have never advertised with AT or had any contractual form of advertising (Gumtree, Ebay etc). Perhaps I have missed out on something, who knows.

I think the term "bonus" might be taking it a bit far! What price sector of the market are you in? On those figures, I would have thought its costing you the profit on the first 7 deals each month, just to cover the AT bill? If it works for you, well done, but I don't envy you.

Hello. Velin I presume?

I agree, would like to see Full Auction get back up and running. One thing that seems a little strange with FA, is the amount of staff they seem to have, according to their Christmas cards anyway. Considering they have had hardly any cars for sale over the last 3 years, I cant work out what's been paying the wages!

Just a suspicion, but I fear he may be regretting his opening post now!

Rough estimate for Holdcroft would be more like 150-200 units per month, perhaps more. Maybe AT wont miss them, but it has a domino effect.

That will be a kick in the teeth to Dealer Auction if Holdcroft go on their own. Was half expecting it anyway. Steve's alright, always been good as gold to me.

A couple of years back we had 12 windscreens put through and a couple of front ends battered, in a 45 sec blitz across the forecourt. Rushed into work at midnight and sat here until early hours waiting for the police to turn up. Still waiting.

Think you want Tinder mate.

True, I wouldn't swap. Although in the rain with no customers in sight...………...

6 hours would be a short day for me down here in Cornwall! Its a 12 hour round trip to the Midlands

Yeah, student life is a nightmare, I don't know how you cope.

Yes, I have removed it now, never even thought to look when the battery went flat the first time. It was privately owned and I bought it from A4C. Just guess im going to have to play a waiting game now to see if the battery still holds charge. My mechanic is 100% that would have been enough of a drain, I was just curious if anybody else had experience of it.

Afternoon everyone. Just after a bit of advice or to find out if anybody else has had this before. Had a 2016 Citroen C1 18k miles, come in a few months back. After a few weeks on the forecourt the battery was flat. Whilst a bit surprised, I didn't think much of it. Changed the battery and all was fine. Car is still here and after 2 months the battery is flat again. Had left it running on the forecourt a few times to counter this but it still went flat. Have just discovered a small black box plugged into the OBD port with Trakm8 printed on it. Has anybody else had anything similar and have I found my drain? Do these really drain the batteries that much?

If this was all supposed to be so wonderful, surely its launch should have been made an event? Instead, it was barely mentioned (other than by us on here) a small link at the top of the old site, no big fanfare or arrival and its execution was as a total shambles. Perhaps it was literally meant to be an execution! All I think is that if this is the end of DA, it leaves a massive gap in the market for a new platform arrival. Cant imagine the likes of Holdcroft etc piddling around for an hour on each car.

Maybe that's exactly what it is. Wasn't there a case a few years back of one of the auction groups buying another online platform purposely to destroy it? I guess AT might think along the same lines.

My advice to any franchised vendor who used Dealer Auction would be to try Full Auction, surely that could be made a go of again?! Nice simple format that always worked, just a shame Robins and Day pulled out. If you do use Full Auction, don't tell Autotrader or they will meander across and balls that up as well!

Right, spent a bit of time looking at it, first impressions are it is a bit of a shambles! Feels like a retail site for private punters who love being bombarded with data. When you find a vehicle to look at, you cant currently open it, unless you put it in your watchlist. Guess that can be sorted. As a dealer who has avoided any involvement with Autotrader in 15 years of trading, I now feel they finally got me!

I have just received the email and got on. Going to take a bit of getting used to, but all new things do. I agree, no way its going to be worth £99 per month for me personally. If they aren't careful, they could kill their own cash cow.

Sorry if I've missed something, but has anybody yet gone over to the new DA site? Have phoned them and they were due to send me details as i'm already a registered with them in their current format. So far nothing. Will phone again as this seems to be taking place over the weekend. Suspect we will all be expected to pay this £99 per month fee soon.

Sorry, but if you are already in the 40% tax bracket, unless you have a nest egg of £100K plus to buy stock with initially, a good forecourt and access to a good (cheap) mechanic and painter, it will be years before you ever get back to it. If ever. If that doesn't matter to you, then fine, but to work 7 days a week for half the money at best, doesn't sound sensible. Good luck if you choose to go for it though.

Early ones suffered with coolant hoses failing causing engine failure. Heard stories about clutches, but not 100% sure on that. Check on the Ford Etis website if there is an outstanding recall on the car. Just tap in registration. Or buy a 1.25, generally pretty bullet proof!

It should have been. half the town are off their tits every weekend.

Harsh! I believe that is my “beloved” Penzance’s claim to fame!!

As far as I can see you have no contract with her finance company and therefore no obligation to them. You can quite happily tell them to do one. I would then place it in writing that you intend to pursue her for defamation through the courts, that you have instructed your solicitor to begin proceedings and that she will shortly be hearing from them. Obviously you haven't, but it'll make her back door twitch a bit when she reads it. I had a similar thing about ten years ago, couple phoned wanting to trade a very tidy Freelander in for a 206 I had taken in part ex. The deal made no sense to me at the time and to be fair I ignored their messages for a few days. They were persistent so I did the deal with them, but thought they would be trouble. The wife was a proper stuck up cow, some sort of trophy wife. They were a nightmare. Within 2 days the penny dropped this wasn't the best move they had made and so the messages began. First they wanted the old car back because she suffered with claustrophobia. I couldn't because I already traded the Freelander out. Then they tore the 206 apart, found the most trivial of faults and plastered reviews everywhere. I threatened them with court and the reviews were removed. They also told me that the 206 had been over-priced and that there was a law against selling over priced cars. She couldn't tell me which law it was but there definitely was a law. She would "accidently" send me text messages meant for her solicitor. After a month of obscene messages from them at 2 am, refusal to let me have the car back to inspect, I think I refunded them around £500 as a goodwill gesture to shut them up. I made them sign an agreement that it was in lieu of me undertaking any repair work due to our inability to reach agreement and that it was not a price adjustment. I made them come to me to collect the money and when the wife showed up this time she was rough as rats, no make-up and aged about ten years in a month. Shame. Going back to her moaning about the drop in the Picanto's value...….Brexit, tell her its all because of Brexit. Probably why its squeaking as well.