15Cars

wtf is anybody still using BCA?

Lol, I've heard all of the above, but since lockdown it's the offer of cash/no px, no finance that has been most prevalent I love the dealer one; I get that asked quite often whilst the punter is sat in my office looking over 150k of cars (albeit in a rural storage facility). "So is this this full time for you or just something on the side?"

"Whats your best price for cash? I'm a good customer, don't need finance and have no part exchange, so what's the best price?" Any more cringe worthy opening lines about at the moment? :-)

I suspect Facebook, like eBay and Car Gurus is fairly dependent on location. I've been tinkering for some time but certainly haven't found a sweet spot; just a few dead-end finance applications. I have associates in other, more densely populated areas that do sell a few so I think you need to suck it and see. Sadly, AT remains king for me by a country mile.

Found this out when I briefly considered buying a newer Shogun for a towing vehicle that I could lug the tribe around in. Couldn't believe the corrosion on the things. Junk.

£200 to prep a grade 5? Jeeze I'm doing something seriously wrong

Because the rogues/driveway/cash traders aren't paying a penny of tax on their margins like the rest of us do.

I think people brushing this off as 'no different than flu' are pretty damn ignorant - the only reason the current numbers in China are as they are is because their reaction has been so extreme - so far from the current government we've seen very little action; like allowing passengers on flights from the far-east, Italy and Iran etc through unchecked. We're about 10-14 days behind Italy. Dismissing this is probably as stupid as suggesting Brexit is going to be a bed of roses.

Or send HMRC to investigate punters at car auctions

Just thinking aloud here; what are AT actually gaining by undervaluing cars? I've just added an older Golf to my stock list, AT have put it £400-odd behind CAP retail, I've added the leather interior option which AT tells me was £1700 new and the price has increased by £143, so still well behind CAP retail. Some would argue CAP is way behind too. As we all know it's difficult to source anything decent in for CC atm.

Nice one Mark, cheers

Morning All I've got a part exchange arriving tomorrow with a private plate on it which the customer wants back. Should I first put the vehicle in trade then apply to get it removed or do it whilst the V5 is still in the customer's name? Many thanks 15

Morning All I've noticed Motors (+FB), AA Cars and the free CG package all performing much better over the past couple of months vs AT. With my lowish stock level I'm seriously considering binning AT. Just wondered if their is a way of transferring my 50-odd decent reviews to other platforms? I suspect not but it's worth asking. Cheers

Sorry mate, it doesn't make a lot of sense without the miles displayed on purchase.

It's strange I'll give you that Nick but the fact remains it was reading 97 and 98k 6 years ago and I bought the thing with 60k displayed.

Merry Christmas to all, really appreciate all the experience and advice that gets shared here on a daily basis.

That's the conclusion I've come to, and you're right, I've had success with other cars I've bought with declared mileage discrepancies and non warranted miles, often just the MOT tester has cocked the mileage entry up. I didn't complain to the auction as such; I get on with them well and wanted to let them know. I'm not losing any sleep over it, every time I f*ck up, I treat it as a learning exercise and it makes me sharper. I guess my only gripe is with myself, the car has easily done double the miles displayed and I didn't spot it. Some of these VW interiors seem to age so well. Have a nice crimbo Hi Tony Interesting, I didn't think you were able to reject auction cars with non warranted miles. Anyway, it was an old/cheap car and I got it well under CC so cannot imagine I'm gonna lose more than a couple hundred quid. If I needed a smoker to get around in I'd happily keep it, it drives lovely, it has clearly been looked after. One question, if a car at auction has a declared mileage discrepancy, would that change things? It wasn't BCA btw, it's a small privately owned auction house I sometimes use. I'm a rookie and not skilled/experienced enough to buy stuff from BCA and make decent margins yet Seasons greetings

Afternoon All I've been caught out. 10 year old well loaded VW which was purchased from auction, 2 owners, last owner for past 8 years . 60k miles showing but miles were not warranted. Spent a good 30 mins checking the car out and checked physical history before bidding - mileages tally nicely in the service book as do the mileages on the MOT history. HPI report all good. Interior firm and fresh with no excessive wear and the car drives great, nice and tight. Stuck it through my workshop for a major service but a fault appeared which needed a main dealer repair. Booked it into the local main dealer, gave them the current mileage and they told me it cannot be right. They saw the car in August 2013 at 98k and September 2013 at 97k, so it's lost 1000 miles in a month; I'm guessing the car has done at least 130k, possibly a lot more. Spoke to the auction and they're not interested. Naturally I'm not going to retail it and it has been sent to auction. I'm not overly bothered about the loss, I'll chalk it up to experience. My question is, apart from contacting a main dealer prior to purchase to see what records they have, it there anything else I could have done to prevent this? All comments welcome, good or bad. Merry Xmas to all 15

Totally with you on this. My stock mostly 1 or 2 owner, main dealer SH, highly prepped, freshly serviced/MOT'd and properly valeted so naturally is priced higher than some of the tat out there. Only issue I see with your suggestion is some punters might start questioning why there isn't a price indicator and might not even call to give you the opportunity to explain.

Agreed, I had a good time in the summer. I think 69 plate sales have been crap hence the lack of nice straight part exchanges. I'm in awe of some of the regular 'traders' at my local auction house buying the current crop of shit from the dealer part exchange events. How they make a profit is beyond me - I clearly have a lot to learn

As a relative newcomer (140 sold so far) if I had to offer one piece of advice for new starts, it would be to avoid the major auction houses atm - especially at the £1000 range!

Another gripe is when something is shown as above average mileage, there is nothing to explain to the punter that the price indicator has taken this into account. In my limited experience, AT has always been king for sales AFAIC but this month I've actually had more response from other sources for the first time ever.

Fair enough, I will keep plugging as I hate to be defeated!

Thanks. I guess you're referring to the user set demographic?

Evening all I've been tarting up my Facebook page over the past few weeks and have boosted 9 adverts so far this week (£10-£30 spend each ad over 5 days, all cars at CAP retail maximum with finance examples). I've had a few piss weak leads asking if they can test drive etc but they've not gone anywhere. Just curious if anybody is having success taking this route? 15