15Cars

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Posts posted by 15Cars

  2. Posted

    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 

    1 hour ago, Mikey360 said:

    "I'm not a messer" 

    "I'm in the trade" 

    "My mates a mechanic/ In the trade"

    "Can you beat this fake finance quote with 1% APR even though I haven't worked in 5 years and have several CCJ's against me?"

    "I'm not looking to buy, just to test drive"

    "So are you a car dealer or just flipping these for a profit?"

    "Do you take paypal?"

    "Can I have it next week without leaving a deposit?"

    "Can I pay you £10 a week?"

    "Can I take it away now if I pay you half now and the other when I get paid"

    Take your pick :lol:

     

    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?"

  4. Posted · Edited by 15Cars

    On 8/1/2020 at 8:11 AM, DCS01 said:

    Morning All,

    Despite eye watering auction prices and still getting my head around prep standards (after being prestige main dealer for the last 10 years) I have had a good start to my new venture. Wish I had done it years ago.

    Just wondering if anyone out there uses Facebook much? I have an account which I stopped using about 8 years ago just because I was tired of the bullshit on there. However I am wondering if it is worth reactivating the account for business use, I am assuming that very little actual sales traffic will come out of it? But wondered if anyone found it useful just as a presence for their business? 

    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.

  5. Posted

    On 7/27/2020 at 2:42 PM, Dave2302 said:

    That may well be because in climates like the UK the fuckin' things look great topside, but absolutely fall apart underneath :lol:

    Case in point 2017 Shogun, bought new from Swale Motors by a very wealthy local fleet owner mate of mine, for his wife's xmas present, (so it's never even been off road) and he doesn't even live next to the Sea !!

    All the stuff like Brake Backplates, Hose and other Brackets, little 10mm bolts holding stuff, etc etc are rotting away, started this at around 6 months old, he reported it under warranty and they offered to give him a can of paint :( ...................

    Ho Ho Ho, wrong bloke to take the piss with .....................

    The court case with Mitzi UK is ongoing ;)

    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.

  8. Posted · Edited by 15Cars

    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. 

     

    • Like 1

  10. Posted

    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. 

    On 1/13/2020 at 7:58 AM, Grantlfc81 said:

    So over the last 6 months we have noticed that we are getting much more sales from car gurus.

    decemeber and jan car gurus are almost at 50/50 with auto trader now.

    has anyone else noticed a large increase in good quality leads from car gurus? I seem to be getting much younger people coming through car gurus. 

    our last 4 sales have all been gurus also. Tide is turning?

     

    On 2/8/2020 at 11:17 PM, Grantlfc81 said:

    I try to not sell anything higher than fair. Which is yellow. I have sold a couple on high price but they are normally with really stunning alloys or white in colour as white seems To command much more money in Essex. Especially in Audi TTs or a nice c class.

    It can’t drive prices down if cap prices are expensive! You’ll be selling stuff for what you pay for it otherwise.   Auto trader prices are about £700 too cheap at the minute. Rediculous Price gap between cap and auto trader 

    Some would argue CAP is way behind too. As we all know it's difficult to source anything decent in for CC atm.

  11. Posted

    7 minutes ago, Mark101 said:

    The V5 has to remain in the customers name. He will receive a new log book bearing a new (probably the original) number plate. At this point you put it into trade.

    Take a £200 deposit otherwise your customer WILL drag their heels in returning the new log book.

    Nice one Mark, cheers 

  13. Posted

    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

  14. Posted

    Just now, Nick M.K. said:

    You never wrote that it has 60K when you bought it! 

    You just stated that the car lost 1000 miles in a month. Nothin else. 

    I would've mentioned the current 60K miles in the original post. 

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

    • Like 1

  15. Posted

    On 12/24/2019 at 5:54 PM, Nick M.K. said:

    That’s not a clocked car, 

    98K miles in August, then the clever owner pays £££ to only shave 1000 miles to make it 97K AND take it into the same main dealer!!!
     

    Complete nonsense. 

    VW dealer made an admin error booking the car in or a factual error telling you the mileage a month later. 

    Don’t lose your sleep over this, don’t waste your time with BCA letter and enjoy your hols. 

     

    Why would you say that? Does clocking 1000 miles seem right to you? 

    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.

  17. Posted

    1 minute ago, trade vet said:

    It’s just the downside to buying not warranted mileage stuff.You will buy plenty when you have guessed right about the mileage.I am unsure why you complained to the auction,just retail out of it as best you can and take a hit. Compliments of the season.

    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

    9 minutes ago, Tony F said:

    So, its worth remembering this. You could have returned the car to auction for a refund. If in future if you buy a car 'not warranted miles', that does not excuse the vendor if the miles turn out to be incorrect. I have returned quite a few cars to bca over the years when the main agent/vendor has tried to pull a fast one, thinking the 'not warranted miles' declaration covers them. It does not cover f4ck all!  I have cut and paste below some wording from an email I have often used, and it has always worked out fine for me. Might help a few others too.

    'Dear Bca               ,
    Thanks for your response.
    I received the email below from J after I emailed you. Hopefully he's sorting it tomorrow.
    My interpretation is that all mileage readings are either correct or incorrect.
    A vendors declaration of 'warranted' would be based on available evidence to verify the mileage reading, such as VOSA or full service history. The 'incorrect' declaration is used when there is evidence to support the inaccuracy of a mileage reading, again VOSA discrepancy or incorrect service history, or speedometer change.
    A 'not warranted' declaration is just as strong a declaration as the other two, and is used used when there is no evidence available to support the mileage reading of a car as being either correct or incorrect.
    A vendor cannot hide behind the not warranted declaration and use it as an excuse for not showing due care when selling a car on, when a simple check established that this particular car had an incorrect mileage reading. They are using ignorance as a defence in this particular case, and also also trying to use the not warranted declaration as an excuse for their lack of due diligence. But I am sure that being such a large company they would have certain procedures in place for checking their cars & p/exs, as I have noted that they do also often warrant mileages on some of their cars that have minimal or no service history available.'

    Hi Tony

    Interesting, I didn't think you were able to reject auction cars with non warranted miles.
     

    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

  18. Posted · Edited by 15Cars

    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

  19. Posted

    On 12/22/2019 at 7:50 PM, michael smith said:

    Autotrader price indicators.Want a way to get rid of them till they sort the mess out.Remove the mileage from the mileage box and either put 1 or 0 then in the attention grabber put the mileage the car has done.Price indicators gone.If you don't upload your adverts directly to dealer portal then you will need to put 1 mile and then the mileage in the subtitle/extra info box.Autotrader have wreaked havoc doing this and until they sort out how to value a car thats one owner/full service history/lovely condition to a pile of scrap being sold by a kirbside trader with no back up after sale they should remove the price indicators and have a re-think.

    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.

  20. Posted

    33 minutes ago, JA Trader said:

    Agreed 6 months ago it was much cheaper not sure what has happened.

    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

  21. Posted · Edited by 15Cars

    9 hours ago, Mad Mark said:

    Cheers I'll take a look at the how to be a car dealer guide. I watched this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTBicGsgHXo and he made £900 profit (before tax) on the car, for a car he bought for £1000. Would you say profits like this on a £1000 car at auction or bought privately are few and far between, if so what would you say are more realistic profit figures for buying a car for £1000? 

    Are there any insurance companies you'd recommend for cheap motor trade insurance for new dealers? 

    Sorry for all the questions. I've fired in a few hearts for your help happy to keep them coming!

     

    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!

    • Like 2

  22. Posted

    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. 

  25. Posted

    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