J.T

It's a strange one with the V5 because I always seem to get the odd one go astray from the DVLA, it would have to be hers though wouldn't it! I agree about the belts may need an adjustment, it's a bit hard to adjust them when it's an 'intermittent' problem that only she seems to be able to hear. I'd like to try it from cold in the morning but she wouldn't leave the car with me to be able to do that, just to see if they squeal from cold.

The finance company are asking me to contact her and sort the problem out for them TV, that's what I mean by them wanting me to dig them out of this hole. I don't think she's missed any payments or told them that she can't afford it, I think she's just realised that she can't really afford it and is looking for a way out. She's realised she will be well out of pocket if she sells the car to WBAC as she'll still have a big chunk of the finance to pay off, so she's looking for a full refund and the only way she can get it is to say there is a problem with the car.

I sold a 20,000 mile Picanto Auto on May 6th 2019 for £4999. The lady in question turns up unannounced and the Picanto is right in the corner of the pitch, after speaking to her for a bit about the car she informs me that she needs finance but she only has her state pension to live off. As we all know the latest FCA buzzword is 'affordability' and I was thinking that I would probably struggle to get her financed, so I explained that I wasn't going to spend an hour moving all my cars then another hour moving them all back again when she hasn't got the money to buy my car. Or words to that effect, obviously I'm more delicate with a customer than explaining to you guys! Plus it was a sunday so I wouldn't have got a reply on the finance until the next day. I explained that she could drive the car before I signed her up to anything, but I wanted to get her through first on finance before I start rearranging my pitch. So off she went and I propped her to my sub prime company, and surprise they turned her down on affordability because her outgoings were already too high for her income. I let her know this, and the she calls me back to say she's arranged her own finance through another company. So I did the deal with her and she test drove the car when she came back. About 6 weeks later she calls to say that there is a squealing noise, so I'm guessing the auxiliary belts have gone a bit dry where I've steam cleaned the engine. I asked her to pop it back so I could have a look, then I get the usual I can't leave it with you as I need a car and the world will end if I don't have a car but I still want you to fix it for me. So she brings it in for me to have a look at and can't demonstrate this squeal to me, so I gave the belts a squirt and said see if that cures it if not then let me know and I'll look at changing the belts. I didn't hear from her for another 6-8 weeks just at the end of her 3 month warranty when she decided to tell me that the squeal was still happening, so I said bring the car back and thought I'll just stick a couple of belts on it to keep her happy. Then we go through the end of the world scenario again about how she can't bear to be parted from this car whilst I repair it for her free of charge, and how she will have to wait around in the town whilst we do it. There was no squeal when she first brought the car in and I didn't hear it the second time either and neither did my workshop, but I fitted the belts anyway. Then the week before last she rings me again having had the car for 5 months now and says she's not very happy, she's bought a new car (bullshit) and she wanted to get rid of the Picanto. She's been to WBAC and they've only offered her £2600 for the car which she paid £4999 for 5 months ago, she wasn't very happy about that but the reason she was ringing was because she hadn't had her V5 come back yet from the DVLA so she couldn't sell it to WBAC. I explained that I do the registration documents online and sometimes the customer doesn't receive their document, which is why I give them the Green slip and say it can be up to six weeks before you get the V5 but if you hadn't had it by then to let me know as I keep the old V5's for a couple of months in case this happens then I destroy them. So because she'd left it 5 months there was nothing I could do and explained that she'd need to send the green slip with a V62. I offered to buy the car back from her when she got the V5 back and said I'd give her a lot more than WBAC were offering as I could sell that car all day long. She called me again on friday with a completely different tone this time saying that she'd spoken to the finance company, wasn't happy that she was losing over £2400 in 5 months, it was also still my fault she wasn't going to have her V5 back until 4 weeks from the DVLA, I wouldn't let her drive the car until she'd paid for it, and that I'd held a gun to her head to forced her to buy it (her exact words!), and that she was going to reject this car under the CRA because of this squeal, and she wanted a full refund of the £4999 otherwise she will leave me bad reviews online, complain to the finance company and take me to court. I think she also blamed me for Brexit, Global warming, the troubles in the Middle East and the deforestation of the Brazilian rain forests during this conversation. I explained that I'm not going to be blackmailed in to giving her a full refund for a car she'd had 5 months, within an hour she'd left me a bad review on Google and then copied and pasted the same review onto car dealer reviews. Basically I don't think she can afford the car, so she's gone to WBAC who have kicked her in the nether regions, then realised that she's not going to get back what she paid for the car to pay off the finance, and is trying whatever she can to get out of the whole thing and I'm taking the brunt of it when I've done nothing wrong. Then today I get an email from the finance company asking me to contact the customer regarding a problem with her car, and how they like their dealers to be able to work together with them to be able to resolve customers problems. Piss taking bastards. My first question to them in my reply will be exactly how much commission did you give me for this deal (sweet FA)? The second will be if the FCA know they are financing cars to people who can't afford them and have already been turned down because of this. They don't want to share the money they are making on this deal but they want me to dig them out of a hole! It's just another day in paradise.

Golden rule always get the car back to inspect it first, give it back to the MOT tester and ask him to look at these items again just in case he missed something as we're all human. If he got it wrong then just do the work, if he hasn't and the customer is asking for betterment then you could ask the customer to pay for the parts or labour or both in the case of the Aux belt.

Sorry if this has been discussed already but I went on to Portal today and this pop up appeared which said from the end of the month they won't be advertising my telephone numbers, they will be displaying their telephone numbers and it will be compulsory to do this by the end of the month. So I rang them to complain, I don't like that they do this on Ebay and always add my telephone numbers to my adverts. I explained that I wasn't happy and that I pay a lot of money for my adverts and I want them to have my telephone number on them, not some made up telephone number that just looks dodgy. To which I was told that I have no choice. Is everyone else happy with this or am I just being a bit old fashioned?

Have you asked them for a free trial as they will generally do this? I had a months free trial with them but unfortunately I only had one inquiry in that time and she didn't even show up, so it didn't really work for me. If you have a free trial you have nothing to lose, and it's worth giving it a try then because it works for some but not others and it may work for you. I have found Ebay is second best to Autotrader so have you considered them instead? They regularly sell cars for me, so it more than pays for itself. I also use Facebook and Facebook Market place, I use Facebook for promoting my website and business and then Market Place advertises my cars for £25 per month. I'm starting to get more inquiries from Market Place but generally they are the 'is it still available' but never hear from them again type, it's early days for them but for £25 a month it doesn't really matter as I'm still getting exposure.

The Co-op had a go too if I recall, but fell flat on their faces. They do still sell cars for me though as I'm right next door to a Co-op, and the amount of people who were just popping in the Co-op to get some shopping and end up buying a car from me is great. Don't tell them that though or they'll want a commission from me!

Hi Kieran, I would agree with the guys that say just stick to what you are doing now and enjoy earning a few quid selling the odd car. I don't mean to sound so negative but it's not as easy as everyone thinks it is going full time.

Think it's the other way around, the green slip V5c has an extra number (12 digit) so just take off the first number to give the doc ref no (11 digit). You guys are correct but I think he's asking for it the other way around?

You're beginning to learn NacMan, the word you need to know when dealing with Autotrader is avaricious. The double your stock listing bollocks only works for dealers that don't advertise all of their stock on AT, for example if you have a 30 car pitch and advertise all of those cars you can't just go out and buy another 30 cars as there would be nowhere to put them for a start. They know the majority of dealers can't do this. I would be very unhappy with them if you've increased your package and they are not giving you the extra listings, but that's typical AT I'm afraid.

Bloody thing kept filling the drivers sill up with water whenever it rained, every time you braked the water could be heard sloshing from the back to the front of the car.

I like that idea, if the car smells of cat poo they won't notice the smell of smoke. Has anyone tried an ozone generator?

He has 6 years to make a claim TG, though I doubt a judge would be giving him a full refund after two and a half years of use. I agree with what the others had said though with him being in a foreign country he doesn't have a leg to stand on as he's exported it, unless he's a member of the IRA in which case give him whatever he wants

If they are selling you one car a week why would you stop using them?

The last Zuto deal I did was on a 206 SW which I'd reduced to cost to get rid of at £1999, and the bloke turns up with his 'expert' and the next time I look they're jacking the car up and taking the wheels off!! I had to bite my tongue as I wanted out of the car, but it's the one and only time I've ever had anyone take the wheels off before buying a car!! I've had a couple of inquiries from them since then but they have both been time wasters, the last girl I did the demo etc and was just about to sign her up when she tells me she's going away on holiday to the Caribbean tomorrow for three weeks! I said how are you going to sign the documents, she says I'll sort all that out when I come back!

It's difficult trading from home and don't let anyone tell you otherwise, like you said you're competing with those big dealers so if you sell similar cars you're going to have to be much cheaper than them. If you are offering them too cheaply then people can think there is something wrong with them, I've had cars that I've reduced to turn stock over and you still don't open the door so put the price back up again and they sell! I would take anything Autotrader have to say with a pinch of salt, their only goal is to extract as much money from you as possible. They don't live in the real world with us, if you go by their valuations and retail prices they think we buy cars for £3,000 and sell them for £5,000 and they charge us accordingly because we're making so much money.

What does 'Relevance' even mean?? Yes I know what the definition of the word is before I get the smart replies, but what does it mean in an Autotrader search? For example I've just searched for a Nissan Micra within 40 miles between £6000 and £7000 and found 8 cars, the Autotrader search has defaulted to list them in Relevance. Surely they are all relevant as they are all Nissan Micra's within 40 miles and between 6k & 7k? The first one in the list is not the cheapest, not the closest, and not the lowest mileage, so why is that one more 'relevant' than the others? You'll soon find out why NacMan, once you've been with Autotrader for a bit.

You're missing a trick there TV, all of my cars end in 99 and not 95. The reason being if you sell 250 cars a year that £4 per car is a grand a year you're just giving away for no reason, over 10 years that's £10,000!! The thing that always makes me laugh is when people pay in cash and the balance is £5999, they'll give me £6,000 in notes and when I've finished counting I'll reach for my back pocket and they always say "oh no don't worry about the change" so I get an extra £1. The thing is if they went to the Co-op next door and spent £9 and paid with a £10 note and didn't get their £1 change they would soon start complaining, so suddenly that £1 is important to them!! Now if my figures ended in 5 instead of 9 they would probably be much more likely to want their £5 change, and I'd miss out on my free £1's lol.

I thought Labour were mad when they announced their idea for a £10 an hour minimum wage, then the Conservatives go one better and are suggesting £10.50 an hour. That's a 27% increase on the current minimum wage of £8.21 per hour. How can SME's in this climate where many are already struggling, afford to give their employee's a 27% pay rise? The other problem is £10.50 an hour is approximately what a trainee nurse earns, now why would someone become a nurse with all that extra studying and the chance that they might kill someone when they can sweep the hospital floors for the same money and have none of the extra responsibility? They're either going to find it very difficult to recruit new nurses, or they will have to increase their wage and once you do that you'll have to increase every other nurse's pay grades. This knock on effect will occur in every business. I did have an employee until recently but it's just not an attractive proposition now to take someone else back on, as they're going to want £400 a week plus the extra contributions for NI and towards their pension. Then they're going to want me to pay them that amount not to come to work for 5 weeks of the year, whilst I end up doing their job and paying them not to. Then they want sick pay, maternity pay and there's employer liability insurance, my trade policy also increases etc etc. I now have my cars valeted by the Syrians round the corner for £20 a car and finish them off myself to my standard, I'm saving money and don't have any of the headaches of being an employer and trust me it can be a real headache. My valeter decided to down tools one day and effectively sacked himself, then turns up to our meeting about it with a pile of colour pictures that he must have spent all night printing off of the dirty cars that I'd bought and made him clean! Only I could find a valeter that wanted me to have the cars valeted before he valets them!! He must have been taking these pictures for months, so I'm glad he left as he was an employment tribunal waiting to happen.

Hi Andy, Driver Transmissions in Birmingham 0121 440 3476 for anything with an auto gearbox. They normally diagnose things over the phone from your description of the problem, as they know auto gearboxes inside out. A chap sold me a Freelander with what he thought was a gearbox problem, even though he'd spent £3,500 on a recon gearbox a few months previous. The car had a nasty vibration as soon as you put it in gear and tried to move backwards or forwards, I rang Driver Transmissions and explained the symptoms and they diagnosed it as the engine mountings. Which it was, and cost me £120 to repair at my workshop. My point is they could have had me right in the net but didn't. I've used them many times over the years and will always recommend them.

I'm not sure running it on chip fat would fit with their vegan credentials, think of all those poor battered sausages that have died in that oil!

I think everyone here overlooked the most obvious thing, it's French!

I wonder how much dirty diesel they used driving that old Fire engine through London?

I avoid anything from Ford that says Ecoboost on it, and their durashit auto gearboxes as I've replaced several clutch packs at very low mileages. Also avoid the B Max like the plague. Fiat Twin Air, I mean really what were they thinking? Alfa Romeo, that's a given obviously. Dacia, had a Sandero Stepway and it was just putrid. It was the 0.9 petrol and was horrible to drive and was made out of Renault parts that were rubbish when they were putting them in Renault's, and the plastic interior felt as cheap as the Proton Savvy if anyone remembers them? Not keen on Mini's these days, at least when BL/Rover were building them they were cheap and shit now they're expensive and shit. Anything from Peugeot with four numbers in, like the 3008. Don't know why really, maybe it just reminds me of the kind of bill I could be looking at to repair it when it goes wrong! £3008

They might have drowned on the way home?!