J.T

I'm still selling diesels, but have noticed that they don't carry the same premium over petrol's like they used to. For example I have two Octavia's one manual petrol and the other auto diesel, they are both the same price despite the auto diesel having less miles on it. Eighteen months to two years ago and the diesel would have been a grand more than the petrol.

I was talking about this with a finance rep today and he said he knew of a few garages doing this but they were more in the sub prime market, I guess when you're desperate for a car then you'll tend to be less fussy. I think I prep my cars to a fairly high standard before they go on sale, but still I have customers spend an hour looking for the smallest stone chip to quibble about.

The problem is BHM is that customers read those reviews, as I've had a couple of people recently mention them. So I wonder how many people might have been put off by those reviews.

More importantly how do you stop or get rid of fake reviews, the last two one star reviews I've had on Google have in my opinion been fake. "Was looking at a BMW on carnival day and got screamed at that I couldn't afford it by some woman on the premises. I bought one elsewhere. Lower mileage better price." Firstly there hasn't ever been a female working here, and secondly I didn't speak to this woman that left the review as I remember the Carnival day and quite clearly she never bought a car from me. She also left a one star review for a local Sainbury's and one for a local pub because they weren't open at 11am on the dot!! I got my own back on her though as she'd stupidly left a five star review for the company she works at, so I returned the favour! The other one star I got just says this: "Offer silly prices." I hadn't sold this guy a car either, and he had left a five star review of another dealership that he'd bought a Nissan Juke from just two months previously. It's a real kick in the teeth when you work 7 days a week and sell hundreds of cars a year to mostly satisfied customers, and then anyone can just sully your business and reputation.

That's the snowflake generation for you, they need to be told what to like or not like by someone else.

That's fantastic news Funny, glad you've at least got the car back. I'm still intrigued about the first car he bought from you though, and why that wasn't a fraudulent transaction too. Did you do any digging yourself, if that was me I'd have been straight round to his address and knocking on his door.

"The UK-based startup’s mission is to make buying a used car no different to buying any other product online – allowing consumers to select from thousands of cars online and have them delivered to their door in as little as 48 hours." Hahaha distance selling, what could possibly go wrong? Free car hire for 2 weeks anyone?

I nearly bought a Salmon pink 500 not so long ago, but it was so dented across the roof and bonnet it wouldn't have looked out of place at the Notting Hill Carnival along with the other steel drums. I do like my bright coloured cars and they're not for everyone, and we pissed away a Barbie pink 500 cabriolet but the salmon pink is a bit of a strange colour. I think Ford used a similar colour for the KA, and that wasn't a massive hit either. The biggest thing for me was I kept thinking it just looks like a Red car that has faded all over. I hope you get it away anyway.

I must be doing something right then as customers are literally throwing money at me, I offered this guy £100 for his part exchange yesterday and he said would I tax the Fiesta he was buying for 6 months instead. So I said yes, and it turned out the tax was only £79.75. So now I'm £20.25 up on the deal!

I've just blown £2,500 on a Fiat Panda, started off driving it back from the auctions in my 2014, 26,000 mile car and thinking oh ffs this needs a clutch in it at that mileage! Not the end of the world I thought as it was fairly behind book, until my workshop rings. It has also taken out the dual mass flywheel, still not the end of the world I thought. That's the good news they say, the bad news is where the shaft enters the gearbox it's bored the hole out in the gearbox bell housing. Unsurprisingly there aren't any secondhand gear boxes available for a Panda 4x4 Twin Air 6 speed manual, so I had to buy a housing from Fiat which only come in solid 18k gold.

That makes me giggle too David, they walk in, insult you, then offer their number for you to ring them. I always take their number and say I'll give you a call if I change my mind, they obviously don't realise that piece of paper is hitting the bottom of my bin before they are more than 5 yards from my office door.

We were looking forwards to seeing you on the Sheriff's program . I'm glad you got it sorted and she didn't get the ridiculous amount she claimed for, and now you can tick off being taken to court in your Motor Dealers eye spy book!! I lost my first and only case in court last week too, so I feel your pain.

I had a customer spend £1800 changing from a 24,000 mile Fabia to a Citroen C1 or Peugeot 107 I forget which it was now, just so that he could pay £30 a year road tax as his Fabia was £130 a year. As he's only done 1,000 miles in the last 3 years the saving on fuel is negligible, but in about 16 years time he should start saving money on his road tax!!

Haha I know, I was just saying it's another reason for not taking payments over the phone.

He attends every auction in the country Casper.

The other reason for not taking card payments in full over the phone is it becomes distance selling, and has a whole new set of rules.

Just tell him it has the older style dual climate control, when he gets too hot he can swap and his wife can drive while he sits on the cold side.

Try Roadrunner Insurance, I've been with them for years as nobody else can get close to their prices. I believe they cover part time traders too.

Surely you have to buy lemons if you want to make lemonade?

I give my own 3 month warranty, then I use Warrantywise if the customer wants an extended warranty for 12 months. They also include AA breakdown cover which some people like.

Hi Funny, probably best not to name him on a public forum as he could be completely innocent and also a victim of the fraud? I'm sorry to hear you've been a victim of fraud, it's a real kicker if you're going to lose that amount. I know how hard these credit card companies are to deal with too. Why would you take that amount over the phone though, surely that's taking a massive risk? Call me old fashioned but I only take £200 deposits by phone, and that's only if they've been and viewed the vehicle and have gone away to think about it.

Back on topic now. Andy I think you're mistaken as ALL customers are completely honest and never do what you're suggesting, and it's a proven fact that consumers suffer from a condition similar to Alzheimer's when presented with nice new shiny car to buy. It causes them to forget that when they started their diesel car this morning from cold it smoked more than a Mamasan at a cheap Thai brothel. The favorite one at the moment would appear to be switching the EML light off just round the corner before bringing their car in, with the device they bought on Ebay for £15.

I would agree with you there Mark, we used to run our steam cleaner on red diesel bought from a local heating oil supplier in 205lt barrels. When tipping the barrel up one day to get the last bit of diesel out, all I got was a horrible black sludge in the bottom with bits floating in it!

Hi Arash, What you've done probably isn't the best way of understanding what other people are doing, and you have to decide what you want to do. Some dealers might not MOT a car until it's sold and some might as you say just not bother and sell it with the MOT that is has, obviously this can be a dangerous game to play and you could be selling something that had a moody MOT three months ago and be a complete death trap. You need to either have a mechanic inspect your cars or have a new MOT, ideally both but as a minimum a new MOT. You must be sure what you're selling is safe, don't be one of these 'dealers' that thinks a PDI is removing the auction stickers! Your question regarding the £700 car and the £1600 car should be self explanatory, firstly no two cars are the same. The more expensive car has no advisories so is priced accordingly, the cheaper car with the advisories might need hundreds of pounds to correct and bring to the same standard as the more expensive car. Good luck with your venture.

I was feeling in a generous mood David, plus you have to do your bit for the community sometimes. I'll go in to more detail when I get into the members section but let's just say he had a go at fixing it himself with the help of a workshop that left him with a big bill and a non runner then washed their hands of it, he then gets it repaired somewhere else and gets a bigger bill and takes me to court for the whole lot. The judge found him the flimsiest of loopholes, ruled in his favour and she was on the golf course by 2pm as planned.