jamslug

Hi everyone, In 2016 I wrote a little post to say I was leaving the trade and said my farewells as I embarked on a new career. It has all worked out and I am jetting around delivering people on their holidays. But some of you said you will never truly leave the motor trade..... it is clearly still in my blood.... so I am back. I am going to try and get back into it on a smaller scale. I have been having a little scroll through and see some familiar names on here so it will be interesting to see if anyone recognises me, the guys that were really active on here at the same time I was were @TDB @jimreidvehicle @justina3 @Rory RSC @umesh @Tom @sparky @basildon car sales @no nothing @whitestone679231 @c_cars @Rosemotors @Wood235 @Max Branning @Mat C@Econimotor @James Bush @GreenGiant @James Baggott I am now in a new city and am starting everything from scratch so if anything has changed in the last 4 years, let me know. oh and if you can offer me some stock..... I MIGHT be able to see if there are any airline tickets going .

9 days for a car to arrive, work shopped, body shopped, valeted, advertised, sold and handover. That's magical!

After an hour phone call with a customer reciting the Consumer Rights Act to me as if he wrote the effing thing, that has made me chuckle.

You buy a car from BCA with only 1 key and a couple days later it arrives in the post. ALL THE TIME

Sorry to hear that :(.

I have offered to do that a couple times just to get rid of them for good. On both occasions it has called their bluff and neither of them actually accepted the refund and both decided they wanted to keep the car. I also never heard anything from them again!

NO

My favorite method. "For our insurance we do need to see your driving licence, we need your land line and mobile numbers, an email address and I will need to come with you." Not a problem for serious buyers as they were going to be giving me all that anyway, time wasters will "leave it for another day as it is raining at the moment and you should never buy a car in the rain!!! ".

Pro-Driver are extremely professional and very good to deal with. Perfect for delivering cars to your customers and even doing hand overs. They are always smart, wearing uniform with a tie. They also do a pay and wait service which is great for buying cars from the public, they arrive, appraise and report and then wait until your bank transfer reaches the customer. For trader to trader jobs, Movex is the way forward. I do recommend selecting the box to only use drivers with 5 star feedback as I had one once that had a collision en-route with a roundabout and tried telling me the wheel, tyre and structural damage was there when he picked it up. He eventually admitted liability once I presented him with the evidence. I find that 5 star established drivers are established companies and should be trusted. I have found that the guys with minimal feedback, not vat registered and trade using their names are a little dodgy. I have had a group of mates turn up in a car once, some lad driving down to a local football match and used the job as a 1 way ticket. There might not be anything wrong with that in some peoples eyes, but it didn't really sit well with me.

Not even kidding when I say this but that was the best thread ever

I have been offered a place to start training to become an airline pilot. It's been a dream of mine from a very young age and I couldn't turn away this opportunity. I start on the 12th September so aim to be all finished up by the end of August. I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone on this forum and James who runs it. The advice everyone gives is amazing. Sometimes it feels you are fighting this monster on your own but it is really refreshing to be able to log on here and talk to people in the same situation to celebrate the good times and have a chat in the quiet times. I want to wish everyone the best of luck. We do get put through some crap from customers and suppliers so it can be really tough at times, but we are all good at what we do so it is important to keep on track and keep moving the metal and making customers smile. I will still take part on the forum until I go, but after that, I will be so busy with exam work I just wont have the time. It has been a real pleasure and I have learned so many life lessons in these 5 years, from 5 cars to 30, it has been a journey and one that I will truly miss. All the best, James

They don't want an actual valuation, they understand you need to see it. Of course they do. They just want a ballpark figure. Just a ballpark. That's all they want. Just to see if they are on the right page before they make the 5 mile journey.

Thank god you have been just a lurker. You sound just plain rude.

Well anyway, on that note the information you have given me on this thread has been very interesting and now I have some food for thought.

Unfortunately it just comes with the job. I had one yesterday...... that actually bought a car. You just don't know, there is no way of telling either. I just treat everyone as if they are going to buy a car and one day they may, or their family may, or friends or someone that saw the facebook post where they tagged themselves at your forecourt.

It is a trade to trade platform isn't it. But I am putting some retail stock on there to TRADE out.

I just wanted to mention cartotrade.com I feel they really deserve some credit. I started using these guys a couple months ago just to try them out and it was one of my better decisions. Unlike other sites, it does exactly what it says on the tin. It doesn't try to be something it isn't. It is just a website with quality stock being sold from trustworthy and reputable dealers. I honestly don't want anything more. For once I can advertise a car to traders without being told I paid too much for it and other traders are not put off by an unrealistic "retail" price. I have been uploading my forecourt stock, cars that are prepared and valeted and ready to go. Go and take a look.

There are already many many solutions for this. Any large advertising portal will have the facility to feed all of your stock to other sites and many small sites too.

Best thing I ever did was having the land line permanently diverted to the mobile just so I can save the numbers.

They are just hazards of the job. Makes me livid. Just had this one: I mean come of FFS. Just cos a 6 year old car has no stone chips it doesn't mean it has been in a smack and had a full respray.... ok then, you think .... oh your leaving to go and buy a car with stone chips as at least the car hasn't been sprayed...... but it hasn't its just done 1000 miles so it hasn't actually been driven much, oh you think it's clocked, ok bye.

I have indeed. Best thing I have ever done.

March was a record breaker, April is going that way too. Long may it continue.

You would actually shoot someone if you caught them stealing from you? What happened to just calling the Police?

Are you taking the ..... Mickey !!

Wool ewe do that ? That would be cool .......baa