jamslug

What a fantastic response from the brotherhood! Here is the update so far. She has emailed me a copy of her driving licence, I have facebook stalked her and she is a normal girl that does normal things. There doesn't seem to be any hidden identities or anything. I have offered to cover the cost of a train fare to eliminate those pesky distance selling regulations and she is happy to come and collect the car from my premises. The hand over should be on Saturday. I will keep all mah homies in the loop.

Just had a chat with them, is £220 per month for 21-30 cars on a 6 month contract about right ?

Thanks for all this response. Very happy with the comments that are coming through. I have spoke to the bank and the terms and conditions of a faster payment is that the transaction can not be recalled, cancelled or amended once in my account. So apparently when it is in , it is in , and can't go anywhere else without my permission. I do want to avoid the distant selling rules (I don't even know what those are) so might offer to pay for a train ticket for her to come and collect it.

That is exactly why I am cautious is because I DID get caught with that. I will call the bank now to make sure that the money came from the correct place. Thanks so much Jim, James

Oh that's quite cool. I will do that and see what happens

Ok, I have been caught out on a too goo to be true deal in the past (i'm not going in to that now), so I am always extra cautious. A girl phoned me from London (we are in south devon) and wanted to get propped for finance on a £10,200 BMW convertible. She was on full time benefits so got declined. She phoned the next day saying she had the money and she can transfer it over. She has done a bank transfer for a £500 deposit , no problems there. She has also agreed to pay for delivery as she doesn't want to make the journey. There has not once been a query into service history, condition, mot status or anything like that at all. She is just happy to transfer the money and have the car delivered! I have told her that we do not accept card payments over the phone so must transfer the balance with a bank transfer. I have also asked for a copy of her driving licence and also a copy of her mums driving licence as she wants the car to get put in her mum's name. The problem is...... well there is no problem in my opinion but I keep thinking that it is too good to be true, so it probably is. I am curious if any of you guys can see a fatal flaw in this? Thanks, James

Every since you changed my wipes.... My car pulls to the right is def. my fave !

TML... Sounds like AA cars are worth a shot, is it an annual contract? I can't seem to find anywhere for car dealers on the site, do you have a phone number for a rep or something? James

I have had dealings with them. I read about it in the magazine and thought it was definitely worth a look. I thought sourcing stock from the public could be a good idea. So I phoned them requesting some information....... nothing So I emailed them requesting information ........ nothing So I phoned them again to request some information....... nothing. So i forgot about them for ever.

Because Autotrader dominates my overheads I wont spend another penny on advertising. But I also believe that when a new product comes on the market, it should be tried, because you never know how things might pan out for you. So after a really bad experience with Exchange and Mart, absolute total load of crap. I was really reluctant to try another small classified site. (when I say small, i mean relatively small compared to the giant) . ... so I am talking about motors. So I took the plunge and what happened? Well autotrader will deliver me approximately 0 emails per month, 1 if I am a lucky boy. and also 0 calls per month. This is how they compare, you can view the number of leads in both of their response stats. In the last 30 days..... Autotrader: 0 Calls, 0 Emails Motors: 7 Calls, 5 Emails After I have just written that, I don't even know why I am still with Autotrader. I pay them about £1000 per month. That's £12000 a year...... WHAT AM I DOING!!!!!! I am about to cancel auto trader completely. I am wild.

Umesh was saying on another post that you can actually do it online now. If you do it online, let me know how you get on. James

I am still struggling to believe this. . It is a great step forward

Yes James, but I like to hear the car as it drives through the hall. I can't do that online, but I pay an extra £40 anyway.

I am in a situation where I don't want to leave the garage as the other manager is on holiday for two weeks and I am worried 7 mechanics will run riot. .... BUT I NEED STOCK and I need it urgently. So the question is do professional auction buyers exist and if so are they a good idea and who are the best ones? I would basically want to say; these are the cars, those are the prices I will pay, deduct for any damage. Help thanks .

I think they prefer a feed , maybe that is the problem? I am going to get a feed sent over to see what leads I get, if any.

I thought it would be a great idea. I started it, tried a little marketing...... next to no uptake. It isn't easy money at all , it is difficult to sell a new car to someone when they are not in a main dealer show room environment, there are no demos , no fabric swatches, no colour boards. and then at the end of it all, you are left with not much money. If I get an enquiry about new cars, or I hear customers discussing new cars in servicing then I will show them real examples of depreciation in the first year or 2 and try and put them off buying new and then they usually end up ordering a 2 or 3 year old with me. Obviously a lot more money to be made doing it that way.

I have just got a 2014 Vauxhall Astra GTC. But some advertise them as a Coupe, others a 3 door hatch. In my opinion they are a 3 door hatchback but I DON'T KNOW !!!!!! Help please Thanks HRH James

I have noticed the same. I have also noticed that people aren't too bothered about low tax. They couldn't care whether it is £30 or £145 . I still try and wow them with the fact, but they aren't bothered. I reckon it is a combination of the knowledge of potential problems with diesels like TML says and also DVLA accepting monthly direct debits as payment.

Hi S&B , Can't seem to get my screen capture working but there are two main ways to access the review feature. Firstly; on the main stock page, click the little '+' to expand a car, then there is a big button for the review there. Secondly; You can then click on any vehicle and right at the bottom of the 'vehicle details' screen there are 4 buttons. 1) 'Set to due in' 2) 'Mark as sold' 3) 'Request review' 4) 'Save' Obviously it is the 3rd button on that one. After you click request review, a screen pops up asking for the customer's name and email address. You enter that and then it sends an email to your customer asking for a review. The review is directly linked to that particular car, so that they can only leave one review and it is also moderated before it goes live. I hope this helps.

We were not very well informed about this update. But I have discovered a new button on the bottom of the vehicle details on dealer portal..... REVIEWS !!! What does everyone think? Is this a good or bad thing? I can see it being good for the honest dealers like me. But even the honest ones are still selling used cars. So as we all know a used car can develop a fault unexpectedly at any time which could lead a customer getting peed off. So we could just not ask our customers to leave reviews, but then we would look rubbish against other dealers with loads of reviews. What do you think? Have AT gone and annoyed the people that line their pockets again or have they taken a great step forward to keep up with the way that used car sales are becoming a very online orientated process? James

I am with Gavin. Autotrader's packages and price bandings are so confusing. I don't understand at all. They make all the other aspects of their service really easy to use and intuitive. They make it really easy to see how responsive your adverts are doing so why don't they make the pricing structures more transparent. Why can't they offer pay per lead advertising ? I have been trialling Motors for a few months and surprisingly, getting more response than AT. I know for a fact that other dealers get better deals than others. I was with one rep and paying a certain amount , and then I got allocated a different rep. After he stepped in and had a look at what I was getting and what I was paying for he told me that he could lower my bill AND include extras . So now I pay less than I did before and get more in my package !

That's a good idea. I will do that too!

This post leads on from the recent post regarding the DVLA not being fit for purpose. I was going to comment on the bottom of that but decided to start a new topic. So going the extra mile as got me in the shit twice now. The first one was when I tax cars for new owners... ...... I did this once , like I have time and time again, but this time the DVLA decided to send a refund back to the previous keeper. So I believed it was taxed and sent the car out, like you do. A while later the honest man who initially part ex'd this to me phoned to say that he had received a refund. This prompted me to investigate and eventually find out the DVLA had actually messed up. If he cashed that cheque, then no one would be any the wiser and the new owners would be driving around in an un taxed car. Anyway, already said that in the previous topic. But it made me remember why I NEVER send the yellow slip away for people anymore. I always used to "go the extra mile" and send that yellow slip away for the p ex'ers . After all, why would you want to make that customer then go and buy a stamp and envelope just to do your office admin? Well I did this time and time again, one of them was an elderly man. Everything was hunky dory . Until he phones me in an extremely distressed state explaining that he had received a court summons from the DVLA for not declaring his car SORN after not insuring or taxing it. Well obviously they hadn't received or processed the yellow slip I sent in on his behalf. So from then on, I always explain that it is the current keeper's responsibility to alert the DVLA of a change of keeper and their part exchange is still their responsibility until the DVLA acknowledge the change in ownership. Was I the only one that ever did this, or does everyone do this? It would be interesting to hear what other things do you now not do or refuse to do because of the potential repercussions on yourselves ?

This exact thing happened to me. But the refund went to previous keeper. Luckily he was honest and told me that he received a refund which prompted me to investigate and realise the new car on the road had become untaxed, even though I went to the post office and taxed it myself. So from now on, i give the new keeper the green slip and tell them that it is their responsibly to ensure that the car is taxed and let them know this can be done online at home or at a post office. They always seem happy enough and it is a good way of keeping me in the clear if there are any repercussions like this in the future.

Autoprotect are very good. They offer a range of products like self administered polices and profit share.