metcars

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Posts posted by metcars

  4. Posted

    12 hours ago, Max Branning said:

    Yes but if the seller is not too far away, then its not too much trouble to pop in and have a look, if they allow it, not all do by the way.

    If you have actually seen the car in the flesh it helps to decide your max bid, for example i may be prepared to go an extra £200 if i have seen it and its nicer than they have described. Which may mean the difference between actually winning the car or not.

    With a special relationship like yours with the vendor it's a shame you can't make a deal 'without' DA?:ph34r:;)

  7. Posted

    8 hours ago, Max Branning said:

    If you just stick to the dealers that are near to you so you can pick the cars up yourself then it can be worthwhile. You can go and check the cars over before bidding at some places as well. 

    There is a great dealer on there around 20 miles from me, always very good with descriptions and is happy for me to pop down and kick the tyres before bidding. Unfortunately they do not seem to have a great deal of what i am usually buying but i may get 1 a month from them so its worth it just for that.

    Oh, right. I didn't know you could check the cars over before bidding. That's always rule number one with prospective P/X auction purchases:D

  9. Posted

    5 hours ago, BHM said:

    Yes a px is a px but on a web based auction I believe a car should be described to the best of the vendors abilities. The point being discussed here is that some (definitely not all, there are a few very honest appraisers) vendors are clearly not doing the most basic checks (or, more likely, knowing but failing to list them) and even when these glaring faults are pointed out to them they relisted with the original description totally unmodified.

    Lets put it this way;

    1) A Zafira with an alternator light illuminated & the engine running like a bag of shit should be declared in my opinion.

    2) A Focus (shitty 1.6 tdci - I should of known better) with the turbo seals blown out & oil spewed across the engine bay, again in my opinion, should of been declared. I assessed its fault within 2 seconds of opening the bonnet - the fact some lucky blighter is about to win it again on DA based on its unchanged advert says it all about that dealership's scruples.

     

    I suppose there's little incentive for these guys to declare faults and develop a good reputation if there's no accountability for them. It also seems that other traders assume to buy these cars with some fault or other, and if you don't buy they will. It's hardly surprising things are the way they are?

    I'm struggling to convince myself its worth joining in on the fun at DA when I'm getting enough fun at Manheim/BCA already;)

  10. Posted

    56 minutes ago, BHM said:

    Yes the big vendors pay pennies, but it seems the smaller one's definitely do not - perhaps it was my ignorance but I assumed all main dealer vendors are treated similarly. Apparently not.

    So, buying from DA is substantially cheaper than Manheim/BCA? Or the cars are superior quality? I don't get it, a PX is a PX isn't it?

  11. Posted

    Just now, andymc1973 said:

    i was under the impression the fees are tiny for the big players

    Plus the big auction houses offer cheap logistics/storage facilities which is probably even more relevant.

    I don't mean to sound unsympathetic, but reading through this thread and hearing about you guys having bad experiences, it doesn't sound to me any better than the old crap I have to sieve through at Manheim? Plus I can at least hear it start up and have a play with it. Or is DA hinting at everyone being honest gentleman traders?

  12. Posted

    38 minutes ago, BHM said:

    Not quite. The parent company, Cox Automotive, own both. 

     

    I was talking to a DP at a small family run dealership & asked him why their couple of branches stopped sending them to the block. The answer was the fees (much to my surprise) - I think the big auction houses are chasing their big vendors but his view was that smaller dealers are getting shafted almost as much as the buyers.

    Sadly, it appears that "everyone's" getting shafted?

  14. Posted

    Reading through this thread reminds me of how in the old days we used to hang around large dealerships in the hope of picking up PXs. There was always a picking order, and all dealerships had their "favourites". But eventually some nasty old thing was offered to you and you couldn't really turn it down no matter how bad it was. If you refused it, it would just go to the next guy (who'd be more accommodating) and you'd not be welcome back!

    Of course that was in the '80s, but some things never change!

  15. Posted

    A few years back I knew a guy that was into everything, an Arthur Daley type character. Would buy and sell anything. If he ever sold it car he would describe himself as acting as an "agent" for the seller, in the same way as an estate agent sells a house. Obviously estate agents can sell houses, earn money from houses but have no obligations as far as "issues" with those houses; not so with the motor trade!:D

  17. Posted

    1 hour ago, grant8064 said:

    .......I have no real interest in cars or the motor trade outside of work which I think helps me keep things focused. Frankly if I could get the same margins out of bananas i'd happily be dealing in those.

    Yes, I get that, cars are just a commodity to be bought and sold, like white goods, TVs or carpet. I suppose it helps if you sell cars that you actually enjoy owning and driving yourself, I don't, and I stock what I know I can sell.

    Interesting fact, many years ago I pondered on the idea of selling boats:unsure:. There's a surprising boating community in North East London:D

  18. Posted

    3 hours ago, CJ Underhill said:

    Modern Classics are the way forward at the moment

    Anything 70's/80's early 90's.. Mercs, BMW, Hot hatches etc

     

    Also, keep an eye out for the early Jap stuff. Mitsubishi Evo's, Poobarus, Skylines etc as there will be a good export market to the USA

    I'd imagine those early jap performance saloons will be highly collectable in the future, but nice "original" ones, not the "chavved out" or "fast & furious" versions

  19. Posted

    9 hours ago, MrC said:

    Who remembthe time when Autotrader man used to come to take the pictures. ?

     

    Selling cars in pre internet times meant you were part of a small community, some of us grew up together and we knew what we were 'holding', how much it stood us in and where it was from. Deals were much easier between trade when you knew the guys from school days. Sadly, these days you can't be that picky and have to dance with the devil

  21. Posted

    33 minutes ago, MattGM said:

    Then you've got the low volume 'special' versions of run of the mill motors. I'm talking Cavalier GSI/Turbos, Primera GTIs, 406 coupe. The interesting thing is they don't have to even be good cars :lol:

    .... Depends on if they're kept original or not. With these sorts of performance saloons there comes a point when they aren't bought to be fast cars but to be appreciated. Look how many lovely mk1 Escort Mexico/RS had their originality ruined with vauxhall engines:rolleyes:

  23. Posted

    *******sigh, again with this***********

    The solution is for Car Dealer Magazine to do a "so you want to be a trader" type thing. When newbies arrive asking questions they can be pointed to the guide. It's been done before by other publications. If Car Dealer Magazine were really clever they could even charge for this as a series of publications and drag it out over 12 months @ £34.99:lol:. Plenty of guys on youtube doing this already?

    Existing forum members don't have to give away any "special secrets" on how they earned their first million. 

    Just my opinon:)

  24. Posted

    7 hours ago, NoMargin said:

    Think you're being rather generous with only the clip round the ear, I feel a lengthy prison sentence will be better suited. 

    They should invite real car dealers to input on the design of these systems rather than their IT guys interpretation? Although you can be sure the website is probably easy to maintain and backup.