Wood235

Just remember, there's still lots of life without Autotrader! We used them for 12+yrs and now the last couple without them has been just as good. It's just placing the money and ads in the right place. For us it was a chance to push local newspapers more. We are now saving a fortune and doing similar sale numbers!

Ford diesels, we avoid, even with 30k, had some horrendous bills!

Been doing our own warranties for 10+ yrs now, happy to have their profit aswell as our profit on the car + no arguments on fixing! if you sell low mileage proper cars, repairs are usually minimal!

Anti bacterial wipes do the job! Pop to your local supermarket, give them a good rub over and you shouldn't have any more problem (or minimise it at least) i am am also vat reg'd, have a 40 car forecourt & seem to fund all but myself! :-(

We never fit cheap crap coil packs. Find a branded or one equivalent to OE quality. You are wasting yr time. Also if changing a coil pack, always change the he plugs & ht leads as more often than not it was a plug or lead that would have caused the coil pack to fail. This is from experience and learning that cutting corners doesn't always pay!

We have been doing an extra newspaper, only fortnightly plus the rac site. We are saving approx a grand with AT and spending £200 with local paper and rac is free!

It's been about 16 months since we jumped ship, we are selling as many and haven't got the equivalent to a large mortgage to pay with AT anymore! Happy days!!

We have an 09 that's dragging its heels, nice low miles, 40k, phoned main dealer the other day, they had it in, voluntarily, checked it out, changed pollen filter, checked the blower resister and gave us a certificate to prove the action. we thought it best as when we get someone on it, we don't want to lose them and this may give us a better chance!

What a pr*ck! Defo don't deal with wasters like that, we won't, the warning signs are there and you would only regret it a bit further down the line!!

I would forget the ford diesels, we don't touch them anymore, even with 30 or 40k on them, full ford history, we have still had estimates for repair of over a grand with injectors or dual mass f/wheel ...... i think Citroen/Peugeot diesels are the best of a bad bunch!

There has been a few recent cases of people getting fined with plates in the windows. It has always been law to cover the existing plates but never been enforced until recen years. We bought some carriers wit suckers that stick to the original plates, they are about £80 but are just right for the job, with safety strap in case the drop. We got them from a place I believe is "direct supplies".

Sparky, can you let us know more about this? Is it straightforward to change over? Do they still have any fees?

For about 15yrs now since I started trading I have had a card machine supplied by barclaycard. Over the last 6 or 7 yrs they have made us have this security thing which they call 'PCI compliance'. Annually we have to tick lots of boxes in this questionnaire which basically lets them know who uses the machine and how we do our business with it. when it first started I think we paid about a fiver annually, then a few yrs on up until now it has been £11.99. I get a phone call today telling me because of updates blah blah... It's gonna be for this year ; Annual Fee. £29.99 Training for this yr(online) £44.00 Extra training if req (each time. £25.00 I am just thinking when is it all going to end...take take take!!!! If it's not this its the FCA wanting money for ole rope aswell, it's a list of loads of other waste of space groups wanting to grab whatever they can from us! Do any of you have experience or any advice on the card machine rules & requirements when it's contracted with barclaycard and if there's any way of bypassing some of this pelt that we have to comply with? thanks Gary

We recently bought the suckers that stick them over the old plates as the law states existing plates shouldn't be visible. we never do unaccompanied test drives as insurance doesn't allow plus don't want our property abused if not in charge of it!

Have recently spoken to some friends who share a yard, 3 of them, sell as trade, since the new law came in have had 5 people demand money back, stating their rights...etc etc.... Now you may be thinking that the quality of the cars sold were very poor but from what I have been told, they weren't bad cars. Reasons being; Engine management light came on on one, customer refused repair, even refused to return car, said it was the suppliers responsibility to collect the car and they had looked into it. Another car developed a e/window fault, didn't want it mended, demanded money back...... Does this mean if you buy a pair of faulty shoes in high street, possibly 20+ miles away, the shoe supplier is liable and would have to come out to collect the shoes? Now this sounds like this is going to be a real problem for us. Not sure where this is all going to go? With cars, they will then have an extra owner on the reg doc, thus making the car less valuable for resale, also there's the hassle of people wondering why the last owner only had the car a short time. As has been already mentioned, this new ruling really hasn't been thought through and affects different business' in different ways. If anyone in our trade has experienced this yet, can you please share with us your experience, also any info in the legal side of things that could help us and give us a fairer position, please come forward. The government will still expect us to pay our income tax and VAT but are making things so much harder to earn a living!! Gary

James, we find local papers good, as long as you have a website clearly shown on the ad so people can go a step further and see the pictures. This has always been better than autotrader for us over the years.

We dropped AT a year ago, doing same numbers we was but without the large bill! Lots of other avenues to go down! People saying selling 2 cars and paying for itself per month. Surely the idea is to do a few and making all the work pay off each month and not just breaking even?? No one wants to be a busy fool so why waste money with Auto Trader??

Firstly add up all the warranties you have ever paid for....... then add up what the warranty company has ever paid out..... subtract the second from the first............ what figure have you got? ...... yes, there is a profit ! thats why we stopped buying warranties 10 years Ago! we want their profit aswell! yes you may make a bit from upselling but it's better to have it all in yr control & mend as and when required!

I must echo again.......buy a sprinter!!!!!

We are quiet, so is all the others around here........except for one! There's always a liar that does well 52 weeks a year!

It's a Mercedes sprinter for us every time, forget yr transits etc..... Once they hit 100k they are on borrowed time! My last sprinter got very old and the chassis got rusty but it had done 400k(on same engine) and would still do 85mph with a car on the back for 8 hrs if needed. My newer one I bought with 160k on it, drives like 40k, 2008 I bought when 3yrs old, like driving a nice car with air con etc, you can't beat it!

Suppose'ed millionaires buying ole shit like that? ........yeah righto!!! Profits of 3 or 400 quid......in this day and age where as dealers we are so vulnerable by the authorities! If we took that profit out of a car, we might as well go and sign on now! Turn the TV over and put something more realistic on like Harry Potter or something!!!

I only have sprinters, a 300k sprinter will be more reliable than a 100k transit!!! I know from experience!! We don't buy ford diesels any more, even at 30k we have had some huge bills!

Yes please if you can post it clearer? Thanks.

Sounds like we ARE in the wrong game!!