SC Derby

Love customers like the ones in your second paragraph haha. I just say to them, if you find one at £1,500 let me know where it was cos I'll go and get a few at that price, drive em here and sell them at £2,990

Two new deals for me and two collections Took a 2002 Corolla 99k T Spirit in part ex. Had my first enquiry from RAC CARS, he's travelling from South Wales at 10am on a £3290 bright yellow Fabia. had a guy turn up on the Civic I sold first thing but managed to get him out in a Mazda 3 and he is 'bringing the wife back today' - so we will see!! Bought an 88k 55 v70 d5 SE manual from Sytner which made me happy.

thank you, that would be a very acceptable turnaround.

Another Q - sorry to be a pain All docs were sent off yesterday, when realistically can we expect them back ? Customer is pushing to get his new car you see. Thanks again.

I've just brought a Lexus IS 250 into stock and it falls into the £500 odd per annum tax bracket. It doesn't worry me as it's still a cheapish way into a 'luxury' car? Do you think it's changed now they can tax monthly, the amount is just another D/D every month, or should we still be a bit wary when bringing in the big petrol gas guzzlers from March 2006 onwards ??

Thanks Jim, all sorted and sent off this morning. Thanks for the offer of your number as well for advice, that's much appreciated. Craig.

'Got one more to see....'

So how are the customers going to show that any faults were there at time of delivery? They really should think about these laws and how they will work in practice. I think we all need to remember that most customers are quite happy to accept a repair if they aren't messed around and it isn't left for 2 months off road.

Thoroughly agree. I don't know why it works like this but it really seems to. Unless in then busy times we totally ignore/dismiss the idiots and thus don't really give them much thought beyond yet, yet in the quiet times they are all we have so we get involved ultimately leading to disappointment. Had a decent day yesterday, Astra Coupe Sxi in the morning and V50 Volvo in the afternoon. The second deal almost hit a snag, a typical Volvo 'expert' at first reckons he's had them for years, telling me which engines go in which model etc. Decided he loved it despite wondering why it had a 5 speed box not 6, he paid deposit after test drive and I valued his p/ex etc, he was about to leave and said 'don't forget to drop me some diesel in it' 'it's the petrol model' I said, as he and his wife went rather red and mumbled a few expletives. Anyway he insisted he still 'liked it' and I agreed to give him 24 hours to make his mind up - I woke up to a really nice email insisting they wish to proceed and thanking us for our sociability, thank god!!

I had this twice before, both times the office manager that worked for me gave the autotrader password to a false/scam email, and both times the same happened and the level of enquiries on 30k BMW x5s priced at £6990 was absolutely ridiculous.

quick question, the normal v5 we send off, shall I just retain this then, will they send a 2 new v5s (one for each vehicle) straight away using the method above? thanks

Thanks Jim

Sold a Mercedes C Class yesterday and took a Renault espace against it. he also needs/wants his private plate putting on the merc, I've not done one since the tax changes, I read it's now quicker but how does it work with tax, does he have to tax the merc first (ie now?) thanks in advance Craig

I got my first 100% Facebook enquiry & sale last Saturday and it put a huge smile on my face as basically it was 100% free and self generated.

Yeah I would still do so if space wasn't at a premium because it's not nice having the same car on your website even for months on end is it really? normally when you drop a car to what you paid for it or thereabouts the phone rings on it so you shouldn't really lose money in theory apart from cost of advertising and storage in the time you've had it, only if you have paid way too much in the first place could I see a problem??

I'd say 50/50 mate. The way I approach it is tell them that with the advent of the internet and autotrader national search then they can price check every Fiat Panda/Renault Scenic/Mazda 3 in the country, so we cannot afford to be expensive and thus we price as competitively as we possibly can from the offset. Obviously this means there then is no room for discount here like they may be at other garages who price over the top. You can also say, if they are nice, that they must agree because if we were expensive you wouldn't be here would you? They'll soon get it.

Ebay Classifieds/Motors Pro TBH it's usually the cheap end i.e. part ex's below a grand, but even if it only sells one 'proper' car every 1-2 months it's still very good value.

I've been thinking about this a long time and have analysed previous sales, length of turn oves and other bits including margins and prices paid for vehicle. I am now implementing the following strategy due to space being at a premium. Proper margin for 6 weeks, will only adjust if response rate is at the floor. Reduced margin for a further 4 weeks, hopefully this should bring in the buyers. After 10 weeks if not sold at reduced margin, then price to clear and get money back, re stock and move on.

80% Autotrader 10% Ebay 10% Walk in

2002 Ford Puma 1.7 with leather, gave £600 for it January 1st and by my reckoning I've now had my moneys worth and it owes me £0 runs lovely too

Had a mega weekend, 3 Friday, 2 Saturday, 2 Sunday, 3 Monday. Didn't give £1 off a car (tell a lie I gave £200 off one in lieu of doing the paint work rectification) and that's from a stock of 25 cars from £1,500 - £5,000. Personally I have found a lot of goof stock on the online auction sites (DA, A4C & Sytner) and having regular enquiries at the minute.

Not had a lead yet, been on a week. Problem I'm having is I put my stock on autotrader as 'due in' whilst I'm waiting for it to be delivered and upload a picture and company logo to say the same, this then goes to RAC Cars. However when I upload my 20 pics to AT, they don't ever seem to follow through and update on RAC cars.

Have you done the VAT registration yourself? I'm sure I got my VAT number through in about 48 hours last time.

There a lot of websites that the trade use to dispose their stock. Dealer Auction Full Auction Sytner Online Auction4Cars Possibly more that I have not listed Also HPI Bid has recently started although I've not looked into this. The advantage of this, personally, is that you can almost do two jobs at once. Be in the office to deal with customer and also buy your stock. No standing at freezing cold auctions all day!!

We took an email Friday morning requesting first appointment 10am Saturday on a fusion we have/had in stock. They were waiting at 9.55am, car was sold at 11am, lovely couple and they did comment that they have emailed a few dealers in last few weeks and most haven't replied! It can be frustrating but I can't see a reason not to reply really.