pmpants

George, Henry (and Henry mk2 as backup!), and even Hetty all work really hard here, great machines and we've found them easy to maintain/cheap. Numatic customer support are really helpful on the phone, even recommended a cheap spares shop (in Bristol from memory). Recently we've used mostly APC on most water marks/stains and only use George to dry seats after APC, or for really grubby cars. So I guess we could get away with just a cheap wet vac. Bought a cheap Tornador copy the other week after reading about them here, typically haven't needed to try it out yet, shouldn't complain I'm sure we'll get lots of opportunity sooner or later!!

Service as necessary, so always oil and filter, check air filter and plugs (unless car comes with an itemised bill for recent servicing from a main dealer or reputable independent), strip, clean and adjust brakes always! Can't believe how many older low mileage cars we get in with full main dealer history where the back brake drums have clearly never been off! The same goes for spare tyre pressure, Toyota spares are nearly always low! Check lights, wipers etc. Mot if less than 9 months left, although we're probably going to mot every car soon.

Glitter! Nightmare stuff, always comes back, just like white dog hairs! +1 for the dehumidifier, one peice of equipment I'd rush out and replace as soon as it broke, it probably will now!!

Mk1 Aygo, 107 and C1 are the latest cars I can think of with cable clutches, and they love a clutch! I think mainly because younger mechanics don't know to check there's freeplay at the pedal when servicing them. As the clutch wears the pedal rises, hits the silly pedal stop, and then constantly applies pressure to the clutch cover. They're fitted with a small centre plate but the 1.0 Toyota iQ has the same diameter with a hydraulic clutch and they last fine. I've managed to save a couple of Aygos by adjusting the cable but a 107 had to have a new one as the release bearing was knackered.

There's a coupe or guys I know well Jimbo who are close to us that buy the real cheap stuff, if you're happy to send me details and brief description I'll always forward them on to them. I couldn't say they'd buy everything you offer, but hopefully they could help. Remember we'll always try to give a good bid for nicer older (so anything from the beginning of time to say 2011) Japanese, Ford and Vauxhall if it doesn't fit your stocking policy.

We're always looking for older Japanese, and even the odd Ford and Vauxhall Jimbo, we're in East Sussex, we prefer lower mileage, with history, not too many owners etc, but are happy to consider outside of those parameters, to be fair I quite enjoy pulling the older cars together and still get satisfaction out of it!!

+1 on trying to have it repaired, we've used BBA Reman before for electronic repairs and they've been ok, only heard good things about ECU testing. Swapping with another unit of unknown quality and all the other parts necessary would really be a last resort for us.

Happy New Year everyone, here's hoping nice stocks easier to source then 2017, and we're all treated to plentiful, nice people to deal to!

Which area are the main dealer group with a fiery name?? Give us a clue!!!

We check every car we buy religiously before bidding, and against the cars service history. We also use Cazana to give a free "indication" of when keeper changes occurred, it's not 100% accurate, but there's nothing worse then buying one only to find out the last keeper change was 6 weeks ago!! All the time the details of the mot testing stations is omitted from the .gov site we just use Cazana, I wish everyone used the free checks available then it may stop average cars values being pushed through the roof!!

I've just called the digital relationship team on 03451110002 and explained that with the px button selected, within 1 mile of our postcode the available cars drop from 23 cars to 12 (these 12 being 1 dealers stock), the advisor sounded surprised, he went to get the office iPhone and couldn't find the button! We suggested that he updated the Iphone, he then recognised the issue, he went on to tell us that their stats suggest that less than 1% of customers use the button, I told him that recently as many as 2 out of 3 customers offer us their part exchange, why wouldn't they select that option if they had a p/x???. There's no option for me to sign up for this awful flawed px tool as due to bad health I can't pay a monthly contact, so pay per car. I'm going to write an email over the weekend, complaining that we have never been warned our stock could become invisible if someone ticks a box saying they'd like us to consider a p/x, we'd love the opportunity to! Indeed ironically we select "p/ex welcome" instead of ono, ovno etc in the drop down after the price!!! I got the feeling the guy I spoke to had genuinely not come across this before, he assured me my concerns would be reported. Maybe every one could call, whether on an A/T contract or pay as u go, at least if we all tied up their representatives for a while they may notice us?? We've checked the app on Iphone, Ipad, Android phone and Android tablet and the button is present with all of them, with the good old trusted pc it's hidden below the "more" button. Paul