GreenGiant

Something that hasn't been thought about much - especially when it's just a small dealership like yours William - what's the heath & safety implication of only having one salesperson in? Accidents can and do happen. What if he/she is incapacitated because of it and cannot get to a phone? Or he/she gets a knock on the head from some nasty little scrote that fancies nicking a beamer you've advertised to the world? Do you fancy spending the night on the floor unconscious or with a broken ankle after tripping on an airline in the workshop? If you're lucky you might still be alive in the morning when someone opens up. Unless it's a Bank Holiday of course...

Crash. Burn. ...Our fault. Don't want to say "I told you so" but I can't see it going any other way. Already problems in Northern Ireland after the recent 'simple' transfer of data over from Coleraine to Swansea, so something this big is certain to cause issues. As me old mate Puff Daddy (feat. Notorious B.I.G) - a modern beat combo, I'm led to believe - so succinctly put it There's times in my life where I just I just wanna run away, I just I just wish the pain would stop I don't wanna cry no more I wish the pain would go away Poetry.

Good call Jim. It's time the whole world (not literally) slowed down a bit. In my many years in this business I have studied the browsing/buying patterns of customers and tried different opening hours to accomodate everyone, so we didn't miss a sales opportunity. Or so it appeared. Fact is, no matter what your published opening hours are, there will always be browsers who come in half an hour after you close. Over a 4-month trial (Feb-May) a couple of years ago, we surveyed everyone who purchased a car on a Sunday. In only 2 cases (out of 51) did the customer say they wouldn't have bought the cars from us during the week if we were closed on that day. And they were both New car deals that, quite frankly, hardly covered the leccy bill, let alone the wages! However, the powers-that-be decreed that if the opposition was open, then we would be too. A compromise was reached. At the moment, we're open every Sunday from April to October and only by appointment over the winter. Do we miss any walk-in deals? Probably. Do we worry about that? Nope. Do we get calls on the Monday after? Yep. Are the deals still done? Again, yep. It is certainly a location-based decision though but if, at the end of the day Jim, you're still surviving and the staff and customers are still happy, it's all good.

Accepting that it is the Daily Mail (so it must be true, right?), at least, as you say, the message is starting to spread. However. Interesting last sentence: ‘It’s easy to check if your vehicle is taxed by heading online at the Vehicle Enquiry Service, making this the first step for anyone planning to sell their vehicle and avoid the risk of fines.’ Why, if it is your own car, would you need to 'head online' to check if you have taxed it or not? And there, again, is the assumption that everyone has internet access. Nevertheless, I'll await the interview with much interest and look forward to finding out how much slack the DVLA are going to cut us in the trade. And how we are to be rewarded for carrying out their training for them.

Lovely. At least that's cleared up all the confusion about how its going to work and now we can all stride forward, confident in the knowledge that the whole population understands the new system and all the mechanisms for Trade, Disabled Exemption, imports, refunds, Cherished Transfers etc. The thought that they actually had a meeting (or twenty) and decided that this would be a fantastic idea is incomprehensible to me. When are we getting the DVLA interview, James?

We've used MyAlloys in Basingstoke a few times. They're a proper outfit and might be sympathetic to the Charity Car cause. Number's 01256 329444

Nothing to discuss. Your company made a huge mistake and now you're paying for it. There was a big fanfare about how marvellous G2 was and how it would change the way we work... Except it wasn't and it didn't. So now you.ve gone back to the old method. But the bird has flown. Oh, and this is the forum thread - you hijacked it with your self-promo attempt and it isn't for you to decide where the discussion goes.

It's a shame Glass spent so much time and money on the worthless experiment with G2, or whatever you called it. You not only lost a stack of cash, customers and decent, knowledgable staff, you also lost pretty much any credibility you had in the marketplace. Unfortunately Chris, we are all getting on just fine without Glass these days and your company can try and add any amount of value to your platforms if you want, we've found other, cheaper, more accurate ways of valuing stock. The fact is: Glass is broken.

The new online DVLA checking service is up and running (Beta, but functional) here Initial thoughts? 1st obervation: There doesn't seem to be a 'passed to trade' category. A car in our stock is showing as SORNed, when I know it hasn't been, but the yellow slip was sent a couple of weeks ago. Not sure of the implications.

I thought you had a butler who did that for you anyway?

That's cos you're in London mate - where cars aren't wanted full stop. Pretty soon every car inside the M25 is gonna be clamped just for being there. Out here in the sticks we see nobody enforcing anything.

That's my point, my friend - if the refund is from the 1st of next month, the vehicle must be taxed until the end of this month

Welcome to the post-recession, lazy-arsed, ill-educated UK. They're not answering your enquiries cos they've got their faces smashed into their phones sorting out their irrelevant status updates and illiterately giving the world the benefit of their massive experience and knowledge. Without being asked. Innit? As ye sow, so shall ye reap...

Agreed. So there will in all likelihood be more rather than less. Nobody is going to know if a car is taxed or not. Unless they do an online check. Do we really think the Police/Local Authority/DVLA have spare members of staff swilling around to roam the streets checking parked cars? And when you do the job for them, who's going to give a toss when you report an untaxed car?

So. The customer gets a refund from the next month. Therefore, by definition, the vehicle is taxed until the end of the current month. Isn't it? Or is the DVLA hoping to obtain double revenue, potentially fraudulently, if the vehicle is then sold on in the same month and taxed back to the beginning. Surely there has to be some kind of symmetry to the arrangement? This constant heads-they-win-tails-we-lose is quite disturbing in a supposedly democratic society.

I expect there'll be a massive TV & newspaper campaign costing millions. That could have been spent keeping the local offices open. I get that, but is the Px still taxed to the end of August?

If a customer trades in a car on the 1st of the month, the DVLA will supposedly refund them the unexpired tax (ie from the end of that month). Is the car, therefore, still taxed until the end of the month? If the car has £Zero tax, there's nothing to refund, so will the same rules apply? A customer brings a car in to us for part exchange appraisal/service/repair etc, we don't know if it is taxed so we can road test it. (Telling us to ask the customer or "just check on the DVLA website" is a really poorly thought-out answer: who's gonna do this? When? How much time do they think we have? Can they categorically, 100% guarantee that their website will function without any hiccups all of the time... without any exceptions?) How does that work when you have to collect a car from someone's workplace, for example, and they aren't available to ask. And you haven't got access to t'interweb? Do we gamble, or not collect the car and lose the work and get a poor CSI score? Why should we suffer because the DVLA doesn't have a process? The elderly couple without a computer, who don't trust banks to manage their direct debits, so pay for everything by cheque - what's the plan for them? It's not just us in the trade that need to understand; it's the whole population. What is the expected timescale for the whole country to be educated in the New Way? I only ask this because I suspect the DVLA have no idea how long it will take and probably rather hope we'll do a bit of the educating for them... if we wouldn't mind...for free...oh, yes and as a reward they'll also add yet more layers of onerous complexity to our over-legislated workday in order to give them something to punish us for when we get it wrong. Cheers. Here's my view: LEAVE IT AS IT IS - IT'S A PAIN, BUT IT WORKS!!! AND REOPEN THE LOCAL OFFICES!!!!

Isn't this just an extension of the Distance Selling Regs? We don't take online-only orders. I ensure that every car that we sell has been seen, touched and tested by the prospective purchasers before they drive away, so the rules don't apply. We've had a 30 day exchange scheme in place for years as part of the manufacturer's Approved scheme- never had to change one yet. The right to reject for even a minor defect in the first 30 days is going to stir it up a bit though. All the more reason to ensure the cars are properly prepared prior to sale. However, where do you stop? A used car is just that - used. So the possibility of a minor defect manifesting itself within the first month is always a possibility. Especially if the driver does a lot of miles. The thread elswhere about the car needing brake pads shortly after delivery is a case in point. New pads fitted and the customer is satisfied. Happy days. However, under the new rules, the dealer would be obliged to take the car back and give a full refund. Not so happy days...

It's not Deltapoint retail price that's random, we can all work that out for ourselves, it's the Trade prices they come up with I can't fathom. If they get the average selling price from Autotrader etc, where do the average buying prices come from? If they're using data from BCA and Manheim, then Cap (and Glass, supposedly) do that already, so what's the (delta)point? And how can it be so different in many cases? And if it's just made up....?

Don't know how credible Deltapoint is. Seems a bit random to me. Surely the current system is: See how much they're advertised at, deduct your margin and prep costs and see how little you can get it for. It really doesn't have to be too scientific. If it's a nice car with good spec, history and condition, it'll sell on its own. If it's an ordinary car just like everybody else has got, it will also sell.... but only at a price. The skill is not in the selling, it's in the buying.

I think you may actually be the last subscription they have, Umesh! There was a time when the Guide was welded to my left hand and I coudn't do business without it. Since the G2 farce, when they wouldn't listen to experienced people both in and outside their company about how it wasn't working, so I cancelled my subscriptions, I'm still doing business. Who knew?

Is this the same Glass's Guide that spent gazillions on a NEW VALUATION MODEL (G2, I think they called it) that would revolutionise the way we value cars? The same fabulous system that they bought from Finland or Slovenia or Outer Mongolia (powerhouses of the Used Car Industry) and undid all of the work that had been going on for decades... and lost them thousands of customers...and many valuable employees... ...that they have now abandoned and are reverting to the tried and trusted method that worked just fine, but haven't actually told anyone or admitted the Great Experiment was an almighty cock-up. I Don't think they have much credibility left for their opinions to be valid, to be honest. Who uses Glass's Guide anymore anyway?

Nice of them to announce it comes into effect on 1 October... cheers for the consultation and opportunity to point out potential flaws in the plan, especially for us in the trade. Am I the only one that is struggling to get a grip on how this is supposed to work? There are so many different scenarios with part exchanges, demos, cherished numbers, taxation class changes etc etc. How many hours in a day do they think we have? We've historically used px's as our ride home as long as its got 'rent and a ticket'. Is this the end for that? I hope there's going to be a definitive guide to how this will work, covering all possible eventualities. But I know there won't be.

I think you've answered your own question there, old boy!

Shouldn't be more than a tenner for a windscreen repair via his insurer. Tell him to get his insurance co's approved repairer to mend the chip (not a replacement screen - shouldn't need it from what we see in the picture ) and for him to send you a VAT receipt for a goodwill refund. Chances are he won't bother. However, from the wording of the Email, I suspect he probably will. Recorded delivery. CC'd to your local Trading Standards. And the AA, the local paper, TripAdvisor, That's Life and Rogue Traders c/o the BBC via FaceSpace. If he insists it's £75 for a repair (which it won't be), or that he wants a new screen, I would suggest he supplies you with a copy of the insurance schedule as proof of costs. Then call Autoglass or whoever on his behalf and make the arrangements for them to repair it and send you the bill. Or call his bluff and say it wasn't there when it left you. Or tell him you've ceased trading. Maybe not that.