Steve92

So it's going to be web only and keep the worst thing about it, the name......

Sometimes it's price driven, although Sod's law is usually when someone puts a deposit on a car the whole world then wants it.

I hate the mid, although some systems are better than others. out of interest do you put all of your stock on mid or just the ones you use ? So if a car comes in and you need to move it about for repair work after 15 days should this be on the mid ? going back to the tt I think some will be classics but don't think they will fetch silly money in the way a classic ford would. The tt Quattro sport is probably the most desirable. Here's our tt we have owned it 5 1/2 years, it's covered 55k and has part Audi part specialist (better !) history.

whats your fleet made up of ? I have a mk1 tt roadster, mini clubman s and a Saab 9-5 estate. I've also just put my name on the v5 of a 2008 Corsa which needs some work.

I would Google there mobile number, there email address ..... I would street view there house to make sure it exists and see what car is in the drive .... We use fast payments for cars and it is true it's as good as cash. However I would always go with my instinct, so if you think it's a con then leave it.

Are there any statistics to back up the likes of eBay ? We only advertise our stock on autotrader and it does sell but I would like to eBay but it's not really my place to say where cars are advertised. Does anyone use pistonheads ?

We use epg, a1 warranty's, is that the one that goes under different names, I did google them but the internet didn't like them, well in fairness sites about consumer law that automatically say reject it under the sales of goods act your have rights .... Blah blah blah (that comes from managing a mail order returns team)

Not sure the wife would let me take the rotary with me, it was just Sod's law that it was a brand new hire car, well 400 miles ..

I used the black pen trick on my hire car

Interesting that most of you mot your cars, we tend to mot them if they have less than 4-5 months on them. When I got my mini from a main dealer its first mot was due in November but I purchased it in August and the dealer put 12 months on it. They probably thought they were doing the right thing but even to this day it really annoys me that the mot is out of sync with its birthday.

Specialists are usually very good, what I cannot understand is let's say it's £50 to diagnose the problem by plugging a laptop in. Surely that's easy money, it takes less than 10 minutes and doesn't have to take up workshop space. Our local audi dealer seem ok although they don't offer trade rates that we know of but will honour any private offers to traders. The most helpful one so far is Land Rover, I called them for a spec list of one of the cars and they really were great, quick helpful and didn't want to know your inside leg measurement.

How do you find your local main dealer, do they dislike you if your a small trader ? We had two issues this week, one with a German specialest and the other with a main dealer. We had a fault on one of the cars that our local mechanic could not trace as it needed to be plugged into dealer diagnostics. I tried someone local who started off fine thenwhen I gave our contact details he completely changed to the point where I really thought he was going to hang up on me. So we then tried the local dealer and the same thing nearly happened, except they would carry out the work on the proviso they fixed the problem. They would charge us £140 for the hours diagnostics... We knew it was only going to be a switch but didn't know which one, the end repair being £260 for a repair kit and a £15 switch ... apparently there is some local traders getting the dealers to diagnose the problem then taking the car away and fixing it themselves, but isn't that what some private customers also do ? I know full well if mine went in and they said £1000 to fix I would take the car away, it could be because I want to fix it or even that I could not afford the repair. Does anyone else have this ?

It was wms we saw, there were a couple of exclusions that made me think what's the point. Question for Sparky, if you use them do you complete the checklist they provide ?

I picked up an Audi cabriolet this week, it's a nice thing but there doesn't appear to be much interesting it at the moment.

The good old sales of goods act, where customers think they have the right to get everything replaced free of charge because it's not fit for purpose. I managed a returns department for a mail order company and as we were also a charity people really did try taking the wee wee. @ max, how long do you cover things for in relation to sog act ?

Self warranty is something we had considered but not looked in to, would you manage it all in house or would you use a management company to act as an agent in relation to a claim ? We have found someone that will manage it for £15 per car. Would you give a minimum warranty of say 3 months or would you go for 6 and then up sell to 12/18 etc

Has anyone got any tips on what to look for or even reccomend a warranty provider, we are currently reviewing the company we use. We had some information in from a provider but one of the exclusions was chassis and suspension, dpf and catalytic converters, so that's petty much 50% of the car not covered.

Very few cars have unmarked wheels though, as a private buyer I would happily take kerbed wheels and knock money off, the reason smart repairs do not really last and you only end up doing them properly again - strip back, powder coat paint etc. my other pet hate is overspray/dirt on the inside of the wheel. Fortunately the 320i I collected yesterday with diamond cut wheels doesn't have a mark on them.

Some of the lease rates on fiestas are really good, I've been looking at the Nissan Leaf and Renault Zoe, the leaf was around £180 per month and the Zoe £150 per month, both include the battery rental and over 24 months with 7500 miles per year and no deposit. As for busy, it's not bad, but then I don't know any different

Rayon pad (flexipads make some) and car pro ceriglass or 3m glass compound, on a rotary

Out of interest if he took it as it stood in Royal Mail red would you have made more margin or reduced the price ? I like the the relaxed laid back attitude as my feeling is it puts people more at ease, I'll happily standard chat to anyone about anything with 4 wheels. Out of the 6 test drives I've taken people out on i've taken deposits for 5. Not that my job is sales. I've never been tempted to pull someone's finger though .....

That sounds like a challenge !

I guess that's the thing, striking the balance between a figure the customer is prepared to pay and what the seller wants, usually the seller expects more than it's a actually worth. We have charged the seller a set amount, I guess it works out around 5% of the advertised price.

The part about can I work with the makes sense, certainly from my point of view. I've swapped from working as a purchasing/buyer to moving towards the car trade, I'm 41 and took a large drop in salary because I love cars and if I didn't believe the business could succeed or more importantly if I couldn't work with the person who owns the business then I wouldn't have joined. Personally you you have to get on with them, enjoy the work and if they are prepared to give and take and treat the business as it was there ownthenyou could be on to a winner.

Hi Jim, thanks for the reply, so regardless of whether it's your stock or not you are liable for it. As it stands we have had someone contact regarding an Audi a1 that they would like to sell, they don't want to have issues with insurance and test drives etc which we can understand. We would charge them a fee for this + vat. They would set the sales price and be paid direct by the actual purchaser. But if we are still liable for the car then what we are charging for the service potentially wouldn't cover the problems further down the line. In this instance i wonder if it's actuall worth going ahead with ? We have never retailed an Audi a1 so it was a chance to do this with little financial liability. if you could email a copy of the contract you use that would be very much appreciated. steve