Steve92

For me when viewing a private car I let them drive me to see how they drive, then I have a quick 10 minute drive, then I will go through the paperwork, check the car over and then if we are happy we will buy the car. If we are not at the v5 address we ask for copies of passports or driving licences. If your inside the house look at the pictures and see if they are the ones in them. Trust you gut instinct and break down the train tickets for cheaper fares. Oh and you can also call the dealers and check the history

Yes there are a lot of private customers wanting retail money but you can sometimes get the down, today's was advertised as 31k, we had agreed 29k, when we got there it hadn't got the b&o as advertised so we reduced our offer but as expected the seller declined so I'm now back on the train.

I'm currently on a train heading to Stockport to look at an sq5 as a private sale, yesterday was Leeds for a z4 and earlier in the week Swansea for a 428i, all private. You have to be prepared to travel and buy a return ticket. Some people hate traders, some don't give a stuff and some prefer it as the transactions are much smoother.

Make sure the roof is clean and dry first, I use meguires apc and a wet vac. Then get one of the cheap Harris dust covers from a diy store, open the roof, drop the sheet over the Windows, close the roof and then tape up the boot

Hpfp can be an issue on the cooper s and they also coke up on the n14 engine, both can lead to poor running. There are plenty of places that will decoke them. i think my sports cat might have killed my o2 sensor ......

Get an r56 cooper then you only have thermostats to worry about. I love my cooper s it's great fun, the only issue I have is the sat nav seems to think it's in a different part of the country every so often and sometimes I get adaptive light failure but in 3 years it's cost me 3 oil changes, discs and pads front and rear and that's it. I ditched the run flats within 3 months stuck a sports cat on jcw steering wheel and gear knob. I open all the windows and sunroof and stick it in sports mode and then annoy the neighbors.

Another for renovac and if you don't want to do it £120 is about the going rate for someone to do it for you.

Close asset, we were paying them off within a few days.

We lost our stock funding because we were paying the cars off too quickly, so now it's just the equity in the business and some other form of loan. The interest is lower too.

Been busy this week, e46 330i, 2 TT's, 420d, e220 and then 3 today, 2 A5's and a C180,

Ours sold, we offered to fill it or reduce the car by the customers excess ... In the end we had our screen guy fill it on site at the customers address of £30 and the customer was happy.

It would be £4500 against £4250 cap clean ..... no service history though .... £6000 retail so even at £4750 to clear it I think it would stick. We even offered to sell it on the customers behalf.

Probably lucky they couldn't get drive away insurance !

We have been offered a Crossfire Convertible as a px against a Z4 but we have turned it down on the basis that it probably won't sell, any idea what the market is like for these ? It's an 05 car in black.

Range Rover subject to finance, 330ci deposit and almost the Z4

So how will this actually affect trade insurance ?

A5 today

Timing chains can be an issue on the n18 but they are much better than the n14, clutches are crap still and the hpfp can still fail. Just get the car back get it inspected and give them a piece of paper to say it's all good

Good luck with the mini, if it's the n14 engine and has the death rattle on start up it could be the timing chain or even just the tensioner. It's why my mini has the n18 engine.

We sold an ml to a kebab shop owner in Rhyl .....

Few have just picked up an A5 that's taken a beating, I'll let you know what we end up doing.

Don't take this the wrong way .... Your pictures have too much going on in the back ground, have you got an area where you can photo them against a clean backdrop ? People buying prestige cars want to buy them from the likes of a main dealer not a somewhere that looks like a compound. My pet hate is words in capitals, I used to work for a deaf charity and capitals is seen as shouting. Having said that our adverts have capitals (the boss does them) other things like steering wheels being straight on interior shots and air vents lined up

Leave it .... If they notice and want it changing ask them what there windscreen excess is and then reduce the price accordingly .... That's what I've asked for in the past.

A6 today, a few calls on an insignia we sold at the weekend and 2 enquiries on the m4,

It's the risk your are to have to take, if someone travels 3 hours then chances are they are not out on a jolly. I think I've only had one local that we took out on a test drive that was a time waster. We normally let the drive from the off but we have a GTR at the minute tuned to 700bhp and we are driving for the first 10 minutes until the engine is warm before letting them swap over, you could restrict performance until the car is warmed up - oil not water and then chose a test route where performance can be restricted.