James Bush

I local dealer got into a very sticky situation with this. He taxed the car on the green slip and kept hold of the V5, he then sold it around 6 weeks later and put the new keepers details on V5 and the date the customer picked it up and sold it with the remainder of the tax. A few weeks later the customer got pulled over by the police for the car been untaxed. It turns out DVLA had received the V5, seen it had been taxed prior to change of owner so refunded the months left to the previous keeper!!

When I've complained to DA in the past they've taken very little notice so I'd be interested to here what they say

It was a weekend for odd people - good job I sold a couple or I maybe wouldn't have seen the funny side of them all. I had the guy who had just started driving lessons turn up and wanted to test drive a Vectra, a couple who came to look last weekend come back to have another look at a Mini this weekend and were really upset that it was sold to somebody else - apparently I should have rang them out of courtesy to let them know it was now sold and a guy turn up at 4:30 to look at an Alfa Mito but got upset that he couldn't see the condition of the paintwork because it was too dark - I can be held responsible for some things but surly not that!!

I received the following texts on Friday night, around 10′ish and this customer actually turned up….9am sharp on Saturday morning and expected me to offer him my best politest attention with an exceptional deal!! He was around 20 wearing his jeans around his bum, bright pink t-shirt and laces untied on a pair of trainers I’d have chucked out years ago. I wasn’t very polite, I enjoyed ripping his “mint” Clio apart which wasn’t too hard given the amount of previous paint it had in its life, a nice touch was he brought his mum and when I wasn’t been to friendly with him she seemed to take offence. On leaving I started chatting to his mum who admitted she though I was been rather off’ish. I asked if she’d seen the texts I received the night before, which she hadn’t, I showed her and then she bawled at me….yes me…”get over it mate, you’re not Lord f’ing Sugar, its how kids talk now days, what you f’ing expect in your job”?

I was general manager at a 100+ car used site and my biggest advertising spend was Google adwords. I used to advertise 50 cars on autotrader, all of them on ebay, Netcars and motors and part of my sales teams job was to ask how they'd found us and 90% would say autotrader even if the car they were looking at wasn't even listed on AT. A few times a week I'd sit down with customers and ask them to take me through their process to find a car and it amazed me how many of them said I just put "Ford Focus for sale" into Google and you must have came up. I think it works with a larger stock as there's more potential of a customer spending time on your site although I do run a few adword campaigns when I have something a little more out of the ordinary comes in. We had a company called PinkSheep run our bigger adwords account and they charge very little for what they can do

I think flowers are a bit much and I think he gets more that don't appreciate than he does appreciate them.....but he is very old school

I asked this same question on another forum and got mixed responses if it was worth retailing them or not. I used to send all mine to auction and then find them up for sale and sold days later with good profit so I tried to retails a couple of my nicer cheaper examples.............but these customers with £500-£1000 to spend on cars all ultra, fussy pain in the arses and I've found that I have a bit of a take it or leave it attitude with them and if I think they'll be a nightmare after sale I just don't sell them the car. I've been retailing them since the beginning of October with some ok results. I still get them workshop appraised and any that I think will be an issue go off to auction.

I did all mine on the Sunday, although some were more difficult than others and needed 3 hands to press all the right buttons at the same time. A long time ago I delivered a Focus without the radio code and passenger airbag turned off......I looked a right tit in front of the customer running around, googling instructions and bluffing my way though and its always stuck with me. On delivery I always make a point of making sure there's enough fuel to get them home, and then I set the radio to their favourite station and the sat nav to home if its got one in front of them.....as GreenGiant said its the small things. A local guy to me still puts flowers on the passenger seat of ever car but he's becoming increasingly annoyed with comments wishing he'd have put a tenner of fuel in instead

Reminds me of the time I was selling a Silver Vectra SRi, full vaxuall service history etc and 2 guys turn up in an almost identical car apart from his is red. He wanted to px it with mine and when I ask why he tells me a story of how he's just purchased it and his wife hates the colour, anyway naively I believe him and we go through the whole sales process to a point where they're sat in my office and we've eventually shook hands on a deal at £800 to change. The orders printed off and just before he signs it, he asks to have one last look around the car. After 5 mins they both pop back in, he's full of apologies and says he can't justify spending £800 to just change the colour, he offers me £30 for the petrol for test drive and for the time wasting which I decline, we shake hands and he disappears me thinking he's a decent chap and I never think anything more of it. The following weekend I have another customer on the same car, he likes it and asks to see the service history. Yeah its in the book pack I tell him, he fumbles through it and its nowhere to be seen then it dawns on me the sneaky not so decent git who wanted to swap his Vectra must have swiped it....... I now keep every service history in my car envelopes in my office.......

I prep all mine for he two main reasons already mentioned......ease of selling, a customer can turn up and drive it away and also because you know exactly what margin you have in the car. Customers are strange though, I had a Mazda that I sold a couple of weeks ago with 11 months and 1 week MOT left and because I advertise all my cars with a new MOT he wanted a fresh MOT putting on it, small price to pay for a sale though I suppose. I hardly ever trade a retail car, I prefer to discount it for a retail sale as I think you'll always get more money back this way and the chance of going again with their PX

RS that's all we need AA advising and revving up customers with the smallest of faults I try to sell all my cars with no advisories but sometimes the car doesn't warrant it, if I sold a £6000 60reg Alfa Mito and the tyres were at 3mm and advised on the MOT I'd change them but not on a £1500 Picasso I'd taken in px and was retailing on. I now highlight all advisories and also state them on the order form. In my opinion an advisory on a MOT doesn't mean the car isn't of satisfactory quality and is fault free or it wouldn't have passed an MOT

I'd check your source at the DVLA.....I did exactly as you are suggesting when these new rules came out. Taxed a car on the green slip, sold the vehicle 2 months later then sent off the V5 in the new keepers name, after a few weeks my customer receives a letter from the DVLA wanting confirmation of what date he purchased the vehicle, a week later he receives another letter stating all new owners must tax the car on the day they take ownership so the current tax has been cancelled and he needs to tax it again. He contacted me not happy because he's lost out on a few months tax I included with the sale and was driving the car around un-taxed, I agreed to refund him the months he'd lost and calmed him down a bit and to this day I still haven't received my refund of the remaining 4 months tax. So all in all to much hassle and stress just to save an owner on the V5

3 working days for me

I think they need to get back to basics and reconnect with their customer......us!! They constantly update current products, introduce new features and redesign the website and much of it isn't required or requested. I don't think any AT employee has any experience of working in a dealer and therefore tend to guess at a customers online journey into buying a vehicle. Also the constant price increases are unwelcome without any justification of what "extra" we are getting for our money. I think they need to remember first and foremost they are a platform for people to view cars for sale on and then put them in touch with the dealer, I sometimes think they are trying to sell the car for us. I've had several comments from customers annoyed with the pop ups for new cars, finance, insurance, GAP etc and it takes the customers focus away from actually searching for a car. I'm sure some dealers find a lot of there extra paid for features useful and to be fair I pay for a couple that I see as value but when they launch a new product its almost forced upon us. I think they should simplify the packages and introduce a very simple base level just to advertise a car with no fuss much like eBay, RAC cars etc. But......my biggest annoyance is there "take it or leave it attitude", we're the market leader so pay up or leave!! and I honestly believe somebody will come to market and offer something a little different and take a lot of their custom. Do you know of any other company that's main core of customers constantly moan about them? I don't think it would take anything ingenious to take a lot of their custom? pay per enquiry or regional model maybe?

I did have a customer quote that "they'd buy the car because they now had 30 days to decide if they wanted it or not". I explained to Norman that I was no longer interested in selling him a car which he took great offence to!!

Do any of you guys use Movex? I've always used it but recently I'm getting quite a few issues with jobs been accepted then cancelled, not been collected etc. Over the last couple of weeks I've had a company call to say they'd had a better paying job come in so wouldn't be collecting mine, a company tell me they'd crashed their truck and just now a company call to say the batteries had gone down on his van so wouldn't be able to do it. I only use them for auction collections because I can get the cars here quicker and a little cheaper but I'm just thinking is it now worth the hassle and just let auction deliver them all?

Good end to last month, good start to this month.......long may it continue..... Its not until I saw this post that I realised that I've done above average finance deals and taken more sheds in the past 3 weeks than I have the rest of the year and I think there's something in the theory that people are realising that there car won't see them through winter........now how do a target advertise them customers??

Haha every time I get a BCA car delivered I have a moan about this..... Why do they seal the paperwork in an envelope and then staple it all together through the envelope....and what's wrong with a couple of dobs of Pritt Stick in each corner rather than covering half the windscreen in it!! I though I was on my own with this little thing that bugs the hell out of me :-)

I had a customer wanting to art exchange a Fabia VRS yesterday, rang up my local VAG specialist that normally pays very good money for clean VAG stock and he just isn't buying because his enquiries have all but stopped, even his service work has slowed down. It doesn't help that all the news talks about is recalls that will make your car less efficient and more to tax and VW group removing cars from sale

Phil H, wasn't aware of that I may make a phone call on y next one. Although on experience of manufactures goodwill contributions I still don't think it will be cheaper than a £25 part and 1/2 hour labour to fit?

Yep Cornish Guy.....if you're lucky its just one. I have sourced a cheap fix for them though that actually works. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-x-Renault-Megane-Scenic-electric-window-module-Motor-Regulator-Repair-/161339137975?fits=Car+Make%3ARenault%7CModel%3AMegane&hash=item25908fdfb7 Yep Cornish Guy.....if you're lucky its just one. I have sourced a cheap fix for them though that actually works. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-x-Renault-Megane-Scenic-electric-window-module-Motor-Regulator-Repair-/161339137975?fits=Car+Make%3ARenault%7CModel%3AMegane&hash=item25908fdfb7

Just received some info that says deductions for usage can be made but only after 30 days....... The "one shot" rule could lead to some interesting arguments.....sorry conversations with customers when an engine warning light comes on for, say an EGR valve then a month later for something unrelated...... On advice taken my cars are now MOT'd regardless of if it was only done a week ago, service (minimum of oil and filter change) again regardless of when it was last done, a more in-depth health check and a diagnostic scan printout to show no fault codes present.

I had my 1st customer quote the act today.......He bought a Megane around 3 weeks ago, today he rings saying one of his rear windows has packed up, not a problem I explain the warranty supplied will sort it all out just give them a call. He wasn't happy with this, wanted me to collect the car, leave a loan car, repair it and deliver it back to him and he lives 75 miles away. When I refused and explained this isn't the best way to sort it he quoted the act and told me I was lucky he wasn't rejecting it and demanding a full refund!!!

Its written into my warranty that any modifications then the warranty becomes null and void

Haha my 1st lesson as an 17 year old was to go get the belly buster Saturday morning sandwiches when asked by the sales manager and always pop a cup of tea on the general managers desk when ever I was passing his office - its amazing how many "house" deals were passed my way :-)