david gott

About 4 months ago was at Mansfield, won an insignia, really clean, low mileage, 1.8 petrol, went to the cafe for a cuppa and flapjack, had a free slot on trader so got on my portal app on the iPhone and entered coming soon etc! 2 hours later a chap rang said he’d missed out on one over the weekend can he put a deposit down and collect for the weekend, money transferred the next day, collected at the weekend, right chuffed

Not so much a test drive but it sort of was because this old lady had only just passed her test, I delivered the car to her and it was her first time in the car, now I know what your thinking why did you let her drive it, but she had been telling me how she had just been doing extra lessons for her pass plus test, so thought she would be fine, she got in the car pulled it out and drove straight into a parked car.

This one came with absolute battered black alloys, looked horrendous, now looks great in great in cream (Although my wife still thinks it looks terrible).......had loads of interest but the sky high mileage of 97k miles is putting everyone off! I like scuffed alloys, dinks, bumper scuffs, anything I can do in house with little spend, mechanics don’t bother me if it’s a clutch, eml if it’s not on a chain or dodgy diesel and cheapish gearbox replacements. How do you put a picture in here? Tried copy and pasting but didn’t work

Big mistake there then, think Ive bought 15 cars all with proxy bids, funny thing is 90% Ive been really happy with the price but maybe I could have had them even cheaper!

I've always used Manheim for my online bidding, over the last few months Ive joined BCA, on the Manheim website its really easy to leave a proxy bid, just click in the dropdown box and sorted but on BCA it takes forever, I need to find the bloody car I want to leave a bid on, make a note of the lot number, logon to bca live, find the auction, find the lot number......its a right faff on!!! am I missing something? is there an easier way?

Haha so true 207 1.4 petrol engine, the one that’s in minis and c3 Picasso’s.....nightmare Mini chain, 1.2 Vauxhall’s chain, Passat, 1.2 polo engine, focus 1.6 diesel, any diesel I sell I always have a feeling they will come back but the car I hate the most is and I’ve owned loads......Vw golf, nearly everyone has had the EML light on at some point, door locks break, air con has a mind of its own, rust around the arches, just crap German cars.

Rory we must have crossed paths I’ve spent many a day in the Mansfield canteen, excellent food and nice staff, them flap jacks weren’t good for my wasteline though! There was a right funny old auctioneer in there that used to come out with some good crack “come on gents its only had 10 owners and all them loved it”

Private forum is decent if you want keep stuff off the net

When Im getting rid of cheap part exes, sometimes Ireland, but 90% of retail is within 30 miles, rare and odd ball 100 miles

I know it’s a bit of a bodge but you can easily get away with bumper scuffs using a 120 grit sand paper and then a 600 to key off then blow in with a moondust silver, Ive done it on loads of wheels and it looks great Sorry....... Alloy wheel scuffs

Proper cars can also attract proper C***S.....Doesn't matter what you sell its part of the job, you can't blame it on the car, the price, you have have to be like a psychologist and try to weigh people up when they call, if they sound like a nutter then I'll do my best to swerve them. If the car is under a grand then the majority are planks! first time buyers can be a nightmare and the main thing I dislike is they don't have a part ex, on the other hand the older generation are great, in the last month Ive took in a nissan micra 54 plate with 35k on the clock from a lovely old lady, needed a steering rack, so I allowed her £100, the next week after £170 steering rack fitted and £30 mot it was on sale and gone for £1300 by the end of the week (I should have advertised it at £1695 but hey ho) next part ex 2009 corsa, 65k in black needs a door, allowed £600, its worth £2295 all day long so plenty of profit left in that and then lastly an old chap chopped in a Hyundai Couple 2002, he'd had it from new (yes nearly 16 years) loads of history with just 50k on the clock, I tried to get it for £500 but in the end allowed £600 to get the deal done, advertised it for £1500, had quite a few enquiries so thought sod it and put it up £1895. Its the part exes that make my money up every month and they generally sell quicker, yes I'd love to be selling every car with a clear £1500 profit in it after vat but thats what Im working my way towards....slowly slowly catch the monkey, small acorns turn into mighty oaks...thats what I keep telling myself anyhow

Done 3 already this month so yes good start to June here too, fair to say Ive been steady all year, worst month was February for units sold but had a couple of cars with decent profit so every month has panned out pretty much the same, not going to get to down hearted if it goes quiet for a few months come November, just going to try and keep buying half decent stock at the right money.

I find having less cars in stock makes you feel like everything is slower, I hold around 23 - 25 cars on my tod and if I do 3 - 4 a week with all the cars priced in the middle Im happy and I get a good pedigree of customer, like Rory says putting them all cheap is just going to attract the nutters....... bottom pickers that want the car even cheaper, the worst kind of customer!

I’ve been on a pitch for 3 years and consider myself just internet based, the pitch holds 20 cars, in the early days I’d sit here all day scared I’d miss a sale, then I thought I’d get a valeter so when I wasn’t there he could look after the customers (what a waste of money that was) he left over a year ago, It took me 2 years to realise I can easily manage 20 cars on my own and when I’ve looked at what sales I do from walk ons it averages about 1 a month (we’re in a smallish village, not near loads of main dealers and car pitches) so what is the point being sat in an office all day stressing yourself out! but I would love to own a pitch or unit and not have to rent, always feels better when you know it’s yours.

Thanks, That’s the only one I could find on eBay, was hoping for one newer than a 2010 plate

Purchased a crew cab from manheim online, it arrived today but no rear seats and bulkhead, does anybody know where I can get a bulkhead from? (had a look on ebay and nothing suitable available) or is there anything quirky I could do instead?

Won a car online at Manheim Wimbledon, got train down to collect, in the payments office 2 brap brap bad bwoys turned up whilst waiting for the reception lady, they looked at my trade plates and said "oh look proppa trader bruv!!" you got proppa insurance then innit? me "yes" then they seen the receptionsist lady who was quite pretty and started humping the desk, could not wait to get out, then in car park seen him and his mate wheel spinning a battered old van

My best profit came this year and it was possibly the worst example of a transit van ever I've sold, bought out of Manheim, non runner ex BT, every panel battered, 135k miles, 1 key. Bought it blind and paid £600 plus fees, I thought it's worth that at breaking price so worth a go. Got it back to my mechanic, engine just needed flushing out at a cost of £40 plus a full tank of diesel, sold it 2 weeks later for £2895, wish they were all like that.

Andymc your better off without them types of dealerships! Numptys!!! It's a shame some dealerships will ban you, I've only ever rejected 3 cars, one of them was a 107 that wouldn't start, then when it did it sounded like a bag of spanners (the week before I got a panda from a different dealer and the engine blew up 20 mins after driving so I wasn't feeling too confident anyway) there was a young lad in the office I explained why I didn't want it and left. 30 minutes later the boss rings up, effing and blinding that there was nothing wrong with that car etc etc, next thing I'm barred from bidding on their cars. Not that I'm that bothered but did I kick up fuss over the panda that had a dodgy engine, no, it's part of the game, I'm pretty sure the chap in the office had never been in a traders shoes, putting his own cash up to buy stock and just thought I was another one of those moaning traders lol

I love a Hyundai Getz, cracking cars, always do well with any under 40k miles! The first 3 getz's I sold were bought as "elderly owner sadly passed away" (they always seem to be the best buys)

For the cars you are planning selling it will be hard to get them at good prices at the auction, having spent hours, days, weeks!! wasting my time trying to get fsh, clean cars at auction is very hard, the bigger dealers are happy to sit on these for months, old school dealers even years!!! so if you want to make good money your gonna have to go for the stuff that needs paint, repairs, oddball, little bit higher mileage in order to get good margins, trying to do this part time can be done BUT imho opinion the people who do it part time and make a success have already been doing this game for years full time, they've got their pot of money, they know their cars inside out, when your starting off your going to come across so many hurdles, warranty claims, cars you think you have bought cheap, only to get it home and realise its a lemon, you need trade insurance, plates, storage (for the cars your planning on selling you probably need a stock of 6 - 8 to be selling 1 or 2 a week) before you know it you will be paying vat, youll need an accountant etc etc but if your hearts in it theres no better job/game, best thing I ever done.

Think I'll try it at 3k see if there's any interest, if not will just try and get my 1800 back, but odd ball stuff can sometimes be the best stock!

Another 2 today, both completed and took away the cars took in chop possibly the strangest car I've ever had, a Mitsuoka Viewt, basically a Micra that looks like a Jag, it's auto, P reg, 78k, 2 owners, there's quite a few on the net at 4k, I did not have a clue what it's trade value was worth, offered 1800 and customer was happy with that, just have to wait and see if I've dropped a clanger!

I always seem to have a decent margin in diesels, high or low mileage, but they then either need more prep or they come back with problems and like craig said they are never cheap fixes, I now try to stay away from diesels or just have a couple that I know inside out, I've lost count of the vw/audi diesels we have took in part ex that have been bulbed, I just want cars with less headaches and half decent margins.

2 deposits today on 2 cars that just arrived this week, 10 for the month, my mechanic offered me a ford ranger the other week with 200k miles, thought it looked a shed lol, should have took it!!