Mat C

I went for the Landbeasts one in the end. Collected it yesterday, I can honestly say, what a pleasure it was dealing with them and the car is 'Split Mint' I had the biggest grin on my face driving it back up from London. If I could add a Picture here I would. You should ask for a referral fee!

I whole heartedly agree. I get a nice warm feeling when our customers come into our (shed) showroom and say, 'wow' look how lovely your cars are. I see some crap for sale every day, terrible photo's, filthy interiors, damage hear there and everywhere. My mantra is, why give them a reason NOT to buy it. Like Pip, we detail every car, polish chrome, scrub exhaust pipes, dent man, machine polish, it needs to look as good as it possibly can, good pictures, good bodyshop for bumpers / bonnet paints ( especially on MINI's ) I also really only like to buy stock that I know will sell, bright cars, that when you look at them you say,.... That's a lovely car..... With us its easier I guess, as Most people love a Mini, we sell to 17yr old girls, 80 year old fellas and everyone inbetween. Look at your oldest car and ask, would I buy it, is it clean, are the pics good, does it start..... Retail is detail.....

My spelling, I was evidently high on some exhaust fumes, Dog Dick red is our usual, however I have heard Dog cock too! Or dog knob... I'd love a split mint DK red IS200 though

I have no idea, its just something thats always been banded around garages i've worked at. I'm sure my brother uses it all the time when describing a particulalrly beautiful car, particularly is its old. There are some daft motor trade sayings out there... Ducks on pond, Got some billys on, Flat as a witch's tit, dock cock red..... I should start a new topic...... I'm sure some of the ( older ) guys in here have loads of them..

Must be the Midlander in me! Basically I want a new car thats 12 years old. there are some stunners out there, but i'm prepared to wait for the right one!

I'm starting to annoy myself now, i'm such a tosser! I wan't a MINT 13 year old car with full history and in the right spec and right colour, low mileage...... I'll just ring the used car factory now sir....

Its a beaut, BUT...... Beige Leather... I'm being super picky I know.... But I have sourced a Beautiful looking Sport on a 54 plate, but its 4 hours away.....

250 is the new model, and Manual kills it as after 06 they are £500 a year to tax, the auto;s are much better in the 250 but I want a 200

Ha ha, wondered when Grumpy would comment.... The car is for me personally, just trying to relive my youth..... so i'm not selling it ( well, not yet, but everything's for sale! ) Having worked for Lexus for 10 years, I can honestly say there isn't a more reliable car out there. There's a reason they win JD power year in year out, but each to their own. They're certainly not the most exciting cars to drive, but the quality ( even on 10/15 year old ones ) far surpasses Merc, BMW and definitely ford focus! All of the above except for the 2.2 diesel that they produced, which frankly is probably the worst engine ever. It was a massive mistake and undrivable under 80mph and then DPF issues and all sorts.... one for the history books and i'm sure a few japanese techs got the boot over this one! Just seen this, Perfect. I've messaged them Thanks

He's about 100 so wouldn't be hard..... There's one out there for me, I just know it....

Thats exactly what i need. I know of one that I sold new to a guy in 05, its now done 9,000 miles and is like new, but he won't let me have it...

I worked for Lexus for 10 years and these were the best company car i ever had. I think for the money, they are bullet proof. I'm just waiting for the right one to pop up. I've had 2 over the last 2 years but they just weren't exactly the one I wanted. They still make strong money, but the auto's are dreadfully slow so it has to be a manual. I really just want to relive my youth! I've messaged that guy 3 times, looking at the HPI it had a change of keeper 5 days ago, so i'm assuming its sold. But that is exactly the thing I need.

Morning, I'm after Lexus IS200 - Manual, Less than 100k, Ideally an SE or Sport. As much history as possible and obviously needs to be split mint. Preferably last of the run so 54 plate or 05 plate Just in case any of you have one just lying around........ its for me

We've been with Cargurus for about a year. We get 2/3 leads a month, usually no reply at all. We reply to the message and also send a fresh email to the email address that's supplied ( customer 223345566@cargurus.com ) or whatever it is. 9/10 never reply and after 5 emails I send a message asking if they are still interested, then to contact us, otherwise we will archive their enquiry. However, we have sold 6 cars this year through cargurus, so yes, it does work a bit. BUT We've only ever sold cars when we've not been on the free trial!!!!! This is how I see it working. 1 genuine enquiry comes in..... ( Magically ) then 3 or 4 more arrive over the next few days..... then the call / email from the Cargurus team, explaining how you'll get more leads and more sales through their well priced product. Its all a crock in my opinion, fake enquiries to get you thinking you're gonna sell loads from it. I don't agree with the whole concept of carguru's like many others, i find their whole ethos is based on price and nothing to do with spec, quality or customer service.

I’d imagine you’d get better results with a fag lighter. I doubt there’s any point heating it as it all disappears up through the roof

I was considering dark carpet, but the main problem we have is that our main roller shutter door leads directly onto the road, where there's 18 wheelers plowing past every 5 minutes into the yard across the way. Its so dusty here its untrue, so my thought would be the vinyl stuff so we can just mop it, currently if we mop our floor, its just pushing the paint from one place to the next!

you got a picture? Ha ha, I tell that to my Partner, Lets go and eclat all the showroom, soon be sweating!

I don;t, its bloody freezing! But he have an office at the end which is nice and toasty

that looks great

After advice or any reliable contacts please. We operate in an industrial unit,approx 2000 sq ft nice white painted walls and concrete screeded floor. When we moved in the floor was lovely, 2 years later its minging, paints faded, gets so dusty, I have to constantly sweep up and spray water to take my pictures to make them look better, its starting to get on my t1ts now. We've just removed some internal walls to fit our own 2 poster ramp in so we can get a tech to do our prep and then start offering specialist servicing. We need a new floor relatively quickly, so i've been looking at a few options. 1. Paint the floor again. We're next door to Dulux paint centre, so could get a deal on the paint and spend a weekend doing it ourselves, however, after 10 mins of having the door open, will be dusty and shitted up again fairly quickly. 2. Vinyl flooring. I've seen this on a mates garage and on a few car dealers pics when scouring the net. Comes in 10m rolls about 3,mm thick and just rolls out and stays put, this would give us a much cleaner look, easier to clean, and look a lot more professional than we are right now. However struggling to find a local supplier or specialist. Also not sure this would be any good for under a ramp? And its not cheap! but can be moved with us if we move? Any alternatives or contacts or advice from you seasoned professionals?

Sent you a messge Thanks

Its been drilled into me for 20 years, theres a reason why every company i've ever worked for has a strict stocking policy, is because it works. Cars don't go up in value, ( however I do put mine up in price sometimes ) so as far as i'm concerned I need to move it asap. We have had some real strange ones stick over the last year, a beautiful Green Cooper SD, up on miles but a lovely 1 owner example, great spec and beautiful condition, sat here without the door being opened for weeks, but that MY ££££ sat there, rotting, doing nothing, I need to make it work harder for me, thats my opinion. So I gradually kept creeping the price down and then all of a sudden, bang, the phone rings. 3/4 people interested in it. In my view, there is a man for every car, however you've got to find him, or more importantly, he's got to find you!!!! But it also has to be priced right. People these days are so price focussed, and without a showroom presence, we are destined to always be keenly priced until I fond my 30 car roadside pitch. We just don't have the space ( and funds ) to have cars sat around for weeks on end.... get the £££ back in the bank and get it invested in something else! Don't get me wrong, I do premium price my stock for the first 10/14 days and splash it about on facebook. At the minute I have a 1 off, JCW thats been locally owned by a MINI Employee, best i've seen, and tastefully modified, so its priced way above market, i've been told its too expensive by the facebook experts ( the ones that can't afford it ) however i've had 4 enquiries on the car in the first 10 days and an appointment on it this morning. We've also been bitten by being too proactive and advertising stock we don't own yet, like a PX coming in or an existing customer wanting to sell back to us after a few months, This happened the other day, we'd sold a JCW that was due to come in from a local guy, that we'd sold a few months back, he'd had a chance in circumstances and neede out of the car, we re advertised it before it came in, sold it first day and had everything lined up for the weekend. Friday comes, he calls me and says his wife can't part with it so they're keeping it..... ARGHHH 1 very p1ssed off customer on the other end, however its now our job to find her another car ( if there is one! ) But thats the way I work, it needs to be prepped, cleaned and advertised within 24/48 hours of it landing with us. Again in PLC world if my stock wasn't in, photo'd and on the pitch in 48 hrs you'd get fined. Unless it needed bodywork, which it was then 72 hrs. I advertise everything within minutes of buying it from auction, by pinching the auction ad pictures too. Just gets it out there as soon as physically possible.

Back in PLC world 8 x stock turn was the benchmark, any lower, you were sh1te and any higher you got a b0llocking for p1ssing everything away. I benchmark myself at 12 x , we stock around 13/15 cars and on average sell 13/15 a month, so I'm happy with that. I am rigorous with my stock though, Check prices and enquires / hit rate pretty much daily, re price and get it gone before 90 days old, I guess thats the PLC in me still as we used to get fined for cars over 60 days and then again at 90 days....

I use Autosales ( just started ) and after the initial pain in the A of loading our last 12 months deals ( as its our year end ) its a brilliant system. Runs alongside our SAGE for VAT and monthly management accounts etc.. I've just signed up for an all encompassing accounts package with a Local firm who are motor trade specialists, so they understand the ins and outs. They do my Vat return, payroll, accounts, POS system and reconsile my bank, basically everything, saved us £££ in the long run and also saved us lots of stress. If anyone want their details, let me know.

I only ever describe a car with ' service history' as I wont supply a car without any history. Keeps it simple You also haven't mentioned how old the car is and the mileage, if its a 15,000 2 year old car then the customer is being slightly unreealistic, but if its a 70,000 7 year old, then I think they have a fair shout.