Frank Cannon

Advanced Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content Count

    4211

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    139

Posts posted by Frank Cannon

  1. Posted · Edited by Frank Cannon

    16 hours ago, Halfpenny said:

    E-mails are bad enough but texts are the worst. Always sent by illiterates. 

    Sos 4 tht m8

    20 hours ago, twerp said:

    This is with 2017+ cars !

    Jesus H Christ thats a lot of stock you are carrying there:o

    • Haha 3

  4. Posted

    4 hours ago, Halfpenny said:

    This really is a strange thread!  A 16-17 year old car and all that MoT is telling us is that its rusty. No surprise really. Prob wouldn't cost more than a couple hundred maximum to get a ticket on it. If you're routinely trading in older cars (which presumably you are, since you appear to have sourced it from another trader) then surely this is all in a day's work?

    It's a surreal one for sure

  7. Posted · Edited by Frank Cannon

    I honestly thought this was a civilian posting 'n moaning about a car he had bought from a dealer at first. :D

     

    Tested in January and, we are what, June all bar a few hours. MOTs are always subjective, always will be too especially on a tender bit of bodywork and discs. 

    Come on guys, we all know miles covered after ticket means bugger all. Whom hasn't had something fail soon after a ticket, I can't believe what I'm reading here? 

    It's an ancient, leggy jalopy as you call it and failed on two bits of welding....that's good going isn't it? Repair it or scrap and simply move on

    I'd like to borrow your crystal ball though for next weeks Lottery if I may;)

    I just reread that, I think you are saying that you bought it off another dealer, is that so? .... " I hate how other dealers just s*it over each other as this trade is hard enough, but this really annoyed me and I’m tempted to report them" 

     

     

  8. Posted

    4 hours ago, David Horgan said:

    Be a surge in part time car traders Frank next , got 10k redundancy, think they are rich and blow it on two bangers from local night auction :rolleyes:

    Sell em for less what they bought for and finish up renting a van to deliver for Amazon .

     

    :lol:B)

  10. Posted

    It seems to be dependent on location.....35 mile difference, 166 to 306 for my trial. Options on does it drive too? 

    Going back to prices, will the big shift happen in the summer when the redundancy letter's get sent out prior to Furlough payments ceasing. 

    ....then stock up on those scrappers for retail for the financially challenged. 

    An avalanche of hand backs, my crystal ball which up to Covid was fairly reliable is now as trustworthy as a Vaggot. 

  11. Posted

    15 hours ago, BHM said:

    A good engine. So good in fact, the second day I parked in Newcastle upon Tyne in my diesel Maestro, some light fingered Geordie relieved me of said Maestro. Happy memories :lol:

    :DI made a killing on diesel Montego Clubman estates, bought for pennies at auction, easy buyers, decent profit (remember them?), no boomerangs. 

  12. Posted

    16 hours ago, David Horgan said:

    Fix it quick 

    Or it will run on , on its own , max out the revs and go BOOM , not a pretty sight , seen it happen 

    Last runaway I witnessed was a V40 just as it was lighting off, spectacular stuff, great entertainment, not good for the environment . 

    Came past us on the A14 trailing puffs of smoke between gear changes, I said to my wife that will need a turbo soon....at our age that's as romatic as it gets. :D

    Soon turned out to be but 2 minutes later from Toys R Us roundabout.

    I'm guessing the guy thought something was wrong and pulled over on a layby but, it was sitting there billowing out like a Pacific locomotive whilst, the guy and his passenger looked on with horror. 

    I diid some development work on the Perkins Prima fitted to the Maestro back in the 80's. I had one semi runaway coming off the M2, Chatham junction motorway at a rapid pace with the off slip coming up a steep hill.

    I went back on the motorway, went back up to come down again to see if I could repeat it....yes same thing. 

    The solution was to baffle the sump but I'm not sure they ever did, I went onto another project....memories. 

  13. Posted

    Well, funny you should mention this. 

    I've been realised this last week, just how many larger companies have been kicking the arse out of this, I think unless I don't understand how it works?

    ......I know, or have met more than a few staff whereby staff are on furlough but, working full time, with company making up the shortfall....or have I missed something, which is entirely possible?

  14. Posted

    1 hour ago, BHM said:

    You should be grateful it wasn’t one of my customers on their way home. The number who leave here saying they’ll sort their insurance when they get home astounds me. It’s not restricted to banger buyers either.

    Yup, and rent too. 

  15. Posted · Edited by Frank Cannon

    I'm gutted, a Clio, admittedly sitting on steels, clawed £169 few weeks back:(

    Probably more saddening is that the lady owner, drove it from over an hour away with canvas for front tyres, a brake pedal that felt more like a clutch it was so long and, dropping more oil on the front pipe than the Amoco Cadiz....

    .....all with her precious toddler in the back, he will probably grow up with a smokers cough because of it. 

  16. Posted · Edited by Frank Cannon

    5 hours ago, BHM said:

    I’ve never understood the remapping ‘thing’ as putting additional stresses on old & worn components doesn’t make any sense to me.

    I’ve found it’s the punters who own a German ‘prestige’ cars that offer up this sort of dross. Too many owners, not enough history, knackered tyres & a smokey exhaust.

    When you get to the truth of the matter they’re usually chopping it in cos they’ve had a bellyful of issues. Just like old Range Rover or Sport owners - I get offered one a month from some punter who eventually admits its half-fucked.

    Correctomundo as Fonzie would of said... 

     

    Which from my poor Spanish means correct world;)

  18. Posted

    Wire wool on chrome, that's a real blast from the past:D

    15 hours ago, David Horgan said:

    I'm thinking cheapies in your head and whats about now in my head may be two different levels of price band .

    my cheapies start at £3,295 to £4,995 retail 

    £1,500 bangers are very few and far apart now if you want them to move by engine power anyway . Leave them to the face book brigade to play with , 

    Though i do have a guy who buys those £200/£500 bangers off us and he kills them on face book . £995 almost anything he reckons , Here's the keys mate get on with it , 

    I had a Kia Picanto the other day 05 plate battered thing , Guy drove it 200 miles to us , burning oil all the way like a BP oil spill it was . Gave him nothing for it as in Zero money . Just free ride down here to see us from Darlington near you :D some class Kia's up your way :lol:

    Called the scrap man and he gave me bloody £366 for it :o and collected it too , thought may god stock is going up in price 

     

    It's all relative isn't it. I'm continually reminded just how much money new cars are, 20k Clio's and Fiestas etc......not that any are sold outright anymore being as though its all some sort of strap now. 

    14 hours ago, TRADE SURVIVOR said:

    Oh for the days when motors were painted in cellulose sorted many a bloomed minor or zephyr, spend a day with compound. t cut, wax and wire wool for the chrome, tyre paint and wash the engine down with petrol off all things (HSE would have field day now). Clean the points up, clean out the out the filters. Mint ball on the forecourt and a decent profit. These days most older p/ex we only allow scrap value.       

    :DYup, no point in trying to mop many faded newer cars, the colours bloomed under the clearcoat. 

  19. Posted

    19 hours ago, trade vet said:

    Recently a regular called in to the pitch with his just delivered Merc from Cacinch or whatever to have a quick check over.It was a good one and the price was right.However the rear foot wells were flooded because the delivery truck driver had failed to notice the back windows had been left open.Our guy told him that the carpet would have to come out to dry it out properly.So he phoned the supplier and they directed him to a local Bosche garage.The supplier told the garage they would only pay to have the carpets dried out in place.So the punter asked for a refund and got one..So the cost of collecting it might have exceeded the cost of drying the carpet.

    Interesting, sort of cutting off noses thing. :D

    On 5/22/2021 at 9:08 AM, BHM said:

    Answer: probably like most other internet businesses (in my experience of small items I’ve had problems with that means ignoring calls & emails, eventually blaming Covid & just generally being fucked about either by the supplier or by their courier who hasn’t made any attempt whatsoever to deliver).

    Unfortunately this is so very true:D

  20. Posted

    Question: just how do I get my blower fixed when I've bought my car online a few weeks previously? 

    How are these guys handling both small and major car off road non runner issues? 

     

  21. Posted · Edited by Frank Cannon

    I think one need only drive around the main agents to see why there is a shortage of stock and the real elephant in the room. 

    There are so many main agents getting cheaper and dirtier in an effort to keep heads above water.....usual pattern when things get tough. 

    Plenty of older cars sitting on their fronts now, incredible as it seems I've seen 58 plate stock offered up this week. 

    Some have started side shoot retail companies retailing much of what would of been traded on.

    Problem for main agents retailing that old shit is they completely lack the proper knowledge that goes with trying to make a living out of that older stock, which to most main agents are no more than retailing washing machines. It doesn't help with buyers expectations when it appears with their name over it. 

    A couple of tame guys I know at main agents retailing older gear are starting to see just why these guys shouldn't be dabbling in this area. They are seeing the problems, headaches, 'interesting' punters, surprises, issues, ruckers, hatstands we see on a daily basis and, why you need to be choosy with whom you sell to, not just selling for sake of it. Also and, very importantly why just running the px 50 yards to the valeting bay is no substitute for an hours drive to check the quality of the chopper.....no 6th gear in a Focus made me laugh. 

    Whilst waiting on invoices this last few weeks I've been taking a sideways glance at some of the MA older stock. Some of the lack of prep work is simply astounding.....such as going with 6 month tickets, questionable tyres, slaughterd discs, a bucket of soapy water across the bonnet as a PDI, proper amateur stuff and quite frankly atrocious and slippery behaviour.  

    Ohh and...... marking sold as seen/spares or repairs on invoices, it's eye watering the complete lack of understanding here. :rolleyes:

    I should add the guys I know aren't at all happy with the way things are going but, the bean counters have spoken. The turnover in MAs makes me dizzy nowadays and this won't help. 

    Can't see things changing soon as many MA are hemorrhaging money, most of the profit is off the back of service and they are silly quiet. 

     

    • Like 1

  22. Posted

    11 hours ago, Halfpenny said:

    In-depth data on the economic impact of Covid 19 are available on the UK Govt's Office of National Statistics website. UK GDP is showing the biggest contraction in the G7 by some margin - 8.6%.  In Europe, Spain is the only large economy fairing worse.  

    The money handed out by the government has been astronomical and ill-considered. Much of it has been misappropriated.  £37bn to Serco just for the failed Test and Trace (£528 for every man, woman and child in the country)!   Rishi didn't just find a magic money tree - he found a whole forest of them.  Public debt has exploded and stands at around £28k for every man, woman and child in the country. If interest rates rise 1% it will cost the government around £30bn extra a year. A massive increase in money supply, coupled with the ill-judged Stamp Duty holiday has fuelled a classic asset price bubble - be interesting to see how that plays out. Throwing that amount of money into the economy is going to fuel inflation in a big way.  In the UK we funnel increasingly ridiculous sums of money into non-productive assets such as houses, rather than productive plant, machinery and technology which could help raise GDP.

    My daughter is a medic in the NHS and I remember I wrote on this forum right at the start of pandemic how she'd told me they were already short of the most basic materials such as swabs even before the first Covid patients showed up. The NHS is not fit for purpose. Its a post-WWII dinosaur that was born into a world that no longer exists. It has practically ground to a halt during Covid and the UK's death rate and long term Covid outcomes are amongst the worst in the world (along with a dismal record on cancer survival etc etc). Unfortunately most British people have been indoctrinated to believe in the NHS as some form of religion and so criticism or genuine reform seems to be impossible. Many, many countries have much better public health systems - a US-style system is not the only alternative.

    In some ways I don't care. I've done pretty well out of the motor trade over the years and semi-retired a while back. I offshored most of my money into USD accounts and bought a couple of properties overseas. I've had some prostate problems recently and I can afford private treatment so have an alternative to the NHS - its virtually impossible to get a consultation on the NHS at the moment anyway 'due to Covid' (although, amazingly, I see the same 'NHS' consultant almost immediately when I  go to the Spire hospital and give him £200!). I still have a 50% interest in a sales/service business but I don't rely on the income from it. Its been something to keep me busy over the last year.  Once international travel opens up a bit more I'll be off overseas again. The gloomy weather and general aggro and difficulty of life in the UK really gets me down.

    Great postB)

  23. Posted

    8 hours ago, James01 said:

    I think most have been very busy the past few weeks / months but we have started to see it slowing down a bit. Things won’t continue like they have been over the last year with record numbers month on month. As soon as it starts to slow down prices will level out and lots of dealers will be stuck with some highly overpriced stock on their stocking plans. 

    This