M.J

Also is there anyway of limiting the amount of warranty claims a customer can do within the 3 months, or limit the repair costs? Something we can add into the invoice that the customer signs? I'm not trying to worm my way out of any genuine warranty claim but whats to stop somebody ragging the tits out of the car within the 3 month period and bringing it back 10 times with claims that they have caused by not looking after their car? We could end up with thousands worth of repair bills on a few thousand pound car.

I'm going through a patch of difficult and paranoid customers over the last few weeks. Had a 4 year old Qashqai with less than 25k sell last week, the next morning the customers turns up at 9am with the car saying its got 2 oil leaks, i go over the car with the customer and tell him to show me, he points to a small bit of oil on a cable directly under the oil fill cap, there is no oil anywhere else so obviously its a little bit of spillage where its been filled with oil at some point, i explain that to the customer. He then takes me to the middle underside of the car and shows me another 'oil leak'. I touch it, its bone dry and just a bit of road crud/tar. I explain that also. He doesn't look convinced but leaves. I get another call yesterday from a Mini Cooper S that i recently sold, this time he can 'hear' a slight rattle coming from the engine and he thinks its the timing chain and tensioners that need changing. Baring in mind that the car is 8 years old with nearly 80k on the clock i'm sure it may have a slight rattle in places but again he'll bring the car back and i've got to send it to my mechanic to get checked over. The problem is these type of customers always ask about the 3 month warranty as if its their window of opportunity to bring the car back at the slightest rattle. I've got a feeling this Mini buyer is going to be a total pain in the arse over the next 3 months and the car will come back to be checked multiple times. He phoned me after 10 mins of collecting the car to tell me the sun visor mirror cover was loose, yep that kind of customer! Am i being too nice by allowing customers to drop cars off to be checked over? How do you guys deal with this type of customer?

1 yesterday, 2 today. But Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nothing, really quiet on those days. Probably not going to get any busier for the next few weeks due to the summer holidays.

Call flow bloody dead! Monday was ok for me but been like a morgue since then.

Yep agree with Steve, too much going on in the background of the pictures, the background doesn't look too inviting, especially when you're dealing with prestige clients. My stock is not as nice as your stuff but even i drive each and every one of my vehicles to a nice spot to take pictures, 10 min drive for each car which can be a ballache but otherwise my pictures would have the background of the yard we're in, not a good first impression.

Why is your white 2010 X5 £500 more expensive on ebay than on your website? You've probably forgot to adjust the price across all adverting platforms, its these little details that can harm your business, especially at the end of the market that you are, you can get away with sloppiness in the budget market but not at the prestige end, keep on top of everything. Its been said many times but your site needs editing asap! Too many grammar and spelling mistakes, why has it still not been done? Pay somebody £50 on freelancer to fix the spelling mistakes, it will be done in a day.

Why don't you cut your losses on your dead stock, slash the prices, gets things gone and restock?

30 cars for £185! What a difference to AT

2 today, not huge profit out of either of them but keeps me ticking over

I'm in the middle of a claim for a dual mass flywheel, they're doing their best to worm their way out of it. My claim is at Manheim not BCA

Yep thats the main negative, they're just not cheap enough!

Middle man or no middle man a lot of the vehicles are lemons. Another factor to consider is why has the customer not paid the debt on the car and got it back?? I know there are some who simply can't afford to pay the debt on the vehicle. But there are a lot who know the vehicle is fu**ed and its not worth paying the debt. I've bought from auction houses claiming the vehicles are coming straight from the baillifs/finance houses/insurers etc, even had the bailiff repossession sticker on drivers window. Last one was a merc sprinter, was running fine at the auction house, after about 20 mins of driving it back the van started overheating, head gasket gone! It had been patched up to get through the auction. For me it just wasn't worth the hassle but good luck with it if you give it a try.

No test drives on certain vehicles, is this possible? I wouldn't mind adding a couple of high performance vehicles to my stock, but i don't fancy allowing test drives on £40k Porsche's, Bmw's, etc. I'm thinking that i could tell the customer that motor trade insurance companies have stopped allowing customer test drives on high performance stock. I'll take them out in the car for as long as they like and if they are seriously interested in the vehicle then they leave a deposit and when they come to collect the vehicle i'll tell them i've 'added' them to our insurance policy so they can have a test drive before transferring funds. This would flush out all the joy riders. Would do you guys think?

2 sold yesterday, just 1 call today!

Be cautious with these so called 'repossessed' vehicles, a lot of them are actually lemons, advertised as repossessed as its more profitable than telling the truth that the gearbox is gone, head gasket blown, engine blown, etc. Been down that route myself, might of been unlucky but for every one decent one you buy you'll buy another 2 duds