grant8064

Agreed. We can't get enough 3's. Show someone a Focus with A/C an Leccy front windows and then show them a 3 with auto lights and wipers, cruise and heated seats for similar money. Easy street. Hope things pick up for you Pete. On your Mazda being a grand less than the nearest competitor....maybe it's too cheap? Sounds silly but a grand is a huge amount of money on sub 5k stuff so it might be making punters suspicious, especially if you trade from home? Just a thought.

Pano roof? Didn't know they did those on Pandas

Like the rest of you we don't get our hands dirty. Don't have time or the skills set. I change the odd broken wing mirror, bit of interior trim etc but that's my lot.

cash is king

Sometimes a little bit of customer education helps. I just explain why I don't want it or explain why i'm bidding them in the nuts. No harm in being honest about it all so long as you give them a genuine reason. I usually try and get across that a part ex is effectively me buying their car and it's a car I wouldn't normally look to go out and buy unless it was silly money.

Had a call from an old dear looking to offload a ten year old Getz today. Not a great lead you're thinking but I bloody love the things...one of my favourite things to run about in so I was over double quick. Really unfortunately it had rotted out underneath. Really rotted. The kind of thing you don't really want to drive just in case it lets go on you. Anyway, couldn't help myself. Good for parts I told myself. Bid her £200 explaining why to be greeted with a angry face and £3000 request! Where does that even come from?! I nearly fell over running back to the car. Anyone else had any corkers lately?

We knocked our one and only example in double quick time. Thought we'd have it an age because I couldn't really see what the diesel offered over the common petrol ones. Needed injector seals, leaked oil like a sieve, was quite nippy but a bit smelly. Never again.

...don't forget used cars aren't always going down in value. OK, i'll admit that is mostly what happens but spring this year quite a lot of stuff went marginally up in value or at least wasn't dropping much. We put up prices on some five door hatches because there simply weren't any on the market locally, they sold. Petrol SUV's during the great VW diesel moan, they got price increases, they sold. Sometimes there are valid reasons for increasing prices on stuff.

They're popular things. Always got people asking after them. They're one of those cars that just books wrong. The book might say 6K retail but try finding one for under 7K in a 50 miles radius...not happening. They attract a certain type of 'value for money' buyer who understands depreciation and will happily jump in a 20k 15 plate knowing they're not going to lose 4k driving a new one off a main dealer forecourt. They also won't travel for a cheaper one if it's miles away. I think our location helps too. Used to have a Skoda franchise near us that was knocking out Favorits and Felecias for fun when they were THE value brand. Now Skoda are mega bucks new and Dacia have picked up the market. That budget car idea is still in a lot of local punters brains. I'm always surprised there aren't brands other than Renault trying to hoover up that basic, cheap and cheerful market left behind by Skoda.

As Mark said it has all the hallmarks of a stocking loan coming to the end of its term. We never ship anything overage to auction. No stocking loan so no need. Much rather sit on something six months and earn £700 out of it than stick it back in the block after prep and take a £1000 loss. Always the argument that that parking space cost and vehicle capital could have been turned into five sold units in that time but we don't sell much quickly so it works for us.

Yep, Sandero Stepways with under 40K are like hens teeth round our way. Always make strong money for the right models. Really good sellers and surprisingly OK to drive. Massive demand for them with very little supply locally from Renault makes it a winner. Just an old Clio so there's nothing much to worry about on them bar the odd bit of corrosion.

Having the same feeling myself. Won a Dacia this morning that should have been well over book went considerably behind...only good thing is there's so little in the car to go wrong. ...might have cursed it there

Parts off eBay or the local breakers are dirt cheap and all of that's easy to fit. Get it done and get it sold. That's all easy peasy stuff in my opinion. For me a bad buy from the block isn't stuff like that, it's stuff with seemingly incurable faults. Got a 1 Series with a misfiring/lumpy/jerky engine and gearbox that has been everywhere including main dealer that no one can even guess at. This one's a right lemon because a cat/exhaust is impossible to find used for the model and even then it probably won't fix it. Been sat in the corner for a while now and gets a routine kick every time i'm angry. Going on eBay in due course.

Snap. Used to but we got so many dreamers and people killing time while the wife shopped it wasn't worth it. Do far more business on a weekday than we ever do on a Saturday or Sunday.

They have a bad rep but we've always done well with the few we've had...one recently had the same 'bang into reverse' so straight to the block with it. Interesting to hear it's probably the clutch pack as we never had it looked at

We've just had that one an hour ago. Didn't get far into it after seeing the eDay spelling...glad it's spam really, my interest in leggy Tiguans is pretty limited!

Best: Opening the doors three years ago with no experience and a two week old drivers license. The insurance wasn't the kindest that year but it's been worthwhile. No worst decisions yet. Lots of stuff hasn't worked out as planned or has had to be changed but that's not a bad thing so long as you learn from it.

Always nice, well done...we're not on a 100% hit rate but it's been surprising compared to a normal month of tyre kickers and dreamers

We've been moaning all month about how quiet it is but the numbers have kind of come together somehow and it's been a good one. Seems very quiet for walk ons and enquiries but those that have turned up have mostly bought. Strange month.

We don't stock anything sporty, Type R, RS, VXR etc. rarely ever black SUV/4x4 stuff, usually nothing over two litre unless it's come in chop...helps narrow down the demographic we have to handle. Weirdly I find the sub sub sub prime ones the easiest to deal with round our way, most seem grateful to be getting into something half decent and, touch all the wood in the office, don't scream. I've cursed it now!

We had the same when opening, HSBC, Barclays and Natwest all wanted blood, DNA and shoe size....Santander were helpful and totally efficient

I sack all these ones off straight away because they always turn out to be hassle. Fresh MOT and any encountered mechanical gremlins sorted, pick up 7 days later. Don't like it? Go buy elsewhere. For balance, plenty do go elsewhere. And you were open and honest. It's not easy.

You'd still get a 'not fit for purpose' screamer on this the way my months going.

We usually run at around 70 prepped cars in stock...currently on close to 90 so says a lot about how prices have been round our way lately. Nice to be able to buy stuff but have not seen a genuine buyer for about seven days now. Even the part ex cheapies are struggling. Taken four viewings for someone to finally agree to a Mazda 3 with good history in genuinely good order (no underside rot) with a fresh ticket for £1995. And even then they wanted an extended warranty and re gas thrown in (not happening obviously). When even the cheap stuffs struggling you know it's bad. Recessions on it's way lads.

I feel lucky...mines only on 53K with the same speedo it had from the factory!