grant8064

iControl keeps telling me I need to stock white Bentley GT convertibles...we're sticking with Fiestas and Corsas for now!

The depreciation on these is simply staggering (an entirely predictable). There's a bloke locally who owns one in a bronzy brown colour that pops in now and then...I hope he never asks me to book it because I don't know how to do CPR.

I can guess why this has happened...used to happen to us all the time when I worked at an auction house. Punter enters an online commission bid. If the punters bid is then removed whilst the auction portal (the computer system the auctioneer is using) is loaded up and/or running and the auctioneer hasn't refreshed his portal recently it'll still show the cancelled commission bid and he'll take it. Happened every sale multiple times to us but it's an honest mistake. BCA should just accept it's a fault their end. They'll have a log of the cancelled bid so cannot wriggle out of it. The best one I saw was at another auction selling antiques. Guy left a £100.00 commission bid online but muddled up the .00 and they ran him to over 8k on something you could buy anywhere retail for £300...didn't look too suspect!

I should've kept my old Saab as it would have been exempt! ....oh wait, it would have still been a rotten, structurally unsound death trap. Stupid decision as far as i'm concerned. They could have suggested having a more minor test for classics to check tyres, brakes and structure?

We've used both Cardealer5 & Clickdealer. When we had under 30 in stock Cardealer5 & now we have 90 in stock Clickdealer. I'd still recommend Cardealer5 for anyone running a smaller operation because their cost base is great and they're professional and the sites like Mat C's look great if you put the effort into layout etc. They're great value for a smaller stock level and pretty helpful. I heard they've changed a lot of their techy stuff about so I can only imagine they've got even better. Clickdealer is more expensive but you get really good back office which is handy when you struggle to remember what's been in stock and for how long, amendments to adverts are easier and it's all a bit better and more in depth IMO. The single best thing about Click is the support though....these guys are the polar opposite of AT, they really genuinely do work for you and all of them working there seem super helpful and efficient. Even a tech dinosaur like me can get what I want done done quickly and professionally. It's rare in the motortrade people pay compliments but for me both deserve a recommendation and you will rarely hear a bad word about whether which says it all. Best of luck btw Mark, hope it goes well for you and keep hitting the forum for advice...the guys on here are decent chaps and know the answer to pretty much anything between them. Guilty as charged. I browse AT but will always check a companies website if i'm into something (i'm worse than a punter I know). Someones website says a lot about them IMO. Anyone can stick a lump up on AT but a website takes a bit more effort and consideration, spelling mistakes, poor grammer, crap photos, i'm not interested anymore. Someone like Supermini or Transparency who make the effort and i'm hooked. I'll either buy the car or just nick their ideas and improve my own site!

Haha i'd love to but DPA and all that.... They really do make you wonder don't they. On the grapevine our guy had bought two elsewhere locally and returned both within the week so i'm less surprised now that he's screamed. I'll be remembering they sent him our way when I get my next one!

I have a few mates that have asked to come to the block with me....they never ask for a second visit! Bloody cold, grim places and god knows how short an auctioneers life expectancy is. Our local's pretty good tbf and won't fire up stuff that belches smoke nowadays, I think the office staff complained about it too much and thank god they did. Physical for me always. We buy online occasionally and the stuff is mostly knackered whatever the report says and ends up going back or the auction contributing towards repair costs. We're on 2k - 6k bread and butter. On newer nice stuff I would be buying online more often.

( I was being a bit tongue in cheek...i'm not really worried i've just never had such a strange spurious threat before) Refund and F off is all they're getting. It does make you wonder though doesn't it...these people have jobs and mortgages and kids somehow.

We've got a right good one on our hands currently.... Bought a car on the weekend and after some confusing dialogue they have finally requested that the sale is cancelled. Now we're 100% happy with this, infact we suggested it. They have switched from the usual odd but nice enough punter to the consumer from hell. So it's all coming up rosy, refund, sell to someone with an IQ higher than eight and move on. One possible snag though...the vehicle had some service history and invoices in the handbook pack and the customer from hell has apparently phoned the last owner to confirm the history and do some detective work. Now the irate (I don't know why they're so angry, we're offering a full refund as requested) customer is threatening us with legal action because we've breached the data protection act by leaving a previous keepers address and tel no on a bill in the book pack. I've never ever dealt with someone who irritates me so much coming up with this kind of stuff so have we done anything wrong? And if so have they also by contacting the previous keeper?

We took over a forecourt that was previously motorhomes, our second forecourt used to be a caravans site. Both went belly up. I've no great insight but chatting to one guy he reminded me that when people look for a Focus so long as condition is fine it'll mostly be exterior colour and mileage that sways the decision once they've found a spec level they like. With motorhomes, for him, it was a discussion about the benefits of a beech interior against another with cherry or mahogany, size and layout of the shower room, upholstery pattern etc...then you also had to have one with the right engine, mileage and history...basically the amount of variables were endless which if you stock it right was OK but one dodgy interior colour or layout and it could stick forever. Margins seem huge but it's a game you really really have to know your market. We only tried it once and did well but I couldn't do it day in day out. One local said his sales side pays the bills but nothing more but the repairs/renovation side is where the money is.

We've done really well this month. Usually buy five a week from auction but recently haven't got a sausage because we don't give blood (I prefer it in my veins). Got two Monday, eleven Wednesday and three privately this week. Seems everyone that went bonkers in Jan/Feb and then had their VAT bill has got their fingers burnt and we cleaned up on some nice, honest stock. Certainly makes a change!

60/40 pre sale and 85/15 post sale. ...it's a numbers game! We try and wheedle out the iffy ones early on (I think MD world calls that 'qualifying'). Had one on a part ex banger today. £695 auto...genuinely a PROPER one owner car because otherwise it would be going to the scrap man. Wanted to conduct a £200 RAC inspection and get a further mechanic to inspect it after....clearly that's someone you move on. Oddly enough we find the bad credit customers to be no worse than any others proportionally. I think most of the public are a bit like me. If I buy something I want it to work and not be grief, which is fair enough. Sometimes the product goes wrong...it happens. Occasionally they're unreasonable despite seeming like a saint on handover. Nothing much you can do but most people are pretty OK overall.

BBA seem completely useless when we've tried them. Clueless infact

...'new in' on a Ukranian forecourt near you!

When it's quiet I moan when it's busy I moan. This time it's busy...garages can't keep up and i'm missing a whole row of stock. First world problems eh!

Jan was almost too busy for us, I wish i'd stayed in bed Feb and March has been stonking so far...knocking out some really boring undesirable stuff at the moment

I couldn't help myself. As of Q3 2017 there are 45 running about our UK roads. A rare barge indeed.

Metallic doom blue with tan leather. I'm amazed by the leather...i've got too used to that cheap modern stuff but this is real proper thick stuff, I could make a fair few belts out of the back seat

That's the thing...I do kind of need a car. I could reverse into supermarket bollards with carefree abandon in this old tub

If it didn't have the DMF done at 80k then you're paying with fire IMO. (Saying that I love a 1.6 Pug 308 so who am I to talk )

I went to the block Weds, got a free pen, some usual bullshit from the manager and a greasy breakfast. Home by 11am and no broken cars costing silly money to worry about. It's not often I leave early but when hunting painty junk is making £500 above book and the world and his wife have decided on a day out it's best not to get wrapped up in it

I'm on a roll... So in addition to the Mitsubishi i (pre electric model) I have now acquired a 2000 Hyundai XG 30 3.0 V6 - Never ever seen or heard of them before. It's a complete saloon eyesore with missing lacquer everywhere but the interior is impeccable. Thick proper leather, lovely switches, it genuinely makes a similar vintage S class feel poverty spec. It's a really interesting bit of kit. I really felt like back in 2000 Hyundai were still doing stuff like the angular Accent that looked a bit like the Pony so maybe they used it as a status symbol to promote the brand. Must have made a massive loss on each one because the build quality is really really good. It's a proper car. Feels bullet proof. Anyway, I'm sure the banger boys will love all two and a half tons of it for £100

...welcome to the motor trade. Hahahah sorry I didn't mean to sound like a c**t but i've had a month of cars turning up with gearbox faults, EML, taped up warning lights etc. Worst it has ever been. Best of luck. Have a word and see what they'll do. If nothing suck it up. My old boss runs a removals company and has been known to park all his storage trucks outside arseholes premises blocking their view for months on end...not saying it's something i'd consider but there's more than one way to skin a cat

I can't help but it's an interesting question...looking forward to the replies

We've just switched MOT stations again for the umpteenth time. For us they mostly start off half sensible but the advisories always seem to increase month on month, quarter on quarter no matter what the car until you're convinced they think you're seeing their missus behind their back. It's so blatant it's as if they genuinely don't think we'll realise they're trying to milk us so hard. As for all this 'doing the job right because we're scared of inspections' what a load of old tosh. I know there must be some reputable firms out there (if anyone knows of any please let me know) but half of them are just getting in their monthly parts bonus or trading failures they buy on the side on facebook and gumtree, and you know they're not re-testing them quite so stringently when they've just bought them off a victim for £100. Apologies for the rant but I have yet to meet one that applies the same rules to his Brothers/Sisters/Uncles/Wives car as he does to mine or a young woman/elderly ladies.