grant8064

They should try a Wispa. I'm here all week

You got it in one! Yankee candles, Towie and all that goes with it

Some interesting views guys. For me when you're pricing a car where do you go to check it? AT for us. I wouldn't even think of looking anywhere else. I use my sister as the litmus test because she's the definition of joe public. She thinks eBay is full of dodgy cars, gumtree and fbook is for bangers in her opinion. She has never heard of car gurus, find and fund, motors et al...IMO most public haven't. She bought her last car off AT. She browses AT. Her next car will be off AT. For us doing 3k - 8k standard stuff it simply does the numbers but I guess it's all price range and location dependant. I hate price rises but; eBay - Meh...bit of a timewasting exercise but it's cheap FB & Scumtree - We don't do 'swops' and I simply can't stomach it Motors, 'Gurus, Findfund, Pistonheads - Good luck if you can get a genuine lead off them, you're doing better than me Paper advertising - We really tried very hard with this but it's a dead duck Forecourt with big signs, window stickers in sold cars, word of mouth, good reputation and cars on AT which is where buyers look for cars works IMO

FYI D&M... We've been here before and currently have two ongoing ones. We're happy to fix or refund where justified but when we smell something isn't 100% our procedure is to request the car comes to us for inspection or we receive a written engineers report from the customers chosen garage with a report, current mileage, recommendations and cost to carry out recommendations. We stress that this must be in writing from the engineer/garage in question. No phone calls. No texts. No personally written emails. We make it clear these will simply not be replied to. Written report from the garage if they are unwilling to bring the car to you. It's always interesting how many issues simply disappear when you request something in writing and follow a procedure.

220k...you're brave! I think a lot of it is location...a Volvo estate makes sense down you're neck of the woods but around central Brighton it's not got the same appeal. When they have a lump in them though it's hard to say no. It's just the punters I can't stand.

You're right about anoraks. I've got a V50 R Design in...one of two currently on AT with the right engine, spec and colour in the country. Had no idea it was so rare when we bought it. Grand less than the other one because the drivers seat has some wear...it's an 80K 7 year old car. No rips, no tears, no horrible creases, just some normal wear. Then the phone calls, viewers and emails start and I remember why we don't stock Volvo's often.

I remember when I was like this... Sounds like you've been very diligent at the beginning and fair since. No reason to be worried. you've done more than I would have. Worst case you refund and don't stock heavily accident damaged stuff again. Best case it all gets sorted happily. Somewhere in between is most often the outcome. Most importantly is what you'll take away from it. I've only been doing it 3 1/2 years and the learning curve sure is steep. Had one refund, two threatening court, one needing an engine rebuild, one clutch and seven warranty claims so far this month and we're only on the 20th (it has been a shocking month tbf) but you soon grow a thick skin and learn that having a complaints procedure takes away a lot of the panicking. ( I don't sell old sheds by the way boys...just been one of those hateful fortnights!)

I've never really got a buzz from selling. I'm very much a 'it's a clean car, you want it you buy it, you don't you don't' kind of guy. My buzz has always come from that chopper or private purchase you get in that you see a bit of hidden value in. Best one lately was an Yaris Verso...hateful car but super rare and gold plated sellers. Taken in chop and we're pretty open about things, CAP on the laptop swung round at the punter so they can see for themselves. Books at £340, you want £500...OK no problem we can stretch to that because you're nice people. They genuinely were, one of those lovely couples that just appreciates not being talked down to. Now I personally love a Verso. My partners favourite is Fusion Autos. You can stick your black Germans, SUVs and sporty stuff where you like as far as i'm concerned. Bit of a mop and a valet, new ticket...hasn't had an advisory in years. A competitor has a similar one up for £4495, now that's mental. Cheapest comparable is £2995 but that's up in deepest darkest Birmingham. Five similar comparable vehicles nationwide. These are the fun buzz bits for me. The, on paper, undesirable stuff other dealers poke fun at you for taking into stock but in reality earns as much profit as a three of their BMWs and Audis put together.

Worldpay for us. I'll get shot down because there's cheaper out there for sure but it works reliably.

+1 We're on eBay and AT. Going against the grain here but we've chipped off Motors this year and eBay is probably going to be next. It's cheap but when we look at £ per sale AT is simply streets ahead for us knocking out bread and butter sub 10K stock, I imagine it's different for fancy black German stock or cheap high miles stuff. It's a shame because it's so expensive but I find it and drive bys the only places that really sell numbers for us. Motors was shockingly bad. Gumtree I can't be dealing with. eBay is pretty much a best price last price other end of the country waste of time but isn't too far off wiping its face, paper advertising is embarrassingly poor. AT sells cars, the website gets some enquiries and the rest is locals and recommendations.

Yer you do a lot more than us tbh. I'm just a name, number and don't forget to bring your license with you. I might start testing the water with some of that

New week and the first call is; C: ...if I transfer you the money what will you do off it? M: Come and see the car and then we can discuss it. C: I can't view it today, what's your lowest? M: Screen price. If you want to discuss price you'll need to come in. C: I can't come in. I'll need it delivered too. M: You'll need to come and view in person and pay on our premises, whereabouts are you? C: I'm in Hull so I won't be coming down. M: We're in Brighton. I'd suggest you start looking in Hull. C: Don't you wanna sell the f***ing car?! Give me strength.

Do you guys all take bankers drafts? Don't think I've ever taken or been offered one. Deposit is BACS, card or cash for us, if they haven't got one of those three available to them then they haven't come out to buy a car IMO

We have a forecourt and we're not very different, two good manic weeks and then two poor quiet weeks pretty much every month of the year. There never seems to be any consistency.

Out of interest what percentage of no shows do you guys all get? I'd say we're on about 30% - 40% of people not showing when they have asked for a viewing or test drive on a given day. Doesn't make any difference to me really, cars are all sitting out on the forecourt ready and we never ever stay late or open on Sundays, learnt that lesson a long time ago. Be interested to hear how many you guys get

Fair play to you guys chasing them up. We get loads of flaky no show bookings for test drives but having a forecourt is a bit like that IMO. Rarely do I chase them up though unless it's something i'm desperate to shift, I probably should.

Hahahaha, you are being sarcastic right? Gave up on DA a long time ago...I can think of punters I trust more than a DA listing and that's saying something

Snap. We do quite a bit to them and I find them really sensible whatever the price. Always seems they appreciate a bit of honesty and respect and they give it back equally. My favourite people to sell cars to by far these days.

Cheers, we're being stupidly cautious and are probably going to take far too long over it but I appreciate your concerns. Duly noted!

Round our way they used to be the taxi of choice once all the old Octavias had died but everyone seems to be moving onto newer Diesel stuff now, mostly lovely specced C and E classes so they can't be doing too badly even with Uber around. Most of the guys i've chatted to loved them for reliability but said the battery was the only issue. There was a big backstreet lease place locally that supplied them and replaced the batteries for around £1200 (not from Toyota) and did some magic with a laptop to get them on the road again. Interesting thing but I wouldn't stock one...we struggle replacing a battery on a Mazda let alone one of those!

Cheers for all the replies to this one guys, been really helpful as always.

£100 from the sale price. We're almost always £100 more expensive than Joe down the road and it works because of what Joe's like. Our competitors mostly offer an internal warranty included in the vehicle price, same as we currently do with our externals and plan on doing with the self admin. A few offer no warranty and upsell an external one but these are mostly prestige dealers. Our customers are the type that expect some duration of cover included IMO. In four years of external warranties we have sold a handful of extended terms...most of our punters are rightfully sceptical and have no faith in paying extra to protect a laptop in Currys, a sofa in DFS or for a used car. I also don't want to be selling an extended 12 month product on a seven year old car. Ten months in and something fails, warranty company naturally won't pay out and the punter comes moaning to me complaining that the product is worthless. There's enough local companies doing that already for us to realise it's everything we don't want to do. I do see your point about abiding by the CRA as that should be enough to invoke confidence in a buyer but explaining to our customers that cars are sold without warranty unless they pay extra on top of the screen price doesn't sit well when they can go elsewhere and get a similar car with a (5 star gold plated but meaningless) 6 month warranty thrown in for similar money. I also don't want to be highlighting the ins and outs of the CRA when i'm trying to sell a car to an excited potential buyer.

We get it once every few months...it's to be expected unfortunately. I used to worry about it but these days just see it as a part of how it's going to be. In not too many words I basically agree 100%. In more words, when it comes to chancers i'm like a dog with a bone; I keep a timed & dated log of events detailing each and every conversation (if it ever goes to court i'll know when and what was discussed whilst joe bloggs won't remember ranting in Tescos), copies of all emails and any quotes or reports from the moment a complaint is made. Never commit or agree to anything at first, just listen and explain you need to forward the request to the legal team for correct advice before responding (buys a bit of time to calm down and makes a punter realise you're serious and organised). At the first raised voice or threat I simply explain that as professionals we won't deal with aggression or bullying and that any further correspondence must be written in a physical format and that calls and emails will simply not be acknowledged due to poor behaviour. It's normally pretty early on I terminate phone or face to face interaction. Shame we have to go through these hoops but for a genuine person I will literally bend over backwards to make sure they're happy, as always there's that 5% ruining it for everyone.

We're not quite at nearly new but it's stock our client base would expect some form of cover on, we just want to get the costs down and have a bit more flexibility really. I can totally see your viewpoint though especially with your stock profile being rarer and more unusual stuff than our Corsa's and Mondeos! The videos must also be a good bit of back up for your kind of stock too...no arguing that you've hidden something when there's a video showing all the good and bad bits

Not really an option for us. Bread and butter stock sold locally to regular Joes. They expect cover of some kind and frankly so would I if I went to a dealer paying retail money.