grant8064

I hate to jump on the bandwagon but tonight at the local junk was making 300-500 behind retail after fees. Maybe I need to ditch both forecourts and start trading one or two from home with a dodgy pay as you go mobile that only gets answered when it's a sales call and not an after sales issue, stop paying the government its share and claim some benefits on top like the rest of these guys?!

Nice idea but that's a load of marketing bull****.unless Teslas predicted life of their cars is 3 years or 60,000 miles.

All smells a bit fishy to me...we also offer to help the customer tax the car online and by help I mean I point to the post office or tell them the web address

Or people walking into main dealers and getting talked into PCP now scrappage is around

It has been beyond dead for us this month, worst month trading ever in fact. However, August, which is usually terrible, was our best ever month. Work that one out because I have given up trying to.

I'm assuming that's the sales patter on the website for buyers to read? It's a car so it will need fixing and it will need maintenance. All the usual consumables to replace but just a bit more programming and coding when it comes to replacing parts surely.

This would be a tempting place to be but so beyond my knowledge...bit of a dinosaur despite being under 35! Our cash wash Saturday kid is getting a job at Toyota soon and will be going on courses for the hybrid technology...sounds crazy already. No greasy oily pit for him, workshop sounds more like a science lab by the sounds of it.

He's an organised chap...done all of his google research correctly by the sound of it! Personally i'd get an independent local to him to diagnose and repair the issue once authorised by yourself or just get the car back and refund. I did the latter recently even though I knew the buyer was spouting a pack of lies, sometimes you just don't want those kind of people phoning with a new issue each week.

iPhone or an Android. Most importantly cloudy days for photos would be my only tip...bright sunshine kills a photo IMO

I loved the idea of specialising in a brand or type of car but these days it scares me off. Suppose you specialised in diesels - recently you're screwed. Estates specialist - SUV's have killed that market for me. Prestige - Takes a certain person....I can't handle the big ego but instant HP decline brigade. We thought about autos because there's a huge demand locally but try buying one without a knackered box in the block. Bog standard risk spreading is best for me...at least that way I have one of every un-sellable motor rather than a forecourt full of the same unsellable ones.

Worst month I have ever known. Stock is the best I have ever had which makes it all the more frustrating. I genuinely want to cry. Barely any walk on's, can't remember when I last had an email enquiry and the phone has only rung with after sales problems. Every finance application is an instant joke too...just not a funny one. 38 sold in August and so far i'm on 7 for September. To top it all I had three aftersales calls today; a van that has gone into limp, an Aygo auto that has confused everyone so needs to go to Toyota for £1500 of repairs and a Zafira the guy thought was whining....turns out it shat its box. Oh and a punter screaming abuse and swear words in the office because his air con isn't cold on a cheap part ex Renault. Tonight it's beers and tomorrow i'm sticking new bunting up. Bunting has to be the solution. (scrappage scheme affecting anyone perhaps???)

Took in a Berlingo today...I've driven it three times already because I didn't trust the guy but was fine each time. Jump in it today and the eml is on and the carpet around the OBD port is all ripped up. Guy must have had a friend erasing the code every time he came in and lost patience today because it was handover time. Most customers are nice enough but guys like this spoil it for everyone with their greed and dishonesty.

I concur...though sometimes the ones on the lumpier stuff on the forecourt can also seem to have a deep sense of aggressive entitlement. Never any point getting involved in dealing with anyone that has a whiff of aggression IMO. Politely decline the sale. When it comes to negotiation I do nobody any favours because we're not friends. Price is in the window, that's the price.

Snap, I've heard a lot of this about. Whatever they're punting or taking though the ones we use are grade A when it comes to getting a car clean.

Do you not have an Eastern Euro place near you? Our guys collect and drop off for £50 fixed fee per car. We tried mobile guys for a long time but frankly these guys are superb. My biggest thing with valeters is consistency which they are the first and only the seem able to achieve. Top of my list for out sourced work and I recommend them to all of our customers.

Took one in p/x recently too...gave £100 for it with the light on. Poor guy had replaced the cat, load of sensors, exhaust and more and it still wasn't right. Didn't fancy getting involved in it myself

There was a site in an East Sussex seaside town on an A road recently up - Small two desk office and space for 10 -12 cars. £1700 monthly rent + the usual bills but fortunately didn't quite hit rate-able value which I thought was priced right for the area. The added cost of a forecourt brings better customers and more business IMO. Units in the South East are simply too expensive considering they have no frontage. Also a lot of people renting out a plot of land/yard around these parts won't allow sales so something to check on obviously.

Without sounding smug, we've been really busy through August and steady so far in September. Lots of people our way seem to be chopping in expensive to run bits for cheaper 'normal' cars so maybe a bit of belt tightening going on. Leads have mostly come from walk on's lately. We don't use AT but Motors and eBay have both been pretty weak (par for the course with those two really).

Same as most here, first come first served. Can't make it for a few days to view? No problem but give me a call before setting off to make sure it's still here because I don't want to waste your time. Builds a bit of buzz if nothing else.

I'm with tradex on this one...the Polish guys around here are very very sensible. Know what to look for, only turn up on stuff that is priced right and don't mess about. From £200 scrappers to 12k beemers i've yet to have an issue with them. Good buyers of cars and really nice people to deal with. We also don't discount and make it very clear before any viewing or test drive so it sorts some of the wheat

Yer I think I am so used to being VAT registered that I forgot that many trades simply aren't . Error on my part. We have a really big van dealer locally too and I suspect that even though they are more expensive people would naturally choose them as their first port of call. Good shout on the +VAT thing Arfur...somehow I have never ever taken a van in chop. I also always assume a van in chop is only getting part ex'd because it has got issues which probably starts me off on a negative slant as well

Be interested in this thread guys...I tried stocking a few Caddys and Partners around the 5k mark +VAT and really struggled to shift them despite being the cheapest lowest mileage around. I think part of the problem was there are too many car derived out there. Do you find rarer bigger stuff like panel vans and lutons do better?

These guys are the best. Give me an Eastern Euro or African trader every day of the week for a car that exports well. So much less hassle than all the idiots that expect a new car for £300. We are blessed with some really sensible Polish guys around here and are my favourite people to deal with. Sensible, realistic and get to the point quickly. Usually get a deal too because they don't mess about.

Export it again? Worth doing with the prices of these. Our dent guy imported one years ago for around 15k and recently got offered a shade under 80k because of the mileage/condition. I'm not a car guy but I can almost understand the price tag...things are wild beasts. Rather 70k in something like that than a boring Range Sport.

Agreed, on subprime it's good to get any kind of kickback so +1 for that