grant8064

I only started a couple of years ago. Had worked in an auction/sales related job for approx 10 years but lost interest, was in a position to move on, so quit. Had a few months off weighing up plans and then started the current business with my Brother in law (he worked for a small main dealer for 10 years). Been a bit of a learning curve but I managed to take a lot of experience from my previous job and find a lot of common ground between the two. Aside from the screamers this is far less stressful overall, better paid and slightly more rewarding. Unlike the previous posters, I have no real interest in cars or the motor trade outside of work which I think helps me keep things focused. Frankly if I could get the same margins out of bananas i'd happily be dealing in those.

Amazon are amazing IMO. I'm a Prime member because stuff gets delivered on time and I use my Prime membership so I can subscribe to an online Twitch channel. They have fingers so deep in so many niche pies already it makes you wonder why they haven't tried car sales already. They are the experts at logistics. One thing though...we all know that life isn't all that rosy in the used world. It'll be interesting to see what happens. They have a great brand, reputation and consumer trust so I can see them shifting units easily. I'm more interested in what happens 3 months down the line when the DMF needs replacing or the locking wheel nuts are missing on delivery. Only so much you can do from behind a screen without people losing faith. Not in any way at all concerned personally. Plenty have tried, plenty have failed. If it was easy someone else would have succeeded already. Nice idea in an office think tank. Whatever the plan is I give it two years of losses before the plug gets pulled quietly.

Saturdays are a quiet day for us usually and today was no different. Had a few potentials for next week. One funny one though...nice 2.4 family. Been looking at our 60 plate Astra online, 1.6 Petrol, Manual, Top Spec, Black, FMDSH, 31k, 2 local private owners, MOT yesterday with no advisories, £500 less than everyone else's that also have more miles. Basically the perfect Astra (jokes aside it really is to those that deal in bread and butter). They want a 5 door, under 45k, must have good history and mustn't have been ex lease. Oh and they have been looking all week and in a 25 mile radius ours is the only one. Oh and that 12 months RAC roadside assistance...hmmmm that's a nice surprise. What you'll take our chopper too for more than the scrappy offered? And you're happy to test drive immediately? And yes, it is a minter and ticks all of our boxes and more. ...well we'll have to think about it and let you know next week. ...I am on my hands an knees praying someone else buys it so I can give the news on Tuesday when they wake up.

Eight this week. It's been very, very busy. Always a downside though...I desperately need stock and can't find any.

Why on earth would you go to court? Even I would side with the punter in this instance. The product developed a major fault within less than a week and the customer, quite understandably, has lost faith and wants to move on with a refund in hand. Get it back, refund, repair, re-sell. Really simple IMO.

Sold one. Bought one (now developed a 4x4 fault) Got two coming back with major warranty issues. I officially hate June and all cars. Good luck guys!

Finally broken the duck and shifted a very clean Hyundai Coupe we took in part ex. Not great money but need something to get the ball rolling

Still nothing. Why is it during these quiet times all the nutters seem to come out? Got a dodgy customer that keeps wanting a car we have on strap but they live 300 miles away, can't view it and want it delivered...and they phone every single day pretending to have forgotten the previous days conversation where I keep saying no way Jose. Another wants our Bongo camper but the fact it's 4k less than anyone else's because its done 150k doesn't seem to negate the fact 'it's a big leggy mate' to them. And finally the woman in a C1 who wants something smaller but with a bigger boot...I tried an IQ with the rear seats folded but it's too square apparently. Give me strength.

Well the next couple of years sound like they're going to be fun!

I've only had a couple lately and generally swerve them for all the usual reasons, both came in chop and I could drive and inspect them pretty thoroughly. They both sold very, very, very quickly and I didn't price them cheaply because they were both quite honest. Demand seems to be there but surely no one in there right mind would buy one from the block??

This.

One in ten days for us...worst period for a while now but at least the sun's shining!

Agree with most here. Avoid or buy at your peril. We have a WBAC site a few doors down from us so get a lot of their punters in for a second opinion. The good genuine stuff we pay well above them to buy ourselves. The dodgy stuff or more importantly, dodgy punters, we send down their way to handle. Loads of cars seem to end up there with multiple issues and a lot of punters tell us they would rather offload an issue laden lump onto an anonymous national corp than a local dealer because it's embarrassing if we bump into them in the supermarket/school run.

I don't have the 'premium' package so can't comment on it but the free listings thing is as far as I want to go anyway. Frankly I think they are a load of BS and feel quite strongly about it. I phoned them and explained my thoughts on the enquiries I got. Mostly I get nothing for a couple of months and then three or four seemingly templated email enquiries in a week and a few, in my opinion, obviously fake phone enquiries. Always the enquirers are 150+ miles away and when I phone them back they seem quite genuinely surprised that I have their number. One even stated she had never driven and didn't hold a license. Out of 30+ phone calls over a six month period I only had two conversations with people that had actually been searching for a new car. Most said they had never even heard of the website when I quoted it back to them. Usually a week after a run of phone calls and enquiries i'll get a call from the sales rep saying how well it's going and that I should bump up to a paid for package. Maybe i'm wrong and if so I apologise Cargurus but the bluffing is so thinly veiled, in my opnion, it's laughable. As for the 'we're really big in the US'...yer great guys but I don't export many 60 plate Kia C'eeds there. Rant over.

Sounds brave to me selling a 120k car to earn £1500?

Thanks for the input so far guys! I agree @trade vet about insurance. My main reasons for considering it now is we are likely to expand quite soon so will be doing more volume, hopefully, and therefore more sold cars back in the garage, unfortunately. Secondly, our trade insurance is up soon so we can re negotiate our terms to include it. I was considering an old shape 06/07 CMax because it suits most people. Big enough for people that buy a car for work (just buy new if it's that important!!!!!) and the three individual seats for families. Given our stock profile a Ford is a good mid range car too so it won't feel too disappointing to be given. To those doing it already...would you recommend just a valid MOT and recent service or is there a more stringent maintenance schedule needed as it's being lent out to joe public without a day old PDI?

Given your wealth of knowledge I thought I would pick your brains: We currently do not offer a courtesy car but would like to. There's nothing worse than a purchased car going wrong a week down the line and not having a vehicle to stick the customer in to ease some of the pain. The garage we use for repairs also do not offer one. I'm aware that we don't have an obligation to offer one but it would make life easier. So my question is, from your experiences, what are the problems, pitfalls, issues etc before we commit to it?

Yer we had a few props over the weekend, got one on but I doubt we'll ever see the customer again, the rest were instant rejections. Part and parcel really. On the subject of Vengas/iX20s - Always done very very well with them myself. Great sit up and beg cars with loads of kit. Natural successor to the Fusion IMO

Best of luck with it! These days I just refund and move on. Saves a lot of agrro even if I know i'm in the right.

Out of interest betginge...how are you finding subprime lenders acceptance rates at the moment? I'm noticing a much higher percentage of declines over the last two months on sub prime and have found that applicant requirements around employment have changed a fair bit. Best of luck with it by the way...personally I find it the hardest bit of the job. I hate stereotyping but I often find subprime clients are difficult to deal with, fail to understand that you're doing them a favour and have higher expectations than most other buyers of a used car despite their part ex's that they want all the money for being death traps!

I agree with most of the above. A lot of punters think the bigger the garage chain the more reputable and honest they are...something we all know isn't quite true! Always going to be an uphill struggle to get him/her to accept you put right the bits they have advised on and that seed of doubt will have been sown, as CGF states, they'll be back every week with another rattle, clunking noise or it pulling to the left slightly despite it being an old car. Easiest thing...refund in full, forget the pence per mile etc and re sell to someone sensible. When you have it back you can double check those bits Halfords mentioned too because we all know that sometimes MOT testers do miss things.

Same. Make hay I say! Sold nine this month but managed to buy seventeen in the last ten days...always nice to be buying up good stock a sensible money because as we all know it doesn't often happen!

Cracking start, one a day and barely any hassle!

I buy very very carefully but have yet to find a brand that never causes surprise issues. French, German, Japanese, Korean...all as bad as each other. As for avoid? None of them if they have enough money in them, have decent history, not a suspiciously high number of owners and aren't a weird spec making them book too high compared to others. I'm not a fan of CMaxs, Mazdas, Jags, diesel BMWs or diesel Sportages but that's more from bad experiences than any greater knowledge.