Where do you stop?

[Arfur Dealy 823]

2 hours ago, Nick M.K. said:

I am a huge advocate for changing wheel colour especially because for me it's free. (I pay for the refurb but any colour, matt, satin or gloss is included). People want to stand out, preferences change and what could've been the norm in 2006-2008 is no longer the case. 

Every week I see brand new BMWs and Range Rovers at our wheel place getting a complete change to Gloss Black (usually) before delivery. 

Love it me too, but Halfords gloss back, spray the tyres aswell for £10. Black alloys sells cars, no need to spend £300, do it yourself for 30 minutes work. It completely changes a car. 

[DHill 16]

3 hours ago, trade vet said:

The vast majority of punters do not want to buy stuff with visible stone chips and scratches.They don’t want friends and neighbours pointing them out.I have often made the mistake of leaving the odd stone chip on a bonnet to save money and it hasn’t sold. You then find later by getting it painted,it sells.

That's interesting, we used to get them painted but customers were always suspicious wondering if the cars had been involved in accidents.

I just describe as best as I can to the customer so they are not expecting a showroom mint car and not had any major problems so far.

[lastyboy 23]

It depends on the value of the car ,etc in my opinion.

Do it on a 15k car, dont do it on a 5k car.

What i would suggest is this- Learn to do it yourself. Its tricky to master but if you have the time to learn and to do the work, then its not that difficult to refurb wheels etc.

On this particular example i would touch in the bumper.

[Arfur Dealy 823]

12 minutes ago, DHill said:

That's interesting, we used to get them painted but customers were always suspicious wondering if the cars had been involved in accidents.

I just describe as best as I can to the customer so they are not expecting a showroom mint car and not had any major problems so far.

Absolutely agree, honesty and transparency sells cars, no need to over prep cosmetics just price it competitively. No point in over prepping unless it adds value. 

Mechanical prep really sells cars, new Mot, no advisories, just serviced..... etc 

You can spend that extra £500 on paint but will you get it back ? .. if of course it came to you well under book then yes get paint. 

 

 

[Rory RSC 596]

Touch up and even for me I probably wouldn't refurb those alloys and I refurb about 75% of them on  cars we end up buying. 

 

 

[EPV 631]

11 hours ago, Arfur Dealy said:

Absolutely agree, honesty and transparency sells cars, no need to over prep cosmetics just price it competitively. No point in over prepping unless it adds value. 

Mechanical prep really sells cars, new Mot, no advisories, just serviced..... etc 

You can spend that extra £500 on paint but will you get it back ? .. if of course it came to you well under book then yes get paint. 

 

 

Mechanical prep really sells YOUR type of stock mate. Someone selling 3 year old prestige won’t get away with leaving bumper nicks and alloys with lumps missing from them? 

Horse for courses! 

[Nick M.K. 574]

11 hours ago, Arfur Dealy said:

Mechanical prep really sells cars, new Mot, no advisories, just serviced

While that is by far my biggest cost I have not found that it adds the most value. People don't know and understand mechanical (even if they love service history). Don't care for the new pads and discs, brake fluid change, wheel alignment, service with the correct Mercedes specific 229.51 or BMW LL-04 engine oil, some of them don't even know what a cambelt is or if the car has one! 

What they care about is... Looks, image, presentation, no scratches, no scuffs, wheels, tyre thread, windows, cleanliness. Stuff that they can see and understand...

And if you ask me what adds the most value? Phonecalls. ££££ added after I've worked the phones for a few minutes / hours and find that incomplete or missing service history. We know and the mechanics also know that it doesn't mean much BUT it's what the buyers want and value most. On some cars anyway. 

[Arfur Dealy 823]

1 hour ago, EPV said:

Mechanical prep really sells YOUR type of stock mate. Someone selling 3 year old prestige won’t get away with leaving bumper nicks and alloys with lumps missing from them? 

Horse for courses! 

James, I’m very aware of the preparation requirements on newer cars. The op is specifically talking about diversifying in older stock.

[NOACROSS 414]

 

Damn. Trying to insert a picture of a black BM Cab. 2008. Black with cream. 

I’d usually do the wheels silver but....what do you reckon? 

[EPV 631]

14 minutes ago, NOACROSS said:

 

 

Damn. Trying to insert a picture of a black BM Cab. 2008. Black with cream. 

I’d usually do the wheels silver but....what do you reckon? 

 

Ferric Grey. Just sold that exact car a couple of weeks ago for £500 over AT’s recommended retail price. 

[NOACROSS 414]

Good man. Cheers. 

[EPV 631]

2 hours ago, Arfur Dealy said:

James, I’m very aware of the preparation requirements on newer cars. The op is specifically talking about diversifying in older stock.

Actually he’s referring specifically to a 7 year old BMW which will almost certainly draw a customer more focused on looks than running costs and reliability. If this were a Ford Focus on the other hand....

[AAM90 22]

On 29/11/2018 at 9:16 AM, Nick M.K. said:

People don't know and understand mechanical (even if they love service history). Don't care for the new pads and discs, brake fluid change, wheel alignment, service with the correct Mercedes specific 229.51 or BMW LL-04 engine oil, some of them don't even know what a cambelt is or if the car has one! 

What they care about is... Looks, image, presentation, no scratches, no scuffs, wheels, tyre thread, windows, cleanliness. Stuff that they can see and understand..

+1

I sometimes give punters a copy of the workshop invoice for mechanical prep. It's very rarely appreciated

But show a punter a nice clean, dent and scratch free shiney car and they do appreciate it...and buy

[justina3 518]

We had a polo in last month typical old owner with a stupid white dog in the boot eaten all the carpet shelf missing and rear headrests, costs us over £100 to get the parts on line via flee bay mint it back up and yep you guessed it next owner said can i take the shelf out as he wants to put his dog in the boot. 

 

 

[Dave2302 387]

21 hours ago, justina3 said:

We had a polo in last month typical old owner with a stupid white dog in the boot eaten all the carpet shelf missing and rear headrests, costs us over £100 to get the parts on line via flee bay mint it back up and yep you guessed it next owner said can i take the shelf out as he wants to put his dog in the boot. 

 

 

Fuckin classic, I love that /\ /\ /\ 

[BHM 994]

On 01/12/2018 at 1:54 PM, justina3 said:

We had a polo in last month typical old owner with a stupid white dog in the boot eaten all the carpet shelf missing and rear headrests, costs us over £100 to get the parts on line via flee bay mint it back up and yep you guessed it next owner said can i take the shelf out as he wants to put his dog in the boot. 

 

 

Had a Sharan, valeted to death, replaced the chewed back seats. It’s next owner turned up in a ‘farmed’ Ford Ranger, asked me to remove the 5 rearmost seats “cos me and the wife won’t need them, I’ll chuck them in the barn”!!!, threw in all of his filthy gear out of the back of the Ranger into the boot area saying “this is the last time this car is clean”. 

[c_cars 56]

2 hours ago, BHM said:

Had a Sharan, valeted to death, replaced the chewed back seats. It’s next owner turned up in a ‘farmed’ Ford Ranger, asked me to remove the 5 rearmost seats “cos me and the wife won’t need them, I’ll chuck them in the barn”!!!, threw in all of his filthy gear out of the back of the Ranger into the boot area saying “this is the last time this car is clean”. 

Sounds like our commercial customers; we go all out on prep knowing full well the day the van leaves us is the cleanest its ever going to be in the future!