The most memorable part ex you ever took?

[Nick M.K. 574]

The best, the bad or the ugly, the one you made the most on or maybe lost the most on? 

 

[Dealer 54]

2009 Mazda 6 sport diesel, owner was in panic mode after the new mot regs came out this year as she'd had the dpf mapped out......... Gave her 200 quid........ Sold next day......... £2000.

[trade vet 702]

Bid this punter on his 7 year old,powder blue met,Merc CClass against a newer one.He had parked his swapper in an unusual place over the road from the pitch..Said he would think about it.A few days later I see a powder blue met C Class park up in exactly the same unusual spot.The guy comes in and I say something like ‘you’re back for the C Class then’ and he says yes.So I write the deal down for him and say leave a deposit and get it tomorrow.He looks at the deal and says,’ I will just pay for it now ‘.I pass the deal over to a sales guy for the handover. The next day our sales guy says something like,was that guy with C Class a friend of yours etc.The swapper C Class turned out to be 4 years older than the one I valued,it was a different punter.

I think the swapper had its birthday and we blew £3k on it,how embarrassing. sorry if I have mentioned that one before.

 

[EPV 631]

1 hour ago, trade vet said:

Bid this punter on his 7 year old,powder blue met,Merc CClass against a newer one.He had parked his swapper in an unusual place over the road from the pitch..Said he would think about it.A few days later I see a powder blue met C Class park up in exactly the same unusual spot.The guy comes in and I say something like ‘you’re back for the C Class then’ and he says yes.So I write the deal down for him and say leave a deposit and get it tomorrow.He looks at the deal and says,’ I will just pay for it now ‘.I pass the deal over to a sales guy for the handover. The next day our sales guy says something like,was that guy with C Class a friend of yours etc.The swapper C Class turned out to be 4 years older than the one I valued,it was a different punter.

I think the swapper had its birthday and we blew £3k on it,how embarrassing. sorry if I have mentioned that one before.

 

Just end the thread now. This cannot be beaten! Classic! 

[Blenheim Car Sales 111]

10yr ago we had a Mini Cooper S come in to buy one of our cars...................... we knew NOTHING about these MIni it had a John Cooper works Badge on it valued it and did his deal..............................Punter comes in on our John Cooper Works Mini and he was fully geeked up on this car and embarrassed us thoroughly when he was able to point out it was  just a badge and none of the engine adaptations to make it a works vehicle, We blew £2000 on that one................ you learn

[Del Boy 76]

9 minutes ago, Blenheim Car Sales said:

10yr ago we had a Mini Cooper S come in to buy one of our cars...................... we knew NOTHING about these MIni it had a John Cooper works Badge on it valued it and did his deal..............................Punter comes in on our John Cooper Works Mini and he was fully geeked up on this car and embarrassed us thoroughly when he was able to point out it was  just a badge and none of the engine adaptations to make it a works vehicle, We blew £2000 on that one................ you learn

Lol yes, I’ve had this before. They both show as ‘Cooper S’ on the hpi. The Works is turbo charged rather than the usua supercharged (amongst a few other things). 

 

[Nick M.K. 574]

In 2017 I went on a long summer holiday (3 separate trips) and in between two of them a chap called me from Bristol. Wanted my 2006 SLK350 and had a 2002 Z3 2.2i (straight 6 but nothing special) in chop. Wanted £4K for it and I told him no way, Cap said something like £2500. I went away on my travels. A month later in September he called again, the Merc was still there and he was interested in coming to see it. He came, loved it, his BMW looked very nice, I gave him £2400 for it and sent him happily. Thought of selling for £4K but had several other cars waiting and a ton of things to do so parked it in my "overflow" yard, right at the back. By end of November it had gone quiet and the time came for the cheapie BMW Z3. Looking at prices there was nothing comparable under £6K and being the middle of the winter I priced it at £7389 almost certain it will be several weeks before I got any interest. 

The phones started ringing almost immediately, on 27 December I had sold it for the full asking.  

[Tadams 29]

45 minutes ago, Del Boy said:

Lol yes, I’ve had this before. They both show as ‘Cooper S’ on the hpi. The Works is turbo charged rather than the usua supercharged (amongst a few other things). 

 

All R53's were supercharged and all R56's and anything after were turbo charged (JCW or not). 

The bonnet scoop on anything after an R53 is purely for looks, Though you can get a Cooper S with a factory JCW body kit but not of the power upgrades to confuse things further anddddd you can get a Cooper S with the performance upgrades but not the body kit haha

[David Horgan 564]

Most memorable we had was a guy who left us his 03 plate fiesta as a free swapper , said it was scrap so i never looked at it , Did the deal and went to look at Mr Freebie Fiesta .

Had it from new , done 27,000 miles in it .

Sold it Day after at £1,495 , This chap rings and i thought he was Prince Charles 

Has one got the Fiesta he says , "yes " I'm on my way .

When he turns up hes got £7 k of clothes on , His shoes were 2k and his coat was the same , Out side was 150k Aston Martin .

Why do want this I say ? to him laughing .

I have the Aston , a Bentley , wife has a AMG Merc and an RS6 avant and when we go shopping the beggars get dents . Costing more in Dent removal than this bloody Fiesta costs , So we are going to drop the seats and park it outside the fecking supermkt door and they can dent it as much as they fecking want  

He drove off in it smiling like cheshire cat that had got the cream , with his wife saying I'll be back before you darling i think . 

Made us scream , and he paid cash . 

[Mark101 536]

Strangest I had.

I was selling a boat and a chap says would you be interested in a PX with a motorbike.

I did the deal with a Honda Silverwing with an interstate fairing in chop - bloody horrible bike but very comfortable.  Stuck it on Ebay and to this day have never had so many watchers or enquiries.

Ever since, I have been adamant that unusual stuff sells.

Look at the price Suzuki Jimnys fetch - I would never want to own or drive one.

[Dan W 57]

Price of Jimnys are crazy, been at a Suzuki dealer 2 years now and we have sold everyone at full price and never had one in stock longer than 3 months.

horrific things to be in but people adore them, bloody new one is going to be a nightmare with supply.


oddest thing we took in was a aixam just scary those things

Edited December 3, 2018 by Dan W
add extra info

[David Ayers 171]

Took a Prius in with a battery cooling fan fault. Toyota suggested anything between £500-£2000 to fix. They had no idea what the fault was but they had confirmed the fan was working on a bench. So could be an ecu or who knows.

Gave £200 for it and smoked it around until 6 months later I got my mechanic to have a look and found a loose plug. £50 fix!

Quite happily continued driving it until I lent it to a customer who loved it and offerd me £3000 for it!!

Now I had become quite attached to my little cheapie, as you do, so resisted the offer until they suggested £3500. I can't get my head around how much % profit that is on the deal but I don't think anyone will beat it.

 

P.s if any Muggles are reading this and thinking "Bloody car dealers. Making loads of money! Ripping us off" I can tell you about the Vw Passat I have blowing smoke out the back which I will probably end up loosing £3000 on!

[David Horgan 564]

42 minutes ago, Mark101 said:

Look at the price Suzuki Jimnys fetch - I would never want to own or drive one

We have a Jimmy for winter use Mark , Bought it from a night Auction on a 51 plate with 12,000 miles on it a few years back now for £500 .

They are horrendous to drive except when it snows then it changes personality  

We have spent a few quid on it though , new wheels and tyres , new suspension , modified 4x4 system , new diff ,Snorkel , modified door seals to keep some water out ,  goes anywhere off road , but on tarmac you have to watch the steering wheel doesn't knock your teeth out :0 and over 45mph its terrifying but that's only down hill with a good tail wind , 

Off road though ,wow its amazing seen it in  4ft of water and mud and still going strong  we call it the family pet  and still under 17,000 miles . Only taxed November to Feb then sits in the garage at my daughters house . 

[EPV 631]

2 hours ago, David Ayers said:

Took a Prius in with a battery cooling fan fault. Toyota suggested anything between £500-£2000 to fix. They had no idea what the fault was but they had confirmed the fan was working on a bench. So could be an ecu or who knows.

Gave £200 for it and smoked it around until 6 months later I got my mechanic to have a look and found a loose plug. £50 fix!

Quite happily continued driving it until I lent it to a customer who loved it and offerd me £3000 for it!!

Now I had become quite attached to my little cheapie, as you do, so resisted the offer until they suggested £3500. I can't get my head around how much % profit that is on the deal but I don't think anyone will beat it.

 

P.s if any Muggles are reading this and thinking "Bloody car dealers. Making loads of money! Ripping us off" I can tell you about the Vw Passat I have blowing smoke out the back which I will probably end up loosing £3000 on!

Muggles 

[Mark101 536]

3 hours ago, David Horgan said:

We have a Jimmy for winter use Mark , Bought it from a night Auction on a 51 plate with 12,000 miles on it a few years back now for £500 .

They are horrendous to drive except when it snows then it changes personality  

We have spent a few quid on it though , new wheels and tyres , new suspension , modified 4x4 system , new diff ,Snorkel , modified door seals to keep some water out ,  goes anywhere off road , but on tarmac you have to watch the steering wheel doesn't knock your teeth out :0 and over 45mph its terrifying but that's only down hill with a good tail wind , 

Off road though ,wow its amazing seen it in  4ft of water and mud and still going strong  we call it the family pet  and still under 17,000 miles . Only taxed November to Feb then sits in the garage at my daughters house . 

I have seen them off road and they look pretty impressive little things - like the Lada Niva Cossack, they were also pretty good but both awful road cars.

[tradegirl 112]

18 hours ago, trade vet said:

Bid this punter on his 7 year old,powder blue met,Merc CClass against a newer one.He had parked his swapper in an unusual place over the road from the pitch..Said he would think about it.A few days later I see a powder blue met C Class park up in exactly the same unusual spot.The guy comes in and I say something like ‘you’re back for the C Class then’ and he says yes.So I write the deal down for him and say leave a deposit and get it tomorrow.He looks at the deal and says,’ I will just pay for it now ‘.I pass the deal over to a sales guy for the handover. The next day our sales guy says something like,was that guy with C Class a friend of yours etc.The swapper C Class turned out to be 4 years older than the one I valued,it was a different punter.

I think the swapper had its birthday and we blew £3k on it,how embarrassing. sorry if I have mentioned that one before.

 

Jesus what are the odds? 

[stockedup! 63]

8 hours ago, trade vet said:

Bid this punter on his 7 year old,powder blue met,Merc CClass against a newer one.He had parked his swapper in an unusual place over the road from the pitch..Said he would think about it.A few days later I see a powder blue met C Class park up in exactly the same unusual spot.The guy comes in and I say something like ‘you’re back for the C Class then’ and he says yes.So I write the deal down for him and say leave a deposit and get it tomorrow.He looks at the deal and says,’ I will just pay for it now ‘.I pass the deal over to a sales guy for the handover. The next day our sales guy says something like,was that guy with C Class a friend of yours etc.The swapper C Class turned out to be 4 years older than the one I valued,it was a different punter.

I think the swapper had its birthday and we blew £3k on it,how embarrassing. sorry if I have mentioned that one before.

 

I bet you never made that mistake again .

I had one when I was working in the main dealers about 15 years ago, sales lad brings appraisal form with all customers details and car details but I aiways insisted that I drove and appraised every car because I never missed a trick. I walked the car  and drove it, noted a couple of dings in the side and went back inside, I passed the customer at the sales lads desk and said what a nice car he had, he did laugh but I didn't think anything of it. I gave the sales lad the offer sheet and we did the deal.

A few days later the car came in swap, I had it marked for retail but the sales lad had said about the work that it needed. I said it was fairly minor and to stick it on the pitch with awaiting prep on it, he started to laugh and said that I had to be kidding as the car had a big hit on the front end. I went to see it and sure enough the front bumper and bonnet had been poleaxed, the bonnet was more of a Vshape. I went mental with the sales lad for taking the car in like that, he said it was like that when I looked at the car. To cut a long story short I checked the CCTV when he first arrived and sure enough the damage was there....A blind man on a galloping horse would have spotted it. I apologised and spent nearly 4 grand putting the car right. I took a fair ribbing for this for a little while as you can imagine..... lesson learned. 

[Nick M.K. 574]

30 minutes ago, tradegirl said:

Jesus what are the odds? 

The odds are 50:50. It's either the same car or it's not. Some punters have been known to turn up in a different vehicle for the "appraisal" hoping that the dealer will miss the age / mileage / spec / condition difference and will fall for the old "it was on a private plate" scenario :-)

[trade vet 702]

43 minutes ago, stockedup! said:

I bet you never made that mistake again .

I had one when I was working in the main dealers about 15 years ago, sales lad brings appraisal form with all customers details and car details but I aiways insisted that I drove and appraised every car because I never missed a trick. I walked the car  and drove it, noted a couple of dings in the side and went back inside, I passed the customer at the sales lads desk and said what a nice car he had, he did laugh but I didn't think anything of it. I gave the sales lad the offer sheet and we did the deal.

A few days later the car came in swap, I had it marked for retail but the sales lad had said about the work that it needed. I said it was fairly minor and to stick it on the pitch with awaiting prep on it, he started to laugh and said that I had to be kidding as the car had a big hit on the front end. I went to see it and sure enough the front bumper and bonnet had been poleaxed, the bonnet was more of a Vshape. I went mental with the sales lad for taking the car in like that, he said it was like that when I looked at the car. To cut a long story short I checked the CCTV when he first arrived and sure enough the damage was there....A blind man on a galloping horse would have spotted it. I apologised and spent nearly 4 grand putting the car right. I took a fair ribbing for this for a little while as you can imagine..... lesson learned. 

That story is better than mine.You were employed at a main dealer,you must have had to work hard to cover that up from the bean counters.As for making mistakes,I have made some far bigger mistakes than that.

[David Horgan 564]

we didn't take this in 

But it went like this and its a while ago 1984 to be precise .

Chap has a Suzuki GSX 550es its a year old with 1500 miles , wants to px it for a Yamaha FJ 1100 " told you it was a while ago " 

Gets the part ex figure and then takes the bike to his mates and they strip it , mates got same model but was a courier so had 95,000 + miles .

They took every part and swapped it except the frame and block , Gear box ,Clutch ,  Head with cams ,Crank , pistons  wheels , forks , swing arm , sprockets , chain, tank footpegs the whole shabang changed , it rode like the bag of spanners it was . 

Couriers bike was like new ,.

Later that month I saw the bike , and some one I knew had bought it , he hated the thing saying these F######g 550's are f#cking useless . I never told him as I knew all concerned , even to this very day he Hates Suzuki with a passion , wont touch them .  

[trade vet 702]

48 minutes ago, Nick M.K. said:

The odds are 50:50. It's either the same car or it's not. Some punters have been known to turn up in a different vehicle for the "appraisal" hoping that the dealer will miss the age / mileage / spec / condition difference and will fall for the old "it was on a private plate" scenario :-)

I think you might get better odds than even money.It was powder blue met.,( not many of them) and where it was parked,there were better alternative spaces.Then throw in my negligence on that particular day,I think you might get good odds on those possibilities.

[stockedup! 63]

38 minutes ago, trade vet said:

That story is better than mine.You were employed at a main dealer,you must have had to work hard to cover that up from the bean counters.As for making mistakes,I have made some far bigger mistakes than that.

To be fair they weren't a PLC and I coughed to the area director and told him I fooked up, he laughed and said that we can all make mistakes.....PHEW.

 

[ExCouncilJobsworth 27]

Am i the only that doesnt take part ex?

I just feel that people wish to offload sh!te... Had a offer for my jag x type for a zafira 2009 (dont want a fireball)

I know some of you would have a proper setup garage etc to diagnose prior to swapping and a huge financial backup (your own bank lol) but do other home traders take in part ex?

[stockedup! 63]

1 hour ago, Nick M.K. said:

The odds are 50:50. It's either the same car or it's not. Some punters have been known to turn up in a different vehicle for the "appraisal" hoping that the dealer will miss the age / mileage / spec / condition difference and will fall for the old "it was on a private plate" scenario :-)

I remember members of a particular "community" doing such things with Mercs years ago, showing the nice newer and cleaner one at appraisal and then chopping and old goat in on delivery. They were shrewd and would choose the right time to do it(Horrible rainy nights etc)

[Nick M.K. 574]

There is more money in part exes than in retail cars that cost + £300 auction fee and +£150 delivery. You have NO competition when you are buying a p/x...