"Did you buy it at auction?"

[tradegirl 112]

1. Why does it matter?

2. Probably, since I'm a trader

3. Do I ask about details of your job?

Why do people feel the need to ask where we buy cars from? 

[SC Derby 259]

because the perception is auctions are full of crap?

We say sourced from main dealer, part exchange into us or from public, whichever is true.

[Nick M.K. 574]

Sourced from carefully selected vendors and lease companies with which we have a very long working relationship through several remarketing channels for which we are an approved buyer :-) 

Every now and then we also buy direct from owners, especially if the car is in exceptional condition :-) 

[tradegirl 112]

Yes but the people who usually ask that question, are people you'd see hanging around auction houses themselves. And there are plenty of great cars at auction, shame about the reputation. Unless it's something like the old SMA auction, what a shambles!

Nick, you're a poet lol.

[David Horgan 564]

Never buy from auction personally I say 

But we do sell 90% of the publics part exchanges to auction as they are never looked after or cleaned properly , they also lie about servicing so they are not for retail .

Sort of smacks it home that if your car is dirty , dented , and part serviced YOUR getting nothing for it . 

[EPV 631]

Shock horror, buyer of car wants to know a little bit about it's history and where it came from.

 

[NOACROSS 414]

My line is ‘we mainly buy from main dealer groups’. Usually is enough to end the interrogation. 

[tradegirl 112]

18 minutes ago, EPV said:

Shock horror, buyer of car wants to know a little bit about it's history and where it came from.

 

James, knowing the history of the car is one thing. How many owners, how long the last owner had it for, how many services and when the last service (prior to ours) was. That's one thing, and it's understandable. Asking on a tidy FSH, 2 owner, 10 year old car if I bought it at auction or not, is irrelevant I think. And a little rude in my opinion.

The history is one thing, whether it ended up at auction because the owner traded it in, or whether it was px'd or bought from the seller themselves, the end result is the same: the owner still gave the car up. Mark took that Astra as px and it was a nail. Is it any better that it was px'd directly from the owner? It's still a nail.

. 
 

Edited May 30, 2019 by tradegirl

[NOACROSS 414]

I know what you mean TG, but I dunno and don’t let it bother you  

I think if you come over (even mildly) defensive, you put them a tad on edge. If you use my line about them being main dealer group px’s mostly, they like that - add the caveat that they’ve usually been swapped in for a new car if they do press you further. 

Not that you can buy anything on Dealer Auction anymore, but that is always a good line when saying it is a closed, main dealer, trade only auction etc. 

[EPV 631]

5 minutes ago, tradegirl said:

James, knowing the history of the car is one thing. How many owners, how long the last owner had it for, how many services and when the last service (prior to ours) was. That's one thing, and it's understandable. Asking on a tidy FSH, 2 owner, 10 year old car if I bought it at auction or not, is irrelevant I think. And a little rude in my opinion.

The history is one thing, whether it ended up at auction because the owner traded it in, or whether it was px'd or bought from the seller themselves, the end result is the same: the owner still gave the car up. Mark took that Astra as px and it was a nail. Is it any better that it was px'd directly from the owner? It's still a nail.

. 
 

If you're offended by people asking where you bought a car from you may wish to re-evaluate how thick your skin is. It's a commonly asked question, mainly for the reasons given above (most people think auctions are where old knackers end up) and they want to believe that their next purchase has been driven considerately, washed with filtered water from the Himalayan mountains and powered by unicorn farts. Tell them it came from a part exchange, or a main dealer part exchange that you carefully selected from. It's really not rude.

I'll tell you what's rude;

Someone ringing three times on the bounce, one minute after the next, then sending a message via chat, all at 3pm on a BH Monday, asking to see a car that day. When they receive a reply an hour later from yours truly, apologising for missing their call and when would they like to view the car, they read the message and then don't reply. At all. So desperate to see the car they were that they couldn't even be bothered to say "thanks but I'll get back to you"

Or how about..

Someone calling at 4pm arranging to have a video call at 9:30am the following morning, on a car they are very keen on, have their finances sorted, only to text at 9:28am to say they have found another car?

Both of which have happened to me in the last few days, neither of which surprised me, bothered me or made me want to rant. I have been in this industry a relative 5 minutes, compared to most. It doesn't take a genius to work out there are some right arseholes out there, just brush it off and move on.

[tradegirl 112]

48 minutes ago, EPV said:

If you're offended by people asking where you bought a car from you may wish to re-evaluate how thick your skin is. It's a commonly asked question, mainly for the reasons given above (most people think auctions are where old knackers end up) and they want to believe that their next purchase has been driven considerately, washed with filtered water from the Himalayan mountains and powered by unicorn farts. Tell them it came from a part exchange, or a main dealer part exchange that you carefully selected from. It's really not rude.

I'll tell you what's rude;

Someone ringing three times on the bounce, one minute after the next, then sending a message via chat, all at 3pm on a BH Monday, asking to see a car that day. When they receive a reply an hour later from yours truly, apologising for missing their call and when would they like to view the car, they read the message and then don't reply. At all. So desperate to see the car they were that they couldn't even be bothered to say "thanks but I'll get back to you"

Or how about..

Someone calling at 4pm arranging to have a video call at 9:30am the following morning, on a car they are very keen on, have their finances sorted, only to text at 9:28am to say they have found another car?

Both of which have happened to me in the last few days, neither of which surprised me, bothered me or made me want to rant. I have been in this industry a relative 5 minutes, compared to most. It doesn't take a genius to work out there are some right arseholes out there, just brush it off and move on.

Everyone has their thing that annoys them. For me, people going AWOL on text messages doesn't register anymore. Cars going bang (prior to sale) is water off a duck's back. And I don't rant about either of those.

For me, asking if I bought the car from auction is kind of interfering in my side of the business. As long as the car is straight, legit, and well looked after with no issues, then I don't personally think it's relevant. If I've made all history of the car clear and available, whether I bought it at auction, through my contact at the dealer, or the little old lady down the road, is my business not the customer's.

[Lazz 16]

I just tell them that a generally buy main dealer part exchanges or from these we buy any car type people or the occasional private.

That kind of ends the conversation and we move on, never had anyone then ask did it come via auction.

made me laugh the other day, guy comes to see a cheap part exchange up for £800 and then asks me how much did i give for it, looked him staright in the eye and said £100 and then procedded to laugh.

He did n't find it funny but i did.

[Mark101 536]

I just make a mental note of the vendor who dropped the car at auction and then say.  The car came from:

Sytner BMW, or Listers who ever it was.  It isn't a lie it just wasn't directly from them.

Most people ask me where the car came from, depending on the customer, my answer varies accordingly.  Some I can be totally straight with, my kind of customer - Auction Sir and if any other dealer tells you otherwise, they're probably not being entirely honest.

[Arfur Dealy 823]

1 hour ago, tradegirl said:

Everyone has their thing that annoys them. For me, people going AWOL on text messages doesn't register anymore. Cars going bang (prior to sale) is water off a duck's back. And I don't rant about either of those.

For me, asking if I bought the car from auction is kind of interfering in my side of the business. As long as the car is straight, legit, and well looked after with no issues, then I don't personally think it's relevant. If I've made all history of the car clear and available, whether I bought it at auction, through my contact at the dealer, or the little old lady down the road, is my business not the customer's.

TG, just side step the question. You are right it is rude and none of there business but just have a generic “personally sourced, top quality Main Dealer”  answer stored as advised above.

 

[It's me 611]

lets cut to the chase

the reason some customers ask is they haven't got the confidence to buy at auction themselves and to cap it they dont like to think you are making money out of them

normally if you push them you will find they've been to auctions lately but the product you are offering and the service included is better than the hammer prices and quality they have seen

of course if you are getting a lot of these questions then your stock is wrong because these people are more interested in low prices than quality stock and they mainly don't buy even though they cant find better

bite the lip .move on,theres a better customer behind them

[grant8064 219]

As others suggest; carefully selected from main dealer sources.

But when you're halfway through a viewing and get the feeling you don't want to deal Billy it can be quite handy to drop the real source casually into conversation...never fails to make them 'food for thought', 'sleep on it', 'lots more to look at'.

[MarkTVS 209]

3 hours ago, tradegirl said:

Yes but the people who usually ask that question, are people you'd see hanging around auction houses themselves. And there are plenty of great cars at auction, shame about the reputation. Unless it's something like the old SMA auction, what a shambles!

Nick, you're a poet lol.

Don’t slate the old sma auctions! I miss my free dinners and 7 days credit on purchases! 

[sparky 274]

1 minute ago, MarkTVS said:

Don’t slate the old sma auctions! I miss my free dinners and 7 days credit on purchases! 

And the reduction of buyer fees to help get a deal done. 

Anyway, OP's question dealt with, next. Is it a local car? Never ceases to amaze me how often that gets asked and why it's important, maybe it's a Welsh thing, Justin???

[Row 71]

The one that gets me is, How long have you had it, I had a call this week and that was the very first thing he said !

[Tony911 79]

5 minutes ago, sparky said:

Anyway, OP's question dealt with, next. Is it a local car? Never ceases to amaze me how often that gets asked and why it's important, maybe it's a Welsh thing, Justin???

Oh yes this 1 and do you know why the last customer sold it or traded it in

[EPV 631]

“Has the car mostly been used on the motorway?”

[justina3 518]

37 minutes ago, sparky said:

And the reduction of buyer fees to help get a deal done. 

Anyway, OP's question dealt with, next. Is it a local car? Never ceases to amaze me how often that gets asked and why it's important, maybe it's a Welsh thing, Justin???

100% but I buy local cars so it features in my advertising so maybe I force the issue but I have found it to add value to a sale. 

You know us welsh we just an odd bunch full stop. 

[tradegirl 112]

Haha, all those follow up questions, especially "Have you had it long?" and "Do you know why they sold it?"

Probably as bad as "Why is the mileage so low?" Which begs the question, if you're so worried about it being low, why are you viewing in the first place?

I thankfully don't get the auction question much, and it's usually a certain type who ask it, but I'll have a response ready for next time. This was over text and gave me enough time to stew.

[Rory RSC 596]

1 hour ago, MarkTVS said:

Don’t slate the old sma auctions! I miss my free dinners and 7 days credit on purchases! 

Same mate. Best tea of the week whenever I went there and was there a better feeling than getting a car back without having paid and selling within 24/48 hours

[MarkTVS 209]

2 hours ago, Row said:

The one that gets me is, How long have you had it, I had a call this week and that was the very first thing he said !

I had a friend who was a Muslim car dealer and it is against their religion to lie so he had to word his responses well which I found funny, on a car that had sat on his pitch 6 months he would say “well I’ve had it at least 2 weeks” as technically not a lie