Sourcing Cars for Customers

[JDM1983 28]

I’ve just sold my MX5 this week and now it’s gone the enquiries are coming in faster than ever and I wish I had a couple more! One chap has asked me to source one for him, which in theory I’m happy to do, but not without some commitment on his part as I don’t want to waste time and money. Just wondering how you guys approach this to ensure the customer has some skin in the game?

[JA Trader 58]

i have been asked this a few times with the minis pay me 10% of what you are looking to spend and 2-3 week to source something if i cant you can have your money back. Only done it once but worked out well happy customer.

[Casper 272]

21 minutes ago, JA Trader said:

i have been asked this a few times with the minis pay me 10% of what you are looking to spend and 2-3 week to source something if i cant you can have your money back. Only done it once but worked out well happy customer.

This is the way to go . 

[It's me 615]

youve sold one so you know you can sell another

i can see the couple now youve just bought this peach of a car for them

what are they doing

walking round with their arms folded

shes pointing at a stone chip with her shoes because its easier than using her fingers

hes there in the shorts waiting to rev it

its just a little more miles than what we wanted he says  (but its 2000 less than the original one)

im not sure about the colour it looked different online

what will you be doing with the tyres

etc

etc

etc

 

dont bother,only greed takes you down this path of thorns

[David Horgan 564]

Depends if its a car we stock as far as I'm concerned .

If it is I ask for a time scale of 1 month and £1,000 up front .

If it isnt a car we stock I ask for 50% of retail price . 

eg A guy asks me to source a BMW 320d Convertible in white with Black Leather yesterday , he's got 10k to spend so I said I don't stock those so I need 5k . He wanted to look round it first he said then make his mind up . 

Its A BORIS NO DEAL THEN I SAID 

[tradegirl 112]

Sounds like a pain to be honest. But I know there are traders who do this and do well. We've only ever sourced cars for friends. They've never been cars we'd ordinarily sell, so they know they can't let us down.

David's approach sounds good though.

[JA Trader 58]

9 minutes ago, David Horgan said:

Depends if its a car we stock as far as I'm concerned .

If it is I ask for a time scale of 1 month and £1,000 up front .

If it isnt a car we stock I ask for 50% of retail price . 

eg A guy asks me to source a BMW 320d Convertible in white with Black Leather yesterday , he's got 10k to spend so I said I don't stock those so I need 5k . He wanted to look round it first he said then make his mind up . 

Its A BORIS NO DEAL THEN I SAID 

Exactly the way to do it. I personally only source cars that i stock so that if they change there mind i have new inventory at a discounted rate.

[JDM1983 28]

Thanks all. I went along those lines, and he disappeared, so clearly not so serious after all 

[Tony911 79]

8 hours ago, jason doyle motor sales said:

youve sold one so you know you can sell another

i can see the couple now youve just bought this peach of a car for them

what are they doing

walking round with their arms folded

shes pointing at a stone chip with her shoes because its easier than using her fingers

hes there in the shorts waiting to rev it

its just a little more miles than what we wanted he says  (but its 2000 less than the original one)

im not sure about the colour it looked different online

what will you be doing with the tyres

etc

etc

etc

 

dont bother,only greed takes you down this path of thorns

 

8 hours ago, David Horgan said:

Depends if its a car we stock as far as I'm concerned .

If it is I ask for a time scale of 1 month and £1,000 up front .

If it isnt a car we stock I ask for 50% of retail price . 

eg A guy asks me to source a BMW 320d Convertible in white with Black Leather yesterday , he's got 10k to spend so I said I don't stock those so I need 5k . He wanted to look round it first he said then make his mind up . 

Its A BORIS NO DEAL THEN I SAID 

^^^^

This

[Mark101 536]

Got to be careful what I write, includes: live story.

I have only ever had one real success story and am now searching for car 5 for someone who has always kept his side of the deal, no quibble.

He asked me to find one for his mate (well introduced us to each other), wanted a late Focus.  Been quoted for a 1.0 ECO shite from main dealer.  I warned him off them and he asked me to find him a different model.  My search began.............

Whilst handing over car number 4 to my regular, I said how is your mate getting on.  He said, the tw*t has bought a 1.0 ECO shite, didn't he call you to turn off the search....erm, no.

Live: (make model deleted incase a Google search reveals itself to customer)

Customer looking for 3rd car said can I find X for him any colour under 50K miles, upto £150 month with £2,500 dipper and his Ren.C in PX (like I say, the family already have two cars from me).

1 week later, sourced from Preston.  Win (over book) X with 35k FMDSH and sport model in white, make all the figures work to meet his exact requirements.

I let him know and he says great followed by radio silence.

I thought (millenial), Whatsapp him (atleast I can see if he has seen my message).  Please can you send me a £100 deposit to secure car and let me know when you want to collect.  Said he will get back to me.

24 hours pass.  I say that I need to know what he is doing because of collection, MOT, prep etc.  Nothing back...

I sink a few G&T's that evening and I am pretty miffed, so just send. "hello?"

The reply was, I didn't expect you to find something so soon and I need to sort stuff out.  I will give you an answer tomorrow.  I thought What????

I sent a long message about how I work hard to find a specific car, not just any old junk, I have delivered what you asked etc etc.  Anyway, reckon parents gave him a right telling as a dipper arrived at 9am the following day.

I will NEVER do another car source without a NON refundable £500 deposit (unless I can't source within 1 month).

 

 

Edited August 10, 2019 by Mark101

[Blenheim Car Sales 111]

Biggest issue with car sourcing is that the  customer  will still carry on shopping / looking at  the same time as you are looking, I have been asked to source cars before but the £500 deposit and 4 weeks to find suitable model  always catches out the  none serious (thank god) they all want you to put time and effort in then have a look at it and then add it to there  list off possibles, 

[JDM1983 28]

2 hours ago, Blenheim Car Sales said:

Biggest issue with car sourcing is that the  customer  will still carry on shopping / looking at  the same time as you are looking, I have been asked to source cars before but the £500 deposit and 4 weeks to find suitable model  always catches out the  none serious (thank god) they all want you to put time and effort in then have a look at it and then add it to there  list off possibles, 

I’m glad I sought the advice of you guys before getting dragged down this sourcing road. As I said, I made them the £500/1 month offer, and he said sounds good, I’ll let you know, before promptly disappearing of the face of the earth. Could have been a big waste of time, and money!

[adomanim 0]

If you incorporate sourcing and selling cars into your grinding routine effectively, you can make around $420k/hr. (nope, not a typo/joke!) Basically, once you have every low/mid-end car in your warehouse

 

 

Tutuapp 9apps Showbox

Edited January 21, 2020 by adomanim

[BHM 994]

4 minutes ago, adomanim said:

grinding routine

Anyone fancy a bit of grinding with adomanim?

[David Horgan 564]

54 minutes ago, BHM said:

Anyone fancy a bit of grinding with adomanim?

There's a MAN & DOM  is his name , I'm out  no grinding for me 

[JDM1983 28]

3 hours ago, BHM said:

Anyone fancy a bit of grinding with adomanim?

For 420k an hour I’d do a lot of things 

[Padstar 0]

A lot of time can be wasted trying to source cars for people. By the time you’ve found one and let the customer know they’ve gone and bought one without letting you know. Without a hefty deposit I wouldn’t bother. I just say from now on if something comes in or if there’s something we would be prepared to go on with ourselves if you didn’t buy it. Then there’s not much time wasted. 

[CCC 31]

On 1/24/2020 at 7:30 AM, Padstar said:

A lot of time can be wasted trying to source cars for people. By the time you’ve found one and let the customer know they’ve gone and bought one without letting you know. Without a hefty deposit I wouldn’t bother. I just say from now on if something comes in or if there’s something we would be prepared to go on with ourselves if you didn’t buy it. Then there’s not much time wasted. 

This exactly based on similar experiebce

[RhinoHorn 7]

Our business is solely car sourcing... we don't take deposits before searching. All of our customers now are pretty much recommends... stock we hold is just part exs. We've done 16 car search deals this month. It's possible to make it work, our customers totally buy in to our process and trust us. it's rare that they buy elsewhere... and often when they do... they come to us a year later saying they made a big mistake, wish they have listened to us in the first place and ask us to get them a different car. Been doing it for 15 years now.

[David Horgan 564]

3 hours ago, RhinoHorn said:

and often when they do... they come to us a year later saying they made a big mistake, wish they have listened to us in the first place and ask us to get them a different car.

What big mistakes do they make when looking at a car themselves then ?, If they come to me for the same car your trying to look for, it wouldn't be a mistake would it as they have what they wanted in the first place . If they wanted an Audi S3  from you and went and bought Ford Fiesta ST instead then that shows how unstable they were in the first place .

You obviously make it work after 15 yrs and bloody good luck to you as well as you deserve the deals after searching for their requirements , I just think those sort of customers expect me to find it , clean it , service it , present it, stump up the cash , price it less than mkt  , ring them up for them to say " Sorry i changed my mind I now want a black one " and thats why its a Deposit in my books .  

[BHM 994]

11 hours ago, David Horgan said:

I just think those sort of customers expect me to find it , clean it , service it , present it, stump up the cash , price it less than mkt  , ring them up for them to say " Sorry i changed my mind I now want a black one " and thats why its a Deposit in my books .  

+1. I cannot believe anyone can operate a car sourcing business with random members of the public that do not commit financially beforehand. 

[justina3 518]

I don’t have enough time to source my own stock let alone run around for other people. 

[RhinoHorn 7]

9 hours ago, BHM said:

+1. I cannot believe anyone can operate a car sourcing business with random members of the public that do not commit financially beforehand. 

Well, we have. 

When we find the car, we send them the details via email, they look over them, pay us 10% of the car price before we've even physically seen the car.

We don't advertise, we get so many recommends, all of our customers totally buy in to the process. 

[metcars 397]

46 minutes ago, RhinoHorn said:

Well, we have. 

When we find the car, we send them the details via email, they look over them, pay us 10% of the car price before we've even physically seen the car.

We don't advertise, we get so many recommends, all of our customers totally buy in to the process. 

Bread & butter cars or something special?

[RhinoHorn 7]

We found and sold a Maserati at the start of the month but we've also done a Q5, Nissan Note, Mini Cooper, 1 series, T5 Transporter... Basically a bit of everything. Makes life interesting! And I get to drive all sorts of different cars.