Charging for fuel

[CRW 73]

Cant see how this would help in anyway to generate a sale, just a total negative from the off.

If on occasion the light has been on, I complete the deal, then dig a £10 or £20 note out of my own wallet and hand it to them and apologise for not having had a chance to top the fuel up.  When they see you are handing your own personal money out it has a more positive effect than saying "Ive just put a tenner in it for you" - all comes from the same pot.

[Casper 272]

5 minutes ago, CRW said:

Cant see how this would help in anyway to generate a sale, just a total negative from the off.

If on occasion the light has been on, I complete the deal, then dig a £10 or £20 note out of my own wallet and hand it to them and apologise for not having had a chance to top the fuel up.  When they see you are handing your own personal money out it has a more positive effect than saying "Ive just put a tenner in it for you" - all comes from the same pot.

Done both like you say it has a more personal and postive touch handing money from your wallet either that or as you say we put £10-£15 in at the pump normally when we do it it doesn't come up in conversation unless the customer asks .. 

[Tony911 79]

We have a car in stock which came with a full tank of petrol in it and I can assure you the customer will not get a penny off as its a cracking car with good history full mot and bonus its got a full tank. Can't ever imagine us saying oh its an extra £50 for the fuel in it

[Casper 272]

5 hours ago, Tony911 said:

We have a car in stock which came with a full tank of petrol in it and I can assure you the customer will not get a penny off as its a cracking car with good history full mot and bonus its got a full tank. Can't ever imagine us saying oh its an extra £50 for the fuel in it

As you say add it into your pricing . Can you imagine from a customer point of view if you said oh it is such and such a price but an extra £50 for the fuel in tank 

from the customer point of view id rather deal with some one like you or me who includes it and would probably walk at the suggestion of being charged for it .. 

[It's me 615]

14 hours ago, Tony911 said:

We have a car in stock which came with a full tank of petrol in it and I can assure you the customer will not get a penny off as its a cracking car with good history full mot and bonus its got a full tank. Can't ever imagine us saying oh its an extra £50 for the fuel in it

ha,i did that with a citroen c1 3 weeks ago and it came back on a recovery truck,the sender unit was broke so it showed full all the time

and ive run out of petrol in p/x zes before now showing loads of petrol when there wasnt none any

so best to keep ones gob shut innit

Edited September 18, 2020 by It's me

[Tony911 79]

15 minutes ago, It's me said:

ha,i did that with a citroen c1 3 weeks ago and it came back on a recovery truck,the sender unit was broke so it showed full all the time

and ive run out of petrol in p/x zes before now showing loads of petrol when there wasnt none any

so best to keep ones gob shut innit

Difference is ours is a mercedes and not a citroen

[David Horgan 564]

15 hours ago, Tony911 said:

We have a car in stock which came with a full tank of petrol in it

Jerry can and a syphon out the sender hatch lol or trade plates and test it works till its nearly gone 

[Casper 272]

26 minutes ago, David Horgan said:

Jerry can and a syphon out the sender hatch lol or trade plates and test it works till its nearly gone 

Haha great minds think alike was going to say run it for a week lol  

[Tony911 79]

54 minutes ago, David Horgan said:

Jerry can and a syphon out the sender hatch lol or trade plates and test it works till its nearly gone 

Lol. We will take our chances. Interesting topic though because if it did come down to dealers charging for fuel im sure it wouldn't be long before the auction houses jumped on the band wagon and started charging for the fuel in the car. Wonder what op thinks about that

[andymc1973 199]

boils my piss when some dealers hand a car over with the light on the red

[Casper 272]

8 minutes ago, Tony911 said:

Lol. We will take our chances. Interesting topic though because if it did come down to dealers charging for fuel im sure it wouldn't be long before the auction houses jumped on the band wagon and started charging for the fuel in the car. Wonder what op thinks about that

Some of the big main dealers do charge for fuel around £15 pound as i said previously i know of one that charges even to do an hpi check from a customer point of view i don't i wont to buy from them or id be asking for it in the price  .

think the problem is they hide In the paper work and many customers wouldn't know or even check before signing  ..

[Rory RSC 596]

5 hours ago, andymc1973 said:

boils my piss when some dealers hand a car over with the light on the red

We are pretty bad for it tbh. The guys that do pics / video / drive them back etc just never put any fuel in . Always find it a bit awkward when the fuel lights on.

[Dave2302 387]

I'll tell ya wot boils my piss is when a customer brings a car in for work, often complex engine or running gear issues that need a lot of road testing, and the bastard light is on .................

I take 'em straight up our filling station, stick £50 in the fucker and add that onto my repair invoice with a photo copy of the receipt from petrol station

[XDR 15]

On 9/16/2020 at 11:13 AM, BIGNIT said:

Anyone charge for the fuel in the tank.

I always make sure cars have 1/4 tank of fuel in and sometimes we get cars with 3/4 even occasional full tank.

Thinking about charging (at pump prices) for the fuel in the tank.

If I claw in on average say £15 per car and sell 20 cars a month that makes me better off by £3600 a year.

Anybody tried this?

How have customers reacted?

Seems a shame to lose a sale for £15 worth of fuel.... not the best first impression, that you’d want to give a customer
 

Just make your margin in the metal and put your energy / effort on to the next one 

[BHM 994]

With cheapie punters from my experience there are generally three things that sour punters when looking at a car (although old 4x4 buyers are more realistic).

1) A reference to corrosion on the MOT.

2) A reference to an oil leak on the MOT.

3) The fuel light on at the start of the test drive. It’s ok if it illuminates on the test drive but if it’s on when they first sit in it they start whining like the rear diff on an old Vauxhall Carlton.

(If selling a small car with 1, 2 & 3 you’ll have it ‘til the day you die ).

Edited September 18, 2020 by BHM

[MarkTVS 209]

18 hours ago, Dave2302 said:

I'll tell ya wot boils my piss is when a customer brings a car in for work, often complex engine or running gear issues that need a lot of road testing, and the bastard light is on .................

I take 'em straight up our filling station, stick £50 in the fucker and add that onto my repair invoice with a photo copy of the receipt from petrol station

I had this last week Dave, a customer with a Bmw x35D brought it in for a juddering on gear change when full throttle from standstill and lack of boost from first turbo, Started with a 26 mile range after a few attempts to replicate the fault i was down to a zero range. It infuriates me, it’s not the having to put fuel in it’s the time it takes to do so, ten minute drive then ten minutes drive back and ten minutes to wait in the que as it’s an m&s garage so always people doing their weekly shop. I feel like adding .5 hours labour to their bill for my inconvenience.

x5 turned out to be a poor remap issue, reflashed it to original and it’s all good.

[Dave2302 387]

Exactly that Mark, to be fair a lot of my Customers do apologise if they realise there wasn't a lot of fuel when they see the bill

Oh man, them bloody remaps, I've recently had a bunch of Diesel Mercs with all sorts of issues, like trans shifts, cooling fans, ABS / ESP issues etc, I think there is some new twat in Inverness area doing 'em 

I'm certain some of these twats just buy a Chinesium KTag and then think they are a pro remapper 'cos they did their old Astra with it 

Edited September 19, 2020 by Dave2302

[BHM 994]

What puzzles me is why people think that some fella with an obd & a laptop is far better at programming the ECU than the manufacturers who invest tens & hundreds of millions in R&D. Some of these characters then deciding to promote themselves to pro-status & adjusting the fuel-air ratios must be responsible for fucking a few engines.

Edited September 20, 2020 by BHM

[Frank Cannon 812]

1 hour ago, BHM said:

What puzzles me is why people think that some fella with an obd & a laptop is far better at programming the ECU than the manufacturers who invest tens & hundreds of millions in R&D. Some of these characters then deciding to promote themselves to pro-status & adjusting the fuel-air ratios must be responsible for fucking a few engines.

Exactly. 

[have a word with the wife 299]

On 9/16/2020 at 12:31 PM, Highlinev8 said:

Have you thought about an extra 20p for air in the tyres ?

10p for making sure washer bottle is to top,

5p for the tie clips on wheel trims (each )

Car pointing right way round on collection 50p 

This time next year rodders  

[Casper 272]

46 minutes ago, have a word with the wife said:

10p for making sure washer bottle is to top,

5p for the tie clips on wheel trims (each )

Car pointing right way round on collection 50p 

This time next year rodders  

Every time i put a car into one of the local mot stations years back for a service he charged £2 for a screen-wash top up as an experiment one day i filled it up before i sent the car in to him you guessed it £2 screen wash top didn't have the heart to tell him id already done it 

[Frank Cannon 812]

I should charge for parcel shelfs....seems to be an optional extra lately......as always comes in threes

[BHM 994]

1 hour ago, Frank Cannon said:

I should charge for parcel shelfs....seems to be an optional extra lately......as always comes in threes

I’ve often said the ones we buy on eBay are probably the exact same ones stolen from the cars 

[Dave2302 387]

/\ /\ /\ This

I know an English fella bought a derelict house off the beaten track in the NW Highlands, close to me, it's Ballachulish Slate Roof was perfect tho ...............

By the time the sale had gone through and he came to start restoring it, all the Slates had mysteriously been stolen from the Roof, so he set up his Static Caravan, and started the rebuild .................

 

Yep, you guessed it, a couple of weeks after he arrived a local Builder just happened to have a surplus of these Slates, "I've got enough to do that roof buddy" ................

He sold 'em to the fella for £2k

Edited September 21, 2020 by Dave2302

[Scooby who 41]

Every car I buy seems to be more or less running on air, no matter where I buy.

Every car we prep gets at least 50 quid of fuel to cover our testing, drying after valet (its that time of year again) test driving and run to MOT centre. Hopefully its near enough half when customer drives away. I think anything less is down right mean looking.

When we point out to some its got a half tank of fuel its met with.......... 'what about the other half''?!

Cant win!