Idiot car buyers - a rant

[pjs]

Only been a year since I sold a car on Autotrader, but the increase in the amounts of idiots who cant even speak properly is getting on my tytz.

Plenty calls for my c203k, but questions like "is it petrol or diesel", "what does it do to the gallon?", "is it a nice colour?" are just a few of the ones I could understand. + the old favourite "what will you take for cash?" - like I'll trade in bags of grain or their daughters

Would be nice if it went to someone who knows their mercs

If it doesnt go this week, I'll be having it for a another year

 

[jaymanek]

try my job for a day!

 

[Big_Jon]

Only been a year since I sold a car on Autotrader, but the increase in the amounts of idiots who cant even speak properly is getting on my tytz.

Plenty calls for my c203k, but questions like "is it petrol or diesel", "what does it do to the gallon?", "is it a nice colour?" are just a few of the ones I could understand. + the old favourite "what will you take for cash?" - like I'll trade in bags of grain or their daughters

Would be nice if it went to someone who knows their mercs

If it doesnt go this week, I'll be having it for a another year

Try doing it for a living mate!

We get so many idiots its unbelievable. I regular get offers of £2500 on £6000 cars and the like.

This week we had a call on a car we have here, it is priced at trade money nearly and is low mileage, rare as hell and totally immaculate. The car is £9k and I had an "offer" of £5000.

I really do get the **** with these people, last saturday I literally told a bloke to F-Off from our site, he came in on a new-shape Octavia 2.0TDI with 60k, Full Skoda History, Leather, Everything. It is the cheapest in the country at £6995 at present, the nearest is a 90,000 miler at £7495.

Anyway, the guy was an arrogant git, said he liked the car but then said "I aint paying that though, I read the papers and I know youre desperate to deal"

I offered to show him the prices of others and he said "Im not effing interested in that, all I want to know is what Im getting off."

I then said that I didnt want him as a customer with that attitude, he said he didnt want to buy my stupid car anyway and then, he approached another customer on site and told them not to buy a car from us as our cars are rip-off prices. At this point the F-Off moment came.

I just get this so often, I have people trying to p/x cars that are scrap that they think are worth fortunes, I have boy-racers wanting to drive anything lairy and I have people who expect a £995 p/x to clear to be as new.

It really does wind me up.

 

[jaymanek]

i tell you the people who wind me up at the minute:

The "its a credit crunch and we expect cars for nothing" people..

I just cant entertain these know it all's...

When we tell them we are the busiest we have ever been, they accuse us of lying!

Customers - cant live with em cant live without em.

 

[James Rothwell]

You should try doing it for a living for a main dealer with 2 franchises!!

You get some proper morons come in and want 40% off a new car because we are apparently desperate even though I've got 2 people waiting for me to be free, and then we finally agree a half sensible price for the new car so that I don't loose money and it will just about break even, customer then introduces part exchange and of course it turns out to be a proper piece of junk P-plated Vectra done 130k worth nothing even the MOT runs out in 3 weeks but as a gesture of good will he can keep the 5 months tax left and I offer him £100 for it. Find out he reckons it's worth £1,500.

Where the hell does he get information to suggest he is going to get £1,500 for it!!!???!

ARRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!!

 

[gina2201]

For every normal buyer there's probably about 5 idiots....! Or tryers!

 

[Deleted member 6183]

No offence meant but dealers are just as happy to want to 'manage my expectations' of part exchange values.

Always 2 sides to every coin but the moral of the story?

Treat people properly and no one gets the hump!

 

[Big_Jon]

i tell you the people who wind me up at the minute:

The "its a credit crunch and we expect cars for nothing" people..

I just cant entertain these know it all's...

When we tell them we are the busiest we have ever been, they accuse us of lying!

Customers - cant live with em cant live without em.

I know EXACTLY where you are coming from mate.

I just sold a 2001 Zetec-S fiesta in performance blue, done 62k with Full Ford SH. Stuck it up at £2695 including major service (cam-belt), years test, hpi, 3 months warranty and valet.

They were going for £2995 with 90k+ on the trader, I had a list of phone numbers waiting for the car to come into stock and people were bidding me £1500, £2000 and so on on the car.

I sold it for £2695 to the 1st guy who looked at it and could have sold it 20 times over, yet there were still the divs who thought they would buy it for no money.

The used market is good, nice and busy and stock prices are high, went to auction wednesday and had "privates" coming up and asking me what cars were worth as I have a guide. One couple were looking at an 02-plate mondeo tdci Ghia-x that had done 61,000 Miles. They asked me how it booked, I asked them what they thought they would pay and they said £800!!! The public genuinely do belive that a £2995 car on the front is about a grand at the auction.

 

[scumbag]

. One couple were looking at an 02-plate mondeo tdci Ghia-x that had done 61,000 Miles. They asked me how it booked, I asked them what they thought they would pay and they said £800!!! .

I hope you helped them get it for the 60p it was really worth.

7 year old FORD, still working

 

[Big_Jon]

Got to love a mondildo ( nickname because they F*** you) as they are still a winner in terms of saleability.

If only they didnt have the DM-Flywheel and injector woes I would be smoking one.

 

[The G.F.P]

well the first sign of madness is buying a car from a dealer

then again if they no nothing about cars then i suppose thats why they come to dealers (stealers)

every car ive bought has been 2nd hand (except the 2 new ones which try as i might i would not get 2nd hand)

if i buy a car for £5,000 it would be £6,000 as a stealer

 

[Big_Jon]

well the first sign of madness is buying a car from a dealer

then again if they no nothing about cars then i suppose thats why they come to dealers (stealers)

every car ive bought has been 2nd hand (except the 2 new ones which try as i might i would not get 2nd hand)

if i buy a car for £5,000 it would be £6,000 as a stealer

Everyone has to make a living!

The extra money people pay at a dealer is for peace of mind, TBH I love it when I hear tales of people who buy privately and end up with money-pits, badly repaired salvage, stolen recovered cars but the thing I love most is when a private buys something at auction that blows up on the way home.

If you buy a car privately will it be 1) Fully serviced before collection to main-dealer standards, 2) will you be provided with a HPI certificate, 3) Will the car be fully valeted, 4) Will you get a comprehensive parts and labour guarantee, 5) Do you have any rights under the sale of goods act.

To the majority of the above it is no.

 

[ackee911]

Everyone has to make a living!

The extra money people pay at a dealer is for peace of mind, TBH I love it when I hear tales of people who buy privately and end up with money-pits, badly repaired salvage, stolen recovered cars but the thing I love most is when a private buys something at auction that blows up on the way home.

If you buy a car privately will it be 1) Fully serviced before collection to main-dealer standards, 2) will you be provided with a HPI certificate, 3) Will the car be fully valeted, 4) Will you get a comprehensive parts and labour guarantee, 5) Do you have any rights under the sale of goods act.

To the majority of the above it is no.

I agree 100%. The purpose of buying a car from a dealer is for piece of mind. Anything goes wrong, you go straight back. If you buy privately or from an auction, its a risk-no matter how you look at it.

So yes, I would rather pay the extra for piece of mind. Its like roadside assistance. My uncle has had AA membership for over 30 years and not used it once, until last year....

 

[Big_Jon]

I agree 100%. The purpose of buying a car from a dealer is for piece of mind. Anything goes wrong, you go straight back. If you buy privately or from an auction, its a risk-no matter how you look at it.

So yes, I would rather pay the extra for piece of mind. Its like roadside assistance. My uncle has had AA membership for over 30 years and not used it once, until last year....

This is why I dont buy cars from auction for friends or family.

If I havent got what they want, I send them to a dealer I know and trust as peace of mind is important as after a house, a car is in the majority, the 2nd biggest purchase someone will ever make.

I have no time for sob-stories (I hear them all the time) about people who bought a car that turned out to be a wrongun.

I recently took an old 5-series in chop, the guy bought it privately in 2003, when I HPI checked the car as part of the appraisal it came up as a Cat-C so instead of giving him £1200 p/x, he got £500 and was shocked and gutted.

 

[nick mercedes]

well the first sign of madness is buying a car from a dealer

Biggest dealer sin is advertising cars that have long sold.

Went to buy this 2 weeks ago:

http://www.mja-cars.co.uk/vandetails/vauxhall/vivaro_lwb_diesel_with_ply_lining/5946027.aspx

Only to be told it had long been sold and there was no more in stock.

Yet here it is still on the website...

 

[Deleted member 11979]

The sad part is that so many dealers don't provide a good service, cars unchecked, badly prepared and badly described. Also really supsrises me how many don't have any product knowledge too!

But good ones provuide a service which we should allow them to make a profit on, I suppose even they buy bad cars that end up costing them a fortune, as wel las good ones which make them a tidy profit.

 

[Dieselman]

My uncle has had AA membership for over 30 years and not used it once, until last year....

He'd have been better taking the risk. Using todays prices, 30 years membership is £3,000. That's an expensive recovery.

 

[Dieselman]

If you buy a car privately will it be 1) Fully serviced before collection to main-dealer standards, 2) will you be provided with a HPI certificate, 3) Will the car be fully valeted, 4) Will you get a comprehensive parts and labour guarantee, 5) Do you have any rights under the sale of goods act.

To the majority of the above it is no.

Unless you're a canny buyer.
Mrs Dm's car was a private purchase still under Manf Warranty, just had first service.
I drove it, checked it and ran my own HPi check (which the buyer themselves has to do for the indemnity cover), negotiated and paid up the outstanding finance instead of letting the owner.

The best bit is we got the car for less than the local dealer would've given trade...

 

[jaymanek]

You should always call first!

 

[Sp!ke]

From a buyers perspective, I have to say there are some idiot sellers as well.

I've been hunting for an SL recently and more often than not, the car wasnt as described. Tatty cars advertised as immaculate. Cars in dire need of a service of to have mechanical aspects fixed. Some dealers with prices so far off the mark they will never ever sell (like +50% more than other dealers). Full service history claims that transpired to be nothing of the sort.

One so called dealer was using the trading address of another car dealership in his adverts and then went through a real song and dance at viewing time, saying he had just moved and supplying a non existant post code before then offereing to meet me at the pub carpark at the end of the road.


I have to say, its not proving to be an easy task finding a nice late facelift SL500 for sensible money.