Ask a car salesman anything...anything at all.

[cuprabob]

R.Sole said:

Advice needed please.
How can you take off a private plate and sell a car in the shortest time as I have a buyer wanting to come on Saturday and drive away but DVLA say 4-6 weeks for V5 so how could he tax vehicle?

Quickest way is to put it on retention online. The new V5 will probably only take a few days to arrive. DVLA quote worse case to prevent people hassling them.

[Fast Bug]

ikonic said:

This thread just keeps on delivering. I check every so often and its a fascinating insight into the industry so thanks to all the contributors.

Can I ask a genuine question from the perpective of a work situation that has cropped up (for an organisation that has never dealt with fleets before).

If we were in the market to purchase 1000s of vehicles (potentially 10s of thousands), should we be speaking to a fleet manager at a dealership or would we be better off going direct to a manufacturer?

If the latter, who would this be? Presume customer services would just push us to a dealer?

If you're looking to buy 1000's of vehicles then you should be speaking to the manufacturer directly. Although a good fleet person should have already introduced you, although depending on the manufacturer they may decide to make you a direct supply customer. A decent fleet dealer can handle the volume and usually offer a better service IMO.

What are you looking to buy, or is it a hypothetical question?

[Butter Face]

R.Sole said:

Advice needed please.
How can you take off a private plate and sell a car in the shortest time as I have a buyer wanting to come on Saturday and drive away but DVLA say 4-6 weeks for V5 so how could he tax vehicle?

The short answer is: he can’t.

The car will remain taxed until you have the ownership changed to him, which you’ll need the V5 for. He may be happy to take the car, you call when you get the V5, transfer ownership then and he taxes it. Best practice is really not to let the car go until you’ve got the V5, 4-6 weeks is worst case, mostly it’s around a week.

[Edible Roadkill]

Dealership website out of hours ‘live chat’....sometimes pops up on autotrader also.

Who am I actually speaking to? I imagine some minimum wage bored fat housewife with an iPad sat watching soaps and eating crisps.

“Sharon from the dealership has joined the conversation”

Hi Sharron, can you tell me whether car xyz is available?

Sharron - yes it is.

Ah perfect can you have a look at abc’s diary and tell me whether he will be in tomorrow so I can call him in the morning.

Sharron - uhm we are not actually based in the dealership. Can I help you with anything else.

No that’s fine Sharron you have a great evening

[R.Sole]

Butter Face said:

R.Sole said:

Advice needed please.
How can you take off a private plate and sell a car in the shortest time as I have a buyer wanting to come on Saturday and drive away but DVLA say 4-6 weeks for V5 so how could he tax vehicle?

The short answer is: he can’t.

The car will remain taxed until you have the ownership changed to him, which you’ll need the V5 for. He may be happy to take the car, you call when you get the V5, transfer ownership then and he taxes it. Best practice is really not to let the car go until you’ve got the V5, 4-6 weeks is worst case, mostly it’s around a week.

Cheers.

[Butter Face]

Edible Roadkill said:

Dealership website out of hours ‘live chat’....sometimes pops up on autotrader also.

Who am I actually speaking to? I imagine some minimum wage bored fat housewife with an iPad sat watching soaps and eating crisps.

“Sharon from the dealership has joined the conversation”

Hi Sharron, can you tell me whether car xyz is available?

Sharron - yes it is.

Ah perfect can you have a look at abc’s diary and tell me whether he will be in tomorrow so I can call him in the morning.

Sharron - uhm we are not actually based in the dealership. Can I help you with anything else.

No that’s fine Sharron you have a great evening

Just a call centre type affair, there to take the enquiry and pass it along tomorrow.

Or you get an actual car salesman like me who’s answering emails at 11pm at home and people don’t believe it’s real

[Mexman]

Butter Face said:

Just a call centre type affair, there to take the enquiry and pass it along tomorrow.

Or you get an actual car salesman like me who’s answering emails at 11pm at home and people don’t believe it’s real

Hard to believe, you don't answer them between 9 and 5 half the time.

[Algarve]

Edible Roadkill said:

Ah perfect can you have a look at abc’s diary and tell me whether he will be in tomorrow so I can call him in the morning.

Sharron - uhm we are not actually based in the dealership. Can I help you with anything else.

No that’s fine Sharron you have a great evening

I'd be a very simple process for someone in Delhi to have access to the dealers working schedule, appointments and so on.

[HTP99]

Mexman said:

Butter Face said:

Just a call centre type affair, there to take the enquiry and pass it along tomorrow.

Or you get an actual car salesman like me who’s answering emails at 11pm at home and people don’t believe it’s real

Hard to believe, you don't answer them between 9 and 5 half the time.

These chat things that are linked to a central contact centre are completely useless, I was doing some research a few days ago and just wanted a quick and easy answer to a finance question on a specific car, they wouldn't/couldn't answer it and kept on saying they will refer me to a branch, I got a bit forceful and in the end the person just said they were in a central contact centre, only a branch could answer the question and they would get someone to call me.

[Butter Face]

Mexman said:

Butter Face said:

Just a call centre type affair, there to take the enquiry and pass it along tomorrow.

Or you get an actual car salesman like me who’s answering emails at 11pm at home and people don’t believe it’s real

Hard to believe, you don't answer them between 9 and 5 half the time.

Too busy selling mate

[Edible Roadkill]

Butterface you sound a much better salesman than the one I am trying to deal with.

Follow up email accepting price agreed and asking for clarification on warranty unanswered since Sunday morning.

[Butter Face]

Edible Roadkill said:

Butterface you sound a much better salesman than the one I am trying to deal with.

Follow up email accepting price agreed and asking for clarification on warranty unanswered since Sunday morning.

Must be selling too many cars

If someone emails me accepting a deal, they’re getting an email or a call to give me some money and get cracking!

[Fast Bug]

I've been sending a few emails whilst sat by the pool today. I've a few big deals bubbling away so cant afford to not be available for a week or so.

[Mexman]

Butter Face said:

Too busy selling mate

Hey, I was i in work at 06.50 this morning as I knew I would walk in to 10 phone messages and 20 emails and I was right.
(OK slight exaggeration) after the 2 day bank holiday.
3 sold today and 3 handovers.
Finally got out after my last hand over at 6pm, fooking knackered.
Swift half on the way home, I'm having it away this month, but so many handovers to organise, its painful.
Supposed to be on a couple of days off end of this week, but can't see it happening, too much on.
Hey-ho

Edited by Mexman on Tuesday 27th August 20:20

[Butter Face]

I knew you were in early doors, 7.21 I think the first order was on the board!!

I’ve been in all weekend, 6 used and a new Celerio too!

[Mexman]

29 for the month for me personally, was 30 but had one fall out of bed this morning.
Apparently the buyer has lost his job inbetween Saturday afternoon, (when he had 2 hours of my life when I was mentally busy) and first thing this morning.
Total bullst as we all know, but what can you do?

[DSLiverpool]

Prep costs on used sales, fixed per car or % of selling price?

The most I can work out that’s been spent on a car I have bought was about 15% or £3.5k which I was very impressed with. (They still welched on a diff oil change)

[Butter Face]

Totally depends on what each car needs, just sold a Megane that needed two tyres when sold. Previous customer spent £1200 on a service, cambelt, brakes all round and 2 tyres inn December then traded it in. Nicely done.

Sold another (much newer) car that needed £600 paint, £300 wheels refurbs, brakes, tyres etc etc.

[HTP99]

DSLiverpool said:

Prep costs on used sales, fixed per car or % of selling price?

The most I can work out that’s been spent on a car I have bought was about 15% or £3.5k which I was very impressed with. (They still welched on a diff oil change)

When it comes to prep and costs, I'm always reminded of a Red Avantime V6 (fantastic cars) which I sold many, many years ago to a woman with the surname; Rainbow.

My sales Director who bought it, was very proud of picking it up at a good price and putting a £4k margin across it.

A discount was asked for but not given, however we assured Mrs. Rainbow that it would be impeccably prepped.

amongst the full service and cambelt; engine out and whilst it's out, may as well do the spark plugs and a few other bits; the printout of what was done, came to about 5 full pages and the total cost came to just under £4k!

We made not a penny on it.

[Countdown]

HTP99 said:

amongst the full service and cambelt; engine out and whilst it's out, may as well do the spark plugs and a few other bits; the printout of what was done, came to about 5 full pages and the total cost came to just under £4k!

We made not a penny on it.

Would you not have known the total cost of prep beforehand and therefore been tempted to skimp on something just to give yourselves a bit of a profit? Eg maybe not do the spark plugs or something?