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TheSTEVEDAQ
http://20six.co.uk/thestevedaq
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A Shake Of The Head...
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Anecdote
Last week I went to pick up a Clio 182 from a 'Prestige Car Dealer' Yep, the place as bristling with well overpriced bland and tasteless Mercs and BMWs mainly X5. A few Porsches made up the mix, but only one was worth having. Because I was 'trade' I had to wait while the sales exec who had sold me the car finished with his customer. I could overhear the conversation. The customer could not get a word in edgeways. " Yeah, we sell everything from here (Portakabin style offices at the edge of a car lot) Oi, Billy, when is that 55 plate Galardo coming in....how much is it? How much was that DB9 Convertible again...109? We sell cars anyhing upwards of £120 Grand...Bentleys, Ferraris ..Nothing at all about the £12000 worth of p/x Audi TT Convertible the guy was interested in. The 'salesman' wasn't exactly ecstatic about appraising the guys MGF either." Once he had blown he guy away because he wasn't going to buy something over £100K he finally presented the 'One owner mint every option on it 182' Needless to say it was s*** plenty of undescribed damage and even still had the previous owner's baseball cap (dirty) and kids bib (mouldy) on the passenger seat. Charming. What really disgusted me though was that the heathen previous owner had replaced the Exaltos with cheap Korean crap. "We wouldn't bother retailing this because we don't sell anything with less than four grand across it" to which my resonse was..."I'm pleased you're making plenty of money because you've completely misdescribed this one to me and I don't want it". I got a lift home from the friend who took me up. (Via Morrison's in Dagenham where we had an all day breakfast). Class day out.
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Always something to bite you in the arse.
Nearly the end of January and marching towards my self-imposed gross profit target. A lot of work moving stock around but all going well. The phone rings, not once but three times in quick succession.
First up. Car I just dropped off at a dealer, nice nearly new Renault Clio 182 with the Cup wheels and spoilers. One owner and only 16000 miles. Er no, sorry, turns out it had a speedo change at 7000 miles so it's done 23000 miles. With a dodgy mileage it's also far more difficult to sell. The thought goes through my mind that it will be bouncing right back to me until unprompted the dealer offers to keep it for five hundred pounds less (a remarkably generous offer). I call the previous owner (22 year-old small boy purchasing consultant with strange work ethic) who denies any knowledge of the offending instrument panel - yaya, so you didn't notice the mileage had been zeroed? Anyway, after an overnight deliberation he's going to cough up the five hundred and keep the deal in bed.
Secondly, a call from my insurers, the Aston Martin DB7 that's on my insurance and all agreed prior to the agreement, is now not covered. The underwriters have had second thoughts and want to charge an additional premium. Or AP as the caller so casually put it. I didn't even ask what the throw-away AP was going to cost, because unless I really cannot get away with it I am not paying it. It's bloody extortion to hold me to ransom when they now that now I've gone this far down the road with them I am hardly going to go elsewhere. It was hard enough getting coverage for my shared access compound as it was. Which by the way is so fortified that it makes my cars the most expensively insured stock in Southern England. The result is that so far, no return call from them. Either they won't call (wishful thinking) or they are brewing up an excuse to extract even more money from me. The most galling thing is that the Aston isn't even that quick anyway! A Mitsubishi Evo 8 would blow it into the weeds.
Third, a call from Mrs C to inform me that a cheapie I had bought unseen had just been delivered and was, er well, living up to it's price-tag. Without going into the details, you should be able to buy trade to trade unseen on an accurate description. That's the way of the world. If you get sold a pup you just don't deal with them again. In this case I'll definitely argue for a couple of hundred quid to cover the damage not described, probably to no avail. I'm not holding my breath. Underneath the dirt and salt lies a reasonable two owner car with acceptable history. A good valet and some body prep and it may not be so bad.
So, back to my ironic catchphrase. Four wheels to a fortune? Of course you are joking. All this stuff becomes part of a regular days work, who would be self-employed!
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So, are you in the trade or not?
It never ceases to amaze me how shameless some people can be when making an offer for something you have for sale. It's particularly apparent now I'm trying to buy and SELL valuable commodities for a self-employed living. To buy stock I place adverts that cost around £400 a month, certain cars get offered about twice a year, so due to rarity and you would hope desirability, you're entitled to price them at the high end of what you would expect. Unfortunately for every genuine enquirer you'll get a dozen idiots who offer you less than trade as if they are doing you a favour. Before you imagine that there's an ethnic trend evident, there's not.
It's the same with cars offered in part-exchange. Do they think I was born yesterday? You can guarantee that any offer of a part-exchange is followed by a valuation of their own car that would leave me a couple of thousand out of pocket once we had picked the bones out of the deal.
This 'human nature' is also evident in the trade whereby I have priced a car for a dealer using my specialist knowledge, generally on a Saturday afternoon at 5.45pm (where else are you going to get that information?) for them to successfully conclude a deal with said Mr Customer. A while later get the call to say the car is due in and it's "Down to me". Then it all goes quiet. You JUST KNOW that some clever bastard Sales Manager has sold the car for a few extra quid to a trader whose just calling speculatively. This happened last week with a car that I had priced (and also pre-sold to a dealer) and offered particularly specialist advice over. Having told me it was mine, they sold it for another £100. Yes, £100. Of course I let my feelings known in a burst of telephone disdain in that if they were going to sell it from under me thay might have at least made £500 more!
So, I spend a fortune annually and make myself available to answer the phone to price cars 24/7, I'll also have to budget to ensure that the cars I do price I can actually pay for when they arrive. Unfortunately at this end of the trade all you can do is not deal with them again, but that doesn't make up for the stock you turn down due to the fact that your money is committed to something that's never going to come!
I suppose the title should be, 'Is it worth being in the trade or not?' Watch this space for an answer!
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Four Wheels To A Fortune
This has kinda replaced the auction updates. But here's another one on the virtual pitch. Quite a good looking piece of kit for the money, and recall having about ten of these when they were new as demos. Has lots of toys, fingers xx'd for a speedy sale.
A snip at £1695, anything else down the lock-up Terrence?
Notice I take all my pics outside a neighbours house, in the same position. No OCD honest guv!
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Four wheels to a fortune...
I forget how many times I've made that comment, so let's call it Four Wheels To A Fortune (Part 15) Here's the result of a few hours labour today out in the sun.
£3295 of your English Pounds worth of Renault Clio Grande
Note the artful use of the two best wheel trims while I await a new set 
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Pimped
Here's a car that caught my attention today. Your opportunity to be Kimi Raikonnen at the lights. A Mercedes-Benz A210 LWB Evolution - what you might call a 'Factory Pimped' A Class Merc with AMG styling. Finished in Silver just like the picture, nice 17" alloys, twin chrome tailpipes and privacy glass. These appear to have huge spec and I wished I'd looked up the car on the net before the sale. They are a staggering £22000 new! This one, with the £900 optional 'Colour Concept' leather seats had covered 29000 miles by one owner, recently serviced by MB it sold for £8600. You might call it a bargain entry into the exclusive AMG Owners Club. The engine, already 2.1 litres and 140bhp must have some tunability to make it more of a wolf in wolf's clothing. Certainly, with the initial depreciation catered for, this would make a great second car for less than the price of a new 1.6 Fiesta 5 door hatch.
'Pimp My Ride' Mr Benz
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And Now For Something Completely Different
At last, and it's been over a month since something different worth commenting on rolled into my sale, an early example 2001 Lotus Exige. Minimalism on wheels with a power to weight ratio to die for, you see these more often in computer games than you do on the road. Admittedly, plenty of Lotus Elise out there, but the hard top Exige version is a rarity.
Very clean in the metallic gunmetal colour, regretably without the optional air-conditioning, having travelled, albeit very quickly, twenty-two thousand miles. As is normal for a niche car, it's already had four owners. A toughie to value. Books at £14700 which is about half it's cost new three years ago. It's one of those situations where some research in the car mags would give you a clue where to pitch this car retail, but I'd say the owners don't help, but not an insurmountable problem. Odds on there will be a part-exchange with as many, so not a lot of explanation required there.
Bidding begins at twelve and a half, tapers off at fourteen and hammer down at fourteen-two-fifty. It's new owner should be attracted by the sixteen thou price tag and will most likely run it on Sundays or track days for six months before trading to something like a highly strung Mitsubishi Evo or Subaru Impreza.
Hopefully something as interesting in nexts weeks raffle.
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