davyK wrote:

Never mind the big toy car.....look at that pristine garage.

I have serious garage envy these days. I want to clean and paint mine but haven’t found the time yet. 

I wanted to really go to town on it and do an epoxy floor as well, but given that it’s in a pretty ropey barn building I know it’s not really worth investing the money in. The likelihood is that we’ll need to refurb or rebuild the barn in a few years anyway because it has an asbestos roof.

It’s already full of rats, might as well add badgers.

I just want to hang a big mirrorball in the barn. Is that so wrong?

Not sure if I've said it already, but would someone please get Jason Camissa in a room with Chris Harris

it would be pure gold, and I'd love it so much

Do not put egg whites in your radiator. If you want a temporary bodge, go buy a bottle of RadWeld which is an actual chemical product designed to do that thing. But be aware that it’s only a temporary fix and not good for your radiator in the long term - better to go get it repaired properly anyway. RadWeld and its ilk are grand if your car is an old banger you don’t care too much about - do not use in a decent modern motor.

Keep topping up the coolant/water in the meantime. Don’t let it drain too much.

Just had the same with my old Fiesta, hence the scoobydoo. As it turns out, took the Fiesta to a good mechanic, and he fixed it all up so it's running good as new. The mechanic we saw before getting the subaru did the temp fix above, and yeah, it just led to the second mechanic having to faff more to get things right. 

When the missus finally gets her licence we'll be a two car fam.

Definitely gonna take the scooby to this guy in sept when it's next service is due.

I'm working for webuyanycar nowadays, so thought I'd do a thing explaining the process for anyone that's thinking of using us.

It all starts with you putting your reg in online for a valuation. There's a bit on the website where you can enter any condition issues, like scuffed alloys, stone chips etc. I'd recommend being as honest as possible at this stage. If you don't enter any, our system has to assume your car is grade 1, mint/showroom condition, and gives the top market price.

Then you book an appointment. Please, please don't book the appointment if you don't plan on going. Or if you need to reschedule or cancel, you have to do it, we're not allowed to. Reason this is key (for me) is we're targeted on conversion - basically, how many of our appointments we buy. If you don't turn up, or if you turn up but don't sell, it goes against us, and can screw our bonus payments. Or, if you have a private reg, don't book until you've transferred the plate off and have the new v5 in hand. We can buy it with the private plate, but you'll never see it again. Trust me, when we see a private plate in the diary, we just think 'ah fuck. Another free appraisal'.

If you're going to the appointment, you NEED:

the v5

Your ID - drivers license is best, as long as it shows the same address as the v5. If not, passport plus a utility bill

Service history - normally a book, but in the case of Audi, mercedes and Mazda I think, you need to contact or go to a main dealer who'll print it off. There's no point saying 'but it's got full history!' if I can't see it, it doesn't have it. This impacts the value, can be quite significantly.

The spare key

The owner's manual.

FINANCE SETTLEMENT LETTER - has to be a physical letter, or a printable PDF. Can't accept a figure in the body of an email.

And another thing - if you're selling a van or pickup, YOU need to make sure the chassis stamp is visible. Not the sticker in the windshield, the physical stamp in the body of the car. I point this out because I spent a full hour with WD-40 and a wire brush trying to see the stamp on a Nissan Navara. Pain in the baws.

So, you turn up. My job is to provide a physical appraisal of the car as it sits on the day, and get as close to your online valuation as possible. I don't get paid more if I buy your car for less, I'm targeted on appointment conversion and grade matching. When I appraise your car, it gets graded from 1-6, and when it goes to auction, it gets graded again. So, if I say your car's a grade 3 and the auction says grade 5, I've fucked up. I go round the car panel by panel, and tell my tablet how each one is. Once I'm done, I show you everything I've found (the appraisal HAS to be done in your presence, if the buyer tries telling you different, he's fucking at it), and my system works out a repair cost, then deducts that from the online valuation. The way I explain it is, we're owned by British car auctions, and it's trade auctions, so if you were buying your car from Arnold Clark the following day, you'd point out all the items I've found and either want them repaired, or money off.

So, you get the valuation after the appraisal. Let's say online we offered you 10k, there's 1k of repair costs, so new valuation is 9k. It's not over at that point, we have flex. So, of the 1k repair costs, we can flex in a certain percentage, which varies from car to car, usually around 20 percent. Anything above that, up to around 30 percent, we have to phone our boss to see if they're willing to give it. They can see cap prices at auction etc, so know what the margins are, they purposely don't let us have access to that information.

So, happy with the price, all agreed, we'll take it from you there and then. Money wise, 4 working day payment is free, next working day is £24.75 and same day is £29.75, but that's not always available. And we don't know if it is or not until we get to the payment screen.

After you've sold it, we send you the invoice via email, we do the keeper change with the DVLA, and any outstanding tax will be refunded to you by them at the same time. The only thing you need to do that we can't do for you is cancel your insurance.

It is generally a painless process, provided you do actually want to sell, and have the necessary documents. If you're in a negative equity situation on your car, it's up to you to pay the balance, we can take that payment at the time.

Hopefully this is informative, based on how busy we are and how the company is growing, I imagine some of you have used or are thinking about using us at some point!

If there's no finance, the v5 is fine. Long as the address on that and your license match up, we're happy. Only exception is if you purchased it recently (think 3 months recent, not 100% sure offhand), then we'd need the original purchase invoice, just to prove you're not a motor trader trying to exploit a shift in the market.

We’re literally doing this in the next couple of days so thats all supper useful info HBJ!  If you weren’t 4 hours away I’d book in with you to get you moving towards the commission.

Cheers man.  It’s a pretty new car, so I’m not too worried about being chipped down on bits and pieces.  It’s worth what you guys will offer, I’m not fussed about negotiating over an extra hundred quid or whatever, and as long as it’s in the rough ball park of the valuation then I’m fully intending to leave it with them and then that’s it done.

I took in a 2005 M5 today, 96k on the clock. The normally aspirated V10 one. Paid just over 9k for it. I reckon that'll be a 20k car if you sit on it long enough.

That's a tough gig mate.

davyK wrote:

AYe.

My mate recently sold a convertable Mini Cooper to webuyanycar. He got it at auction is an ex-motability car (I know!).

Guy gave him starting valuation. It was immaculate. He used a gizmo to check it wasn't a respray as there wasn't a single scratch. Knowing my mate that's a bloody miracle.

Yeah, paint detective. Basically a wee magnet you stick on the panel and pull it off, where it breaks contact shows the depth of the paint.

Just had a customer there, who turned out to be the doctor that sent me packing while I was sitting in his office crying a couple of years ago because he didn't have time for me. Marked EVERY wee ding down on his car!!

Fuckin' A.

Just saw the stupid orange Paul walker Supra from the f&f films sold for $550000 at Barret Jackson.