| Title: | Cars in the UK |
| Notice: | Please read new conference charter 1.70 |
| Moderator: | COMICS::SHELLEY ELD |
| Created: | Sun Mar 06 1994 |
| Last Modified: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Last Successful Update: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Number of topics: | 2584 |
| Total number of notes: | 63384 |
I'm entering this on behalf of a friend of mine.
He is selling his Cavalier and advertised it in the local rag and the
main evening rag, the Belfast Telegraph. Next thing he gets a call
from a company called Motorlink (sp?) in Wales who have seen his advert
and would like him to advertise with them.
Basically they are trying to put buyers in touch with sellers. They
charge a fee of #49.50 to the seller unless the buyer agrees to take
one of their financing packages to pay for the car - I assume they then
make their money via the interest charges. If the car is unsold via
their books after one week, they will then at their expense advertise
in one of the main local papers. Their fee of #49.50 only becomes
payable at the end of 28 days whether the car is sold or not.
( If the car is still unsold after 14 days, he gets hotel vouchers for
accomodation for 2 for one week)
All of this sounds a bit too good to be true so I am looking for the
catch. Has anyone any experience of this company - are they reputible
and reliable, do they deliver buyers, etc??? I'd be grateful to hear
of any experiences.
For what its worth, he has signed up with them - it cost #39.00 for the
newspaper adverts with very little response so its only a tenner more
to have them try to find a buyer.
Cheers,
Ger.
| T.R | Title | User | Personal Name | Date | Lines |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1766.1 | Catch 1 | PLAYER::WINPENNY | Thu May 14 1992 19:10 | 6 | |
Hotel accomodation vouchers usually require you to buy your meals from
the hotels own restaurant.
Chris
| |||||
| 1766.2 | IEDUX::jon | Five more years? I need five more beers! | Thu May 14 1992 21:25 | 20 | |
Not so much a catch but a partial explanation of why they can do it cheaply: > If the car is unsold via > their books after one week, they will then at their expense advertise > in one of the main local papers. > it cost #39.00 for the > newspaper adverts with very little response so its only a tenner more > to have them try to find a buyer. Newspapers often charge a ripoff rate for classified lineage ads. It will cost the company only a fraction of this cost per car to advertise a block of cars together. Also, they may be selling cars from areas where prices are lower to those where they're higher. I don't know about NI but it certainly used to be much better to buy second hand cars in the North of England and sell them in the South. A NI car may look cheap in London. Jon | |||||
| 1766.3 | ESBS01::RUTTER | Rut The Nut | Thu May 14 1992 21:53 | 13 | |
This sort of company, but maybe not this one, have been 'exposed' on TV
before now, but I think usually in the case where the seller did not
actually agree to their advertisements.
To decide if they are worthwhile, answer this question :-
Do you phone this type of company when looking for a car ?
If not, how many other people do you expect to do so ?
Granted, local advertising will follow, but is that going to
be in a useful paper ?
J.R. being sceptical again
| |||||
| 1766.4 | I was a buyer | RDGE44::ALEUC8 | Fri May 15 1992 21:22 | 20 | |
Several times in the past we (She Who Must Be Obeyed and I, that is)
have sought cars via such a company. (We didn't sell because we run our
cars till write-off time.) We've always found them worthwhile and the
one car we did buy via them was good value - far better than the
terrible rip-off we were replacing, that had been bought via a garage.
My point is that from the buyer's point of view these people were good,
contacted us with the sort of cars we'd asked for, didn't waste our
time with irrelevancies etc. They were obviously doing a thorough
professional job. Unfortunately they weren't MotorLink, but another
London-based mob now out of business (we haven't bought a car for quite
some time).
Why not ask MotorLink to give you some references - people whose cars
they have sold, who live near you?
Ken
PS could I have their phone number? (SWMBO's car was written off in
an accident a month or two back, so we are buying again.
| |||||