Without doubt my colleague sells more cars than me on a like for like basis, sticking vigourously to the 5-day auction format with Buy-it-Now option. ALL his cars sell within the week, and very few deasl fall through.

However, very often it is his profit which suffers; often making little or no profit after he has paid his fees. Also, despite the selling price of the car in auction, he has several times had to negotiate further with buyers who turn up and wish to offer less than the final bid for some miniscule item not included in the description. (For the record, his descriptions are always cringeingly accurate, describing even the scabby bits of his stock.

For my part I find Autotrader can take up to 3 weeks to sell a vehicle, BUT (and this is the important bit) I almost always make profit, averaging £700 nett per unit on an average stock-in cost of £900.

I prefer the A/T format because it gives me the sales process with my customers; I can give a general description in my advert, sell up the good points on the telephone, deal with objections in person and, most importantly of all, I can negotiate face to face!

Anyway, for the record, my colleague and I both trade from home addresses after many years in the showrooms. We both sell cars in the £1500 – £3000 bracket.