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Conference terri::cars_uk

Title:	Cars in the UK
Notice:	Please read new conference charter 1.70
Moderator:	COMICS::SHELLEYELD

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

1766.0. "MotorLink" by BOUTYE::MULLAN (My God! Its full of stars) Thu May 14 1992 14:42

    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 15:10`	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 17:25`	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 17:53`	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 17:22`	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.