MUSIC TO MY EARS

 I can’t agree more with the article that Mike Humble wrote (CM, April 2020) about selling cheap cars – I used to work as a mechanic in the garage trade many years ago.

One item that really stands out for me concerned an old Ford Escort I was selling. After a week of no-shows and really annoying time-wasting dreamers I was at a point of imminent rage! It was a Sunday after a week of time-wasters and we were about to have our Sunday roast, when a young couple asked if they could have a look at the car. I wasn’t very polite and gave them the keys and said just put the keys through the letterbox when finished.

After about 20 minutes they knocked on the door and asked me if the radio-cassette worked, to which I replied that it did. Then they asked if I had a cassette they could try. I gave them one, and a few minutes later they gave me the full asking price in cash. They hadn’t even started the engine or tried the lights, horn, etc, etc.

I was told many years ago by a salesman that when you’re selling a vehicle the first question you ask the ‘buyer’ even before they’ve looked at the potential purchase is “how are you paying – cash or cheque?” It worked 90% of the time and the usual answers were – I’ll have the money when I’ve sold mine, if you could take a massive drop in price and so on...

Many thanks for CM, which is a breath of fresh air in a field of copycat articles in low-quality magazines.

Neale Didcock