I still think dealerships and companies with a well known name still use the psychology of the matter to sell overpriced goods. Someone will go into a main dealership and buy a used car, or a specialist dealer etc and pay well over the odds for that "piece of mind" yet they wouldnt buy the exact same car at that price from a typical used car dealer who sells them on his driveway.

Dealerships know this so they dont have to put any effort into their customer service, where as the independant, which still has a reputation for being "dodgy", has to work very hard for custom. Even though in my experience the big dealers are just as arrogant, clueless and willing to rip you off but they do enough business for the complaints to be in the minority.

I started working on a used car lot as a cleaner when i was 15 (11 years ago), on the weekends and summer hols etc and when i got older i started trading cars, would do it from home etc and doing it that way you have to put in so much effort to attract customers, your photographs have to be perfect and presentable, the car has to be sparkling on a first look, the price has to be more than reasonable, you have to work hard to connect with people and get them to trust you and the car in question. You'll never get a phonecall about the car if the car in the picture hasnt had a clean. So its fierce competition amongst the independants. The epitomy of this is in a wonderful place called Leigh on Sea in Essex, London Road. Its a straight piece of road with (when i last went there and counted) 48 used car companies and 12 main dealers, all on one bit of road, its the las Vegas of second hand car sales and my Dad bought two cars there in 2007. A main dealer or a car supermarket doesnt have to give a toss.

Edited by jamie745 on 30/04/2011 at 15:48