Who here has served their time in the motor trade?

MercMad

I never saw this thread hence my late reply !

Anyway I started as a car valeter 3 days after leaving school at a large Opel dealer, then did an apprenticeship at Bolton street, day release, then was asked to handle the service dept.,then I moved into sales, then changed to Mitsubishi/BMW and I did well as a salesman but again like a lot of you guys I was too honest and loved cars more than the other guys who were just selling commodities.

Finally every time I saw a nicely looked after car, someone's pride and joy, I just saw a pound sign, and I started to think of every car as a trade in value !!

In the end I just decided I needed a change, and I needed to keep cars as a hobby, so I joined an engineering company with other family members. Now I do mechanical repairs, sales and design, whatever it takes !!

I work on cars only as a hobby now and I love it !

alias no.9

Used to valet trade in's at a main dealers when I was in school. It's amazing how much difference a powerful vacuum and some elbow grease can make. No involvement in the trade since then but I do most of the maintenance on both mine and my partners car, anything that can be done with the car on the ground or on axel stands, except cambelts, I'm afraid of cambelts.

AsphaltRisin'

Not a tradesman as such but i do work with a fleet management company

$Leon$

Worked for the last 2 years in a main dealers.
Firstly in stores then as a service advisor.
When you work in service you have to lie a bit.
I hate that but I only try to tell good lies like "the wrong part came in for your car, we should have the right one for tomorrow" rather than "we actually forgot about your car"

junkyard

land9 wrote:

It's not a business you'll find a lot of honesty in anyways - you have to lie through your teeth if you wanna make money imo, that's why I'm still poor:(

Having said that though, I have to admit, my current employer is as straight as they come - why I moved in the first place

I think its a bit unfair to make out that most people in the motor trade are dishonest. Just look at all the other professions and you'll find dishonesty is widespread in all businesses, auctioneers, builders, politicians, shopkeepers, these are just a few that spring to my mind and that took only seconds. Sure, there a lot of crooks out there but its not just in the motor trade in fairness.

fightin irish

$Leon$ wrote:

Worked for the last 2 years in a main dealers.
Firstly in stores then as a service advisor.
When you work in service you have to lie a bit.
I hate that but I only try to tell good lies like "the wrong part came in for your car, we should have the right one for tomorrow" rather than "we actually forgot about your car"

ah a shining example of the service dept blaming the parts dept as bloody usual :rolleyes:

crosstownk

junkyard wrote:

I think its a bit unfair to make out that most people in the motor trade are dishonest.

Agreed. I think that the motor trade has a reputation for dishonesty, but I think there is a lot more honest people involved. Why else would I, and others, offer sound advice here in order to help people out.

Typically, we all get tarred with the same brush...................unfair, imo.

Owen

Sales Manager here. And I still love the job, I suppose the people you work with help a lot.

MercMad

Well I certainly did not mean top imply that the people I worked with, or the trade in general were dishonest. In my experience it was quite the opposite, with most decent mainstream garages doing their best to dispel the myths or preconceptions that average punters had in their heads !

In an era gone buy there were shady traders, and there always will be but when I stated I was too honest I meant that I was personally unwilling to place a sparkling veneer over every deal. I like calling spades............spades !

Most of my friends are in the trade still, and I deal with traders every second day and rarely have anything to complain about !