MOST used car dealers are saying they can’t get enough stock. Apparently, the economy has been so stagnant over the past half a decade that previous years of oversupply and under-demand are gone. Dwindling sales of new cars over the past few years means there are fewer used ones to go around, and as those [...]
Big Mike: ‘I drove my first car everywhere — in the kitchen, up the stairs…’
YOU never forget your first car. Mine was a Jaguar Mk 2, resplendent in British Racing Green. The paintwork was a bit tired, but I loved that car and drove it everywhere – around the kitchen floor, up the stair banister, through my sandpit. It was probably the catalyst that got me started on the [...]
Big Mike: It’s a shame I can’t run my forecourt like a hire car counter…
WHEN you spend half your life setting up finance contracts, filling in registration documents or just trying to keep your company accounts in order, it’s very easy to become dispassionate about the job you do. I was reminded of this just a couple of weeks ago. Mrs Big and I were on our annual trip [...]
Big Mike: Clocks don’t just go forward in spring!
LIKE most of those involved in the previously cherished motor carriage relocation industry, I am rather looking forward to spring this year. It may have been one of the milder winters of the past few years, but for some reason I’ve also found it one of the darkest. Whether there’s a specific reason for that, [...]
Big Mike: The cool car I managed to find for my daughter
Well, I guess it had to happen sometime. First it was the school disco, then the regular boyfriend. But now the absolute worst has happened. Big Mike’s favourite female has passed her driving test, yet it only seems like a year or so since I stopped changing her nappies (something my first wife, conveniently, never [...]
Big Mike: The sale that showed every dog has its day
Landmarks… we’ve all had them. Cars that have sat around on our lots long enough for them to almost become classics. It’s all too easy to get disillusioned with them, too – you take them in px, price them above the stand-in value and slowly watch your profit erode away into a loss as the [...]
Big Mike: Winning cars will persuade the punter
Like most people, I remember my first car well. It was a 1964 Ford Cortina, and it was finished in red. On its own fairly unspectacular, an icon of bread and butter British motoring, albeit one with pretty ‘ban-the-bomb’ taillights. But there was a very specific reason I bought the Cortina, and even more of [...]
Big Mike: A few tips (not) worth taking on board
LAST month, you may recall that I had a bit of a pop at lazy motoring journalists, who regularly dispense pearls of misplaced wisdom disguised as used car buying advice. Alas, I was then contacted by a mo-jo who I know quite well, who had a bit of a grizzle back at me because he [...]
Big Mike: Technology can be a nightmare
Maybe I’m just going a bit doolally in my old age, but it seems that I’ve completely turned my back on conventional wisdom. Like a three-year old, it seems that if somebody tells me I should do something, I actually go out of my way not to do it, or at the very least do the complete opposite. [...]
Big Mike: The type of owner should count
I have on my lot at the moment a very nice, and extremely good value (even if I do say so myself), example of the convertible BMW Z3, 95,000 miles, a full service history from an independent sports car specialist and in generally good condition. The car is a 1999 T-reg, so is just shy [...]
