Autoquake in Administration: Motoring Motoring Discussion forum

Motoring Discussion > Autoquake in Administration	Buying / Selling
Thread Author: mikeyb	Replies: 5

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Mon 21 Mar 11 20:00

Autoquake in Administration - mikeyb

www.business-sale.com/news/article/used-car-retailer-autoquake-files-for-administration-34617.html

Could never really see how people would be tempted to buy used cars on line on the basis of some pictures

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Mon 21 Mar 11 20:52

Autoquake in Administration - rtj70

Seem to recall deleting posts on HJ from them. Could be remembering incorrectly though.

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Mon 21 Mar 11 22:51

Autoquake in Administration - Alastairw

Wondered why the stock updates had dried up. I seriously considered them when I was looking for the Octavia, but nothing of interest came in until after I bought mine.

Looked like quite a good idea to me - clearly I was in a minority.

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Tue 22 Mar 11 08:04

Autoquake in Administration - Fenlander

I looked at them a couple of times and was amazed they ever did any business. Who wants to pay £100 deposit before they will let you see a car... and at the time of that first deposit taking enquiry get hassled to buy a warranty, finance, gap insurance etc. People collecting from their sites in Leeds & London to avoid the delivery charge grumbled about waiting ages in portacabins with curt staff.

Their cars were often tired high mileage examples and when you added their £150 admin fee, warranty purchase and possibly £150 delivery charge the prices started to look expensive compared with a main dealer.

Actual example...

Autoquake 2007 Citroen C5 Hdi. 80k mls. All alloys scuffed, 6 paintwork defects. £5712... but plus £149 admin fee, £349 for 12mths warranty and delivery £150. So actually £6210.

Citroen approved used. 2007 C5 Hdi. 48k mls. Prepared to almost as-new condition. £6500 inc quibble free 12mth warranty.

I know which outlet I'd rather use.

Autoquake tried to give confidence with a 7-day return/refund if not satisfied. They didn't mention the conditions in quite such big print. You could only do 500mls max before it arrived back with them and you lost the admin fee, any delivery charge and a payment processing fee if you'd used a credit card, cash or cheque. It could cost £300+ just for a days drive.

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Tue 22 Mar 11 08:24

Autoquake in Administration - hawkeye

...
>> Could never really see how people would be tempted to buy used cars on line
>> on the basis of some pictures
>>

That's exactly how I sold Mrs H's car on Ebay. Maybe Autoquake were ahead of their time.

Last edited by: hawkeye on Tue 22 Mar 11 at 08:25

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Tue 22 Mar 11 18:10

Autoquake in Administration - mikeyb

I think people (like me) are happy to buy new cars on line as its to a given standard, however when you buy used then its a whole different ball game.

I did read an article linking tesco to them. Rumour is that they are interested in getting into car sales and to buy the existing Autoquake infastructure would give them an off the shelf package - cant really see it myself though.

Fenlander - interesting poing about the pricing. Never compared them like for like, but I dare say that there would be 250 quid off to be had from your main dealer price, but no haggle at Autoquake

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