'The trade always has its favourite disposal companies and a variety of reasons for their choice. Some are trusted because buyers know they will always have all the paperwork, spare keys and radio codes.

Others they automatically know, through previous experience, will have them chasing missing bits for weeks and will sometimes never manage to deliver the spare keys. Getting the trade behind you is very important and although it takes a lot of hard work, in the long term it is worth it.

Trade buyers also seem to prefer to acquire a car they know is direct from the customer.

It may have had a clean and 'smart' repairs, but they know it is an honest car and has not already been offered around the trade all over the country before it ends up at the auction.

Getting to market a.s.a.p

Some disposal companies are now sending cars direct from the end user to auction. In many cases it is the auction company which is collecting the vehicles, preparing and selling them and the trade generally likes this arrangement.

Other disposers tend to ship the car from dealer to dealer, compound to compound, on and off car transporters and then eventually off to auction. But, the more times a car is moved, the more likely it is to get damaged.

This way also takes time – and time unfortunately is money. The ideal way, as many have discovered, is to get the car to market as soon as possible, whichever way that is.

A-class shape grows on you

THE Mercedes-Benz A-class did not get off to a particularly good start, for various reasons.

The main one in the UK was how it looked. It was described in many ways – odd, ugly, peculiar, to name but a few without going into expletives.

But over the past couple of years, other manufacturers have embarked on a similar theme and these strange looking cars are now not so odd.

In fact some would say they are becoming the norm. Others, however, would disagree and will not accept them as a normal car and probably never will.

But in general they are gaining in popularity and to many people's surprise are proving good stock for used car dealers.

This has been a shock to the trade as it goes against the grain. This type of car will increase in popularity as time goes on, both new and used, so we had better be prepared for more of the same on our roads.

The Audi A2 was the next to get the higher roof line and even the new Ford Fiesta is following suit, to some extent. Car designers are now looking for practical perfection. They need the maximum interior space in the smallest body shell and the ultimate in economy.

This is the way forward and now the used car buyer is getting to grips with this idea and the finger pointing has stopped, then market share in this sector is bound to grow.'