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The very best car salespeople in the UK will sell a few hundred cars every year. Jim Ronan can shift three times as many as that in a week.<\/p>\n
Jim is an auctioneer who has been putting vehicles under the hammer for more than 35 years, and according to our calculations has sold more than two million lots in his career \u2013 that\u2019s more than the number of new-car registrations in the UK annually.<\/p>\n
The prices of the cars he has sold stretch from a measly \u00a31 to \u00a3525,000, and he travels across the country to wield his gavel in sales every week. This has given him a fascinating insight into every aspect of motoring and the changing way we all buy and sell cars.<\/p>\n
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Car selling guide: everything you need to value, advertise and sell your car<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nJim\u2019s auction career started in 1988, when he was a sales manager at a Peugeot dealership. \u201cThe owner decided to open a motor auction,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019d always wanted to have a go at being the one wielding the gavel because I get a real buzz from selling cars. As a salesman you might only get it once or twice a day. At an auction I can have it hundreds of times a night.\u201d<\/p>\n
An auctioneer had already been employed, though, so Jim had to use a little creativity to make his debut on the podium. \u201cAfter about three weeks, I got a message from the usual guy saying he couldn\u2019t come any more. I started to pick up the phone to tell the boss, but then the cogs got whirring and I thought, if I delay telling him, then it\u2019ll be too late to get anyone else, and I\u2019ll have to do the sale.\u201d That\u2019s exactly what happened, and Jim auctioned his first car \u2013 a Citroen BX \u2013 that night. He was quickly selling more than 1,000 cars a week.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The job has changed a lot since then, he says, with the internet being the biggest driver. \u201cAt Letchworth Motor Auctions we didn\u2019t do online sales until Covid came. I wasn\u2019t at all sure about it at first, but it\u2019s such an immense tool and we usually sell more cars on the web now than we do to people in the hall. Buyers might come and see the car in their own time, but then they go home and push the buttons from their armchair.\u201d<\/p>\n
While this might be good for trade, Jim prefers interaction with buyers in the room. \u201cI miss the banter and you can\u2019t see the body language if someone is online. I just couldn\u2019t tell if people were going to bid.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI was selling a \u2018barn find\u2019 Sierra Cosworth a few years ago. It was covered in dust, but very low mileage. The reserve was about \u00a332,000. I had two bidders, one on the phone and one in front of me. The guy in the room kept shaking his head, but I\u2019d look at him and point out the condition and mileage, so he\u2019d always agree to another \u00a31,000. It ended up at \u00a382,000 and he bought it. The atmosphere in the room was electric, and I got so excited that I broke the base of my gavel when I finally brought the hammer down! I did my best for the seller, but the buyer was really pleased too. I bet he\u2019s even happier now, with the values where they are!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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That\u2019s far from the most expensive car Jim\u2019s sold though \u2013 that prize goes to an early Aston Martin DB4, which sold for \u00a3525,000. And the cheapest? \u201cBack in the early 2000s the price of scrap was almost zero, so some cars had literally no value. I would have to go down and down in starting price. Eventually I\u2019d just ask if anyone had a pound, a hand would go up, the hammer would go down and everyone in the auction hall would cheer.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The price of scrap is now much higher, and there is a dismantler who has a standing bid of \u00a3300 on every car, so the days of the \u00a31 car are long gone.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were some real characters around and you don\u2019t see them nowadays. Certain traders would buy at one auction, clean the car up and put it in another sale hundreds of miles away and make a good living. The online auctions have opened it up to everyone and it\u2019s easy to get a car delivered to the other end of the country now, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Looking at some of the stock going through the sales, you\u2019d believe that Jim can sell anything on wheels. On the day we visit there is a Toyota Prius that raises all the red flags for used-car buyers. It has been written off by an insurance company twice, is an ex-taxi, has no documents and has been repossessed by a bailiff so doesn\u2019t even have keys. And yet Jim drops the hammer on it for \u00a3700.<\/p>\n
\u201cBelieve me, there is a buyer out there for everything. It\u2019s all a question of price. Some, like that Prius, will be broken for parts. Others will get put back on the road after a bit of work. These traders know what they are doing. One guy paid \u00a322,000 for a BMW 7 Series a couple of weeks ago and it had no keys and no documents. That\u2019s a big risk, and sometimes they will get burned and other times they will make big money. I admire their bravery.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The bailiff cars often have a sad story behind them, but selling these cars at auction is part of the legal process, so Jim tries not to get sentimental. \u201cWe came across a Toyota Aygo about a year ago which wasn\u2019t very old. After we\u2019d sold it, we heard that it was an elderly lady who had gone to visit friends in London and had parked in a spot which had a two-hour limit. She had then had a heart attack and was taken to hospital. She spent four months in there recovering. The council were sending letters to her house in Scotland about it, but no one was seeing them. So she lost the car. There was nothing we could do.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the other end of the scale are the classic auctions, which make people\u2019s sentimental dreams come true. Jim started as an auctioneer with Anglia Car Auctions in 2005, initially doing five sales a year. But a renewed interest in older cars at both ends of the price spectrum means that there is a huge demand and Jim alone is doing around 15 auctions a year for WB & Sons in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Hansons in Staffordshire, as well as his long-term \u2018home\u2019 sale at Letchworth Motor Auctions in Hertfordshire.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the modern sales, I\u2019d say 90 per cent of the buyers are traders who are looking to buy cheap so they can make a profit,\u201d he says. \u201cIn the classic auction I\u2019d say half are private, and they are so much more used to buying at auction these days. If they really want a car, they just keep bidding and it results in some astounding prices. You are selling nostalgia and memories and it gets really exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n
But there have also been some incidents: \u201cThe worst I had was when I was selling an old Jaguar. It looked lovely, so I was really building it up on the rostrum. The hammer came down and the car promptly burst into flames.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jim is a classic car fan, and sometimes has to restrain himself from buying cars he thinks are a bargain. \u201cYou can\u2019t have them all. I see so many and you wouldn\u2019t know where to stop.\u201d His daily driver is a 2003 Jaguar XJ V8, but he has an MGB GT, too, and he\u2019s recently bought a Triumph TR7 convertible for restoration.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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He also has enough to do in a sale without worrying about bidding himself. Being the auctioneer can be just a case of introducing the car and watching out for bids, he says, but now there are often four different ways of bidding, which means you need to keep your wits about you.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn some sales I will be watching out for people in the room, looking at the online buyers and I will also have commissions, where I have been asked to bid on someone\u2019s behalf. Some sales will also have buyers on the phone. You just need to keep on top of it all and give everyone fair warning before the hammer falls.\u201d<\/p>\n
After 35 years, Jim thinks \u2018real\u2019 auctioneers like him could be a dying breed. \u201cIf you look at online bidding already, it can\u2019t be too long before there are purely robotic auctioneers. That will be a shame. If you think of that Cosworth buyer, I could tell he really wanted it and just needed another nudge. When you are online it\u2019s simply flashing lights and numbers \u2013 there\u2019s no real interaction.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou stand up at the start of the sale, bang the gavel on the rostrum and everyone looks up and goes quiet. You know you have control of the room; it\u2019s a great feeling. I love the characters and I love the cars, and I still get that buzz.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people who are selling a car just want convenience and will take whatever price they can get from a buying site or trader. They don\u2019t realise how easy it is to sell at an auction. You don\u2019t need to wait in for people to come and kick the tyres and you won\u2019t get scammed. Some cars are now going for hundreds or even thousands above the reserve. At the moment it is older, small automatics that are going crazy. I\u2019ve no idea why!<\/p>\n
\u201cMy advice to sellers is to present a car well, get all the documents and spare keys in order and invest in a valet so it looks its best. If there are any faults, declare them. And set a realistic reserve price.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIf you are buying at auction, the first thing is to look at the source. If it\u2019s direct from a main dealer and is not their usual stock, it will be a genuine part-exchange and you know why it\u2019s in the sale.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf a private seller has put it in, you might wonder why, so look for cars that are sold with a trial or inspection because it will give you peace of mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
If you fancy the idea of selling cars all day, there\u2019s no set route to becoming an auctioneer. \u201cIt\u2019s very difficult,\u201d says Jim. \u201cThere\u2019s no auctioneer school, no matter what you\u2019re selling. They tend to take people who are involved in the trade and who won\u2019t be scared by standing up in front of a crowd. If you are all right speaking in public and know the subject, then you can do it.\u201d<\/p>\n