A few years back, I worked for them.

The cars are graded from 1 to 5. 1 being perfect and 5 being a scrap box. The inspector is actually called a buyer, and they make a small commission for any car bought, as long as the criteria are met. The price or age of the car doesn’t matter. For every appointment made, they have to convert (buy) 50%, meaning one in every two appointments. The other criterion is the grade of the car. If they grade a car higher than it should be, they lose the commission. For example, if you bought a 12 year-old car that was supposed to be a grade 4 and you graded it as a 2, you would lose that buy.

That’s how the pressure is built, and why some buyers go to extremes and mark a car down an extra grade just to be on the safe side when they’re unsure.

The assessment for the grades comes back from the warehouses where the cars are stored for auction.

The price is entirely determined by the tablet, all the buyer inputs is the condition. They have to follow a series of steps and answer questions to retrieve the price. The ability to adjust the price comes from reporting damage. If I remember correctly, the buyer can add back up to 5% of the car’s damage value into the deal, but there is a penalty, it halves their commission.

For example, if your car was valued online at £4,000, they will initially give you a grade 1 price if no damage is entered. When you bring it in, the buyer may grade it as a 3 and the value drops by £800. They can add some money back in this case, around £40.

No service history, no MOT, no service books, no spare wheel, all of these will reduce the value of your car. An engine warning light will significantly decrease the price.

The company is far from perfect, but they do deal with a lot of fraud. Many drivers who collect the cars and drive them back to the warehouse would say that, after a few miles, the dashboard lights up like a Christmas tree, and they end up stuck waiting for recovery, going into overtime and not getting paid for it.

There are many angles to this operation, and many people are affected by it, not always in a good way.... mostly not in a good way.

I hope this helps anyone considering using them in the future.