Nat an interesting idea indeed but as Benstan says going the SOR route isn't going to get you much stock. Most people p/x cars because a) its an easy one stop shop. b) scared to sell privately due to payment concerns and c) can't be without a car.
I've been out of the industry nearly 9 years now but still have a passion for selling cars. Dealers are in it for 1 reason and thats to make money, salesmen are in it, to make money commision, service department are in it, to make money from the sales dept + the customer. Money is the issue here.
Most of the issues stated above come down to poor appraisal of the vehicle, why? you guessed it money. salesman rips p/x apart due to condition salemanager hits it in the nuts on value deal doesn't get done because customer is pi$$ed off by p/x offer all back to money.
Saleman puts rose tinted specs to look at p/x and gets the price to do the deal. car then goes throught the workshop and all items get picked up, service dept sends cost of repairs to the salesmanager who gives saleman an earbashing and only agreees to all but the important items if that >:D
The system is fucked simple.
I will say this again th OP should have realised that by buying his 'X from a second hand outlet that was in the same group as BMW main dealers that issues may be present otherwise the car would have been sold from one of them. Clearly there was too much prep on this vehicle for the main dealer to make a profit.
Nat you have a great idea, but think you will need to start by buying your own stock and making a good name for yourself and on the back of the process/system you state above. You would find it very difficult to get SOR cars from the ouset but this would come with time and reputation.
