Whenever Executive Cars starts dragging its feet in the sales department, I know instinctively to invite a legend in the motor industry to visit us, for his mere presence is usually enough to bless us with good sales.

This man has sold more cars than I've had hot dinners, and his stories of how business was done in the old days are nothing short of inspirational. He tells of a time when trust was the order of the day, when banks actually tried to assist both dealers and clients alike, a time when you could finance the deals yourself and be assured of payment. I know it sounds far-fetched but it was, after all, fifty years ago. He tells of a time where, if you could not manage to pay for some reason, then you dropped the car back at the dealer until your arrears were cleared, then you could carry on as before. In this other world, you were not punished when hardship befell you, you were assisted to get back on your feet. My, how times have changed.

Today, banks use repossession and judgement to assist clients, a procedure guaranteeing no future finance for a minimum of five years, which is just what you need when you momentarily stumble. They don't have time to visit dealers or valued clients, they fax agreements, hoping that either client or dealer forgets to initial all 57 pages, and thus delay payment, they use profiling, client suitability programmes, forcing you in the direction they want you to go, telling you what you can and cant buy.

As dealers today, you have to ensure that a car is not double or triple financed, that it is not stolen, that the seller is the legal owner, that the registration papers are not fraudulent, that the buyer is who he says he is, that the release note is genuine, that there aren't any outstanding tickets on the car, that the drivers licence is valid, that the bank notes are real.

Moral decay is all around us, those days of honour, integrity, trust, relationships, friendships, are long gone, just memories in the mind of a long retired gentleman purveyor of used cars.