Marking Vehicles on Lots

[Bois]

I've been marking used vehicles on car lots for 3 years to speed up my walk throughs. I use a white paint pen and mark the passenger side yellow turn signal lens. Last week one of my best dealers requested that I cease marking the cars because they "spend $000's cleaning them up." He asked me to come up with some other method. This week I marked the lower passenger side W/S (in the black area below the wiper blade) with a 1/8" colored stick-on dot that can be removed with the flip of a fingernail. He didn't appreciate them either. He doesn't want any markings. I explained that marking the cars negates my having to spend more time re-inspecting all the cars.

Question...Does anyone have a trick or some way of knowing which cars have been inspected? I've even thought about some type of ultraviolet device.

[GlassStarz]

If they use the plastic dealer licence plates you can always put a dot with a Sharpie use the color of the lettering? I use a Black Sharpie dot on the Headlight dont think there is a single dealer that even knows i put it there its small and doesnt jump out like a white or bright color would

[ghost rider]

I have never marked cars on any lots. I have only been asked twice to not mark cars that I can remember. You are walking by the car anyway to look for your "mark", why not just look at the w/s to see if it has any new damage from customer test drives or salesmen using the cars or if the lot is on a busy street you will get rocks from the traffic driving by. You make your living by looking at windshields not by looking at "marks". Just seems like a waste of time to me.

[gt_repair]

I am with ghost rider. I tried to mark the cars but I spent more time looking for the mark and I can walk it fast enough and see the chips anyway.
You also get to the point, you damn near know what is a new arrival and old just driving in.

[SGT]

Thankfully I have not encountered that at my dealerships. For me it is very usefull for many reasons. I use to use paint markers and they really never held up to the elements. Silver did do the best for me though. I have since switched to a black permanat marker and that works better. I use it in the inspection sticker area as it blends in with the sticker but is noticable if you know what you are looking for. The headlight option that was mention is good as well.

[GlassStarz]

I do a lot of things so I mark a car that I have done or have recieved a turn down on doing also if they have no damage at all this saves me a ton of time.
I walk around each one and inspect it for paint damage as well as Windshield chips taking notes walking a lot with 50 used cars can take awhile a big lot could take an hour or more so i mark things that way I dont have to spend the time on a unit I have already looked at

[screenman]

Looking for chips takes a few seconds going around the whole car like GlasStarz and I have to takes a good while longer, I do not mark cars as the lots that I work are quite small nowadays and my memeory is not too bad. However it is not unusual to find dent damage on a car that did not have any last visit.

[GlassStarz]

the first thing to go is your memory and i dont remember what the second is

[TechEvo]

We use a mark on the WS with a paint pen. No complaints from management but I see it saves alot of time. We spend a good bit of time on each car looking for even the little batwings that can be easily be missed on dirty cars. This extra time pays off, picking up stuff others might miss.

[jayjacque]

I definitely use a marker, bottom corner of passenger windshield. If it were just windshields I don't think I would, but like GlassStarz I'm offering/looking for multiple services. I think it has cut my looking time at least in half. Another thing it's good for is marking the work you have done, so in future stops if it looks ugly, you only have yourself to blame!