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That's three in a row this week - 'No shows' on firm appointments. Appointments made by them, at times to suit them, on cars they called us about that were exactly what they needed. Appointments that I confirmed with them the day before. All three 'customers' were under the age of 30. Coincidence? Or shall I bang on about the current, disturbing trend towards lack of respect and consideration for others these days? The misguided sense of entitlement to whatever you want, whenever you want, how you want and to hell with the consequences? Nah, I'll just suck it up and be assured that I probably didn't want them as customers anyway.

Its going to be very tough trying to make a ' good chunk' trade to trade or retailing , if you get bargains you're a lucky man , most people want within reason ' market' values for cars so making a 'reasonable ' profit trading or better profits retailing. You'll need the volume and quality if you're going to survive the trading game. Personally I'd retail and specialise in something or get known for quality cars , make a name for yourself with that comes 'better' margins ..! Good luck - seep us posted

OK. Option 2 it is. We all pay more than enough money to Sky/Virgin/BBC/netflix/whatever and the fundamental question I keep coming up with is this: Should it not be a prerequisite for anyone, whose well-paid job it is to speak publicly to the nation and beyond, to have more than a working knowledge of both the language and also the subject they are banging on about? In other words, when watching sport, I am sick of listening to ex-pros (not just football, but they are by far the worst culprits) destroying the language and making right regal prats of themselves by talking complete blx about something that I have just seen happen with my own eyes. Frankly, the examples are far too numerous to list, but the ever-creeping virus of illiteracy and buffoonery is spreading. We've even got BBC newsreaders embarrassing themselves now, the bar has slipped so low. (FYI Auntie, there is a fundamental difference between bought and brought - eg The next 2 World Cups have been bought and the culprits will be brought to task over it. You see? Buy. Bring. It's not hard.) I could not care less what Denno/Trevo/Marko/Stevo/lano/Allo/Allo think, just because they once appeared as a sub in a Capital One Cup qualifying round replay. I certainly don't think I should be paying extra for it. The solution? Well, in keeping with the spirit of the game, the fools that make all the mistakes should be sold to another TV company for stupid amounts of money and their line managers should be sacked.

Hers's one for you, customer books an appointment for 11.00 today after travelling some 230 miles to get to us he phones me at 10.00 to say that he's at the pitch and it's all locked up. I explained that weekends is by appointment only as I live 35 miles away and I was on my way in for his appointment at 11.00. Ok he says he'll come back at 11. Going home now as he's not answering his phone so I can only presume that he's on his way back home as am I.

Hello Ken first thing i do is say hear the car start from cold and get that bonnet up and dont take any excuses from the drivers just up that bonnet and do your checks .. sometimes we have come across the bonnet cable cut on purpose to hide something so the bonnet cant be raised but this is normally on the older cars which we do buy so if in doubt walk away .. as we check for the tell tale head gaskets etc and front end damage .. personally i dont like to see a nice shiny steamed cleaned engine as why? .. to get rid of water/oil from leaks etc also engine management lights etc if your buying cars in the price we do say £1000 up to £3000 then you are gonna get some problems from time to time .. im fortunate that i do the mechanics for us and have fitted clutches and cam belts etc. personally we get a lot of ebay private sellers as you can really take you time and test the car .. ok our profit margins are not 7 8 900 hundred but good enough to buy private to re sell on