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Hi all, just wanted to introduce myself. My name's Matt (obviously), I'm 30 years old, and I've worked as a mechanic/MOT tester for around 10 years for an independent garage. For the past 3/4 years I've been also trading cars as a money maker on the side, I appreciate and respect this is often frowned upon, I can only say we all have to start somewhere, and as far as roadside dealers go, I've been a reputable and decent seller, never had any complaints from any buyers, and on the few occasions I've had comebacks, the issues have been dealt with and I've always said if an issue arose and a buyer wanted their money back within a reasonable time frame I'd do so, but that's never hapened. I'm also fully insured with trade insurance with demonstration and public liability too. My stock profile has generally been cars between £2k - £5k, family hatches etc, although I've had some relative success and decent margins on Land Rover Discovery 2s and Defenders lately too. I source most of my vehicles either locally from classified adverts from gumtree/ebay etc, usually needing work, or often from customers in the garage I work knowing I trade the odd car. I average about 3/4 a month, and have been more than happy with that since starting out. I've recently come into some money through an unfortunate means (inheritance), some of which I've used to buy a house for myself and my partner, and some I'm looking to invest into a business venture for a future. I've really enjoyed the last few years dealing cars, and I'm looking at viable opportunities to scale it up, and go 'legit' with it. I have around £50k capital to invest, out of which I'm considering a couple of local modest sized units (around 8 - 10k per annum), combined with a small amount of parking space at the back of my house that can be used if space runs tight. Being from a mechanical background I obviously intend to do repairs as much as possible 'in house', and as I'm a time served mechanic I can take on various mechanical repairs and servicing to both improve margin, but also maybe give a little edge on the stock I could take on that may put other traders off. It's very early days for me in this expanded venture yet, and I'm a very cautious and methodical type, so I won't jump into anything without feeling confident and assured I'm doing as much as can be forseen the right thing, but I want to get my head around everything neccessary to go completely legit, I have a relatively good understanding already of the VAT margin scheme, and I'm fortunate enough to know a very competent accountant to point me in the financial right direction as neccessary too. I'm not going to ask too many questions from the off, as I can see there's a wealth of information on the many questions I have already here on these message boards for me to read through, particularly in respect to buying stock, which I feel is probably the area I'm currently least comfortable with at present. All I want to say is hi, and that the motor trade has been my life for a little over a decade now, and for better or worse I love it, and I always have. I really can't see myself doing anything massively different, I believe this industry is in your blood once you're in, and I'm driven to make a real success of this future venture. Thanks for reading my introduction, and if anyone has any pointers or tips, good criticism or bad, I'm always extremely grateful of the guidance. Matt.

Hi all, had a delightful chap named 'Sam' from nr Portsmouth on the phone enquire on our Lexus IS F - £16k. SHORT STORY - he doesn't own an R26.R - he has a clone. wants a straight px for his c£19k retail grey Megane R26.R. c160 built from new. asked him for the reg and he gave me the reg of a grey R26.R that K-Tec supplied last year (found out via pistonheads and by calling David at K-Tec). customer called back to say the reg was wrong and gave me the new reg (another pistonheads listed car at RS in the Midlands). Asked customer for plaque number, he gave '170'. interesting seeing as the plaques only went upto c160. Just thought I'd post on here in-case someone got excited and took it in PX without doing the normal due diligence - unlikely but thought I'd let you know. Cheers. Alex