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May we congratulate the IMDA on their 'relaunch' of the Association. Free membership is attractive and tempting for any motor trader, but the devil is always in the detail. We believe the * is referring to the terms and conditions. CAVEAT EMPTOR - let the buyer beware The Association has chosen to adopt terms and conditions containing some pernicious terms to prevent members leaving after they joined ‘free’, and can subsequently impose, at will, any level of fees for the next years future membership. The terms and conditions, which are often found in umbrageous commercial contracts (they are illegal in consumer contracts) and limit termination of the contract to only those who write to terminate some 90 days before the end of the contract. Of course, at this time, if the members relationship is unused or of little value, this clause is often overlooked. You put the contract aside thinking that ‘it cost you nothing and you won’t bother to renew’. At the renewal date you then find that you are tied into a contract for a further year, while IMDA are free to increase the renewal amount as they choose - £1, £100, £1,000 or any other amount! These contracts are legal for ordinary commercial organisations but where an association holds itself out to be “non-profit making” and is allegedly passionate about the motor trade, then one has to ask, “Who benefits from the 90-day Clause?”. If the answer is ‘anyone’ except ‘the Motor Trade’, then the original claim in the advertisement of “Free Membership” may be considered misleading and is likely to deceive traders and effect their economic behaviour. Such advertisements are prohibited and constitute a criminal offence. We urge the IMDA to consider deleting those terms and conditions as a matter of urgency. Dear IDMA, In a previous post we asked you who owned Motortrade.me and questioned if there was any personal pecuniary advantage that would influence a prospective members decision to join. This question was not directly answered but we notice that the “benefit of the platform at a value of £420” has been downgraded from being a main benefit and is now referred to as “our very own IMDA platform in association with Motortrade.me”. From this development we can only assume that there is a personal pecuniary advantage to individuals within the association. If that is not the case, then now is the time to say so and answer the original question.

I was at the Dealer summit yesterday and saw their announcement/presentation, it was very good and its clear they have the right intentions at heart. They just seem like a good bunch of guys/dealers trying to help out their peers, they announced that as they now have a good number of suppliers, they can offer the first years membership for free now. Im sure this will come out in an announcement email soon.

Cough! Splutter! What sort of a man gives a toss about the opinions of these keyboard warriors? I run both my life & business without any interest whatsoever in social media comments so I could not give the slightest f*** whatsoever about them. It's a common misconception that a few crap reviews will damage your business - only a small percentage of the population read them and then only arseholes take notice of them. No offence intended but there are plenty of traders who need to man-up and run their affairs their way and not crap themselves over reviews - better still, don't bother searching for them in the first place. Believe me, your stock quality (good, bad or indifferent), presentation and your pricing will have a damn sight more affect on your business than a few poxy reviews.

If there could be government grants available for charging stations,it may be worth looking at.There will be a huge demand in the future from those people with EVs who do not have off street parking.In some areas it will probably be quite lucrative to operate a charging station.

It’s taken a long time for me to learn, but to have the confidence to simply ignore and delete these morons enables you to concentrate on polite enquiries. It gives you the belief in genuine buyers. These emails aren’t real genuine enquiries. like.. Mr Customer, if all you are looking for is cheap, I cannot help. May I suggest you don’t use the same principle when purchasing a parachute.

this i started by buying cars out of an add i ran in the papers 'cars wanted' i bought them gave them a quick wash and brush up and blocked them the same day even then cash flow was always a problem where you bought a real nice sweety but had to let another trader buy it personally having all your eggs in 3 cars to me is madness i would rather have 6 at least seeing as you have the room cant give you an answer other than walk before you jump get rid of these cars you have to get cashflow back sit down rewrite your business plan and start again you know you can do it youve proved it carry on seriously

think they have Aston Scott, Motornovo, motortrademe, finandfundmycar, and they must have motors and Manheim as the chap who works for them is a founder, I really want it to work and believe the industry needs a body like this to represent its interest and be a voice, think with the right will and the right people it may work. glad they scrapped the fee's think they must have been struggling to get sign up. Good luck to the magnificent 7 but please don't let it be another flop or vanity project like Jims autovolo council.

We do around 5/6 per year on that value, we don't advertise it at all but have a Sale or Return process. We do a flat 10% fee, no haggle no quibble. I know a few dealers that charge 5% and 1 that charges 8%. The Sale Or Return customers does not have to pay for anything prior apart from a charge of a £50 Valet fee if the car arrives in a non sell-able condition. Out of our commission we pay for the expenses. You'll need to have a Sale or Return invoice with terms and conditions. You can find these online easily enough that just need a little re-wording.

I do a few SOR's, at the 5-15k mark-but only with a select few people I like/trust/can put up with. I explain it's not a quick business and that having a site is very expensive. I usually take £100 off for the salesman, £200 for the vat- and then we split the remaining profit 50/50 after recon and prep costs. However I do add on the caveat that it's a minimum £500 net to the site worse-way. Also they have to stand on for their half of any doom or screamers - but cars at that price generally don't cause too much headache if you do your job properly prior to sale. Works well on the whole, but, as always, the profit is made in the buying, not the selling, and the buying isn't easy. Both sides are happy usually as the return for the buyer is better than they'll get leaving it in the bank or under the bed, and they don't have to join the legalised robbery that is the VAT club. Goes without saying that you need a couple of grand mark up.

Landbeasts have got one in, go onto their Facebook page.

walking stick dents on the sill and sputum on the binnacle