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Most things. I’ll do the odd bulb, battery, coil pack & fault diagnosis etc. but as for getting my hands properly dirty those days are behind me. I can get discs & pads changed for between £10-20 labour depending upon their mood and the other week had a secondhand gearbox in a petrol Zafira both supplied AND fitted for £150 so at these prices there’s no chance of me getting oil behind my fingernails.

2 working days I think, so if you sell late on a Friday = 4 days 1.75% commission but no monthly charges.

£5k limit per transaction, £50k daily accumulative limit. Just signed up for IZettle as recommended by my bank, Santander. Bank transfer still my preferred payment method

We do everything in house one mechanic employed full time, but we do not advertise to the retail market we only work for the trade, lots of reasons but in the end this route worked out to save us a fortune we zero headaches. quick example, Phone rings hello Mr Jones how can i help you, hi you fitted new brake pads for me last months and now i have an eml light on, aw ok bring it down and we will have a look, Mr Jones your 02 sensor has failed, well no way i am paying for that it was fine until you touched my brakes !!!!.......good bye retail customers. The work he does on the trade cars doesnt bring in a fortune but pays his wage and then all the work completed on our stock is labor free with enough left over to buy a few pizza's.

Hi Benji I use VGS/WMS warranties - fairly inexpensive (55 plus VAT) for 3 month coverage. Build a good relationship with them, and they will payout (even if the claims desk has originally refused ) if you get involved, but the warranty cost may be higher for you as a new starter. Card machines - Getting more expensive by the day! If you can operate using bank transfers and cash you will save yourself a good amount of money. Not many customers will worry about a bank transfer, it costs you nothing and is better on cashflow, with most card providers your money is 'up in the ether' for up to 3 days. I do have a card machine still, but tend to use it for deposits rather than balances since card fees increased this year.

No, to do that you need to be an IAR, an introductory authorised representitive

you need to be FCA complaint

Hi Ben, I use Lawgistics for my warranties, basically means It's all in my hands and if there are no claims in the 3 month period I get to keep what was put aside for the warranty in the first place. Give Ella a call and she'll be able to explain your options. Big companies like warranty wise and autoguard make their profits from not paying out and can tarnish your reputation. I'd rather have a good reputation and fork out now and again! I'm not using a card machine and hasn't given me many problems, just let them know over the phone that its BACS or Cash. Alot of new card machine companies like izettle do have a monthly limit on them of around £5K, plus a 1.6% fee of each transaction can be a big chunk out of your profits. I don't think you can offer finance if you're operating from home, I seem to remember reading you need dedicated premises?

My man would do that for £150 I’m sure, most fiesta belts he charges me £120. could be worth asking the question of a few others in your area or posting the job on ‘who can fix my car’. In response to your question, I’m the same as EPV! I’ll clean he fixes.

I clean em. Someone else fixes em £390 for a CB on a TT sounds a bit trumpy. Not massively but nearer £300 than £400 in my world.

Mostly everything. Have changed window mechanisms a couple of times, etc, but everything else is mechanics.

...don't forget used cars aren't always going down in value. OK, i'll admit that is mostly what happens but spring this year quite a lot of stuff went marginally up in value or at least wasn't dropping much. We put up prices on some five door hatches because there simply weren't any on the market locally, they sold. Petrol SUV's during the great VW diesel moan, they got price increases, they sold. Sometimes there are valid reasons for increasing prices on stuff.