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I generally always take them off. I find people get turned off them and the understanding is it's been towing this, that or the other. On occasion I get asked by a potential buyer if the car I'm selling ever had a tow bar fitted. I'll say no if it hasn't, and they seem pleased. Then they'll want one fitted as part of the deal, as they want to tow a horse box or whatever! They won't buy a car that had/has one fitted but when they find a car they want. they want one fitted Once I took one off a Golf, guy bought it and wanted a tow bar fitted, so I refitted it again and charged him 250 quid for my 2 hours work

Do you offer finance? If yes have a word with your rep. Your prime finance company will be able to give you a stocking facility at 3-5% annual interest. This is the cheapest way to fund your stock, cheaper than using your own money.

you are so wrong here only last week i refunded a customer because inadvertently i had let the car go out with 4lbs less air in the rear tyre than the manufacturer recommends for normal town driving,to make it worse i had put a green dust cap on rather than the standard black as it only had normal air in the tyre rather than that posh stuff some tyre retailers rob you on anyway i qave them their money back i sent his lovely wife a massive bunch of flowers and im taking the daughter on a cruise of the back streets of bradford tuesday night happy days

The punter is innocent !,sorry but you are contributory negligent,tell the punter the truth,unwind the deal,refund or get him another Fiesta ( preferably a newer and better one) and you will be a hero....However,it may cost you a grand or more. On your admission this subcontractor must be dodgy and has either cocked up or is setting you up for a big bill ( if he does bills) .You know what they are like,the chances are he is not telling the truth and it probably won’t be right when he completes the job .He will then probably deny all knowledge of his workmanship and blame the car.

I wouldn’t over complicate matters. Best ISA’s are offering 8% fixed for 2/3 years. If it was me, I would state if they invest 20k with no involvement you would guarantee a 10% to 15% negotiable return annually paid upfront.

Never confuse profit with margin, would be my advice.

What is this nonsense? Get to the bottom of the issue, sort it and return the car. Give the customer his money back? Honestly.....

I have experience doing this sort of thing as an investor and first of all I would need to see the last 2 years accounts.If you were sourcing the stock yourself,I would have to see the vehicle purchase invoices.I don’t think you can have set figures per vehicle,what we have done is base it on the quality of the deal.So if a deal goes wrong,duff swapper,big warranty claim,huge prep bill and there is no profit,the investor gets e.g.£50.However with good deals attracting resaleable swappers,prime finance and a very good profit margin then the investor should be able to earn up to £400.( but they are not many of them).So with a straight £1000 mark up less your vat less prep and delivery costs etc as you will net little so I would suggest £100- £125.Alternatively,If you are sending the investor to auctions to buy the stock on you behalf,you will have to pay their expenses on top.

I don't think it deserves splitting equally. Answering calls and emails during any waking hour 7 days a week, being on site 7 days, dealing with finance apps, the part exchange prep and everything else takes up a lot of time and expertise. People get nothing by having money in the bank and a return of say £400 a month on a 20k investment would be pretty high. Owning a 2 bed buy to let and getting £500/700 per month back and owning it outright involves having £120k tied up.

I have only done it once and to be fair it worked well. I did all logistics, advertising, prep etc, he bought the car and we split the nett profit equally on the understanding that if it comes back, we share the pain. It was a one off and my best mates, so no real risk. I guess if it is incremental business and the funder is prepared to stand any share of comebacks, what's to lose?

Or price up a simple loan from a high street, these kind of deals dont make any sense to me unless your are unable to borrow money the conventional route then it kind of makes sense. But on the flip side if your unable to borrow money then the investor would adjust his rate to account for the situation what ever it may be. And i agree with the above paying per car unless its low percentage isnt going to go your way.

As EPV Says, ' Cost of borrowing the money' rather than % of any profit on vehicles etc, you have to remember you'er taking all the risks and doing the work, if you start paying them per car etc it could be a very expensive way to borrow money. Then again it depends on the risk factor from your investor too.

Call a stock funder and find out their costs. You shouldn’t give away anymore than what you would give to a stock funder or else you may as well use them.

Hold my beer.... About 15 years ago I took a punt on a couple of unregistered new cars at BCA. They'd been entered as the selling dealer in the Channel Islands had closed and these 2 cars were fully paid new stock that the (French) manufacturer didn't want back. Nobody at the auction wanted them (waaaay before online bidding). Paid £8k for a midsized hatchback and £10k for a bigger one. Had no clue what I was going to do next. Anyway, had a discussion with the DP of the nearest dealership representing that manufacturer and he agreed to ask them to add them into his new car stock, so that they could be registered, for £250 per unit admin fee. Sold the smaller one for £10k (£8k off list) and the bigger one for £12k (£9500 off list), both as New cars. So, £3k-ish up. The Main Dealer registered them, then informed me that the cars were eligible for New Car registration bonuses and, as they also counted towards his targets, he got back-end rewards too. We agreed that we would get the front end reg bonuses and they would get whatever they earned back-end. Turns out the 2 cars were run-out old models and they were massively supported to get rid. *Drum Roll.........* The smaller earned £7500 reg bonus. The bigger one £9000. Both plus vat. So, total outlay £18000. Total net profit nearly £20000. I sh*t you not.

The most remembered and the quickest for me was a 530D Sport out of Bridgy, 3k in less that 6 hours (early days of ebay). I thought I was being cheeky but Mr C was after exactly what I had. No messing.

I bought a none runner Ducati 916 race bike ( I'm on to my Ducati's) The thing was a mess, it had been in the back of a garage for 8 years untouched.. Long story short it turned out to be a ex 1996 BSB race bike few parts missing but 80% complete. Got offered £8k.. I snatched the guys hand off, I only paid £3k! Nice £5k profit

We used to get the odd ex military black Ford Orion diesel (Escort with a boot) and they needed re registering.We would sell these quite quickly to Asian guys from a town 70 miles away.Afterwards we began to get regular enquiries about them.We then bought a transporter load and told callers the price and that they would be arriving 9am Saturday.On the day we arrive to work to find all these Asian guys waiting outside (WTF).We go about our routine and when I am in the office,suddenly all these Asian guys run in throwing money bags onto my desk (WTF).The wagon had arrived outside,was yet to unload and we sold them all.I think we later repeated this but in a more orderly fashion.We later found out that these cars ticked all the boxes for taxi operators in their town.In particular,the type,colour and the fact that when they were re registered,it appeared to the authority like they had bought a new car.This meant they did not need a taxi test for 3 or 4 years and as I recall,they nornmally had 3 taxi tests per year.This loophole of course was quickly closed down !