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Bloody hell! 80/100 hours per week & working 7 days a week!?!! This is 2018, anyone who needs to work anything like that needs a career change. DCS01, as for comments about selling more expensive stock, don’t believe the hype, shit sells! However you’ll have the distinct advantage of having a forecourt, and as such can charge more for your stock. By the sounds of it you’re going to have negligible overheads (overheads can kill you in this game) but I’d be very tempted to give it a year in your job & work overtime on your own business. As for taking advice from ‘er indoors, a lifetime of experience tells me the fairer sex is always keen on volunteering men to do the graft & keep their nests feathered - anything they perceive as a threat to this is automatically shot down in flames. And yes, I’ve a few failed relationships behind me

mechanics dont even like being called mechanics they havent for 20 years brainwashed by the establishment (technicians) 50% are fitters at best and then they only fit on what a fault code says frightening and damming in my opinion but hey ho at least the other 50$ are true and good ..........

Cheap Romanian battle bus !

I did the move 12 years ago now and it has worked well for me. If you don't do it you will probably have the "what if" hanging over you. I went for it because I honestly felt that I could always get a job within a main dealer if things didn't work out for me. Good luck to you, I hope all goes well for you.

Thanks ^^^ I think the shock of selling a car this month caused my brain to go into meltdown!

hi grant, have been in similar situation...it sounds simple at first, then you realise how complicated it can get with different permutations. you can use doc ref twice, but i think you may first need to think about 1st buyers refund. If you refund 1st buyer directly for the tax and then take direct payment yourself for tax from 2nd buyer, so it doesent go through dvla, then dvla will be none the wiser, and you can just leave the existing tax running. This only works if both buyers are paying for tax outright. 1st buyer can't get a refund from dvla unless the car is in his name either, so it may be in your interest to control the tax refunds etc

Tell her 45 days to turn around your stock. I think you'll need to be selling 10 a month to get a reasonable wage. How many of those 10 spaces is your Dad happy to let you use? Even if you have 10 for sale you'll need a couple more being prepped to replace sold stock. Probably another 1 or 2 waitng to be collected. The odd bit of crud px that you need to dispose of somehow. .

Even a free trial did nothing for us.

Personally, I would say go for it, after .......................... You have all your ducks in a row: Stay employed and use your spare time to source ALL your stock, get the first batch prepped and ready to show/go - then switch. Don't under estimate how long it takes to gear up to 10 good buys, all prepped, all pictured, all advertised, all recon and ready to go. Where's your income coming from in the first couple of months whilst you're spending time doing this? Make the most of your Dad's garage space and start filling it before you quit a wage. Just my opinion but go for it, if you're not happy.

Are you happy making best part of 50k a year having days off and time off and prepared to trade it all to earn very little in the first few years but potentially earn much more long term but sacrificing holiday, days off, family events, sleep etc.... If you are going to walk away from a good job you need to really be behind it for 80/100 hours a week 7 days.

Totally agree.

I had not realised you were already in the trade.However,I am with your wife on this one.If you are doing 2 or 3 per month on top of what you are earning now,there will be a lot of people on here dreaming of having that situation.If you think packing in your day job and running your own business funded by your wife will be easier and make you more money,think again. She is right to ask for your business plan under the circumstances.Incidently what do you intend to do,be a home trader or work from premises,how many will you stock,who will supply you and how much do you intend to invest.I would imagine she will want you to incorporate as a limited company and she will know what the average returns are.

lets hope that excel extension they keep promising arises, typical HMRC leave it right until the last minute again.

We use sage on its own, i use it along side an excel spreadsheet which calculates the margin vat for each sale, then i input the vat figure separately...never had a problem.

The mrs probably has concerns about you giving up the 'day job'?

A mate of mine has 12 on sale at all times and regularly does 20+ per month - he’s really flying and no one can quite figure it out. He’s definitely one in the race to the bottom as he’s always the cheapest on AT and probably flies very close to the wind regarding legal obligations Another friend has 10-12 on sale, he’s on AT and does between 10-16 per month. I tend to have 18-25 on sale, not on AT and do 14-20 a month. what are you planning on selling? ps an in-depth business plan is a waste of you time. After a month it’ll be out the window.

i quote the phrase anyone can hold a hammer but it needs experience to know where to hit with the thing this is why its always best to shoo the customer offbefore you give his car the magic potion or they feel they havent had value for money and if they leave it with you to fix on a warranty issue or indeed a paid fix dont ring them before 4.00pm to say its ready, this way they again feel they have got value for money (took me a long time to realise this but this information is free on here,)

this never happens though the most tight arses of the motoring public buy these cars and never spend one penny theres one down the road from me its so loud it makes me cringe how can you live with such a thing also quality filters that dont turn to mush plus many garages as well as joe soap still think oil is oil so chuck some semi 10/40 down its hole

Totally agree with this. If that Scirocco was recent Mark, VW have been refunding EGR valve/ cooler repairs on some models if you replaced the part with genuine.

Manufacturers will dress it up as weight saving in order to meet new euro emissions standards. I put it down to them being penny pinching bastards when assembling the engine.

Nothing wrong with German cars Skoda , SEAT , inc of course As long as you have 10k invested in special tools and an understanding of diagnostics beyond a Master Tech level Plus the knowledge to replace chains , Tensioners , Manifolds , repair DSG megatronic units , plus a dozen extra parts that affect other parts that bring lights on for no reason If you know all that they are ok . Because god knows how traders afford to fix these things with 3rd party bills and then make a profit . Beggars belief why traders in auctions are so slow to pick up on these failures and how much they cost to fix . Actually watched a Golf R go into BCA with a rattle " needed new chain " , EML declared on and the code on report was not the chain code but a manifold fault . Made £1,050 over CAP clean , Seriously heard said trader say " be a lamba " WOW will he be surprised when he gets the bill Soon need to be a mechanic to sell cars nowdays .

David , I can't believe you're worried about number of sales ...... just think of the views !! ! #crazy I've said that for many years, I only want one view if that equates to a buyer ! #simples