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Yes 1996-2000 in my home country. Arrived in the UK in Sept 2000 with little English, £230 in cash and a small bag with a few clothes and a Nokia 6110 phone (remember those?) Had a couple of jobs in London until 2005. Got in the trade in 2005 when I bought a car for £200 and sold it in a 7 day eBay auction for £800. At that point I honestly did not know the difference between brake pads and brake discs. I would never want to do anything else, have no regrets but can understand why today's motortrade in the UK isn't for everyone.

Did any of you guys go to uni? Do your GCSEs? When did you get into the trade. was it a first job?

For those who have Netflix and are finding this job hard at the moment.Take a look at these guys,it’s called Shot in the Dark.Its about self employed cameramen ( known as stringers)speeding around Greater LA ( 88 cities) through the night and competing with rivals to get there first to film RTA’s,freeway pursuits,buildings on fire and various crime.They then package and edit their footage and try and sell it to the TV networks for the morning news....Only In America !

@tradegirl @trade vet is a retired rich OAP maybe he could be your sugar daddy Rumour has it 'awards' is his safe word or at least that what AD says in their sessions

Casper, it's all an illusion haha. And thanks for the £2 lol, I can buy a centre cap for a car Speaking of lotto though, revcomps is probably a better bet. Smaller prize, but better odds. Win a car then flog it, pure profit lol. Hey, that rhymes.

an expert in the trade!

Left school at 16 with basic gcse passes did part of a vehicle body repair course . And a youth training in a garage did some apprentice mechanic and building work for a local company ive also did some planning and development work on a family farm getting the process rolling for houses and steading conversation Went self employed early 20s selling cars and also buying for a about 4 - 5 other motor trader/van dealers one of which touch my a lot about the the motor trade suffered a few health problems so really just getting back on my feet. Now and also help care for me elderly father which takes some time up but as nick said i would never work for someone or do anything else now. After 20 years vehicle related

I left school at 16 no qualifications whatsoever, got a job as apprentice mechanic, went self employed at 19, that was 41 years ago.

Your purchase price (last column) is £1589.60. So presume you sell for £2,500 - you will owe the VAT at (£2500 - 1589.60) X (1/6) = £151.73 But you can reclaim £13 from the VAT on everything under (S) plus any other recon. Hope that helps.

Ok that's good to know going forward. We've never had many new Mercedes, so haven't been bitten yet. Just got a 2011 320d, runs perfectly but makes a sound like the belt does when it's rubbing a bit. Our survey says: CHAIN! Ding ding...except you don't win any prizes for that.

Ha. Brill.

my mechanic always leaves the booster off charge so every time i walked past and noticed it wasnt charging i would turn the wifi off oddly enough he somehow now remembers.

I'm sure the law changed years ago so you could be disqualified from driving for any crime in theory, burglary, robbery etc. It was seen as a deterrent.... I may be wrong though, but I will check with some of my contacts in the filth....