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By my calculation the next post here should be in July 2023.

I thought Labour were mad when they announced their idea for a £10 an hour minimum wage, then the Conservatives go one better and are suggesting £10.50 an hour. That's a 27% increase on the current minimum wage of £8.21 per hour. How can SME's in this climate where many are already struggling, afford to give their employee's a 27% pay rise? The other problem is £10.50 an hour is approximately what a trainee nurse earns, now why would someone become a nurse with all that extra studying and the chance that they might kill someone when they can sweep the hospital floors for the same money and have none of the extra responsibility? They're either going to find it very difficult to recruit new nurses, or they will have to increase their wage and once you do that you'll have to increase every other nurse's pay grades. This knock on effect will occur in every business. I did have an employee until recently but it's just not an attractive proposition now to take someone else back on, as they're going to want £400 a week plus the extra contributions for NI and towards their pension. Then they're going to want me to pay them that amount not to come to work for 5 weeks of the year, whilst I end up doing their job and paying them not to. Then they want sick pay, maternity pay and there's employer liability insurance, my trade policy also increases etc etc. I now have my cars valeted by the Syrians round the corner for £20 a car and finish them off myself to my standard, I'm saving money and don't have any of the headaches of being an employer and trust me it can be a real headache. My valeter decided to down tools one day and effectively sacked himself, then turns up to our meeting about it with a pile of colour pictures that he must have spent all night printing off of the dirty cars that I'd bought and made him clean! Only I could find a valeter that wanted me to have the cars valeted before he valets them!! He must have been taking these pictures for months, so I'm glad he left as he was an employment tribunal waiting to happen.

Similar happened to a friend a couple of weeks ago. From what I’ve seen on my Mrs’s facebook about 80%+ of private sellers are anything but. I think they’re the same cnuts emailing me on a a slightly scruff £999 p/x Astra with full MOT. Horrible idiots wanting to email back & forth all day long and attempt to rape me with stupid offers. I know this sounds uncharitable but some of these greedy twats deserve all they get.

well we are leaving and that's that, and i think the u.k motor trade will be ok when the brexit dust settles, the real biggest worry for our industry will be a future election with an outcome possibility of a coalition formed of labour and the green party, that would be a disaster- steam driven bicycles

There lies the problem. There is simply no party worth voting for. Makes no difference. Remain or don’t remain. Either way the fundamental problem is still there.

Just like the pharmaceutical industry? Drugs are dealt on every street in the UK and the stench of weed permeates every town centre nowadays. Sorry but a government registration scheme wouldn’t help one bit.

Been saying for a while there should be a formal, government backed registration process for all used car dealers VAT registered trade insurance policy Accountant. That would sort most out wouldn’t it??

We don’t need Europe, they need us. We are a huge importer of their products.

VAG TFSI - 1.6 & 2.0 , 2006 through to 2012/13? and some 1.4 at upper miles. 1.8T & 2.0T are generally fine.

The warehouse my former business used tried to actively employ British workers. Took on 5, none came back for the second week. Meanwhile the Poles, Romanians etc, all put down roots, buy new homes and furnish them, pay taxes, spend money here. More so than the ageing UK population who's growing need is simply care (my mum spends £100 a month outside utilities, she has no need for anything as she's got enough clothes, furniture, etc. The simple fact is that the economy is a demographics game and with a rapidly ageing UK population we need new blood to fill jobs, pay taxes, etc. Without immigration then look at Japan for the last 20 yrs to see where our economy will go. And yes, we can export, but it's far more complicated exporting to India, etc. than France. For a start you'll be wanting payment guarantees which will cost you, plus exchange rate risk is far greater. Plus our currency will have to drop another 10-20% to make us competitive vs Eastern Europe (I left engineering around 2000 when it was clear many of the UK''s manufacturers where moving East). I don't see it ending well but for some of us, then yes, rich pickings.

+1 ...and imagine what the real percentages would be if all of those who emigrated for work had to return to their original countries. Greece’s youth unemployment is something like 40%! Poland only has about 6% unemployment but there’s a skills shortage due to emigration & they’re now attracting in various old Eastern Bloc workers & shipping in Indians - like the UK, Indian takeaway may eventually become Poland’s favourite food

I fear you have too low an opinion of the british population, granted there are some lazy useless fookers aboutbut we are generally as a nation grafters, skilled, wealthy, entrepreneurial, Leaving the EU v the UK car industry, well there will likely be pain for franchises with increased cross border import duty / crap supply etc as we are already seeing with some manufacturer's aborting us with build slots for more favourable exchange rate markets (try buying a new toyota chr here at the moment) , but the reality is everyone on this forum is in the used car game and none of us are exporting used cars, and for those that do sell the odd car into europe to vlad and his factory mates well it won't even be 1%of your business and will not be missed, keep an eye on that spotty twat you mentioned sweeping the yard because now that he earns £10.50 an hour he is going to be in the market for a used car soon and is your future audience. the EU is a club that thinks its the like the football premiership with 19 top team members, trouble is in reality it is like the scottish premiership with 4 teams and the rest making up the numbers, i'm not interested in being in a league that subsidises other country's with shit economy's and high unemployment, if i was exporting cheap shit out of a factory into europe i would be worried, but i'm not worried because i'm selling used cars to u.k residents who work in the many industry's that will carry on being great. yes there will be exceptions, but the u.k is now so wealthy we can take some financial pain in the short term no problem, as for european business not wanting to trade with us well that is utter bollocks, one example of many - bmw shift 65000 3series in the u/k a year, that's even more sales than fords mondeo, i don't see bmw loosing the appetite for this anytime soon, they like others will simply test us with a price increase and then revert to a reduced factory margin as plan b, and so will everyone else. and in the unlikely event that the arse does fall out of the new car market that will only be good news for us used car dealers. here's the current facts - regards size we are currently the second lowest country in europe for unemployment at just 3.8%, many of the union countrys are in the shit with +10% unemployment with some as high as 15% , so we must be doing something right. i've seen many things happen in the u.k car trade since we have been a united europe and let me tell you increased competition hasn't done u.k used dealers any good, iv'e stood at manheim colchester at a merc direct sale and watched 80% of the late mercs sell to cypriot traders at silly money, no problem with that but the cars then leave this economy - no good for us, iv'e sold a £14k octavia vrs to a very nice polish chap who worked nights at tesco, good for him he deserved it with his epic work ethic, but the car then left the country, again no good for us if all the vrs stock went east, which it did for a while. once these units leave they no longer support the traditional food chain during their life cycle from servicing to ending up as a banger here, these areas are important to this industry as a whole, if it becomes cost prohibitive for europeans to trade in a brexit u.k economy then sorry but the reality is it will be good news for us u.k dealers who contribute to the ecomomy here and here alone. i'm looking forward to leaving, reverting to just competing with other u.k traders who have the same legit overheads as me will suit me just fine. anyone who is still pro remain europe and in the u.k used car game and not happy - you are more than welcome to leave and go test your business model in europe...let us know how you get on

I fear you have too high an opinion of the British population. We also forget that if we want a trade deal, with the EU post 31st October, the first thing they will ask for is the £39bn divorce bill. No pay, no play. They don’t need us, all the numbers are in their favour! Yes we can do trade deals with the rest of the world, but that nice bit of Newlyn cod landed this morning is going to be pretty rancid by the time it’s shipped to Australia. But hey, it’s all going to be fine, because that spotty little twat with a broom sweeping the yard outside, he’s going to be on £10.50 an hour! No he won’t, he will be unemployed.

I personally think the downturn is already here, consumer confidence is destroyed, the value of the pound is destroyed, crime is through the roof, morale is rock bottom and all this before “we” have even exited. A small island in the North Atlantic will be great again after tearing itself from the rest of Europe. Yeah, right...

I'm certainly not reliant on trade with the EU , But i remember when two friends lost their trawlers after the EU stole their fishing grounds , one committed suicide actually his losses were so high , We lost touch with great traders after we joined the Common mkt and wasn't allowed to trade with them, after that it got worse . So trading deals works both ways in my view and i have never liked the close shop EU way . Regards my customers and yours , My view again is there will be customers in abundance when we get Britain back under our control again and stop the EU taking our factories and work out of this country , Plenty of British people would like the work I bet and that's were all our customers are , give people the work and pay them " they will spend it if they have it in their pockets " that money is no good for Britain if its in a Dutch/French/Polish/ workers pocket . We cant pay them if we don't make things , That's were my customers are . Regard trading with the EU , what on gods earth makes people think the EU farmers , Car Makers , Wine cheese and anything else trades wont want to trade with us after we leave , we want Britain back not build a bloody wall , we like our EU friends , its not war . We just need control back . watch others leave when we go . I for one don't believe a down turn is heading our way , but we need out before we lose anything else , to make it work , or we will get the euro , and a bunch of rules and they will bleed us dry doing it .

It’ll be a boom for those who recognise the highs and lows.

Hi All Just a update on the Engine management light, after changing cam, crank, temp sensors and still having the same problem, I have now disconnected the ECU connectors, cleaned, sprayed, I have now covered 150 miles + without a fault, fingers crossed its sorted. Thanks for all the help.