trade vet

Sorry guys gloom and doom again but you need to use a chartered accountant.Good record keeping may be a boring subject but it is very important should you in future be randomly selected for some inspection where they go back years.You newbies should also bear in mind that in the event of your accountant messing up ( and even the best do) HMRC will hold you responsible for their actions.I found this out after trading for many years and there is a price to pay.

You must be new to the job.It does not matter what you may do to improve your image,be it promoting yourself for sponsoring good causes or offering some no quibble free repair policy,you will still be viewed with suspicion.Get used to it.

Maiden bid and hammer down ! You must have been panicking.Some clever dick in the hall may have tried a piss poor starting bid and the auctioneer was proving a point.

I must have bought thousands at Blackbushe.My favourite ,you can often nick something even when stuff appears unbuyable.However you have to put in a lot of effort with research which is now a lot easier.To buy two or three you have to target about 80 and if you attend you have to be switched on for hours to nick the odd one that slips through.( similar to XFS yesterday)

Brilliant again ! Good deal,who would swap an Orion Ghia injection for a Maestro ?

You are right,just checked.My recollection was getting in with a punter,switching on and saying ‘how ya doing’ and it would reply with ‘hello,drive carefully and check your oil water and tyres etc. It must have just said something like that every time you switched on.I suppose it was over 30 years ago.

Brilliant.They actually did a top of the range talking Maestro where you could give it various instructions.The trouble was you needed to speak in a BBC Radio 4 voice.If you had a regional accent they did not understand .You couldn’t make it up ! I think Tradex would remember them.

I take it you do know about signing up to a Making Tax Digital compliant provider.( that’s £20- £30 per month ). plus if you are like me, you will need somebody to upload all your invoices onto the system.Good Luck.

Only by chance I did well out of Maestros.In about late 80’s,I knew a BCA guy who became a manager at the newly opened Bridgewater.He told me that dealers in Devon would pay well into book for nice Maestros as they were very popular with pensioners.The Trade hated Maestros and up north you could buy (without any bother )quality,low mileage examples well off the book.For a while,I used to send a wagon load down each week and I had my own section in the hall.Sounds rediculous but it was true.

Paid for your own Guide,not many did that. ( smiley face )

Double dodgy.

Now they were shite.I think they were described on launch as having a state of the art transverse alloy block which represented a breakthrough in automotive engineering.What happened,they kept blowing head gaskets and jumping out of gear and there were so many warranty claims I think the cost put the manufacturer Rootes Group ( who had been around for ever ) out of business. Something similar might happen with these new higher powered hybrids with valeters and mechanics getting electrocuted.

Do you not mean newspaper and cardboard ( smiley ) I think Marinas and Avengers were good compared to the modern shite.You must have had a upmarket operation as we never bought short motors,we used the scrapyard.

Hi Halfpenny Great intro.You are needed on here but can you apply to use the private lounge.Look forward to your input.However be prepared to get slagged off from time to time by the younger ones.Isopon p38 ,we used to call it Mary Bakers after Mary Bakers spongemix which was often advertised on telly.When Spitfires were introduced they were good sellers but I seem to recall you had to tell the punters to be carefull when driving in high winds.The wind could get under the softop and blow them over !

Did anyone read this Lawgistics account.Guy who purchased by credit card wants to reject after several months on the grounds that he was not informed that his Cat converter could easily be stolen ( which I think it was) and therefore his car was not fit for purpose.Lawgistics had to deal with the credit card company to throw out the claim.....whatever next.

Option 1 for me.

Agreed,but you cannot just roll over,you have to try and come up with something to limit the damage.Its a nightmare scenario and JXB is only looking for some creative alternative suggestions ( like AD’s ) than just refunding the customer.I hope he comes up with something.

I might be trying to argue that the customer did not ask whether the vehicle was EXEMPT but whether it was COMPLIANT.Range Rovers are not prevented from entering the zone.Any dealer operating in another part of the country could make this mistake. Being in the north I could not reasonably be expected to understand the GLC ULEZ terminology for ‘compliant’ as opposed to ‘exempt ‘.I think if the salesman had stated ‘fully compliant ‘ that might be another matter.

I thought your WAV would ring the bell.They are good news if you can get them.There is well established WAV dealer near us ( The Automotive Group ) who adapt WAV’s and trade from an old industrial unit.I think they have about 50 staff yet they net over £1m per year,it is incredible.

I agree,I tried operating using sub contractors last year.Not only do they mess you about with their excuses,it was hard to get a MOT through with minor work for under £300.By the time you factor in paintwork,valeting, advertising, VAT and the rest it now probably costs most traders on average about £1200 to sell a car.

You have them well trained AD,not only do they refund your deals,they earn nothing from the parts.Never heard of a Not for Profit garage sub contractor.Incidently have you done your WAV yet.

No I would not.We presently have them up for sale for over top book but would prefer to keep them.The only car dealers we have had enquire so far have been the usual ‘jumpy jacks’ who talk a good game but have little funding.

It won’t cost much to advertise half a dozen on Ebay etc.If I was located where you are,I would specialise because all the best auctions are not far.So whether you want to sell Avants with nav and leather to ice cream vans or WAV’s,you are well located to acquire stock.I think if you can make a living doing car rental which I understand is now very hard to do,you should be OK so Good Luck.

Sounds promising.How far up north are you from Newcastle as we have some good premises which we could make availible to the right guy.