trade vet

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.

What I don’t understand is how are AT allowed to charge wildly fluctuating rates for different customer accounts for offering the same platform service.I have never heard of anyone being charged anywhere near the equivalent of £11k for 70 cars per month.I think Earunder would be better off using an agency if you can still do that.

72 @11 grand per month,I think you need big refund,they are ripping you off.

There are plenty of poor performing alternative platforms to AT but because AT have been around for 40 years they are the market leader. However AT is now costing dealers £150 to £200 per sale depending on your contract.That is far too much as this is now a low net margin business.It would be nice if it was £50 to £60 per sale but there is no chance of that and AT make so much money ( they are valued at several billion ) they could afford to lose 60% of their business and they would still be making millions.So forget it Steve unless you have £100 million to set up,do the TV advertising and operate for a few years at a loss,you would be wasting your time trying to take them on.

Well said David.However some of the ‘ doing well ‘ millenials on here with little experience won’t believe you.Those inspectors just love the motor trade.To quote the Judas Priest song ‘ they got another thing coming ‘.

He probably is although ‘ Holdcroft Trade Centre ‘ ,I can think of a lot of people ( from yesteryear) who would pay big money to get that job.!

Another option.Poundland are doing both Vanish stain remover and carpet cleaner for a quid which is good stuff and leaves a nice smell !

Ha Ha,Steve’s alright ? ( whoever he is ) good as gold etc.To us hard boiled traders that sounds like a coded message.

You are referring to gross profit,we all make good gross profits.I would think you may be netting £200 per car,which is still very good.When you go ‘legit’ your net profit will reduce again with VAT and tax etc.BTW I also have to tell you that HMRC might already know all about you so you need to get a proper accountants advice to help reduce your liability.

Hi Uzzi I have to tell you.When you claim you have been doing 10 and generating 3 to 5 grand profit each month for 2 years part time ,nobody believes you.

Just seen something on Sky News about Police response to crime in Kent.It is based on a computer algorithm which makes the decision based on a 3 colour code priority system ?.This woman had confronted people stealing her husbands work tools from their garage and she was threatened by one of them holding a baseball bat.Unless I missed something,I think she said she was yet to get any response from the Police .

Trouble is most people would prefer Tesco.Where are they going to get the extra 20 thousand police officers promised for London.I would imagine a lot will have to be poached from other forces.Police chiefs are under huge pressure with league tables to keep the crime rate down so is there any wonder why a lot of crimes are not recorded properly.Then you have the CPS who are under pressure not to lose cases because court costs are £10 grand per day,so they reject or water down a lot of prosecutions.The whole system is a farce.

That sounds sensible to me.5 cars and do 3 or 4 per month.Regarding warranties,just do your own and throw them in for free providing they return for servicing.If customers live out of the area ,Autoguard are an efficient warranty provider at £150 ish for 12 to18 months agreements.

Hi JBS....I am assuming you have read the CDM guide to car sales.There are some good guys who can advise you on here but it may help if you can tell us about your current business.Also,where will you source stock,where will it be displayed,how many,who will be selling it and looking after it.I wouldn’t worry about offering finance for the moment.Not trying to put you off but the grass may not be greener adding car sales.I hope you don’t mind me suggesting that you don’t want to get sucked into sales,do plenty of business but find overall that you are worse off than before you started.I have seen that happen because car sales is very time consuming and expensive. All the best.

It’s just the downside to buying not warranted mileage stuff.You will buy plenty when you have guessed right about the mileage.I am unsure why you complained to the auction,just retail out of it as best you can and take a hit. Compliments of the season.

I imagine if you had detained the guy and injured him,you may have been in more trouble than him.Can you imagine working as a front line Police Officer these days,it must be awfull considering the risks they take to follow their modern rule book.

I think the unsolved burglary rate is about 97%.The Police will probably know who is responsible but to bring a prosecution ( which costs a lot of money ) they need to have a very good case to proceed.One thing you need to protect your premises is very strong security lighting ,it is a good deterrent.Tango Victor will know better but he seems to have deserted us

Hi Mad Mark The bottom line if you have no experience.If you haven’t got 20 grand don’t even bother and if you have ,be prepared to blow most of that in the first 18 months.As for Flipping Cars,he seems a good guy but he only made 3 grand last year so he may not be as good at this job as you think.The guys on here who do well,despite what they say put in huge effort and work very hard and regularly cope with set backs that cost a lot of money.This job is now very complex and you need rhino skin to compete,so good luck.

Have had a word with the yard or the transport manager.