trade vet

I have been following this thread about AT with interest as our present deal with them runs out this month.Its going to be a grand per month ( inc vat) to rotate 12 cars out of 20.We have just given them notice and will be replacing them with Car Gurus,Ebay and Gumtree/Motors where we can do 25 for about I think £600.FB has been good for us.I don’t think punters search Auto Trader the way they did,they just search for the car they want in their area....No doubt you digital experts will not agree.The last straw for me was reading the latest AT financial accounts,100 pages of bullshit about what an ethical company they are and other stuff....

There are many question marks about electric vehicles.As far as I know,there are only 4 companies in the world manufacturing the batteries and over 50% of the lithium comes from Chile.So you just need a shut down at one of those companies or supply problems in Chile and the price of batteries will go through the roof......Maybe hybrids are the future as there appears to be not enough lithium to supply an upsurge in sales of all electric vehicles....

I think a lot of these batteries are now leased.Does anyone know how these leases are transferred and who is liable in the event of default.I can forsee all sorts of potential problems in the future selling a Nissan Leaf with a leased battery pack on finance to a sub prime chucky duffer.These Cars still don’t make sense to me,I have seen them doing good money at the block with owned batteries and the battery power is depleted to 40 miles per charge according to the dash.There may be promises of £2000 for recon batteries in the future but I understand the current going rate is £4000. If anyone has good info about buying these at the block when they are 4 or 5 years old,I would like to hear it.

First of all,how could you prove to the judge that your customer did not pay the full amount.We had a case where the customer paid £2000 deposit in cash from an envelope after signing the finance doc.The sales guy put the cash back in the envelope then turned his back to get the keys etc.Our video only showed the customer arriving and leaving holding the envelope.We were negligent according to our lawyer....I did make the sales guy pay it back over time. Otherwise nothing surprises me with judges when car dealers are involved.

I have just completed their survey and don’t think it was what they want to hear.

You cannot blame them for trying to invent ways of squeezing us.A friend was entering a fully minted car into our BCA recently and was charged a compulsory £10 to have it washed.What next,car parking permit charges,speedy yard collection charges,

Muscat always drank pink gin.( football joke)

AD probably taught Tony Hawk and produced the Sk8ta Boi video !

That’s probably classed as a hate crime now.....’ making a shandy drinking accusation ‘

Definateley quiet for the time of year,we have a busy shopping park near us and it has been quiet this month.When I went to the local block this week ,even the liars said they were quiet.I noticed that the main dealer section had a lot more ready to retail entries than normal,main dealers and those with big pitches must be under pressure.However,we have bought some nice stuff lateley at ‘right money’ and have been getting them away on lower mark ups with the odd good retail swapper.

Hi XFS You are clearly a hardened pro and not an amateur as I mistakenly thought with your first post a couple of weeks ago.I have to admit I was discouraged from putting up a ‘no free range kids notice’ in our warehouse years ago. Sounds like you may be offering a ‘Basil Fawlty like’ customer service ,if it works who are we to criticise.

If you find a unit on a trading estate ( especially a council one) sometimes you may find automotive related and other businesses are not allowed.However do not be put off, if you do some detective work by asking other businesses on the estate,they can usually recall some motor trade business user in the past and there will often be another disallowed business already operating.

I don’t know.It was a while ago when I made a planning application and the council allowed me to view the objections under Freedom of Information.It was helpfull as they turned out to be fraudulent.Things may have changed.

Hi Lazz The first thing I would do is make a Freedom of Information Request to the council to try and find out who has objected.I agree with the above and please keep us informed and good luck.

Yes AD I agree,just drawing peoples attention to it.

Anyone heard of the ‘Unfair Contract Terms Act’ !

Hi I have experience of this.If you are a ltd company this would be a ‘connected party transaction’ and would have to be clearly stated on your annual accounts.The transaction has to be at current market value.Years ago we bought a new car,claimed the vat back and leased it to my daughter.This was clearly stated in our accounts but several years later HMRC assessed that the lease payments were below market value and wanted to tax us on the difference.I proved otherwise.So you must be very carefull otherwise it can come back to bite you in future years.

Sounds good buying,doing up and renting old pubs.We have done a lot of property but on the last one we did 4 years ago we found labourers alone were wanting £150 per day and often ‘ in their hand’.Consequently we went way over budget. That is good Mark.Newbies should take note if you want to be a good player in this job.That is the way it is on a good day.I was interested to see you do your research in the morning,I always did it after 9pm and double checked in the morning.

Hi Steve I might have spotted a possible pitch/ business for you.South of Glasgow.Est 40 years,same owner,main road location and Mot station,accounts appear to be availible.Leasehold £62k,rent £62k ( 2 showrooms,workshop,big forecourt) so maybe opportunity to sub let etc. This is the sort of thing I was previously referring to but there will be others in your area if you ask around.( I would imagine you have contacts in banks and finance companies ). Whatever you do,you will get help on here.

Hi Steve Noting you are in mergers and acquisitions.Why not just buy an established freehold dealership and turn it round,sub divide it etc.There are opportunities everywhere of people wanting to escape this job because they are heavily in debt and their business has hit the buffers.Motor trade premises are not that expensive to buy.

If that Fiesta had done 20k,you could get at least £3000 from a EASY punter for it.You often see similar stuff in UKCG but they do about £2200.If I was a newbie doorstepper not paying VAT,I would have 2 or 3 similar things to get going in the job.After all,these days a good new child’s pushchair can cost £1500 so £3000 for a very low mileage small hatch makes sense to the punters.They have no idea about Cap valuations.

Good luck tomorrow AD.As someone else said ,make sure to use the phrase ‘driven to destruction ‘.

It cannot be right,I think it is fraudulent,but this stuff is no longer classed as cheating or being dishonest.Look no further than Parliament,the next time for instance they are debating restricting the sale of firearms.The chances are there will be some Honorable member speaking against it because they have been bought by some lobbying company acting for an arms manufacturer. So Mark,it is OK you can hire companies who will provide you with good reviews....... ( Did you like the way I kept away from self nominated car dealer awards ! )

Out of interest for you Bikers.If you have Sky,on Sky Arts Brian Johnson is doing a programme interviewing rock stars and singers.Billy Joel ( the piano man ) is interviewed in his bike showroom on Long Island ( 20thcenturycycles.com) which sells new bikes which are ‘reverse retro’d’ into old ones.......Worth a look.

People are just becoming more and more stupid.Every day you seem to hear and see things which are just stupid.Is it technology that is causing this,they appear to run their life based on social media influencers.We had someone last week requesting a PCP deal because their friend had one.They could not grasp the difference between renting and owning a car.