trade vet

I have to say I don’t know of anyone lately who has netted £4K on an under £20k car.They will be better players than me and after over 50 years,I think I have a reasonable CV for this job.However,we often get something where you get a healthy margin and it then generates several good part ex’s and finance commission.It is then possible to net £4K.Also,finance commission these days is relatively crap compared to what it used to be because of low interest rates for the last 10 years.

We should have told you Dean.To do this job successfully you have to eat and sleep cars and all the problems all day every day.I now only go in for 30 mins or so per day but I am still constantly trying to think of better ways of doing the job.I used to keep a pen and notepad by the bed incase I thought of something during the night. I think starting and running a some sort of charity would be a good idea today,next time someone knocks on your door wanting money for a good cause,check them out on Charities Commission.A lot of them have directors earning big money for doing very little I imagine.

Hi Manic I think you should have a go.You sound very sensible to me.You will get good advice on here most of the time.I would go to WOMA which must be fairly local for you and watch the stuff going through,make notes etc and when you have the confidence wait for a suitable location to turn up.As Stalker says,it is about the buying.

This is starting to sound like those guys you hear near the auction ring.’I will take 3 grand out of that,it will walz out’ followed by someone else ‘ would’nt get out of bed for 3 grand profit mate’.and another ‘ just took 2 grand out of a 99 Fiesta’. etc

Most of us think we know how much it costs us to sell a car and then find out that we are wrong having been presented with annual accounts.You could be in the minority !

Hi James When you get your year end results ( vat not included) and you divide cost of sales with the no of cars sold ,I can guarantee that you will get a shock.I am pleased that you love the job,Unfortunately that may change to love the challenge and then to this job is crap.

Hi Manic Maybe this job is not for you.It is a low net margin business.I would suggest getting on Companies House and trawling through car dealers accounts to confirm this.This job is now very complex and the profit just evaporates.The real COS is horrendous. Any questions,just ask.

I would imagine it will cost you more with the new guys.My understanding is that when accountancy practices get sold,the done thing is for the buyers to jack up everyone’s fees to pay for the purchase.I know an accountant who has done this a few times and it has worked even when losing 30% of clients. You need an accountant who is respected by HMRC but they still make mistakes and there is little you can do about it.HMRC say that it is us who are responsible for the actions of your accountant.Ours is advising all clients to do MTD themselves by getting £20 per month software packages.This will apparently calculate VAT so your accountant cannot charge you for that anymore. I think MTD is crap because it could be an invitation for fraud,I am sure invoices could get doctored and inflated and more VAT reclaimed.I understand prosecuting fraud now is rarely cost effective and the average jury does not understand fraud cases.

How disappointing,when it said key workshop I had wrongly assumed you had signed up Scottish Dave.Now that would be a coup. I am unsure how Mr Smith can claim a success at marketing.Just glanced at his numbers £2m net assets,debt £35m. I promise to stay away !

Well done you guys who have done a few this week (school half term is usually crap).You need as much luck as possible in this job,it never lasts.Regarding past glories,you would not believe the old guys like me,so there is no point in trying to go one up etc.

Played golf with a retired litigation lawyer yesterday and enquired about this one.He wanted to know if the claimant was still aged 17 when the car was finally handed back.He also said that a car dealer should be expected to be ‘ alive’ to the fact when dealing with a 17 year old ( a minor) .So you may want to check her date of berth.

ECJ I agree with you,snapchat,Twitter,princess,Facebook plus the others and she possibly doesn’t even know her 4x table. I am just factoring in my own experience with small claims court judges.Last time I proved the claimant had lied and produced fake invoices but the judge was only interested that the car had broken down.

Hi ECJ If you check the legal definition of a ‘minor’ in the UK ,I think I am right. Hi Blenheim Are you saying on the second occasion that when she collected the car from you,it had not been repaired, you had only examined it and reported your findings to her which was that she was negligent.Did you quote for the work in writing. Sorry Blenheim,I do think CRA could be ‘ out the window ‘ in this case and the buyer being ‘a minor ‘ has every right to rescind or void the contract. Good Luck.

Inflated,pretend warranties to suppress VAT.People were getting caught with that one in the 80’s.Basically it is fraud and HMRC charge a lot extra for that.

The way I see this ( I am probably wrong ) is that because you knew your customer was a ‘ minor’ at the time of the sale and you were awhere that she had held a licence for only a week,you had a greater duty of care to find a successfull remedy.A judge may expect to see proof where you made the effort to contact her parents or guardians to explain what happened after the second failure.( I would have wanted to know where a 17 year old got 5 grand in the first place) I would be checking out the consequential damages claim which could be fabricated.Have they been calculated after deducting the usual Polo running costs,fuel,road tax,insurance ( for a 17 year old) ,parking charges,servicing and MOT,depreciation,etc. Unfortunately I have to say that I think you were negligent in your dealings with a ‘ minor’...I would be trying to negotiate a reasonable settlement.......Lets hope I am wrong !

Thank you,I will get back later,very interesting.

I have done this before.However you can’t discriminate against buyers who don’t require finance.What we did was to give those people requiring finance a £500 discount on the cash price to offset their finance interest charges.We were retailing stuff at virtually cost but with finance income from commission and volume bonuses with no VAT it did work well.To get round the loss of finance income from early settlements we got the punters to sign paperwork agreeing to pay an admin fee if they settled before making 3 monthly instalments.This was a good while ago and it did work for us for about 18 months but today when Punters can buy money for 5% APR from Tesco,I am not sure whether it would work....But you have to try different things in this job to try and get ahead.

Hi,first of all could you just confirm when the 17 year purchased the car,was it invoiced to her and not a third party.

Quiet up north.Its half term week here and it has a huge knock on effect.The public sector employs the most people up here and it never fails to amaze me that these people can sometimes take i.e.Valentines Day off and turn it into a weeks holiday while claiming to have flu.( on full pay).We also had a good January.....Rant Over.

Exactly,but AD has this skill which is rare at our end of the market to get punters to commit with a deposit before viewing.

We all get ‘stickers’.If you think they are no longer good value,don’t be frightened to chop them brutally.You often then shift them quickly and get a good retail swapper to help you out.The big operators need regimental stock turn policies because ‘the wallys’ they employ are not allowed to make decisions like ‘knock a grand off that one’ etc.

Of course you get them,but not many and often they just swap to something else.Several weeks ago we had 2 straight refunds in a week and from a small pitch.That has never happened before even on the old big pitch.

Everyone does their own thing.Not only do I not take deposits,I also refuse them.Works well for me,I have done this for years.I tell them I don’t need one just shake hands and to settle up on collection.I also tell them to give us a call should they change their mind.Up north Punters appreciate that because a lot of dealers want a deposit before they can have a test drive......We have also done 7 day money back guarantees for over 20 years ( some of you must be horrified).....

£16950.......cheapest 09 @ 30k appears to be £18500 .......you must have bought it at the door. BTW I have only had 1 or 2 of these over the years ( too frightened) ,so only guessing.

AD I don’t think that you understand that your business model is possibly unique.I think most dealers including me would have liked to emulate what you do but we can’t pull it off.Your videos,presentation and especially the advance deposit message connects with your punters.I can’t recall anyone else being successfull with your policy of insisting on a £200 deposit prior to viewing.