trade vet

Just watching the new GB News channel.There is such a shortage of fruit and veg pickers that the growers are now offering £20 an hour for 45 hour week. ( equates to about £1100 p/w PAYE )I doubt the Cazam guys at Peterborough will be impressed with that.The old story with the job,you are going well then something comes out of the woodwork to bite you. .

We lived in aTyneside ‘back to back’ terrace and when we were 11 or 12 several of us would play football in the back lane which was quite normal.None of our parents had cars and then this ‘old bloke’ moved in up the lane.He would constantly warn us to keep away from his A40 which he was very proud of.We used to agitate him by saying things like ‘ nice Volvo mister ‘.Years later the ‘old bloke’ still lived there and we then established that when he used to bother us he was 37.

Watch the video Rory.Nice kids who live in the same area as the skater park.Think about it,to them it is some sad old bloke ( with a new Ferrari ) interrupting them and complaining about planning permission.He has made a big mistake,we all make them.No wonder they told him to F Off.This story is likely run and will not endear the guys punters.An elderly car dealer having a new Ferrari is NAF,if it was a 30 year old one or similar that would have probably impressed the kids.Long ago I collected a new Ferrari Daytona and drove it 300 miles,being a car dealer I thought it was shite around town.Why do a lot of people think skateboarders are undesirables.However I have to declare I do quite like ‘ Socal ‘ skater music.

CD Mag News.Multi millionaire and fairly elderly Trade Centre boss with the new Ferrari ( how sad is that ) confronted juvenile skater boys while using their skate park which is on public land near his residence..He was complaining to them that the council should not be extending the skater park and he has offered to fund a new one somewhere else.It appears the Skater Boys told him and his Mrs to F Off and film of the episode has caused so much anger that people are driving past his residence sounding horns at night and Trade Centre has been inundated with bad reviews.The Trade Centre guy is now heavily backtracking.Do you think he might be forced to donate a Skater Boy music system to encourage more use of the park.

A friendly MOT could have been done by a connected party working in the testing station.The owner of the testing station who has probably invested a lot of money may not be involved.How many miles has it done since January and the previous MOT.You could contact the testing station and draw their attention to it but I would not do any more in case of any reprisals.Be carefull you never know who you could be dealing with.May we enquire what this ‘jalopy’ is which you appear to want to retail.

Yes they are claiming £143 Gross Profit per Unit as being a success.Classic financial market bullshit.All very Alan Partridge.At some stage someone might point out their actual Cost of Sales per Unit could be £3,000 or whatever.I suppose they can’t claim a success by admitting a loss of £2850 on each sale.

What about Pendragon.They bought Buist Bramall which was a successful long established business then leveraged the freeholds by either selling them or selling them and leasing them back which created a profit.They sacked all the best people and replaced them with cheaper ones and then repeated the process by buying Vardy’s.Now they appear to have a lot of leased empty pitches which they are trying to dispose of which must be costing them a fortune.Do you remember when Phillip Green came close to buying M&S.

I do remember them well although we did not specialise with them.I remember buying late petrol Montegos with British Aerospace on the doc which was a big help when infact they were ex hire cars.Good margins,few comebacks.I used to ship Maestros ( which were for nothing )from Newcastle down to Bridgewater when it opened and they did well into book.I used to have my own line.Unbelievable when you think about it.

Also for the smaller business guys,I was reading something recently wherebye Bounce Back Loans were refered to as Bouncing Bombs.Not certain but something about BBL’s restricting businesses from taking out further funding during the duration of the loan unless you settle or face a penalty.Alternatively Tottenham Hotspur got an £175m emergency loan,maybe that’s why they might have to sell Harry Kane.

Happy Days

Last time I mentioned the potential 100% penalties for those who have profited during the pandemic having received government help and are not intending to repay it,it did not go down well.I am not sure Vertu can afford to repay it,they have massive liabilities.

We had this proper young guy in wanting to buy and he had a good deposit but we told him he needed a parental guarantor in employment.He said his mother would be OK.So his mother comes in wearing LOGO’D overalls.So I am filling in the docs,name ,address, employment and she says engineer domestic stuff.Who for ,self ,so enter self employed engineer.Anyway we prop it and Black Horse reject it as the mother does not have a job.So I give them a call and the mother goes ballistic and insists she is a hard working domestic engineer.So do the usual ‘sorry it’s out of my hands ‘ routine and refer her to Black Horse not thinking she would contact them.Within a couple of hours BH Cardiff HQ are on the phone because the mother had phoned and spoke to several of them raising the roof about being rejected.I had forgot about the telly game shows where housewives were described as domestic engineers.

You put it on the doc,brilliant.

Pardon me but is remapping best left to the punters.Any punters talking about remapps is not a good signal.We do our own warranties,I would tell them if you buy from us and get a remap,your warranty is void.Saying that,remapping as a stand alone business appears to work.

If the millennials knew what it was like, they would understand why we like to refer to the old days.Do you recall it was normal to carry a donkey choker,I think it gave you more credibility.Once got poisoned with using wire wool,used loads of it on bumpers,hub caps,wing mirrors,window frames,wiper arms and no plates.They put my arm in a sling but I still watched the pitch.The thing is the traders who operated in the 50’s thought we had it hard.If they operated now they would be slitting their wrists.

Brokered an old Daimler XJ Double Six resurrection job deal the other day.Only a ‘cheapie ‘ though 5 grand.Some would say a scrapper.I do call in to the pitch and they are still very busy.

OK but I think most traders would still describe downing a cheapie as having no warranty and no prep.I’m out.

Ha Ha ,well in Newcastle you can’t do a £3500 deal and tell the punter it must be trailered away.If you don’t want to tell us the area you operate in,that’s OK.

Where is your pitch is it in Mayfair.

Recently a regular called in to the pitch with his just delivered Merc from Cacinch or whatever to have a quick check over.It was a good one and the price was right.However the rear foot wells were flooded because the delivery truck driver had failed to notice the back windows had been left open.Our guy told him that the carpet would have to come out to dry it out properly.So he phoned the supplier and they directed him to a local Bosche garage.The supplier told the garage they would only pay to have the carpets dried out in place.So the punter asked for a refund and got one..So the cost of collecting it might have exceeded the cost of drying the carpet.

Thank you MFR for your contribution,when I refer to cheapies I mean £1500 and under.Please try again.

Great post FC,main dealers workshop related income.Buried in Vertu Motors /Bristol Street recent accounts ( I like reading accounts ? ),it is stated that 40% of their profit comes from just 8% of their £2.5b turnover.I read somewhere they had 100 thousand service contracts in place so they might be keeping them afloat.They probably need to expand to survive ( I do want them to survive BTW they employ 1000’s ). Alternatively,Marshall’s are doing so well they are repaying £4m they have received in Pandemic Help and 100% of the main shareholders have again voted to extend Mr Gupta’s contract as CEO.where he earns about £500k plus bonuses.He receives about £2m in bonuses ! ,how good is that.

Ultimate risk taker,you must be exceptional DH retailing cheapies,I don’t know any quality pitches retailing cheapies these days.You must have a good system in place although plenty of Doorsteppers appear to still do OK with them without comebacks.I thought CRA 15 and ‘ fit for purpose etc ‘ put paid to proper pitches doing them.In the distant past I used to get excited taking in good cheapies and retailing them without touching them.Now cheapie punters expect a fresh ticket,pay by credit card and know all about CRA 15.

It’s now reported that BCA subsidiary Cinch have borrowed £1 billion to expand into Europe ? They have only been trading a few months.Any of us trying to borrow £100k from a bank and you need to sign a personal guarantee and show 2 years trading accounts.It might all end in tears,the prep and the subcontract warranty claims could kill them.Also if the likes of Lloyds ( Autolease ,Lex ,Black Horse etc ) decide to follow suit and have a go,that might cock things up for them.

Block of flats or whatever,I hope so.They must have put up with a lot of crap from manufactures for years.