trade vet

Hi Selfi You are getting some good advice.Depending what mileage has been done you should negotiate out of this with not too much damage.One thing,if you want to stick around in this industry,you are going to get a lot more of this.Get this one sorted and there will be another one waiting to happen.

5 months use...He has probably done several thousand miles.Try offering a full refund less the HMRC mileage allowance 40p per mile ( should be 45p I think) offer expires after 5 days.Then when you get it back have a go at his VW specialist.

Hi Frankieola. I think it is a good idea.You could do that where we are because in general people are very open and tell you all their circumstances.However,I don’t think I would chance it in south London.Infact the more I think about it,I might pinch your idea.

Free range kids on the pitch with oblivious parents,warranty reps who persist in trying to sell you theirs after you tell them you have been successfully doing your own for donkeys years,peepscarfes,council staff from the property,council tax or planning dept who have letters after their name.( I always ask them what and where and they never tell you),John Bercow,reality tv,greedy charities who knock on your door when they have millions on deposit and several staff earning 6 figures,financial anylists on telly commenting on multi billion takeovers that look 16 years old,age partnership rip off equity release tv ad,old women wearing football shirts,politicians who lose badly at elections and claim an outstanding result,parents who encourage their kids to attend some downmarket ‘uni’ and get into 20 grand debt to do some crap course and remain very proud.Charity runners or shufflers who you have to sponsor who then do no training and then claim success because they finish in 3 h 20m which turns out to be 48,746th place....I better stop...All very Victor Mildrew.

90 mins with a punter.....that’s a P45

4) That used to happen in the old days when you rarely got declines.Rather than decline a deal and cause ill feeling,finance companies would cover themselves with the future value of the merchandise should the punter default.General Guarantee springs to mind.

What music do you use.That must be important,if you have a pink Fiat 500 and you use a Metallica or Judas Priest track,that may not help.

What about when you can’t get parked at the block.Then some big shot in a Bentley with a vanity plate cruises in and are welcomed through the gate.More often than not,these guys are frauds and later on either go bust or do a runner leaving financial havoc.I was talking to a guy this week who has recently stopped working for a similar guy as he could not take any more.Apparently this one buys his stock with BCA stocking money.Then after so long transfers the stock to another stocking facility.This guy personally leases some big smoker with the vanity plate and makes sure he has the latest iPhone ( are they a grand now).We have all seen them come and go and they really annoy me.

Clearly the punter was a pain from the start.No way would I have let them have a demo.

Especially these overweight older guys with Snow White legs wth tattoos.They think they look good.

No you never get any thanks.Except when someone you have helped previously has then bought elsewhere but then returned for another car having had issues with both the dealer and the warranty company.

I don’t know about sport !,but until motor dealers end up in the small claims court failing to defend some dubious claim for £4K on an old Range Rover or similar (because the judge interprets CRA differently),they may then want to change their business model.If you run a pitch,the risk reward ratio with retailing older stuff is a lot higher with the introduction of CRA.However,this does not appear to be the case with home traders,good luck to them.

I would not want to retail 1) and 3). too risky. but 2) is different,I would be helping the punter.If you are going to deal in heavy old stuff,expect to take some big hits.

Not much happened this week,the new signs have been delayed by high winds,the website is not ready and NAT West are stalling with our new proposed faster payment account.Bought a few to help get us going.Star buy....I was at the local block and a ‘faded’ 61 Jag XF 2.2 Auto with cream leather but no nav comes through as a rerun from last week.Auctioneer says it’s done 9k but no history.Anyway I have only one bid at £93 and the hammer comes down.I thought ‘O dear’ what have I done.Picked it up the next day,it’s one local owner,it is 9k miles,smooth driver and just needs minting up and we are getting the history from the local Jag Dealer.What a relief. We are about 10 days away from trading,but I will do a warts and all running commentary until I am told to stop.

I think if you work on your own or you are a home trader,when you have a problem,punters are more flexible and don’t expect a warranty.However with a pitch,staff and workshops etc and you are doing 500 or more per year,your punters expect warranties.Long ago,we began administering our own FREE 12 month 12000 mile warranty or mechanical breakdown agreement as we call it.We started by putting £70 per sale in a separate account.The fund mounted up very quickly and from then on we treated claims as an investment.The outcome was that we then did a lot more repeat business.Most people do appreciate that if they break down or have a problem miles away from home and with one call you can sort it out for them.Some of the claims would be suspect,but we just paid them. Nowadays main dealers offer service contracts which are charged monthly and are a good source of extra income.With our new venture we are exploring a similar thing with warranties and free future MOTs and few other things.Our theory is that a good proportion of punters taking out our ‘ customer care pack’ but who will have the option to cancel at any time,will instead let them run on......I think I can sense the doorsteppers reading this with negative thoughts !

Hi Area 51 ...Been on a Virgin 787 ,it was great,super smooth and quiet.Unfortunateley when it landed ,it couldn’t get parked at LAX,we had to wait for an hour.Hope you have photo of you and The Donald in your office.

Hi Ryan. All clever stuff,sounds good to me,these LA guys are ‘switched on’.We call the rejections ‘chucky duffers’ over here,what do you guys call them.?

Owen ?

Hi Ryan. Typical scenario -prime finance customer.Let’s say we have a repeat prime finance customer who gets declined.When we inform him ,he then volunteers that it must be because he has taken out one Wonga pay day loan but which he had promptly repaid.So we then send you his details on his behalf.I would be interested to know (if possible )how much you may charge for the service,who pays and what guarantees you give in order to correct his credit rating. Also and most important ,how long does it take....Thank you.

Urine Gold is also very popular.

They always shut down for a month.They are just bringing it forward to Brexit time in case a ‘no deal’ happens and confusion may effect their supplies.They have already said,they are not going anywhere.It would take years to establish another Mini plant elsewhere.Its,the same with Nissan and Airbus.

I agree about silicon spray it is so adaptable.We had a part time guy years ago whose job was to Autoglym the stock.We had an outside pitch then and the Autoglym made the rain run off smoothly and made washing and leathering off a lot easier.However when machine polishers where introduced,what a difference they made.I think back in the mid eighties my Makita cost £300,worth every penny.

Mr Trump sorted out the EU in one day.He just told them to stop cheating on secret subsidies in the steel business and other industries and cough up for under paying into NATO or they would be tarriffed.Meanwhile because we are British we follow EU Regs to the letter and have destroyed our own steel and fishing industry while allowing other EU states to cheat.

If Wayne has traders insurance cover surely that would include public liability cover.As regards volunteering he is a mechanic,I have to disagree.We employed an ex mechanic as a salesman,he was a straight talking no bullshit guy who would wear an overall with a few spanner’s in his top pocket.The punters loved him,he used to nick the swappers and do great chucky deals and when they returned for another car they used to ask for him.Even our Black Horse rep thought he was a star.Regarding HMRC,I agree Wayne definateley needs to record and declare everything,otherwise you can now be crucified .It is not like the old days.

Hi Wayne Sounds to me like you are doing OK.If you are good at your day job,you will be earning £30k or more depending where you are.If you can then do 3 or 4 cheapies per month staying below the VAT threshold,that is good.There will be quite a few on here who would settle for that.Your USP is that you are a mechanic and punters will always buy cheapies from a mechanic.