trade vet

Beware ex main dealer types,they may be good on sales,but they can be bullshitters and have bad habits and cause you problems with paperwork,valuing swappers and don’t expect them to leather a car off that’s going out.I think it is better to train them up.Aged over 50 Ex workshop guys are good and reliable,they still talk like a fitter and the punters like that.We had one guy who always wore a blue overall coat,several pens in his top pocket,he used to nick the swappers and do good chucky deals.( He refused to do sub prime chuck duffers )He was always busy,making sure everything was priced up,off the button and was always checking lights and levels.The best guy we had,used to like getting up early,he would be in at 7 and would wash and leather off the stock by 9.30.The current guys can code read ,are tech savvy and don’t mind washing cars and other stuff .....That’s my experience,I hope you get a good one.

Good...you know what they say ‘ if it’s not broke,don’t fix it’

Looks good,are your punters still going to book appointments and view at your home.

You are 20 !,forget it.Go back to working at a van retailer.Like most of us,work 7 days a week learning about all aspects of the business,save up at least £50k.Do this for another 5 years,find a like minded colleague with £50k as a partner,you should then be taken seriously and you will be ready to have a go. Good Luck.

Hi there I think you would be better off by using your £15k and buying one or two and see how it goes.I know people who sell vans and work from home.They might have some arrangement to park them up somewhere which costs very little.I would forget about taking on debt at the moment,stick to what you are currently doing and try and do 2 vans per month.................I have to say,I have always got it wrong with vans,either the wrong type of side loading door or if it is a mini bus it’s got to be 9 not 12 seat etc and these van punters don’t like paying VAT.I remember buying a virtually new £10k Mitsubishi pick up at the door,It had all the toys,I thought I had nicked it.Six months later,we still had it because it had been a ‘grey import’,It did not have a heater,it had been built for the Malaysian market !

There is a downside to everything.Having looked at the numbers,it appears a better business than renting property.Even today,I saw some camper rental company in the south charging £300 for a weekend hire and a lot of their stuff was out on hire.These were older ,poor spec camper vans.In the summer,£1300 per week appears to be the going rate.Surely,that is better than selling cars !

Get your accountant or someone to do a business plan,show it to the bank and see what their response is.In my experience,bank managers are into caravans and camping.Alternativeley,if you advertised in the AT equivalent for campers,because of the talent you have,you could get an investor.There are a lot of people out there sitting on cash and getting no return for it and looking for investment opportunities.

Mr C Your Vans look brilliant.It just seems to me that if you could keep a few of them and instead of selling them,rent them out,you would probably do very well.I had not realised how much they rented for !

Yeh !.....old Volvo estates,except no matter what they were like,older punters could not buy them quick enough.

You will be an unknown quantity to them,so you won’t get much.However,if you do quality business with a reasonably low rejection rate,you can renegotiate at a later stage based on set targets.If you become really good,the prime lenders will queue up to offer you better deals.Although the ‘golden chucky commission ‘days are gone,to give you an idea,I recall we were able to finance say £3750 ( no deposit) and with the dreaded PPI we would receive £400 advanced commission plus 3% in volume bonus later on.Now you finance £10k and you don’t get anywhere near that.....also you have to read the rates and terms contract with a magnifying glass before signing.

What a spoil sport,they would have washed and leathered it off when they returned it !

Hi R and K I hope you are taking notice from the guys on here. Having looked at your website again,I see you describe yourselves as ‘car enthusiasts ‘ ,so in other words you may have little experience.It takes years to learn this business and be successfull so you may be better off by employing a full time pro.Also,having looked at your competition on AT,you may need to consider that there are any amount of independent dealers doing Mercs,Audi’s and BM’s. nearby.Worse still,a lot of these have recorded a loss in their last set of accounts.If you want to maker any money,you could be better off doing for example,bread and butter estate cars which are easy to buy and also attract’ aged over 50 punters ‘ who are easy to deal with. 7 seaters are also a good bet.Please don’t be offended by my comments,I am a ‘hard boiled motor dealer’ and this business has never been harder.

Out of interest ( or probably not ),not only are company car users taxed on their availibility for potential private use and emissions etc.If their company car also carries a private number plate which is owned by their company,they should also declare it as a ‘benefit in kind’ and tax is due based on its open market valuation.I would imagine 1 VW is a valuable plate,so if you were a top rate tax payer you could be heavily penalised for having it on your company car.....On the other hand,it is probably down as a staff pool car which could technically circumvent the tax charge....

Hi there I just think that you have not found your ‘niche ‘ yet.Every pitch is different,when I have moved pitch and I have had a few, I have had to change the type of stuff that I thought would sell.You have to resist trying to sell the stuff that you like,when you find what makes the phone ring,just go with that.You are located in a good catchment area with good auctions nearby and you should be able to buy whatever.I would say get 20 cars with £1000 margin and you will find out what the punters want.Forget £50k Range Rovers and similar heavy stuff,the average punter for them goes to a main dealer......Good Luck.

Really ! He did say the Fiesta was the right money.

Max,it’s a Fiesta,it’s not a Dacia,get it bought !

Hi Grant I am halfway through reading the Yugo story,it should be a movie......Now I see Tesla putting out bullshit excuses for all their production problems ....you just wonder.

Grant has already said he is located in the heart of Essex in the Brentwood /Billericay area where apparently you can sell £20k Mercs from the door.It must be the equivalent of North Cheshire in the south east.

Grant ...Are you sure you have been in the trade ?......As an exercise can you name a few non franchised dealers in your catchment area that you aspire to.

Weird manual A6?,you haven’t had any traumatics then,I get a headache thinking about them !

‘Old fashioned margins’,great expression,thank you.This site is similar,the retail park includes ASDA and M and S down to Poundland.

In stock for 3 months,don’t panic,maybe knock £200/£300 off,but prices will rise by Feb.It happens to us all,when the financial crash hit in 2008,we all were taking huge hits on a lot of stock in order to get them away.

Thank you guys.While the site is good ,with proper signage,I think buying in stock at the door will work ( it did years ago with poor signage when it was a less busy location) but it may not generate enough.We are going to need a good searchable website name and I am not ‘tech savvy’.Also,if it does work and we can buy plenty,we will need to trade most of them.That is not easy,how would we do that,maybe just show traders the purchase invoice.Again,I would be gratefull for any suggestions.Thank you.

What,Police come out and record it as a crime ! We had a coach parked near us which went up in flames and it was on our CCTV.I was told by a retired inspector,that for the Police to come out and take action,there would need to be video of an MP on the coach with a little boy with trousers around his ankles !

I have not been in the front line in this job for a few years now.However seeing all the negative stuff about the likes of Dealer Auctions and also extortionate auction buyers fees in general,it has given me an idea.We have a good corner site coming off lease and since it was last used for car sales,there is now a big shopping centre next to it and the passing trade is huge.I am toying with the idea of reopening this site as a car buying and trading operation.When I go to the US,I have often seen stand alone car buying sites,so I would be interested to hear what you guys think,good idea or not.....Thank you.