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Mistermuttley
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Everything posted by Mistermuttley
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Use a Nissan Leaf myself as my personal car. Before it I had a type R Civic. The type R was awesome but so is the Nissan, just in a totally different way. Loved revving the type R to 7k revs and hearing the engine. But the Leaf is utterly silent and when you put your foot down you get a real shove as it just launches so quick, all the power available instantly, no waiting for the engine to spool up. Driving it is a completely different experience, no gear changes just one gear. At speeds above 90mph it is still super silent, although you will watch your range go down alarmingly at this speed! Still like combustion cars but once you have owned an Electric car you can see why they will take over the market. Friends who now own one cannot imagine going back to a non EV. Range is improving every year and within a couple of years the norm for ev's will be 200+miles range.not every house has one ,but there are millions of houses with drives and with these you just plug in every night or less for a full tank of 'fuel' by the morning. Also no real service is required , no oil changes,spark plugs,exhausts,clutches and so on. Since I have had my leaf ,the only top up has been the windscreen wash. Wont it be nice when the calls from punters about dodgy VW gearboxes and blown turbo's are just something we used to have to sort?
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I started out 2 years ago. Before i bought my first car i got, 1 trade insurance,2 dealer plates and 3 declared myself as a trader to inland revenue. Before you start to deal you should have at least this sorted. My first cars were a high mileage corsa and a toyota aygo. The seats in the corsa were so filthy i took the covers off them and washed them in the sink! did come up as new though. The aygo needed a replacement front bumper which i sourced from northern ireland and swapped myself. You will do a lot more than you think you will need to starting car dealing and will learn to buy smarter and be less gullible/trusting in this game. Dont underestimate the help from this forum though. I was a lurker just learning for a while. Just one paragraph from the more experienced on here can change your mindset or give you a quality tip/aha moment. All this advice is given freely so respect that and the people who give it. Oh and good luck!
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considering you have knocked this up yourself it looks really impressive. I only have a few cars for sale at a time so dont want to spend big for a website. Might just have a go myself. The video presentation was very good , either you are a natural or you have been watching a lot of videos on here!
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Like Bham council who have to pay office staff the same wages as bin men as they are doing 'comparable' jobs, even though at the time they got took on they were aware of the pay and accepted it. If thats the case maybe the office girls would like to swap jobs?! Everywhere is the same now, companies like to level pay across all roles so they aren't seen to discriminate. I used to work as an aircraft tech in the Raf many moons ago and we had different higher pay grades to admin/dental/police staff as the training was longer and the job more difficult. Now every role pays EXACTLY the same and my role has hardly changed in pay whereas most others has gone up. How on earth is that fair.If anyone is thinking of joining up now just pick the easy job as there is no incentive to choose a technical role.
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Sometimes you have to take a punt on the less desirables at auction. Ones which the regulars who don't want to put too much effort in will steer clear of. For example i just bought a 2009 VW Fox. Needs some work, all of the exhaust looks like it could be off the titanic and it was blowing as it went into the hall. windscreen wipers and screws in engine bay are rusty (scottish car) , the passenger wing needs replacing and a repair carrying out to the bumper near it. And new wheel trims ,MOT and service. But it cost me £570 with fees. All in it will owe me about £1100 and at £2000 it should go out quickly as its done just 56k miles. It does help if you can do a bit of spannering as that keeps the costs down. Sometimes you just have to put your neck out with certain cars as the unloved ones dont get fought over like the grade 1s and 2s and even 3s.
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I've been doing it for nearly 2 years myself and I understand your pain! I haven't got it all figured out myself yet but here is some advice which may help you. 1) most of my purchases come from Manheim and vary between hall or online. Whichever you choose always research every car you bid on carefully, from length of mot, past mot issues, tyre condition because if you buy one with low tread that is a decent cost straightaway. If you do go to the auction, walk round the car with the eyes of the buyer, check every panel, exhaust ,interior, everything that you can. Listen to it starting up ,see if the engine is quiet,ask the driver if the clutch is ok. What you want to be doing is costing every single thing you can that will in your opinion need sorting, and then work retail back taking off fees and refurb costs. For me i work back from retail taking off around 300 fees, 400-500 profit and 250 refurb .These figures are rough and vary with each car. You then have a max bid amount, don't go over it. I have bought some cars and made 500-750 easy profit and others i have put loads of hours in and either broke even or lost £100 from it. These buying experiences should hopefully steer you onto cars which you think are profitable. But don't overlook any car if profit is in it. Oddball cars seem to do well for me because there is less competition when you are selling them. 2) If you buy private always check EVERY SINGLE THING that you can. Drivetrain-bodywork-suspension on the test drive-tyres-exhaust-all electrics e.t.c e.t.c . For me privates are worse than the auctions as so many cars have had issues undeclared by the owners. If you cannot see a clear profit after taking off every cost, keep your money in your pocket.
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Had a look at AT price,seems about 3k for a comparable and £3200 to £3400 on ebay bizarrely. Think I'll put it up on eBay at 3k and fingers crossed it will fly out! Also use facebook/gumtree as well. Facebook seems to be the best place to get stuff shifted at the moment.
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Follow up to what has happened....... Took the car into Manheims as they said bring it back and we will give you a full refund. When i got there I was asked asked for the logbook so the manager could see it. After waiting about 20-30 minutes i thought something might be up. But i went for a chat with them in their restaurant (free tea and sandwich from them!) , and the manager Lisa had got in touch with LV and the car was put on the record mistakenly. The manager Lisa had spoke to Experian and they couldnt work out why it was on the vcar, but she expected them to contact them soon as a result of her chat with LV so we waited for the phone call. No call so I said what chance do you really think it will be off the register and was told at least 90%, so i thought I'll just go home and keep it. Didnt receive anything back for a couple of days so thought they might be struggling to get it off the vcar, but then a call from Lisa and lo and behold its off the register. Funny thing is without Lisa chasing LV herself and asking them it may not have got off the register. So now I have a little fiat to sell! Cant fault Manheim really , I know they will put the company first but I do think they try and look after their customers, at this branch anyway.
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When you say it like that!
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Its literally 5-10 minutes each headlight with a mop and some g3, and headlights look mint afterwards. Would take you longer to search/order then fit the new ones!
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XC90 active vinyl seat tear - repair?
Mistermuttley replied to j4ck100's topic in General Dealer Chat
Blenheim car sales recommended Trim Tec in Potters lane Wednesbury Ws10 0AT to me. Nice guy called Joe, sorted out the side bolster same as yours for £50 in perforated leather. Great job done, depends if you are near to him. That does involve removing the seat for him though and dropping it off. So really £100 for a mobile service does seem decent value, if you value as you should your own time. -
I start from when the hammer falls. I do it this way because for me it gives me more impetus to get stuck into the jobs that need doing on a car. A rough average turn for me when I started would have been around 30 days, that was when i was selling 1 to 3k stock. Now my average price is around 3-4k I am finding it is taking 60-70 days for each car. I had a Peugeot 207 for 5 months and that had just gone in January. For me its the longest car I have ever had and not being used to sitting on stock I used to look at it every day and pray for the 'one call'! I am now more comfortable with waiting for stock to sell but it has taken a while to just relax and just bide my time for a buyer. What I have found is that if something is below £1500 and clean with a full Mot it will normally go really quickly. The only problem with these cars though are because the margin is tight anything you spend on them quickly eats into your profit.
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If at half cap i would go for it. Any more and probably not as my drive is too small for ornaments. I have a patient wife!
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Just a follow up. Spoke to Manheim yesterday and they have said bring it back for a full refund. They did say work out your costs and have said they will take them off future auction fees, so not too bad there. When it comes back through the block would i bid for it again? Not sure, the car is decent now but its just Whether or not i can get the marker off it. Typing on phone and pressed submit by accident so its split into two posts! And after typing that it automatically merged the 2 posts!
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ok,cheers ,will have a think and let you know of the outcome when Manheim call.
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that sounds like a plan. Are Cat N's worth about half cap clean?
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And there i was thinking as it was just a stupid error it would be an easy fix. Not the cars fault ,but Fiat 500's are definitely marmite and i think I'm going off marmite!
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Bit of an update. On a chance i sent a letter to the last owner asking if she had been involved in an accident as it was Cat N but i can't see any bodywork issues. She has been good enough to call me today and let me know in her 3 years of ownership she has never had an accident in it. She did say though that her insurance company had been contacted by LV regarding a bump in which her car was involved,apparently during a 3 point turn! She said that was not her and when querying it, LV had realised they had got the wrong car. Even the letter she received from her insurance company showed the right Reg' but a different name of owner. So it appears that LV have put it on the register wrongfully and haven't bothered to remove it. Will contact Manheim tommorrow and fingers crossed it will be relatively painless to resolve.
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Duly noted tv! thanks
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Latest update for this is, have spoken to a manager called Dale. Dealt with him before ,decent fair bloke. He as said Arnold Clarkes office girls are looking into it and if it is Cat N then they will do a refund. I have mentioned the cost to me of parts/repairs which stand around £200 and he did say it was only policy to return the purchase/bid fees but talk to him about it once Arnold Clarke have done their investigation and he would see what he could do. If he doesn't suggest a couple of free hammer fees I might suggest it to him,its a decent idea that. Heres what it looks like now finished, but still glad to get shot of it if its Cat N.
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Just a Legacy 2.0 GL estate, 2003 ,needed a bit of work,paint on a couple of panels and an exhaust ,but once advertised everybody wanted it. a guy came from wales for it and checked the body for rust thoroughly, the body for its age was mint. He reckoned loads are shot at this age but mine was solid. A big 4wd estate for a good price fills a niche and I guess there is more demand for them than supply.
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Mmmm i do pick em! Think i might just look for subaru estates. The interest i had in one of those was ridiculous.
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that makes sense then. cheers
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didnt know about that website. tapped in reg and vin, says ' No salvage records found for this vehicle! '. wonder if its still not on at all registry places. Or maybe the marker has been put on by mistake
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I did think when it popped up on Autotrader as Cat N, have i fooked up and not noticed the car was on vcar. Glad its their problem to sort!
