Nick M.K.

Your insurer will get the claim, not you. I've been through all these questions with my broker. Don't add was his advice. It was news to me as well at the time.

NO. Even if you sell AND take your car off the MID you are still exposed as you will be the last party to carry an insured interest. Even in the past. You are free to do that but this is not best practice.

Because there is no requirement for you to but if you add them and sell a car and it has an accident without having valid insurance they will check MID and go to YOUR insurer with the claim as you will be the last party to have "insured interest" in that vehicle. This advice comes directly from my broker Jem from Aston Lark and he knows his stuff.

DO NOT get your cars on the MID unless they are your personal cars or taxed cars.

In metal containers?

It's easier to learn where to find the paint codes on the car and just Google them.

I've sold a few MX5s over the years, each and every one went to a lady in the "way over 50" age bracket.

Sold a 3 series BMW recently but the customer had some issues with it. Because I was abroad, couldn't deal with it quickly and because he was being really sensible about it all I have decided to have the BMW back and swap it for him with a Merc E Class of similar value. He paid a year's tax by card and I still haven't registered the BMW to him. I'd much rather NOT add another keeper on the record now. Is there a way for him (or me) to get the tax refund from the DVLA without him or my company becoming a new registered keeper???

Autoglym at around £22 for 5 litres, lasts me a long time if applied correctly. The number of people that say "look at these new tyres"...

Every "Thank you" card I've received has ended up costing me £200-£300 in goodwill repairs. I dread receiving the next one.

In a world where my bank charges me almost 1% to pay cash in why would I want anyone to pay me with their notes and then expect a 20% discount for the privilege. Thanks but no thanks. Give me a transfer any day.

Are you kidding? Of course. Best times ever :-) Buying for a grand. Selling on 7 day eBay auctions for two grand with free UK delivery in 2006 and six month tax thrown in. Back in the day BCA fee was maybe £60 for a £1000 car and tax was reasonably cheap on the old stuff I was selling. Didn't give warranty, even a 5 month MOT would do, didn't get any comebacks and had huge positive feedback. I loved selling Volvo V70s (the "Classic" shape). No easier buyer than a Volvo buyer in those years :-)

Because if we do the main forum will lose out on the sizeable amount of info we both contribute. I can't see why you did not find the AT forum useful. Everyone else that was regularly on there did. They were all pros, all wanting to learn even more.

You can't really view their buyers fees as a percentage of the hammer price but if you do then my latest purchase attracted far more acceptable 2.8% on a Gold account

The Autotrader forum was EXTREMELY good although it was a closed forum for whoever had an AT monthly package. Fresh blood could still come in (as long as they had an AT package) and were more than welcome there with all sorts of commercially sensitive info discussed openly. On this forum (just one example) I personally will NOT discuss my exact finance commission % or stocking terms because finance companies reps and the general public have open access to it.

I do deals like this often and try to be as diplomatic as possible while keeping things profitable. I'd ask the customer "how big of a loss can you live with" and some of them come up with a surprisingly large number. If they don't start with a number I will offer a bit over what I paid for it the first time round but if it needed a lot of adding value I will offer more. Nothing wrong in doing a deal like that, especially if it gives your customer an instant sale at a price higher than what they will get anywhere else. I wouldn't even clean the car as it comes back, will park it in our lock up, advertise it with the first set of photos and when the phones start ringing will give it a new full valet and a new full MOT.

It was Mark not me but if it was a cheap 07 car and they asked me nicely I would've given it a go as well :-) Retail price for keys from Merc (NO trade discounts on keys) is £240 but you can get it slightly cheaper (£30-40 less) if you don't need the metal emergency key insert.

12.

+1

13 in stock and advertised, 4 sold at the very beginning of the month, then nothing for a couple of weeks, then 3 sold and 1 possible (looking at finance options) on Saturday. Also managed to get away for a few days which was nice and managed to buy 4 at Blackbushe yesterday, some prices were crazy high, some very low. If I can sell another 3-4 until end of Aug I will have a very nice month.

I thought the exact same thing yesterday :-)

For a fiver I'd rather give that spare than not. For the Mercs, BMWs, Jaguars or the Audis that I stock the smart keys look nothing like the manual spare keys that I provide. The customers know they can't use them to start the car but if they lock themselves out (key locked in boot usually) they have a very easy way of getting back in. Also if you were to lose the original emergency blade "insert" from the smart keyfob (I've done it after a fob battery change at a garage, Jaguar charged £105 for a replacement!) at least you have another copied blade so the locksmith can easily cut an inexpensive chinese replacement of the key insert.

Great result!

Did you get the higher price James?

I have a mobile car locksmith that comes around every month or so and for all cars with 1 key makes me a manual spare key that can open the door but not start the car. Costs me £5 - £10 a key depending on the make.