Nick M.K.

I get what they mean, they mean to say that the plate shouldn't be facing the sky stuck on a flat bonnet or boot lid but vertical is a daft word to use for this.

You are a dealer, not a marriage counsellor. You get a customer that wants what you have - you deal! If they both like the car - Good! If only he likes it - Still OK - you sold to him. If they both hate it - Offer to buy it back at a lower price. Hold the V5 notification after the sale for at least a month so there isn't another keeper on the record and when selling it insist that taxing it by direct debit is the greatest method of them all. None of us want aggro but it does look like the majority of us forum members here are self employed business owners in a business full of aggro so we can take it sometimes :-)

Do you cover the plates with the suction holder? You may as well keep them in the windscreen as both are forbidden. I have attached the DVLA guidance note VTL301G section 4:

You can buy caravan or trailer plate holders for around a pound or two each and adapt them to do exactly the same job. I used similar to fit trade plates covering the current plate of the car but this was forbidden a while ago. I just display in windscreen again. I think (not 100% sure) that cars IN TRADE will not get fined, only SORN cars. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Trailer-number-holders-stainless-LMX1867/dp/B00W9P88W6/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1529914014&sr=8-3&keywords=caravan+plate+holder

The journey IS the reward.

Yes, you can. The key is not to stand in the back footwell, shout at the crowds and keep your arm in a straight extended position :-)

West Oxfordshire Motor Auctions: WOMA

Compared to others my journey will probably seem shorter and I still to this day advertise on eBay in their classified ad format but yes, majority of my new customers come on the back of my AT advertising. I also have a package with Motors.co.uk and a medium package with CarGurus (for which I have given them a cancellation notice). Do you think the lack of previous (especially MAIN dealer) experience might actually be an advantage in this trade?

In 2004 I was working full time for a health and safety consultancy in Southwark in London. Had been in the country 4 years (I am Bulgarian), just learnt the language and had no real interest in health and safety. Had a nice sideline selling iPod cases on eBay that I was importing from the US and I had gained very high eBay feedback score. I was always interested in cars but at that point didn't even know the difference between a brake disc and a brake pad. Ignorance is a bliss they say. I bought a BMW 518i E34 from a private seller for £800 and listed it on an eBay auction with a reserve of £1100 to see what will happen. Sold in 7 days for £1950, I'll never forget my first customer, Tony from Leeds. He said he saw my feedback score and decided he wanted MY car. The name of the BMW colour was Dunkelblau. Similar to 90 day blue but more like 150 day blue. From that moment on I was never seriously interested in doing anything else, watching the bid increases on my cars on eBay was addictive. Quit the day job in late 2005 and soon after was selling 11-12 cars a month from a "stock" that never exceeded 4 or 5, delivered them for a nominal charge and did so little "prep", it was shocking. Ignorance WAS a bliss... the eBay frenzy died down eventually, the novelty wore off, I also tried Gumtree for a while but in London the response was overwhelmingly idiotic so I moved on to AT after the crunch of 2009-10.

No, I don't do DA. Did it seem a tremendous bargain? Maybe it didn't have the Range extender...

Yes. A £150 Auto with a half empty tank :-)

Hats off to you for being a risk taker, fortune favours the brave :-) Hopefully there is buyer out there that "always wanted one"...

Jay, when he comes to do the deal 1) Help him retain his private plate online. Takes 2 minutes, costs £80, he pays it and he will automatically receive a new V5 with the age related reg for his part exchange. 2) Keep the V5 of the part ex (now obsolete) BUT also charge him £100-£150 refundable deposit to ensure he sends you back the new V5 for the part ex. This will take 3-5 days. 3) On the day of the handover tell the DVLA (also online) that he is the new keeper of the car you are selling him and at the same time tax it, he pays it. 4) He will receive both V5s. He sends you the one for the part ex, you refund his deposit. He uses the new V5 to assign the private plate online to the newer car. He can then display his private plate and again in 3-5 days he will receive yet another V5 :-) This is the fastest way of doing it with a used vehicle.

That's exactly how I spent my Sunday but because I don't have enough stock to attract so many buyers on a single day I had to invite some family friends over at our local pub. All they were buying were drinks :-)

If the car is older than 2007 the Sensotronic ABS unit does make that noise by design. A newer E Class doesn't have that system (it was troublesome and they stopped installing it).

Yes, for years she was seeing this part number written on her OIL cap :-)

Yes it can Matt. They'll walk in your office any minute and ask if you are open to them booking an "independent AA check" as they have a few concerns.

I can't speak on behalf of anyone else but my personal take is this: I don't mind the competition, we are 250 miles apart in a country of 65 million people with 25+ million cars and we are highly unlikely to ever step on each other's toes. I personally disliked the amount of time, effort and overthinking you invested in this last potential transaction without getting any return whatsoever. Sold a couple of cars. Good. Made some money. Even better. Now repeat this a few hundred times and you'll still only know a small fraction of what you need to know. You got a lot of useful info here, now put in the work, take some risk, try to make some real deals and you'll know if it's for you...

As long as they are not theoretical or Vauxhall related you are more than welcome :-)

Of course. All the private companies have to do is demonstrate legitimate interest in the data. Wanting money from us is as legitimate as it gets :-)

Not walking the few miles between cars every week at Blackbushe had the exact opposite effect on me :-)

Welcome, great forum name by the way :-) Can I guess who you are just by the nickname? Are you in Essex? First name starting with D?

So if you are a after a particular vehicle for example and you have £9500 for it (and a customer lined up, ready for it with £11500 and finance approved) and your top bid in the hall or online reaches £9000 provisional do you leave it?

Hi Tim, pedantic is good, that's what the forums are for. I wasn't actually quoting a printed document but what a lady from DVLA told me on the phone when I called them to enquire directly. At the time I needed to know how long do I have (officially) before making an online change of keeper notification and when she said Within reasonable time I asked her the question about road tax. She explained it quite well, an explanation which was good enough for me at the time and still is. The OP asked a very straightforward question and I still think the answer is "Yes, it's possible". It's a loophole that might be closed eventually but it's not yet. We can do everything "By the book" but the job then becomes nearly impossible. I still display my trade plates on the windscreens for example...

I don't know anything about the motorcycle business, are motorcycle punters generally crazier than car buyers?