EPV

5.0 V8 Supercharged RR. Stupid car. I’m flirting between keeping it and taking the next banger that comes into stock as my daily, or selling the idiotic thing and getting a diesel E Class. So much car for your money. When I bought the RR I did about 3,000 a year. Now it feels like I do that a week.

You seem a little obsessed with getting to Gold. It makes a small difference but that’s all it is really. Small. It ain’t the difference between making it pay and losing money. There is no “secret place” where a select few get clean stock a grand behind book. We all buy from the same place. As others have said, i’ll say it also, with the greatest respect, if you can’t turn a profit on a car or two after 2 years at this, then put your sheepskin coat away and find something you are good at. Speaking from the point of a relative newbie, you either “get it” or you don’t. Like most things in life. You’re good at some things and crap at others. Focus on your strengths.

Oh ok, it can’t ever happen then, the oracle has spoken. The internet tells me a man walked on the moon once but i’ve never known anyone who did it so it’s probably not true. You lads crack on, i’ve said enough and probably, too much here. Good luck.

Don’t say that, I’ve just got one in

Ok mate, either read what I have written or let’s just call it a day. For a start i’ve actually said I never netted £4K. I said I can see how it’s possible. Not a work of fiction. I’ve also said what I paid and what I sold for. You don’t believe me or else you wouldn’t be “like a dog with a bone” as you put it. I’ve said enough, please yourself.

Haven’t seen it for years mate. At least ten.

More or less exactly what I pay annually

And he had a go on Stacey. The lucky cunt.

Yes, thanks for the doubt but if I told you that in my previous life; I was the sole person responsible for the financials on a series of multi million pound construction projects, including a £30m one. That means dozens of subcontractors, multiple spreadsheets, monthly profit/loss projections and reports, sub contractor payments, applications to the client for monthly payments, dealing with our accounts team meaning self assement tax, self billing invoices, pro forma invoices, cash flow projections, vat, paye and on top of all that I was self employed meaning corporation tax and person income tax liability plus I was VAT registered, then hopefully you can see that I can add up and keep track of a few simple costs associated with one business.

I was very reluctant to post all of that because you’re right it’s an open forum but also because people either think you’re lying or bragging and i’m doing neither. But AD asked and I felt a little awkward but I said it. I don’t know why we have the conversations. Like I said you’re perceived to be lying or bragging and neither are a desirable trait. For the most part I pay my bills, pay my VAT, put enough aside from corp tax and a little for personal tax and the rest is my income. I left a highly paid job to do this and i’m still doing it and I haven’t had a significant drop in lifestyle. People can believe what they want I suppose. Or not. I’m not here to brag nor do I lie. No offence? I’d like to say none taken but as I said above I don’t lie. I would have thought having spoken with me a few times now you’d know i’m not the type to talk “tosh”

As above mate.

Almost. A slightly smaller German Coupe from Inglostadt in red with black wheels with excellent history that everyone was either sleeping or drinking mulled wine when it went through a very quiet auction up north.

I haven't. But on another day, I would have. The car had £2800 nett in it, bought £1000 under clean, a few days before Christmas, in what may be perceived as a difficult colour. 4 alloy wheel refurbs and a new ticket and service and it sold £1500 over cap retail l (it was booking wildly wrong) to the right buyer who was very close to having the entire £13k car on finance (£1400 comms) but sadly got approved for a more attractive unsecured loan that 90% of people would not have been able to get but owing to her job and relationship with the bank they gave it to her. I was a bit disappointed So on another day, with the wind blowing in the right direction etc. The point I'm making is that it's not a work of fiction. Again, not a regular occurrence. But very achievable with a bit of luck.

Positive. I'm not saying its a daily or weekly occurrence mate. But it's possible. There's only one way I could know that for sure. You can figure out how, I imagine. The chunky finance comms is the cherry on the cake, well, the icing and the marzipan as well Just to re-emphasise, I'm not saying it's the norm. But it's definitely not a work of fiction either.

Ah OK. I do the latter, i.e. don't include it in the cost of the vehicle (hammer plus nett fees) but claim it back.

Maybe I just pay close attention to that kind of thing. Not saying you don't. Maybe others don't. Maybe people tell porkies when it comes to filing accounts. Maybe.

Bit of a flakey joke there mate You're assuming that I don't know what my costs are. I do. Fixed and variable. My year end results won't come as a shock to me. There's also finance commish to consider. It's not a work of fiction to say a £13k retail car can nett £4k when you add commish into the equation. Not saying that's every car obviously.

Optimistic Well yes, it is but he doesn't yet know much about it all so I guess he's just working out whether he can make money. Justin's suggestion is the best, buy a car and find out...

Give him a break, he said he's bought the guide and he's clearly doing a bit of sensible homework.

It’s not OCD. It’s just standards.

I’m all booked up. Me n Rory are gonna storm the stage and give a lecture on the best colour to paint alloy wheels. It’s gonna be hardcore.

Soho

You can’t work it out as a margin percentage per car. Don’t bother trying it’s a waste of time. A 5k retail car may yield a 20% nett but a 15k car probably won’t. Nobody is going to discuss their margins on an open forum mate, I speak regularly to a few off here and it’s taken dozens of phone calls and months to trust even each other with such information. I will tell you that no one I know, including me, is working for £240 nett on a £10k car. £1k nett on a £5k car isn’t fantasy. You just need to work smart to get it. Good luck if you join in the party. It’s hard. Very hard. But I personally love the job.

That would make more sense

A 20mm socket and a gippo