EPV

You’re probably better looking than Deborah Meaden n’all

It is. But part timers or joe public get involved swimming in shark infested water and wonder if the law will protect them when they get bitten.

Nothing to do with bloody cars that’s for sure. But seen as we’re on a dealer forum; Put a years rent down on a unit that held 15 and create a valeting bay and photographing bay. Buy 10 cars at around £12k a piece. Make more money.

Why would they? You're not a consumer, you've said as much. You're a part time trader. You've said as much. You've got unlucky by the sounds of it. Haven't we all. Good luck with it.

I don’t use any of those. Sometimes I wonder how much to drink the chap who wrote had taken. Work retail back, find out what the correct retail price it is (based on what’s available, desirable colour or not) find a slot for it in the market and deduct all your costs. That leaves you with your maximum bid.

As I said earlier albeit tongue in cheek, you could easily turn a big fortune into a little one. Take the first steps. Get your trade plates, buy a car and prep it, advertise it etc. I think you’re barking up the wrong tree looking to sink a lump into an existing business and form a partnership. Most wont want to be answering to anyone else and definitely not to someone who knows significantly less than them. I’d set yourself up small, learn a shit load yourself and from this forum and then after maybe 6 months, perhaps look to merge with someone else. Yes it’s slow but you need to learn fast and you will. Good luck, wish you all the best with it mate. Fair play for being prepared to give it a go.

Mate if you have £200k the quickest way to shrink that to £100k and worry if you’ll ever see a profit is to get involved with cars i’m looking for finance if you’re serious, send me pm and let’s see if we can get some sort of conversation going.

Send me their details mate and also your name so I can pass that info on and hopefully get you a little something out of it. Cheers

Most definitely please mate, do they inspect and buy at auction as well or just logistics?

Some really encouraging advice on here, thanks chaps. There's a couple of reasons I never bother attending, one of which is that as said, it's usually just the one car I'm interested in and I'm not spending an entire day stood around for one car. But as most of you seem to do, you buy stuff you wouldn't normally consider because you see the value. So, I must too. I have, Trade Vet, considered buying from much further afield but I always assumed the transport costs would be prohibitive. I shouldn't assume and a quick check on Anyvan delivery from Washington to me, seems to confirm I shouldn't assume as it's about £150 cheaper than I thought. Feeling a lot more buoyed now, thanks chaps.

Where are you based Grant?

Thanks. The reason I don’t go to auctions is due to me being fussy about what I buy. Typically I will only find one car per auction, i’m not going to go to an auction for one car obviously, not when there are several dotted around the country at different auctions. I did however, for the first time yesterday, think to myself that I could bid on things that are going through cheap (as long as there were reasons other than it was cheap) as there are definitely plenty of cars that go through cheap and would make nice sellers. I’m definitely thinking I need to go to a few auctions.

So after yet another day of selecting a dozen cars out, preparing to pay good money for them and then watching them go for stupid money I’ve concluded this can’t go on. I’m looking at low mileage petrol autos mainly, being based on the borders of South East London this is a good stocking strategy as these will of corse be popular. Generally german or Japanese, generally black white or grey, generally retail between £7k and £11k. The problem is that it seems to be everyone else’s stocking strategy and prices are silly. These buyers can only be making a few hundred quid per unit and it will all disappear when you get caught with a lemon and I ain’t working for that. I’m thinking of doing the opposite to this, i’m a contrarian and believe you can only make real money doing what everyone else isn’t or finding something people aren’t doing. Now stocking miley diesels probably isn’t ground breaking but it’s not like every person in Kent or Surrey is driving a low mileage petrol automatic so there is definitely a space for a miley diesel. I bought one a couple of months ago, it’s a very nice c250 CDI sport Estate, Nav, cruise etc and I polished her up a treat. 2014 Car with 128k on. I’ve opened the door once and barely had any interest since. I’ve re-thought what I did and essentially i’m asking someone to pay nearly ten grand for a car that may only get to its 8th birthday before it’s got 175k on. People obviously do consider resale value when spending that sort of money and frankly they will get very little out this particular car. I intended to sell it to a “look at me” type, the keep up with the jones’ type but evidently they aren’t in such abundance as I thought. I’ve done really well from those petrol autos or sometimes even manuals, when i’ve found them and when i’ve actually managed to get them for sensible money but the opportunities are few and far between and I need something bread and butter that turn fairly quickly (30 days) whilst I wait for those occasions when I can have it off once again. So, to those who stock things like 110k Audi A4 avants, CRV’s, 530d msports, rav4, 125k Audi A6 avants, mercedes c180 and e320’s and so on, how many miles, is too many in your experience? i’m thinking my bread and butter may well be nice diesels, under £5k, bit of spec, low number of owners and a good history. Not too many bruises but more mechanically sound, decent ticket on, etc.

Better still, don’t pay any claims out of it and have more

On the back of a combine aaaarverster

It’s for everyone who pays VAT I think mate.

There was a thread about this a couple of weeks back mate, look back a few pages and you’ll find it.

The margins are nice and fat when you do find em!

I’d be interested in all this too Mikey.

Pretty much yes that’s all I want them to do

We are different mate and each to their own but it just makes sense to me, to not offer warranties because ultimately they are insuring the punter, that's it. And on 8 year old cars with 80,000 miles on, why am I insuring them on future repair bills? And if the car is 6 years old with 30,000 miles on, how often will the bloody warranty be needed anyway? The CRA is massively beneficial to those dealers who prep well and do the job right. It's taken me a while to understand why that statement is true but I do now. If you do the job right you will rarely have to pay out on anything and the times you do, will be because you choose to, not because the law says you have to. I will at a push, if it's a genuine dealbreaker, on a car I can't give away, do some sort of in house warranty for someone. But the cars I stock generally go in an average of 30 days so the demand is there and the occasional lost sale will not hurt me, where as the grief that comes with punters who think their 8 year old car is insured against all mechanical fault for 6 months will hurt me a lot more.

I’ve decided to stop providing warranties. I’ve often thought of them as smoke and mirrors and the reality is they give punters an unrealistic view of what they will be getting post sale. Looking at my sales this year 95% of my punters I never hear from again. So with the combined help of Arfur Dealey and a very helpful conversation with Nona of Lawgistics i’ve decided to stop offering them. Will it cost me sales? Maybe. It may cost me the odd sale but I believe it will also save me long term grief. Perhaps when I get up to retailing £20k+ units I will look at chucking a third party one on there if the punters are all screaming for one but for now, I will tell people I prep well, beyond that then you are responsible for wiping your own arse.

I’ve possibly chucked a red herring out in here. It was because I wasn’t VAT registered they didn’t want to know me. That was then, obviously.

They may well have done, I sometimes don’t listen

Thanks for sharing that Nick. I actually tax most of my cars for storage reasons but when I get my storage compound sorted i’ll put my trade plates on the mid and know I won’t get a pull. Cheers.