EPV

“Poor me, nobody wants to give me free advice” Now I know you’re probably not thinking like that but that’s how you’re starting to come over mate. I have found the best way to get the most out of this forum is to try and figure shit out for myself and if I really can’t find the answer, help will be given. As said above, there are dozens of “new traders” a year on this forum and many never return. Self warrant. You warrant yourSELF. There’s a thread literally next door to this one about this very subject. Talk of keeping a pot by and paying for WARRANTy claims yourSELF? Think of it as a rite of passage, you have to wade through the salty old fuckers who have been worn down by the industry before you get to the enthusiastic ones who are still happy to talk about the job on here after having a day at it. Or they are so busy running a successful firm they have little time to help. Without this forum i’d be at least a year behind my own personal progress, it’s genuinely a gold mine. There’s a guide on “how to” at the top of this forum that covers the basics like what you’ll need. Good luck with it. Find out as much as you can by spending a week reading this forum’s last 100 threads. That’s what I did when I started 18 months ago and I didn’t have any experience in the trade at all. Zero. You have 4 years. Then when you have attempted something and half fucked it up (you will) ask on here and you’ll get help.

Of course everyone on here just started a car sales business out of the blue with a stock of 20 and went full time from day one...

Welcome and good luck. No planning permission required as you are not changing the use of the building. Keep your neighbours sweet or keep your activity on the QT and you'll have less grief long term. You'll come to accept that inspections are rarely worth jack shit. I have bought vehicles with a sea of green ticks on the sheet and had a DMF issue and I've bought a car that had a misfire and a 200 mile road trip magically cured the problem, never to be seen again. I expect most traders would prefer they didn't charge us £40 to have some half baked div prod about with a car and then carry out some guesswork on a bit of paper. As for access to trade prices, I assume you mean guide prices, these will be listed on the auction catalogue. Given this will be a sideline for you, you may wish to attend auctions, find something that needs a bit of TLC, that is putting off other bidders and do the work yourself.

Indeed. I used to let people go but now I have got a better rate from a card merchant, I'm happier to sacrifice £20-£50 per transaction to put it through the machine, get it paid next day and know the money is there and safe.

I don't clean the engine but anyone who says they prefer to see leaves and gunge in the engine bay is a liar. When it goes on a ramp for it's test and it's PDI Mr customer, any leaks are spotted and fixed. If you are worried we are hiding something, probably best you don't buy anything from us.

Full on detail, shampoo, wet vac extraction, engine bay (not engine) degreased, headlining, clay bar'd paintwork, machine polish.

I thought you couldn't charge admin fees to selected punters, I thought it was everyone or no one.

Looks a familiar story to me... Chaps, I can vouch for Tom as a serious newbie, not a "car sales is ez money lolz" type, help him where you can!

Viva the revolution! I don't know why people feel like putting their Che Guevara shirt on and try and drive people to revolt. It's not council tax, or income tax, or a state entitlement, it's a privately owned firm that charge what they like. You either have it, or you don't. So, pack it in fucking moaning and get on with selling cars.

This.

PAYG HPI account. WBAC tend to be somewhere around cap below and cap avg.

Depends on what you stock. 10 year old BMW’s vs 10 year old Volvos. I’ve sold both. Different breed from each other.

I think it’s a good model. You get cars mechanically straight, don’t do too much cosmetically and sell to people who don’t give too much of a shit about scrapes and bruises but just want a boggo car that doesn’t need any spending on it. I do think you need a strong stomach and thick skin for dealing with some of the fantasists out there!

This

Wait until you sell a few “prestige” cars you’ll soon come across a few know it alls

There’s one of those threads knocking about somewhere

Hmmm, wouldn’t that involve DA owning the stock themselves? DA are just a platform aren’t they

Mate have you seen some of the prices cars sell for on DA? A few hundred quid off retail, sometimes! Plus the smaller franchises probably don’t get the selling fees waived by bigger AH’s so they save those fees.

I had a similar issue on a Jag albeit diesel and the problem was eventually diagnosed to fuel pressure dropping off and this was only diagnosed when (as Dave says) live data was read. Not completely relevant I know but something to think about.

A very good post, as usual.

Turn it in. Embarrassing.

This.

Horses and water etc. When someone rings and asks to book a viewing in, after you have qualified them, taken details etc and you ask "do you have any questions for me about the car at all?" and they say "no, I don't believe I have" which happens to me a lot, more than not, then you know you have done your digital job right. You can't be everything to everyone. Some people won't read the advert. It doesn't matter if you write a boon and mills style write up of the car or write "black, 3 owners, £6,995" either way, they are going to ring you and ask "how many owners" Some people may narrow their choice down to three cars, or two, a shortlist. One advert has given them all the info they need, they feel ready to see it. The other two have huge gaps in the information level and have left many questions unanswered. Who's car do you think they will start sub-consciously buying? You can only put the info out there. If some people don't read it, they never were going to. But if by putting the info out there, it earns you more sales, from those who like to have all the information spoon fed to them, why wouldn't you, I think.

I had a buyer on a Scirocco in here two days ago, said he came and saw mine first because of the write up. I do like to paint a picture of what it's like to own the car where possible. As ever, in this industry, you can't be everything to everyone. There will be people who look at a few photographs and read two lines of your advert and ring and there will be people that will move on to the next advert because yours simply states a spec list of the car. Horses for courses.

There are some very clued up, qualified traders on here but I can tell you now, none of them have the ability to read your insurance cover documents! Ring your insurance. I think what you're getting confused with is, premises insurance doesn't cover your premises, i.e. the building. You would need building insurance for that.