Hargy

Hi. I’m relatively new to the car trade (5 years) and sell mostly sub 10 year old cars with very little hassle. In April I took a trade in Proton Savvy 2011 with 35k miles from an old lady. She’d had the car for the last 10 years. I sold this on for £1850. Fast forward to July and got a message saying fuel filler neck had corroded and they wanted the car repaired. We agreed to repair which took a while to locate a part which eventually had to be adapted to suit. Customer collected car nd messaged me next day saying abs light had come on and they demanded a refund. I noticed that weekend they had advertised the car for sale but took it down a few days later. I offered to get the car repaired at our cost to keep things sweet but they insisted on a refund and that they were entitled under consumer rights. This has gone on a while now and eventually I told them to go legal if they wished as the car was perfect for the 1st 3 months. Today I got court papers that they’re taking me to small claims court Is there any way possible they could win this case?

I live in Northern Ireland so MOTs have to be done by Govt agencies only. We can’t take a car to a garage to get it done. Whatever test is on the car when I get it is what goes to the customer unless it’s below 2 months. I test drive every single car I buy and they are thoroughly checked over so nothing is left to chance. I also offer 3rd party warranty if they wish to purchase it. I only advertise on Gumtree or Facebook one car at a time so no advertising charges worth talking about. I source,buy,check,clean & valet, market & advertise & sell them all myself so no wages to pay. Works for me mate. I love doing it. If I had to depend on it the pleasure would soon disappear. I only get doing it on a Saturday so that’s my way of going mad lol

Yes I’m aware of the threshold. I don’t intend going over it at all as that’ll cost me 17% on top of the 20% to HMRC. im happy selling 2-3cars a month and keep things simple. I did consider doing this on a bigger scale but then I’d have the pressure of having to sell to make a living. This way i can enjoy it as a sideline and not a necessity Yes mate if that’s the way you want to put it. I’m sorry I don’t have a few wee Ferrari’s sitting out the front but hey I get by. The people I sell to are happy with what I offer and I’m always straight with them.

Sorry. Where did I say I don’t pay taxes. I pay tax on my job and pay tax on the cars I sell. I keep records for everything I do I’m not ducking anything. I don’t have overheads like premises, staff, advertising but I do pay my dues I don’t buy at auction. The £1000 was the total amount paid from a dealer as a trade in he took. I didn’t have to put a spanner on it. It was sold with 6 months MOT. I’m not VAT registered so what I pay to HMRC is £160. This is a part time role I do so I’m happy

I bought 09 Fiesta 1.4diesel 129k but great condition last week. Spent 2 hours cleaning and polishing it. Advertised it at 12pm. Sold it at 2pm. Bought @ 1000 sold @ 1800 so I’m happy with that. I’ve limited space so like to move them quick. Have a few at near retail price (Kuga, C Max, C Class Merc and cant shift them. I’ve dropped price 3 times and it then looks desperate.

Sorry mate only read your post now. I operate from home and don’t have all the dealer facilities like finance etc. So if I can sell at private or slightly above it I’m happy with the margin I know it doesn’t pay big overheads but I don’t have many. I can hear the booing and hissing now

I use Autotrader part exchange and private sell rates. Always gets a good enough margin

Thanks for the honest advice lads. Really appreciate input from experienced sellers. This really did start out as a hobby but it’s very addictive. I’d actually advise someone in my position the same but it’s starting to take up so much time and I enjoy the buzz. The thing is it’s a bonus when I sell a car not a necessity which would happen if I’d premises. Whats your thoughts on Warrantywise though? id never heard of self warranty through Lawgistics. I don’t have a garage myself and rely on a few local ones so I’d be scared of looking amateurish in front of a client if there was a problem.

Hi folks. I’ve only been on here a couple of weeks and really enjoying the posts. A wee bit about me. I work full time so am one of those dreaded part time home traders (hiss). I always had a passion for cars and like most I used to lose fortunes buying cars for personal use only to trade up too often I started trading a bit last year and so far it’s been very successful I sold about 20 cars making good profit, the only car I lost money on was one bought at auction lesson learned, no test drive, no buy, I sold it to WEBUYANYCAR because I didn’t want to catch a local buyer. I’ve started very well this year with a very simple method that’s helped me trade with very little car valuation experience I use Autotrader used car valuations, I aim for cars that are selling around trade-in value and try to sell at private rates so far I haven’t had any problems at all. I have a valeting machine and really go into detail to make all cars look their best, then I’ve a really good camera which makes the cars stand out in the ads I Place. I only post on Gumtree and Facebook so no overheads there. the thing is that I sell from my house and my driveway is getting a bit crowded so I’m now looking at renting a unit, say 1000 sq ft so I can prepare the cars in and maybe store them I’m looking to take it all away from my house now but that’s really the next step in business as I said I work full time as a sales rep, earn about £45K with company car so it’d be too big a risk leaving my job I also use Warrantywise for any car that can qualify for it I see they don’t get a good review on here any reasons why? Enough about me fellas, just wanted to say hi