marc_p

Depends on where it’s coming from, I’ve had a few main dealer cars with no report as most of them don’t pay for mechanical reports on cars older than 6-10 years, all have been fine. If it’s not from a main dealer then avoid or proceed with caution, only car without a report that I got (that wasn’t a main dealer one) was one that I won for low enough price that it was worth a punt, it arrived with a major misfire but I lucked out as it was just a faulty coil pack.

Why was it on the road without trade plates? In regards to the tax, you’ve taxed it as the new keeper, so keeper change on the V5 will have no effect. I’ve done this a few times when I’ve had a car in stock that I’ve decided to run for my own use and tax’d them. When I do retail them, I’ll inform the customer that it comes with some remaining tax but will run out on ‘x’ date, then they can tax it themselves, either off the new keeper slip or the V5 once they have it in their name.

Thought I'd bump this with another update now its been nearly 1 month since I quit my job! Firstly, I've given up on the bounce back loan (wish I'd applied back in April/June time) as I can't seem to get a business bank account anywhere!!!! Stuck with trading out of my personal account. Secondly, now I'm building up several cars, I'm wanting to set up a website now that the company name/logo is done and was going to go with 'cardealer5', do people rate these guys well for a new business startup? Thanks Marc

I’d invite him to look at the car and when he tries to pay £9200, just say ‘oh I’m sorry, I misread it, I thought you said £19,200’

Ahh, that’s keyless isn’t it? Out of my comfort zone, it’s the ones with a key that I know still fire up ignition. One point I may raise though, I’m not sure how it is with JLR products, but some manufacturers these days have a built in system that literally bricks the ECUs when involved in an accident, so that could be the case with this one. That being said I’m not a specialist so please don’t take it as gospel!!

So firstly, if your wanting to part it out, send me a PM with the specs and a price as I’d be happy to take it off your hands . Secondly, I’m not to familiar with Snap-on as I actually use INPA, but does snap-on show a fault instances count? If you’re not too far away, I’d be happy to pop over and plug in INPA to do a fault read for you.

Thanks for all the replies guys, much appreciated!!! Thought I’d add a few responses to the points listed: - In regards to the BBL, thankfully, I’m actually entitled to one as (per my 1st post) I started in January, and it did affect me as I halted everything for a couple of months, when it comes to turnover I have to submit what would be my estimated turnover for year one (which I’m doing at £100k). - On the equipment front, I use INPA as I’m sticking to my legacy ‘E’ generation cars, I also use Carly for quick and easy fault finding, but have to use my INPA for more advanced calibration and fault clearing (for instance, nothing but INPA will clear a BMW airbag light once you’ve fixed it). If you’re having issues, drop me a PM and I’m happy to help. Out of interest, when you says it’s not connecting, do you mean that it’s not showing ignition on INPA? Usually the main cause of that is the wrong COM port being used (it has to be COM1), I actually had it recently as I mistakenly used my other OBD2 cable that was on COM 2 or 3(they look identical) and after 30 mins of swearing I realised my mistake. - On the finance front, I’m not expecting much and I won’t be offering PCP as I don’t want to move into newer stuff, but I’d like to stock an older E46 M3/E39 M5 and really good examples are in the £15-20k region.

Glad this thread got bumped as this gave me a laugh, not sure what I find funnier, the big eyed and hairy driver of the fact that last year apparently part of the car body wasn't secured to the floor

Firstly, you must have balls the size or Mars to get a JLR product with a serious electrical fault! Secondly, what year/model is the car? I'm not too familiar with the latest stuff but I know the earlier stuff should still bring up your ignition without coding in the new BCM, it just wont crank.

Whilst it's great that it's another thing that can be done quickly, I do wonder why it's being rolled out so slowly to all the different areas? Still waiting for my trade plates on the archaic, postal only, service.

Haha, yeah, weird mix of emotions going on right now, both excited and terrified at the same time, but what I do know for sure if that I haven't felt this happy for a long time!! Even if it doesn't work out, I'll be glad that I at least tried. Another point I thought I'd add is that even though I haven't been posting here, I have been reading everyone's posts and finding this forum such a wealth of information!! (will need to get myself into the private forum now though), but that being said, I noticed that a few people say to not trade the cars that you like, whereas I think (for me at least) that is what has helped me massively as I've been selling cars that I'm genuinely enthusiastic about and I believe that really comes across to the buyers and helps with the sale, which will probably mean I'll be stuck with this 318d for a lifetime as I find it a hateful little thing

Hi Guys, Thought I'd put a little update on this, I finally handed in my notice at work to go full time (last day is tomorrow), I wanted to start earlier but obviously that whole COVID thing got in the way. Managed to get myself a small 5 car unit, it's a cheap and a great starter unit, plus it's next to a bunch of other automotive companies including a friend of mine who has a much larger and more impressive unit and has said I can have his office and trade out of his unit if I want (he's a detailer so has no use for an office). Regarding how the car selling has been going, I'm still sticking to my BMWs but so far (touch wood) all have been attracting wonderful buyers with only the X5s occasionally getting the 'what's you best price mate' calls, which I usually just respond with the asking price. I'm still at the lower end (circa £5k cars), but all the cars sold so far have all gone to the first person who viewed them and all within 5 days of advertising them with healthy margins to boot (averaging around £1k per car). I have learnt a few things so far, mainly is that the car auctions seem a bit of a joke, I went to a couple with the intention of just sitting back and watching how it all operated, but I was quite shocked to see what price the cars were going for, I think I'd struggle to make anything on an auction car!! So I've stuck with just using ebay and hunting out the cars that I know I can turn into wonderful looking examples with a few hours work. I did also get one off Facebook Marketplace that was so cheap I thought it was worth a punt (2008 318d, 102k miles, £1300), but I'm still chasing issues around the car, it's also reminded me why I stay away from 4cyl BMWs and just stick with my straight 6's (and occasional V8's). Next step is to get myself FCA approved as I want to move to the £15-20k market, but this will be harder without being able to offer finance. Also trying to get myself a bounce back loan for more stock, I thought I'd wait when it was originally announced as I didn't need the money right then, but it seems to be severely back logged now! Cheers Marc

From my photo point of view and not wanting to repeat what others have said, my advice would be to make sure that on the close detail photos, the car is really clean and you are highlighting the condition (and make sure it's in focus )

Thanks Casper, really appreciate the response, firstly, it sounds like you guys seem to be working to my thoughts of aiming generally for a 4 week turnover time, I understand we are all going to have those exceptions that just wont budge. Also, thanks for the other point, the reason for the price increase was that I aim to deal with the BMW 'M' cars (bar the e60/e63, I love those V10s but they will bring nothing except pain), I may still dabble with the cheaper 330's, it will all depend on my premises, if I can work my way to a 15-20 car premises then I will definitely be looking at covering the 2.5k-20k range.

Is it a one size fits all fee or do they tailor the monthly/annual charge on a per car or dealer size basis?