Halfpenny

Obviously it all depends where you want to position your business. I think most independent dealers, as they become established and work from 'proper' premises would find retailing sub-£1k cars too much of a liability for the return involved.

This is what we do.

I have not sold cheapies for a long time. Its not just the finances or potential aggro, its that I am not comfortable with a car leaving the premises without defects rectified and a fresh MoT. You don't check a car and next day its involved in a serious accident due to mechanical defect. Where does that leave you and how do you feel? If you do sell an unchecked cheapy please not to a youngster looking for a first car or a cash strapped young mum. An older guy with grime under his nails is fair enough.

If you can get that thing running you can probably fly on a broomstick. As regards DoIP I don't see why cars that use DoIP can't be fitted with a used ECU. DoIP is essentially automotive ethernet and just a communication protocol. Whether an ECU could be reprogrammed is down to the hardware and software in the individual ECU. It may be that JLR have locked their ECUs from being reprogrammed, but that isn't an attribute of DoIP. Anyway I have always steered clear of RRs - hateful contraptions IMHO and far too easy to lose a shedload of money on. A friend of mine used to be a development engineer at JLR (Gaydon). He didn't have much good to say about the vehicles. Apparently the only engineers that drove JLR vehicles were those that got them as part of the job. All the other engineers drove Hondas and Toyotas and the like

A good reason to go out and buy one.

What? IIRC these have a mechanical hillhold function. Handbrake is same as on other Suzukis with discs at the back. Just make sure it is properly adjusted and discs are in reasonable shape. Yes the Diesel is a bit noisy, the petrol is better, but there are worse Diesels. I like Suzukis they generally work OK and get from A to B.

Yes I do know something about them but your question is open-ended... I like the petrol versions - customers invariably happy with them. Not so much the Diesels, which are FIAT IIRC.... I gather the 4x4 versions sell well in places where there are lots of hills.....but that doesn't apply to me.

Out of the game 35 years!!! What happened, did you just nip out for a pack of Park Drive?

Its owned by Volkswagen Financial Services and Daimler Mobility. Daimler Mobility is the parent of MB Leasing and MB Bank etc.

The army used the Wolf model, which is a different kettle of fish to the old civilian Defender it was based on. The Wolf has the 300tdi engine which has no electronics on it and dead easy to repair in the field.. Also has an army design rear axle which is way stronger than the civilian one. The chassis looks the same but is actually different and much stronger. They also have 24V electrics. Civilian LR/RR products have been garbage for years. I hate the things. Nothing makes my heart sink faster than a customer with one telling me that the air suspension has a fault... They have never managed to get that reliable. There's a reason the Taliban use Toyotas!

No! There is a fair bit of interest in 'classic' Landrovers, in fact a Thai friend on mine is looking for one right now as a weekend car. There is a company in Bangkok that restores them from the ground up. Classic cars inc classic Jap and US cars fetch high prices. New JLR products are very thin on the ground. They are not considered reliable. I have only ever seen one or two late model Range Rovers. Can't remember the last time I saw a new Jag. For status people buy a Benz.

If its a couple hundred deposit then I don't sweat it. But we don't accept CC for large sums - too expensive as you say...

No, I'm not involved in the taxi business here, however a good friend of mine is a very talented mechanic with his own repair business and I often chat with him so have picked up a lot of local knowledge over the years. Toyota and Honda rule the car market here and Toyota and Isuzu for pickups and SUVs. VAG have not made much of an inroad and Ford are perceived to be poor quality. Bear in mind that typical daytime temperatures are over 30 degrees. Over 40 deg. in the hot season. Can you imagine what happened to the 1.0 Ford Ecobust engines when introduced here? They were soon withdrawn from the market. French and Italian cars are very rare. Most European cars just don't handle the environment - weak aircon and marginal cooling, plus the suspension falls apart on rough rural roads. The Toyota I keep here has a double-layer radiator and an aircon compressor the size of a lawnmower engine. I get icy air blowing within about 5 seconds of starting the engine. Corrosion is not a problem, and so plenty of older cars around with 300k+ km. If you change the oil occasionally and look after the cooling system those old Toyotas just never die. Massive respect from me.

Yes, the famous Section 75 of CCA. Not the 'smallest deposit' - it must be over £100 payment. Goods maximum price of £30k. To be honest I don't see it as a major issue for most traders. We accept CC's for deposit payments and have not yet had a customer use Section 75. That's many hundreds of cars over the years.

I think the latest figure is 120 000 taxis. Probably 100 000 on the road at any time. They're mostly Corollas. Kept for 8 years or about 700 000km. Reliable and easy to get fixed. There are repairers who will pull out an engine, rebuild and refit while the driver has his lunch! I have enormous respect for the Toyota 1ZZFE (1.8) engines in the older taxis - seen some of those hit 1million km without the head ever having been off.

I have probably done at least 30 of these. The OE cambelt kits from TPS come with a new stud. I always replace the stud. Part of the problem is the torque setting which iIRC is 40nm+45deg, which is a lot on 8mm. You don't what it was tightened to in the past so you don't know the metallurgical condition of the stud. Any sign of sideways movement with the threads in the head and I tap out to 10mm and fit the M10xM8x73 stepped stud - IIRC its N 909 055 02 from TPS at £3. Make sure the 10mm step is just below the surface of the head - if its not then the tensioner can foul. I have not yet had an engine come back. On the other hand we have had breakdowns come in with snapped and damaged studs after belt changes done at other repairers. I also take the time to set the torsion to as near to 0.0 as possible - a lot of repairers are in too much of a rush to finish the job properly.

There was a fuel tanker drivers strike around 2000 IIRC and that seemed to generate quite a bit of interest for us. We did quite a few conversions. It died off after a few years. Still think they make sense though. I am semi-retired now and spend half the year in SE Asia (where I am writing now - by the beach in 30deg and clear blue skies). There are about 100 000 taxis in Bangkok - nearly all Toyota Corollas running LPG or NGV. Its about 30p a litre. Petrol is 65p a litre.

Ok. Hereford is a nice place and a good place to be for LR/RR specialist. 15-20 years ago we used to buy LPG kits from a supplier in Hereford. I went over a few times to pick stuff up. Can't remember the name now but he had a nice little operation there. Maybe still there?

Buying Rangies and Minis? Good that you are a mechanic! Set youself up as a LR/RR and Mini repair specialist and you'll never be short of work!

IIRC the unit in the A3 (BKD) didn't have chain/pump problems. As I said earlier the base engine is a solid unit - worked on loads of them. Its the bits that bolt on that give problems. The PD140 turbos are a bit soft (police siren bearings) we usually replace with Turbo Technics at c.£850 retail inclusive. EGRs are not too bad on these. Obviously DMF replacement at some time. One thing to watch on these 16V engines is that the timing belt tensioner sits on a thin stud (thinner than on the 8V engines). When you change the belt you must also change the stud. Put a spot of threadlock on stud and nut and use a torque wrench. We have had customers where another repairer has used the original stud and overtightened. It then later snapped! We have also see them with the thread pulled out of the head. And avoid Dayco tensioners - the latest type are a crap (cheaper) design. Don't know what sort of money we are talking about but Yaris is solid. The 1.33 are almost unbreakable if serviced. They are not too bad for rot in my experience.

Not wishing to sound negative but the OP wants to give up the day job and admits to not knowing much about business or cars.... and then goes on to ask some pretty basic questions. Really, I think you are far from ready to enter this job full time. You need to do a lot more research. The world doesn't need another failed kerbside trader. I am semi-retired now after decades in the trade. I think that things are going to go the way of retailing in general - small outlets are being squeezed and closing in favour of big outlets (think supermarkets vs. high street grocers or butchers). The future for the small trader is probably in niche and specialisation - classics, 'Automatics R Us' or Hybrids imported from Japan. Working alone flogging a few cars a week and living hand to mouth is not going to be much fun. Moreover I think its going to get tough later this year. I know lots of people won't agree with me but I think Brexit (which doesn't truthfully happen until start of 2021) is going to hit the motor industry hard.

Its a bit of an odd question because its a 14 year old diesel and we don't know the miles or its history. I think it would have the PD140 BKD engine. No dpf. The base engine is pretty solid but the turbos are a bit weak on those and of course you can get the usual EGR and DMF issues - none of which are cheap to sort out. I think you'd better to sort the old boy out with a Yaris CVT. Easy to drive and bombproof mechanicals If serviced.

Start by checking if brakes binding (rear calipers can sieze on these). Then put VCDS on it and look at codes and any cam angle errors...

The stalk sends a signal to the BSI which operates relays to supply power to the pump at the appropriate polarity. From memory the BSI is programed to give a rear squirt immediately but for the front it operates the wipers and then gives a squirt. Can you connect a scan tool to check the signal that the stalk is giving to the BSI ? Try disconnecting the battery for 10 mins to reboot the BSI. Switch wipers to auto and see if it works then.

I have used silver-loaded epoxy in the past. No idea where I got it from - too long ago.