Sensei

havent done anything on the trader for a long time .. i do eBay ... and i also do pistonheads

To be honest ive only been through once since Sunday and it was moving slowly etc say 20mph ... it will certainly get worse before better as now there are road works planned till end of March 2015 to im guessing remove or modify the booths .. something had to be done il admit as the congestion is just a complete nightmare The thing is that we was told when the new bridge had paid for itself many years ago all traffic would be free to cross and all lanes simply free flowing which would of cured the congestion .. job done! .. but when the crossing is making as some have stated a reported 110 million pounds per its never was going to be free and was just a ploy con to CON us all! Still the option of a 117 mile detour around the M25 to miss the tunnel or the complete nightmare of driving into London for the blackwall tunnel .. means the owners of the bridge will always have us the motorist by the short n curlys ... in other words tough SH.....T and pay up!

Done a little dart charge account today for our company van today and must admit very easy just 2 mins to do and a simple £10 direct debit to top up .. easy peasy .. lets just hope the congestion disappears .. that would be a miracle

Hello RJ ... the old saying you make your bed etc springs to mind .. ive never done the online stuff as always see what your getting there and then .. best of luck though mate and hope it gets settled

Ive always said its safer to just put them on the MID and we do that simply via a text message service to our insurance company and within minutes the car in on the MID and we can also take them off via text message .. theres also an internet app we can use to put cars on / off and for the 2mins it takes do do iust always put them on etc. My business partner was stopped a few years back via ANPR as the car came up uninsured as we did not put on the MID .. he had our insurance documents on him which we like to carry and had an understanding copper who let him drive off

Tell them to pop into Essex and the bacon butties and teas are on me .. :-)

Exactly .... as i cant see them As here in the dodgy Del Boy kerbside trading county of Essex .. the pavement cars sale brigade are still laughing still parking thier pride and joys ..DFS front room cars of the week outside advertising TAX n mot and clearly the car is in trade unregistered and NOT a DVLA ANPR in sight. .. so much for the 1st October new law .. complete waste of time.

I would only allow genuine dealers with full proof of insurance and trading forecourt/sales area etc .. into any car auctions

The old saying of a car is as only as good as the day you buy it is certainly used by many including me .. i think you handled the customer all good mate .. as we had a customer return a car after 5/6 days of buying saying there was a thrust bearing problem with a clutch but what you also have to remember is how the car has been driven in those 5/6 days of ownership which could well of simply contributed to clutch problems which is was i stressed.

The DVLA tax checker can take up to 5 days but ive found it has normally updated within 48hrs .. but im sure on the APNR internal database the update in basically straight away .. i hope ?

Yes watch the classic cars etc .. and do take notice of the prices as it might just be me but i feel that with interest rates now stuck at zero zero zero for over 5 yrs this as also helped up the price of the classics as more people want to invest elsewhere @GreenGiant .. sory i no me granma hisnt two good hand il pleeed guiltee to the gudge .. promiss .. lol :-)

An old Skool 80,911 thats a nice piece of vintage champange .. just dont see them nowdays :-( Ive got a 1995 small turbo Escort cosworth in ash black in storage shes only got 31K on the clock but totally standard as thats where the value is,, i did have a mint Saff with 40K but like yourself sold it as the price was good .. your perfectly right about imagining the prices now as MK1 MK2 RS fords are crazy money and with RS500,s hitting £40K plus .. the problem is they have just become mantle piece motors like an art collection an very rarely see the road only the secure storage which i myself admit .. yes a car is only worth what anyone is willing to pay for it but thier will always be a market for these cars and many others like try finding an immaculate Lotus Carlton sub 20K on the clock ... now thats another story .. and another bank loan .. :-)

@wheelerdealer1 101% couldnt agree with you more my friend ... never mix business with family it can open more trouble then you ever need

Ford focus Millenium .. what a disgusting yellow! Must admit though im a Ford RS man and have one in storage .. and when Carlos Sainz won the Monte Carlo rally in 1995 for did 200 escort cosworths to celebrate in Mallard green or Jewel violet .. the story goes that they had a limited time to produce them and thier was 6 remaining on the production floor when the deadline expired so they would now have to be crushed etc .. but the director of ford motorsport said spray then ash black which was not part of the programme little did he know what he was doing as to find one of the 6 ash black ones is the so called rocking horse etc and be ready to pay £5K to £10K on top for the pleasure if you did as thier is 6 out thier somewhere or was ..

I always prefer a darker colour car to buy as Grey black Silver Pepper red etc ... i find these have always been popular with customers as white gold or green ive find struggle .. i agree with what you say about the Focus ST in orange whereas as the Focus RS Mk1 was only in one colour of Performance blue .. but this again is clever marketing and also to the cars resale value as for example the Mk1 Focus RS as now become sought after in the collectors field just as the Escort RS turbo series 1 only in white back in the 1980s as for todays market i would pay extra for a darker colour as i know that would i all factors sell quicker than say a white car in the same spec/mileage even if my profit margins would be slightly lower as id rather have that car sold quicker than waiting around taking up space

Hello Ken first thing i do is say hear the car start from cold and get that bonnet up and dont take any excuses from the drivers just up that bonnet and do your checks .. sometimes we have come across the bonnet cable cut on purpose to hide something so the bonnet cant be raised but this is normally on the older cars which we do buy so if in doubt walk away .. as we check for the tell tale head gaskets etc and front end damage .. personally i dont like to see a nice shiny steamed cleaned engine as why? .. to get rid of water/oil from leaks etc also engine management lights etc if your buying cars in the price we do say £1000 up to £3000 then you are gonna get some problems from time to time .. im fortunate that i do the mechanics for us and have fitted clutches and cam belts etc. personally we get a lot of ebay private sellers as you can really take you time and test the car .. ok our profit margins are not 7 8 900 hundred but good enough to buy private to re sell on

Got a good friend who owns a K plate Ford Cortina 2000E .. its in Roman bronze with the vinyl rood and cream interior .. hes had it for a good 12yrs now and it has a genuine 81.000 miles .. he bought it for £2000 and as done some nice resto work to get it to the standard now as hes always been into the classic scene etc .. i saw him today where he always mentions on selling if the price was right he told me good genuine examples like his car can command up to £5000 which to me seems a little steep but hey ive never took much notice of Mk3 Cortinas Just wondering if anyone has traded in the classic market (Good or Bad) or would you dip your toes in a classic car are they worth it? .. then again when do you call a car classic anyway as many say after 25yrs old ??

We average about the same Ken give or take etc ... business isnt too bad at the moment it ticking along and hopefully can stay that way as christmas can be slow

Hello Ken we (mself and my business partner) have bought and still buy cars from auctions normally the Aston barclay @Chelmsford its the normal run of the mill that we buy of sold as seen etc and yes we have bought some cars that we shoudnt but many that we should and its been ok .. we mainly trade cars £2000/£4000 max as we are 53/06 plate focus example I personaly still like eBay as i do a daily check of new listing and ive bought many a lovely car from a private buyer and having time to look and test it .. ok our profit margins can accomodate this very well. One of the best things we used to do when the Autotrader was a magazine was for example just buy the issue 1st of the month and circle every car you would like to buy or be interested in .. then put the magazine to one side for a full calender month and then ring up the cars you had circled etc a month later .. and you would be surprised the amount of cars that we used to buy that way as thier advert had run out and if still for sale buy the owner we would view then and 9 times out of 10 get a very good deal from a buyer who had given up selling it if you understand Anyway best of luck Ken and hope your business goes well :-)

well here in lovely county of .. (fake tan .. false nails .. cardboard cut out gangsters .. and dodgy souped up Sierra Cosworths) called ESSEX The 3 bed semi detached front room car sales kerbside business is still booming, with them everywhere and all being put up saying "Tax n MoT" So much for the APNR vans :-(

Ive also found if a do a quick 86300 HPi text check the free valuations on average mileage dont come up too out of the normal run of the mill .. so to speak.

This bloke might probably has the samaritons on speed dial now

I think Parkers car price magazine is absolutely wonderful ..... as on Fridays it makes the best used paper to put me fish and chips on instead of yesterdays newspaper! - i think the Joe public just see the price in thier and then expect that say on a £5000 car ... then in the really real world £4000 cash buys it .. as the next time im in Asda and our shopping costs £150 then of course in the really real world £100 cash buys that doesnt it .. lol .. :-) in all serious .. ive always told any customer read what it says on the label .. :ie Guide . and thats all it is a simple guide not a concrete figure.

Any tax discs dated 09/15 will probably become collectors items in due time as the very last discs issued especially if you come across a blank one.would well be worth some money ... although id advise anyone to take all the tax discs out of thier cars as they can become sought after stolen if they are still valid for many months into 2o15

Russp I managed to get through to the wonderful DVLA today after the merri go round of options and phones queues. To be honest some of the questions were answered as some i already knew anyway i jotted down her words and to this effect they were .. "If a car is declared in trade then normal proceedings apply via trade plates to get the car from point of purchase to point of sale, also for test drives so thier is no need to tax the car" .. ok i knew that. the nice lady from the DVLA then explained .. "if the car is to be used on the public road for personal use or to be parked on in the road/pavement overnight while still in-trade the car has to be now registered to the traders business via the company name or the traders own private name and then the car must be taxed as well at the same time" .. She continued ..... "If a car in-trade is caught via an APNR camera or traffic/camera van .. driven or parked on the road/pavement as is not registered and not using trade plates then an offence is committed and a fine can be issued" .. she also said "trade plates cannot be used to park a car up overnight on the road pavement" .. which again i already knew. on selling the car while registered she said ... "If the car is sold while the logbook is still at the DVLA then a V62 form is to be submitted for the new owner and as long as the corresponding dates from in-trade are previous to the V62 new logbook dates then a refund is automatically triggered to the registered name of the in-trade name of the company name or private name that as submitted it beforehand .. the refund is by cheque made out to the company name or private name on the logbook and yes another owner is added when returned" The funny thing was i asked well if the tax is paid and no registered keeper is declared as the log book never sent in, then what happens to the money? she replied "Sorry i havent got an answer to this its not on my list" ... :-0 So the basic thing is if you are wanting to use a car while in-trade for your personal use or to park on the highway road/pavement overnight .. you have to register it and tax it as well .. simple its more money to the DVLA ££££££