Max Branning

Movex?

Not exactly...Setting up a company is easy but there is a lot more to consider than the fact that you may pay less tax. Everyones personal situation is different and unless we know all the facts there is no easy answer to this question hence my original reply....Speak to an accountant.

I am assuming that your local auction is Newark? Buying from auction can be a minefield but if you are a mechanic yourself you would have a slight advantage over many who are there. The fact you have bought a couple of lemons does not mean there is no money to be made. Dont get tempted to buy something just because it seems cheap, this is a surefire way to end up with a lemon. Do your research before you go, check the stock list and pick out the cars you may be interested in BEFORE going. Do your research so that you go prepared and know exactly what you want to be paying. Then when at the auction concentrate on checking the car over as best you can bodywise and mechanically before sticking your hand in the air.

I find ebay much easier to find what your looking for as opposed to autotrader. If i am price comparing a car i always go to ebay first and can get comparable cars in 2 or 3 clicks where as AT i find too many pop ups and stuff. Cant really complain about ebay really very good value as you get a showroom etc with your package at a realistic price. I honestly think that although AT is probably the "market leader" and first on anyones mind, anybody searching for a car will also look on ebay to see what is on offer. I did a search earlier on AT within a 10 mile radius of me and probably less than half of any proper traders that i know of where advertising on there, so buyers are not really getting a very good choice of the market in my opinion.

Trader keeps full V5. Registered keeper and trader both sign yellow slip and registered keeper sends it off to dvla. This takes the car out of their name. When trader sells car he gets new owner to fill out V5 and posts it off or now can be done online.

When minimum wage hits £9 an hour i think many of us will be off trolley collecting or something.

There is no simple answer to this and it also depends on the price bracket the car is in. If you sell a car for £2495 and the buyer has it for 3 weeks and covers 600 miles, the gearbox blows up and demands a refund - what do you do? At 80p per mile deduction you would be charging them £480 for 3 weeks use which i dont think is reasonable. I would expect most buyers to expect a full refund in this situation. On the other hand if the same buyer had the car for 4 months and covered 6000 miles and demanded a refund then i dont think a full refund would be fair but maybe offer to give some money back towards the cost of repair or even refuse altogether due to the amount of use. It is a bit of a minefield but charging £xx per mile is not a good way to work it out.

First of all why would he go through the trouble of removing the instrument cluster and then happen to find some black tape, sounds like hes using this as an excuse to say it was faulty at point of sale. I very much doubt he can prove any tape was covering the warning lights unless he has a mechanic to back this up. Did you offer any sort of warranty with the car either your own or an insurance backed?

At least dick turpin wore a mask

Yes in a niche market it works, at the sub 5k bread n butter market it would not work, nearly all the private sellers i have come across want more than i can retail for? Quote cap clean and they will piss themselves.

Maybe the xmas slowdown has started a bit early, people getting wedged up to hit the high st for xmas pressies, worry about a new car in Jan?

Dont they just make the car smell like a toilet though?

This can be a tough situation to be in especially if your mechanic is doing jobs in his own time so to speak, you cant really control this. Maybe just stop using this bodyshop and explain to your mechanic that it is a conflict if he continues to do work there on the side. If he is a loyal employee he should understand and stick with where he has a regular well paid job.

Just had a look through Motors havent been on there for a while, what is all this finance stuff on there, they are offering finance deals even on private sellers cars? How does this work, the potential buyer fills out the enquiry form with the finance company and then they send payment to the seller? even though they are private and obviously not fca reg? Seems like anything over 2k on there has a finance prop next to it. Anybody doing any good off of there, havent advertised with them for around 2 years.

Its a bit worrying that you are not Vat reg but can get an account with A4C. I thought it was mandatory for an account with them but maybe i am wrong. Either way the guide prices they offer are exactly that a "guide". They work off of cap prices. Only you can work out your retail price and work backwards from that.

I use to get a duplicate but nowadays dont bother just print out mot status from online, if a customer seems unhappy with this i tell them to pop into our local mot station to get a duplicate. I know some stations will charge maybe 10 quid or so for this so helps if they know you.

Depends on your price range and how well you deal with nutcases.

I love it when the descriptions say "has a few scuffs and scrapes" yet when taking the photos they are standing around 10ft from the car and at an angle so you cant see any of these scrapes...

" Just got to speak to the wife " has got to be the biggest cop out going. It is just a more polite way of saying " look mate i dont have any intention of buying this car so i am going to waste someone elses time now"

This annoys the hell out of me...lovely mint car but the steering wheel looks like its been through the mincer with leather missing. Have had about 3 cars come in this week like this all peugeots, how do you all normally deal with this problem? do you bother to get the wheels refurbished and if so what does it normally cost? I normally just give the customer a few quid off the price if they moan about it but a couple of these cars are bad so i think will put buyers off altogether...

Does depend on the retail price and also your own comfort zone. I am happy with £100 if the car is ready to go, if it needs an mot , service etc i would go more like £300 to cover the costs.

I would not blame a customer for doing their own checks before buying a car even if i have told them i have already done it. If i was buying a 10k car even from the most reputable dealer the first thing i would do is an HPI check !

I will only hold a car with a minimum £100 deposit. I would not refund it unless the car turns out to be misdescribed in some way or the customer finds a fault. The way i look at it is once the car has been taken off the market then i am potentially losing money as i could of sold the car 3 times over in the time its been sat waiting for the holding customer to turn up.

To be fair though i would not blame anyone for doing their own HPI check before parting with a lot of money, i am sure there are a lot of dealers that do not do a hpi check before selling especially if its been bought from auction as they just assume its already been checked.

Exactly. So was this done? If the delivery driver has proof to say there was no service book on collection then i would be chasing them for a refund etc but without this proof it is one word against another so no chance of getting anywhere.