Daylight

I know Manheim used to take up to £9000 in cash, I thought it was £10k under money laundering regs but I'm sure google will confirm. I took £5000 in cash for a 1 series yesterday as it was "easier" for them, not for us though as it then has to be taken kept on site and then taken to the bank when they bother to open Someone with £25k in cash is either a self-employed person that HMRC have never heard of or a drug dealer IMO!

These threads are really helpful to keep an eye on how the market is as a whole. Can I make one suggestion though? Can we say how many you have in stock too? If you sell 2 in a week out of 100 in stock- not good. 2 out of 5 in stock- very good!

I set up a vehicle servicing business which had the words service & smart in the name. Mercedes GMBH sent a letter to us to change our use as it was their copyright etc but our solicitors sent one back telling them they can't copyright a word pertaining to something clever and we never heard back. I see mini (without a capital letter) the same. Using the word Ford, for example, I think you'll get told off for unless you maintain watery road ways

Early mini power steering pumps were electro hydraulic, so have fluid but a motor rather than a pump. They whine a little but if they whine a lot they are on the way out, roughly £180 from BBA or ECU testing and a couple of hours to fit from memory. Pre-April 2004 they had Midland gearboxes which were pretty shit to be honest and ate up bearings, can buy rebuilt boxes for around £250+ and not a bad job to fit either. After April 2004 they were Getrag boxes and much better quality and less prone to failure. I like Minis and sell a few when they come up at the right spec, mileage etc. It's wise to be choosy and know your onions as Mat rightly says

+1 (except the divorce bit!). Overdraft, loan, 0% credit card? Surely you can lower your stock profile and push on? Are your overheads too high?

Awful month, worst on record. I squarely blame the Brexit scaremongering. Starting to see a few seeds of change early on in this month, hoping it lasts! (until the school holidays come along in a few weeks and mess it all up again anyway)

Retail it! Is it auto? In great nick and low mileage it has to be worth a grand surely?

Depends what you want to do with them. In a previous business we used to break and sell cars so non-runners (including repo etc) were our bread and butter, if they ran and could be made good then they sold, if not then they fell to pieces. All the major auction houses do non-runner sales as far as i'm aware. As said though, a lot of genuine repossessions can be found with major problems hence people not paying the monthly on them.

I think Pistonheads is the right platform for that sort of car as it's the petrolheads choice, not one for the wife to drive. Having said that, expect any interest to be the a superior car nerd who knows what the cow was called that made the leather and make you feel stupid because you don't know the correct arc of the cam lobes. As a side note, how are dealing with the whole private sale thing as surely they will argue they bought it from a company should something go wrong?

I found the same thing Steve. There's a fair selection of vehicles to choose from but all over CAP clean then plus fees, surely unless you've got someone on the hook for something you wouldn't bother?

I agree but by my reckoning you still pay less per check than directly with CAP and you get an HPi thrown in for nothing. Unless my sums are letting me down or i'm missing something?

I know lots of people are finding it hard going at the moment, if I can make a small nit-pick though; I searched your website, clicked on used cars which auto-sorted low to high. The first car I "saw" was a £499 Focus with no pictures. You have some nice lumpy stock, I'd be highlighting this to your customers first and let them search down to their price point, not the other way around. It shows you as a business in a better light (people presume high value stock, better dealer) and makes your cheaper stuff look better value. Just my 2p

RAC has given me 1 lead total in 9 months, utter rubbish. I still post the adverts, as it's free so it can't hurt for a 2 minute copy & paste from AT ads. I really think RAC thought the traffic would be organic because of who they are, people side stepping from breakdown policy searches etc. Or possibly they thought the PPC revenue would allow them to pay to advertise more widely (TV etc) to promote further growth. Either way this has clearly failed. I feel the same as GG in that they promised us down-trodden dealers a ray of light that we might actually get some valued exposure for zero outlay but they didn't make their money so let this just get eaten up by another corporate machine. I will try Motors 90 day trial and see how we fair, if it doesn't reap rewards I'll just be left with a voodoo doll wearing an RAC crest to show for it all ...

A mouse in the coolant bottle of one this week, that's a first for me!

Which section of the UKCGR did you buy them through? They basically go like this: NO RESERVE- Absolute sh*te, generally £100er's TRADE- Complete gamble of above and the occasional OK motor, buyer beware basically SELECT- Will have some history and low owners, may still be hiding problems PREMIUM- As above but will be either prestige or not very old. I've had a few cheap winners out of some of these sales but I certainly wouldn't rely on them for decent regular stock as people have generally thrown them at WBAC for a reason. Have you seen some of their valuations?!

Are you snobby about it being something newish? Until recently I've run a Mk4 Golf 1.9Tdi (non PD), racked up tons of miles without issue. Regularly returns 65mpg with 85.1 over a 70 mile journey when i wasn't in a hurry on the way to Dorset. Paid £500 for it.

Friday night= personal phone>work phone. Leave it at home & if yours is one in the same, change that today! I wouldn't have entertained him after he mentioned a part ex VALUE on his 150k Clio. Screamed time waster to me. What a rude little waste of human genes those people sound to be though, god help the human race

Nicely done. What part of the world are you in? I'm on the hunt for a new unit due to moving areas and finding it tough going. All commercial agents I come across and even the signs on the farm gate units are saying they've got nothing at the moment.

Picked up over the last week, pretty quiet before. Took the worst p/x in history against a beautiful diesel Civic yesterday, 2005 Laguna diesel MOT expired, central locking faulty, drivers window faulty, turbo whistles, water pump noisy, one alloy wheel in boot with puncture and looks like it's been lived in. Shame scrap is only £20 a ton at the moment!

I offer HPi driveaway sometimes. It came as part of my hpi subscription and just adds another potential benefit/ease of purchase for customers. It costs £10 to me and £12.50 to customers from memory and covers vehicles up to 10 years. I've had a couple of customers knocked back for reasons unknown though so it's not set in stone that they'll get the cover

I personally love a part exchange, it's double bubble if you've valued it right. If it's nice then you've saved the auction fees and got the chance to properly check it out before handing over the cash. No travel time/expense either, it's stock delivered to your door! If it's a lemon then you should be able to spot this and price appropriately, if they don't accept your valuation you don't take it. Simple I won't chuck the lemons through auction as they make pence, as soon as they get bunched in the Multi Vendor group everyone runs a mile from them as they know they're independant dealer/private trouble.

I would think long and hard before just jumping in. I speak to people on an almost daily basis that think what we do is easy money and easy work "You pay £1000 for the car, wash it and sell it for £2k, easy £1k profit!" they say. As we all know this couldn't be further from the truth. If you're going to seriously look at doing this you need to work out all of your business overheads, £5k working capital is basically nothing really. Remember your outgoings are more than just the cars you want to buy i.e Mechanical repairs, bodywork (inc. smart & dentman), work phone (DON'T use your own phone!), website, business cards, advertising, insurances, unit rental, trade plates, tyres, MOT, servicing, warranties I would look at the others advice on here and start part time, you can quite easily work it around another income to begin with until your pot is big enough to swallow up the cost of the lemons you WILL buy and the quiet times when the phone doesn't ring but the mortgage is still due!

There's usually a few higher end cars that go through Blackbushe each week, last friday (i think) 2 Ferrari F430s and a Gallardo went through together. I don't really pay much attention as it's not really our market so may be better to consult the catalogues

Good on the cheap stuff 50% stock turn last week alone but the heavier stuff is sitting pretty

No rhyme or reason for me. I bought a lovely (bare with me) Fiat Bravo the other week and could have sold it 20 times over, went for full asking within a day of going on. Minis can be good news but i'm yet to find a spec combo that everyone agrees is nice!