James Bush

Like Chris I used to wash cars for a little local Ford dealer at weekends, then started covering weekends then holidays etc and just before I was due to go off to Uni they offered me a full time job - I wasn't that interested with the £50 a week basic and £15 per car sold but they really sold it to me with a company car and as much petrol as I could use!!

I'm not sure if any of you will have come across this before but I'm having a nightmare getting a tax refund from the DVLA. We taxed a car online to use then 3 days later sold it, the customer came 2 days later to collect and we retaxed it online using the new keepers supplement. When the new V5 arrived, about a week later we sent this off to DVLA and the customer has received his V5 in his name and is all taxed and legal. Thinking we'd done everything correct we've waited for a tax refund to arrive which has never been received and after a couple of phone calls to DVLA it sounds like we won't get one because we taxed it on the V5 new keepers supplement twice. I don't know if I've done anything wrong and was trying to do it all 100% correct. In hindsight it would have been easier to deliver the car, let the customer drive it around on my tax then sent the V5 to the customer once we'd received it for him to retax but this isn't correct is it? I just want my refund - it was a 2.0 petrol Passat and 5 months tax is a good chunk of money and if you shouldn't tax it twice on the green slip why did DVLA's systems allow me?

70% autotrader 20% ebay and the rest from facebook, repeat, referrals etc My leads from eBay seem to be on the up and the reverse with AT. I only used to get nutters on eBay wanting to pay £5000 for an £8000 car or retail money for their px but the quality seems to be better now. I was with pistonheads for a year and only got a handful of leads but they tell me they're getting a lot better hits now and was with gumtree a very short while. I'm just trying to sign up for Free with RAC, has anybody found a catch? and had a everybody else found it painful to sign up and get their cars loaded with them? Any other good value recommendations?

That's a beauty Steve92 I bought mine for £100's a few years ago and apart from putting a set of wheels on it is pretty much solid. I bought the alloys off gumtree for £40 and have since found they are Brooklands Capri wheels which are apparently worth a bit. About 10 years ago I took a TVR S2 in, the car was knackered - rough bodywork, scaffold poles knocked down the chassis either side where it had rotted, engine dripping oil where ever it could find a gap, no exhaust etc etc. we sent the car off to auction and I can't remember the exact figure but it sold fro not a lot. About 18 months later the customer who px'd it in came and asked what we'd done with it because he had a guy writing to him chasing the history of the car up because he was looking at buying it for £8000!!!

When working for SEAT they delivered a box of goodies for the launch of the Leon Cupra R, customers love a freebie and the chocolate shaped Leon's were well received by kids as well as mums and dads. Included was some floppy fabric Frisbees, the sort with the heavy weighting around the edge which were great fun on a quite Sunday afternoon until one was thrown with a bit too much force and straight through the back window of an Ibiza!!

When it's nice and sunny - just passed it's MOT last week with no advisories!! Yes I know it's ridiculous but I love it :-) The other week I got chatting about future classics and my thoughts are there won't really be any. I think the mid 80's early 90's sporty stuff is worth investing in but with the modern engines, EML's, ABS systems etc are later cars just going to become too expensive to keep? and is there anything iconic enough out there? The 90's/00's were a bit bland for cars - what exciting stuff was there?

I have emailed and asked for a copy of there rate card, I never knew AT had such a thing until I received the letter, for the past 5 years so I could see the price increases and what I'm getting for my money - I don't think I'll ever see one!! It'll be interesting to see what my package involves when I receive it!!

Brilliant, thanks

I've just received an Autotrader letter informing me all my discounts are coming to an end and after chatting with one of the phone reps my bill is going to increase by nearly a third. The girl said AT were offering no packages, discounts etc and the only way I could save money is by dropping trade-mail. This chat was late on Friday afternoon and I got the impression I could have been told anything to get me off the phone and I was surprised they were so dismissive of their own product, trade-mail, to suggest I drop it to save money. I'd already planned to drop trade-mail anyway because I think it's dying a slow death. Has anybody else had a chat with them since their letter? got offered discounts, packages etc? I don't want to leave AT because it sells me cars but if I can't save a bit of money on what they've suggested I'll have to start looking elsewhere.

I don't normally get involved with plate transfers and leave it up to the customer to sort and always ask them to put it on retention as you get the V5 back quicker but I've an elderly couple who I've agreed to do it for so has anybody completed one online yet, apparently it can be done, or do you stick to old fashion post? I've got there part exchange underwritten but they won't collect it until the V5 is in hand so I guess I'm asking which is the quickest method? Thanks

Netcars was a decent free to advertise with site, sadly RAC took it over tried to charge franchise dealers a fortune, then car supermarkets, then general used car dealers and then realising they had no traction in the market place went full circle and now anybody can advertise with them for free. Netcars was a pay per enquiry business model which worked well so I presume this will be the same business model? I think free to advertise is the way forward and the only way a new site could get a good amount of cars on quick and make AT sit up and take notice. I had a lovely letter from AT warning me my discount package had come to an end and my prices would rise again - what happened to AT's transparent packages and invoicing?

A family friend was broken into last night and had there BMW and Ford Ranger stolen. If you hear or see anything let me know info@jamesbushcars.co.uk - thanks BMW X6 - White - V70 PPS Ford Ranger - Black - NM08 RBX - this was covered in Mariner Gas company stickers and had a few ling and thin gas bottles in the back

Yep my bank also confirmed when the monies in my bank it can't be recalled reversed etc un-like a credit/debit card. The one bit of distance selling to really worry about is they have 7 days after receiving the goods to reject them for whatever reason and ask for a refund........but I was at a networking meeting a short while ago and was chatting to our local trading standards about distance selling laws and there is a paragraph about distance selling laws don't apply if the goods are tailor-made or personalised so her assumption would be, although nobody has ever challenged it that as long as you tax the vehicle before delivery this is personalising it and therefore the act wouldn't apply - it'd take a brave man to argue it!!!

Thanks Anglo9, have you got A1 warranties web address or contact details? I need to make sure I'm looking at the correct one. I've contacted a few companies who do self funded warranties but all of them wanted me to open a separate bank account up and put my fund into there which my accountant didn't like the sound of because at point of sale I'd need to declare it all as profit and then spend from their for any repairs which he said would be a nightmare for VAT and tax. I used EPG warranty assist for a short while and its a very sorry tail of a few claims declined, not phoning customers back when promised, claiming warranties had never been put onto certain vehicles and then them threatening me with court action over a AT forum post I started.

I sell a fair few like this and are always amazed how easy they are to deal but it always tends to be a younger buyer that is a bit more trusting of the internet, paying for something and then having it delivered etc but I always tread with caution. Can't you have a chat with the finance company that declined them to see if there's anything you should be worried about? I ask for full name and address, copy of driving licence, recent utility bill and their job details (which you can't do on this occasion). I then check details against driving licence and call their company and just confirm they work there, I also just do a quick facebook search for them. I'm probably a bit OTT but if the customer is genuine I've never had an issue with them supplying everything I ask for. I will only take payment via bank transfer and will only let the car leave once cleared funds are received. Most seem genuinely grateful I've bothered to deal with them because I think most companies would toss the enquiry as a timewaster but if I ever get the slightest whiff of a rat I offer to pay for their train journey for them to come and visit me.

Anglo9, who do you use? I've spoken to a local company to me and they made it sound horribly complicated.

I also use warrantywise and on the whole tend to find them pretty good to deal with - they recently paid out on the most bizarre claim I've ever seen which was a guy who'd bought a X-Type diesel off me, drove it to France and filled it with the wrong grade of diesel and blew his engine. They paid for recovery and replacement engine - as ever the customer was a complete plank and started to argue he wanted a brand new engine instead of a reconditioned one!! I've thought about the idea of a self funded warranty and when I receive my 6 monthly stats from warrantywise and see the profit I could be having because of my low claim rate, like others I MOT, fully service and warranty inspect every car, it makes me think a little harder but is my time better spent sourcing and seller cars than dealing with warranty claims?? I'd be interested to hear any more of the pay back warranty as Chris mentioned above.