SK Motors

What are you guys paying for your trade insurance ? I've had a road risk policy with Tradewise for 6 years with £15,000 indemnity which also covered sports/performance and prestige and also allowed personal use of any of my cars. This cost me pretty much £1000 per year but unfortunately I have 2 SP30'S on my licence now. This has pushed my trade insurance to £1400 ! They will not budge on that even though I've told them I'm a named driver on my partners business insurance and my points only increased her policy by £70 which they then dropped back off to keep her custom. I've decided not to renew my policy and have insured my own car privately for £400. This decision has forced me to potentially stop trading as of now. I just can't justify the cost of the insurance when I'm a part time trader only selling 1 or 2 cars a month at best. Out of interest, those of you who are part time traders trading from home, how much are you paying for similar insurance cover ? If I can find another company that will cover me at a reasonable cost then I may carry on, otherwise I'm sorry to say this will be the end for me.

As a 'Part time' trader from home I've not been the most popular on here but here goes: Yes it's possible to make a 'good living' from it providing you're willing to put some serious hours into it. I work on average a minimum of 45 hours a week in my full time job before I even start with the cars. I work every evening and every weekend, I get emails/text messages/phone calls etc literally anytime. I was discussing a car I have advertised through email on Saturday night until 1am and that has just been collected today so in my opinion was worth it. I don't bother working out what the equivalent hourly rate would be as I just don't see it like that. Unfortunately, I have 6 points on my driving licence now and my insurance is due for renewal. It's now nearly £1400 just for a road risk policy ! I feel the same about people in my local area who are blatantly traders but deny it. "It's just a hobby, I keep selling cars because I'm not happy with them etc" ! These people don't pay trade insurance, tax, vat or warrant cars and probably make more money than me. In fact, I was looking at a Range Rover on eBay for myself and when I phoned the guy up he said "Which one, I've got 3 !" When I asked about warranties etc he laughed and said he just buys and sells the odd car, he's not a trader. That guy had over £100,000 of stock advertised !

Thinking about this again this morning. Late last year, I heard the DVLA were looking at scrapping trade plates altogether. Apparently the contract with the company who produce the trade plates was due to expire in April 2017 and the DVLA were not looking at renewing it. Anyone know anything about this?

I can't understand this ! It wasn't long ago I contacted DVLA to question how trade plates should be displayed and they told me they MUST cover the original number plates on the car. They said if you didn't do this and the car you were driving wasn't taxed, the cameras would pick up the number plate and you would end up getting fined for driving an untaxed vehicle and also for failing to display trade plates correctly ! How can that have changed already ? Surely the cameras will still pick up the original number plates on the untaxed vehicle and automatically issue a fine ? And if you're not meant to display trade plates inside the vehicle and now not over the original vehicle number plates, how exactly are you meant to display them ?

Happy to say I've sold the 320d today and taken a nice 118d Sport in part exchange. Customer said they'd seen the 320d advertised a few weeks ago and we're amazed it was still for sale !

Well I've had a phone call this evening from a woman who saw the 320d on my Facebook page, she wants to come and view it on Saturday morning so fingers crossed it'll be moving on.

Thanks for all the comments so far. I was expecting more along the lines of "You're no good at what you're doing" or "If you can't sell that then you shouldn't be doing this" etc. It's given me more confidence hearing the more established dealers experiences and also surprised me. I think what's made me more worried is the other car I have in stock is an Audi A4 1.8t convertible S line which I made the fatal mistake of buying for somebody who then decided they didn't want a convertible! That was in October last year so I've decided to sit on that one and wait for the weather to get better ( Could be waiting a while for that) !

As a part time home trader, I only sell one or two cars at a time. I have had a 2010 Bmw 320d M Sport 4 door saloon for sale since the start of December with virtually no interest at all. This is the first time this has happened to me. I've had two of these models before and sold both within 3 - 5 days of advertising. This one has 85k miles, Bmw dealer history, I've had it serviced by an independent bmw specialist which included a vehicle check, it's a 6 speed manual, silver with unmarked leather interior. I paid Cap clean for it in November plus delivery, plus service costs etc and I believe I have it advertised at just under current retail value on Autotrader. Has been on eBay numerous times but all I've had is ridiculous part ex offers ! I also have it on my Facebook page which has had some interest but nothing serious. What would you guys do in this situation?

Good luck. I'm not far off making the same decision unfortunately! My first few years of trading from home went well and most of my customers were decent people. In recent months I've found it harder to make a profit with much more hassle from people about Consumer Rights Act etc . I'm just not enjoying it anymore.

As in I can add to a vehicle advert saying something like "Finance might be possible on this vehicle if you apply to Zuto" ?

I've been looking into accepting finance over the last couple of days and after searching on here I've approached Zuto. I've explained to them that I'm a sole trader trading from home and I'm not FCA registered. They said this wasn't a problem and as long as I could provide proof of address/bank account/trading etc then I should get approved. Well they've come back to me and said I'm now approved on their system and "we're good to go". They didn't give me any more information so I had to contact them and ask. They've told me that as I'm not FCA registered I'm not allowed to advertise that I can accept finance ! If the customer approaches Zuto of their own free will then that's fine but I can't advertise that ! Is that correct as my understanding was that I'm not actually providing finance myself and not making commission etc ?

I've had a response from the customer this evening and wanted to update everyone. After the email I sent to him on Sunday, he decided to go and buy the required parts from Bmw on Monday morning. He's spent the last few days fitting the parts himself and is happy that this has in fact cured the fault. He's now happy to accept my offer of paying for the parts in full and final settlement of the issue and will put that in writing to me. I'd like to say a massive thanks to everyone that offered me help and advice with this issue. It's very much appreciated.

This is the email I've sent to him: Dear Mr xxxx, I'm writing in response to your email dated 15/11/2016. Following the legal advice I've sought and also advice from other dealers on how they would deal with this situation, I have the following to say. You state it is up to me to prove the fault wasn't there at the time of purchase. I can easily do this in a number of ways: 1) When the vehicle went in to xxxx xxxx Vehicle Services on 02/07/2016 @ 79061 miles, it was subject to an Inspection 1 service. Part of this service includes a diagnostic check on the vehicle and any fault codes stored related to the SMG gearbox or otherwise would have been reported to me on the invoice which they were not. The vehicle was also road tested by xxxx xxxx Vehicle Services with no faults reported with the SMG gearbox or otherwise. 2) When the vehicle was returned to xxxx xxxx Vehicle Services on 13/07/2016 @ 79075 miles to have the rear brake lines replaced and the rear exhaust flange welded up, again the vehicle was road tested as it was driven elsewhere by them for the exhaust to be welded and no faults with the SMG gearbox or otherwise were reported. 3) When you visited me on 24/09/2016 to view the vehicle, you had ample time to fully inspect the vehicle. I drove the vehicle myself to demonstrate to you how the SMG gearbox works, the different modes etc and then you test drove the vehicle yourself. You purchased the vehicle with it showing 79,085 miles and never expressed any concerns or highlighted any issues. The invoice you have a copy of clearly states "The buyer has test driven the vehicle and is happy that no faults are present at the point of sale". 4) You drove the vehicle home to Barnsley, some 2.5 - 3 hours drive from me without fault and approximately 6 weeks had passed until you first contacted me on 04/11/2016 informing me of an issue with the SMG gearbox. You state that as a trader I have "a responsibility to ensure goods that are being sold by yourself are either as stated above or any faults are made known to the consumer". I've gone above and beyond my responsibility to do this by having the vehicle subjected to the Inspection 1 service at xxxx xxxx Vehicle Services and having all know faults rectified before sale and also the vehicle was given a new mot to ensure it's road worthiness. There were no known faults with the vehicle to make known to you, the consumer. I'm not prepared to have the vehicle repaired in the short timescale you're demanding as due to the nature of the vehicle it could well need further investigative work. You've also removed and refitted the instrument cluster without my consent and without using a reputable garage/business. I'm informed that the instrument cluster on these vehicles are very sensitive and any damage while removing/refitting could cause all sorts of faults in the future. You expressed to me through text message conversation ( which I have copies of ) that if the fault was diagnosed as the Gear Position Sensor then you would be happy to fit these parts yourself if you could get hold of them so I propose to offer the following: 1) I will pay for the required parts namely the Gear Position Sensor, if you are still prepared to fit it yourself as you offered. This would be in full and final settlement of the issue. 2) As a gesture of goodwill and something I'm not legally obliged to do, I would be prepared to offer you a refund for the vehicle. If you choose to do this, the vehicle must be returned by you directly to xxxx xxxx Vehicle Services at a date and time convenient for everyone involved. The vehicle will be subject to a full inspection to look for further issues or damage. If the vehicle is of satisfactory condition and without further issues or damage then a refund will be issued to you by bank transfer which is the same method as you used to pay me for the vehicle. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 I'm entitled to a deduction of the refunded amount for wear and tear and also the extra owner on the V5. I would draw your attention to The Consumer Rights Act 2015 Section 24 sub-section 8, with regards to sub-section 10a. The selling price of the vehicle was £9730 minus your Mercedes taken in part exchange which I allowed £1000 for. As I have sold your Mercedes I cannot offer it back to you, however I'm legally entitled to give you back the part exchange value which in this case was £1000. There is no set figure in law to deduct for wear and tear/use of the vehicle and the extra owner on the V5 but it's been suggested to me that a fair amount would be £500 plus £295 for the extra owner on the V5 so a total deduction of £795. The total refund paid back to you on satisfactory inspection of the vehicle plus all relevant documents/paperwork/keys etc being returned would be £8935. I would need you to confirm the mileage on the vehicle before acceptance of this offer.

I had this issue when I sold my first car as a trader. I phoned Dvla and they told me the customer signs as the new keeper and you leave the registered keepers part blank. As said above though, doing it online is simple and the customer gets the new V5 much quicker.

He said once he realised there was a fault with the gearbox, he searched some forums and realised there should be a warning light on the dash indicating a fault and there wasn't. He said it should light up when the ignition is switched on then go out after a few seconds which it didn't do. He then said he removed the binnacle to investigate and found the warning light to be taped over with black electrical tape which in his mind proves this fault was present when sold and had been hidden from him. I can't get through to him that even if this light was covered over, it would have done nothing to hide the fault with the gearbox and wouldn't have got him 3 hours home ! I've also now got confirmation from the Bmw specialist who inspected it before sale that the diagnostic check found no fault codes and they also road tested the vehicle with no faults found.