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This Dealer is clearly on Fire, a Good Day it would seem for TD

Hi All As mentioned in my last Thread I am looking to move into the dirty world of Subprime Finance and Vehicle Finance In General. I have some questions over FSA and applying for the credit licence. 1) I currently have a premises, which is my garage mot business where i place a small selection of vehicles outside, However I want to get a bigger premises say a another Unit with good outside space or just even a good old pitch. My question is Can i Apply for the FSA licence before I have the new premises, am I able to apply for the licence at our current business address registered in the new business name and update them when I find the right place. ?? 2) which is linked to the 1st question, how long does it take for the FSA process to go through, I have heard 6 weeks from some and 6 months from others. 3) is there anything i should be aware about or personal experience from dealers here with the FCA, How is the process and dealing with the FCA in general, I already deal with one government department being the DVSA for my mot business and they are difficult to say the least, but we manage them and have kept on the right side. Many thanks Lee

Umesh I agree That Ford of winsford should not have taken on the carcraft Name, much better to plug there own name, all be it a little strange calling it fords of winsford when its based in Trafford Park, Manchester, I think They are trying to shorten it to FOW. My point was more why turn down that website asset, It could of been a good feeder of customers as CF247 are now reaping the reward. There loss has been RoryRS, Sparky and Rosemotors Gain,

RoseMotors The question is are you getting less leads or interest from them to send you customers because of the lower fee ? Was a good move to buy carcraft domain, I think the real value though is all the tagcloud, blogging and SEO work that has gone into that domain that has made it so prominent on google, that's where the money was put in by Carcraft. Good buy CF247 However the looser out of this deal would be fords of winsford, they bought car craft trafford, and I would of thought been offered or had the opportunity to buy this domain, if they did turn it down then it was a very bad move, as it seems to be a marketing gold mine

Thanks for all the replys on this one guys, I see dealing with Cf247 has helped dealers with sales and leads etc, so well worth a register even if its £150 per a sale taken. However do you guys deal with cf247 as your finance broker for sub prime or just using them for leads etc. Would it not be better to register with several finance houses from near prime to bad credit with the added bonus of commission with some of the companies.

Thanks Rory Yes intend to use a new name new pitch. I do see an issue with aftersales as you touched on, However in my circumstances with a garage with staff available I would be able to deal with warranty claims quickly and cheaply, with the exception of long distance customers which I think a third party warranty would be the best option. With the mark up on the units I would be potentially selling in this market I couldn't foresee a major headache with stock providing there well purchased and pre checked to a good standard, this should weed out the shitters and re block if its bad purchase. TCFC seem to be the finance company that fit the boxes to the car that switch off on a missed payment, this option is really for the poor of the poor credit wise. My trader friend does use them but only 3 out of 10 finance sales, most are now being placed with moneyway who seem to plugging the gab between TCFC and First response who are in my opinion the market leaders in sub prime and seem to be a good firm to deal with. Has anyone had any bad experiences with sub prime lenders,?? they do have a habit of disappearing when the economy takes a downturn, I remember Park Finance & BCT some years ago going bump.

I currently sell vehicles all be it in a small way from my mot garage repair business, with a 5-7 vehicles pitched up for sale at anyone time using social media, gumtree, ebay and word of mouth as I am well known in my area. Anyhow I have been looking for while to get into the dirty depths that is Sub prime finance, Looking to gain FCA licence get a bigger pitch to stock say 20 vehicles and promote vehicles mainly for people who have less than perfect credit history or near prime etc. Looking to deal with vehicles around 2.5-6K and keep to the basic family flyers, (astra, Focus, Cmax, 207, Qashqai, Zafira etc). Why I hear you screaming !!!, Well I have fellow traders in other towns who are doing very nicely in this market, there seems to be a good selection of lenders out there for this market and I would say it's never been easier to get finance for sub prime customers. Now am sure we can debate the morals of this type of lending but to me from what I have been seeing on a business grounds it makes complete sense to tap into this market. Does anyone have experience in working with subprime lenders, such as Money way, first response, VTG, Advantage, and TCFC ??? and the customers, are they a different breed to your average cash customer. ? I have been sitting on the fence for while about this, A fellow trader in this sector says it's nothing like normal retail, its paperwork and lots of telesales, but he has a small pitch 30 cars and is selling 7-10 vehicles a week with a markup average of £1500 per unit, YES 1500 per unit running on 3 staff (him included). And is spending £400 on advertising per week, not on AT with main traffic from Social media and Adwords with a good website with tag cloud. Thoughts ?

That was the strange thing green giant, the car was dry no wet in the rear boot near lights or front carpets. the only reason we dried it out with heaters was when we wet vac etc. Clutch was not really an issue, they take 2 1/2 hours to do, nice easy clutch and cheap to buy, at least it was not a mondeo tdci or the worse of the worse Toyota Rav 4 !!!! Now there's a clutch I will never get involved with again. I Tell My mechanics never quote following Jobs: 1. King Pins 2. Clutch on a Rav 4 Hope Your Wrong Green Giant and it does not come back, Im getting pastie just thinking about it

I took in a Citroen C1 two months back, it was one of them deals i gave right sort of money to resell but when the car came in and deal done (must been of the ball that day) I could not believe the sate of the vehicle, I have never seen so much mould in a car it was in every crevice you could imagine. It was that bad I sent it to the block rather than try and tackle it, I wiped it down on the seats an dash with g101 and sent it packing. However the auction had no luck and could not even get anywhere near what i Paid. So I went to collect it, and my GOD !!! it was even worse than when I left it, No wonder no one had bid even reasonable offer for it, Window down all way back to base about to throw up it was that bad. Next Day we Gave it 3 hours of intense shampooing and thorough clean, heaters on and dried out. Next day it was still coming back in places. So we removed the seats jet washed them got george (thats our wet dry cleaner by the way lol) on all the carpets , re-died with carpet die black. in the end it came up good and became clean car, sold it for £1795, customer drove it loved it did not mention anything about the interior, left deposit and was to collect Friday just gone. (its now Wed Afternoon) Goes and puts it inside workshop for oil and filter, mot etc, and Bang, Clutch plate collapses without warning. Begged one of mechanics with £70, rang euros got a clutch sent over and he stayed the evening fitting it, this car was going out no matter what the relief when she drove it away on friday, £260 profit out of car that was so nearly a loss cause

Have to agree. if all three had failed the car wold not run. I feel the garage is taking advantage of a misdiagnosis, when they scan the vehicle you may also get faults for the other coils even tho they are fine, this would happen due to the stress they are under caused by the misfire from the faulty coil, on a long run even the slightest hesitation could of been picked up showing a fault on OBD which is not correct. Think there just selling 3 coils and fitting / labour to earn some £££'s

Seeing this from a different point of view as garage owner, We have dealt with warranty claim firms before and they get nervous on certain makes of vehicles and particular models (even though they will happily take dealers money for the warranty). One of them being the 1.6Turbo Diesel engine which is a Peugeot/ citroen unit but is found in the Focus and Volvo also. this unit suffers due to its position of the turbo (right on top of the engine) with bad oil feed. If they blow the manufacture recommends a complete new engine (basicly they are throw away units). Now you can change the turbos but even turbo companies make you sign a disclaimer on that model stating they take no responsibility when fitted to them models as its a design issue. I have seen and also learned myself that if you just bolt on a new turbo they will go again very quickly. You can strip down the sump drop the oil and give it a good flushing and fit a new oil pump which can see out the car but even then Ive had mates in the trade with the fault returning. How this engine never became a big issue or a scandal I am not sure. See Cars Derby, the 2.0 Diesel engine is a old unit and to my experience is a reliable unit, but somtimes you just get a problem car that makes you swear never to buy again. Also agree that C4 petrols are a good unit. Lee

Well Worth Doing, Also don't forget you also get £1500 For taking a Apprentice on from the college, Helps pay there wages for a few months, Which is handy as there learning. I have done this myself with our garage Mot Station. Just be careful who you pick, do your homework and choose your own apprentice, don't let the college choose as you may be placed with a workshy student. Find someone who eager and keen and shows it, even if there not that experienced its best to find someone who is willing to learn and is eager over a lazy know it all.