CGF

With the Saabs, you’d expect it to be just the Aeros etc but no, the 2006+ base 1.8t autos are up there too.

Almost certainly an ABS sensor/pick up issue. Traction control thinks a wheel has lost traction and cuts power accordingly.

My money is on a stretched chain too...very common in these. Don’t let the constantly running fan lead you down the coolant temp sensor route...they will default to a permanent ‘fan on’ if there’s an engine management issue.

Last years cheque wasn’t cashed until March. Still no confirmation or anything yet this year.

We got exactly the same letter this morning...the address is correct but the garage name bears no resemblance at all to us? I've tried to upload it here but it's too large, apparently?

Anything below 12.5v resting on most moderns is bad news. Needs to be 12.7v+ ideally.

That's the badger, although ECP sell the pulley and bearing on its own for around £23 from memory. Done a couple, you still need to remove the whole assembly but once it's off the car, there's a T30 bolt holding it on from behind.

Everything's still for sale until you're holding a deposit. If tomorrow's customers were that keen, they'd have either come over straight away or paid a holding deposit over the phone. The only time I'll hold a vehicle is when someone's traveling from a distance in which case I'll ask them to call us once they're leaving to let me know they're on their way at which point I will hold it for them until they arrive.

Bought an ambulance from Bradford banger auctions back in the mid 90s...old V6 transit I believe complete with red leatherette stretchers etc. No one offered a bid so Johnny looked over, mouthed £150 at me and misread my look of complete disinterest as a valid sign of affirmation. Needless to say, everyone propping up the burger shed in the corner found this highly amusing. My mech who'd come along for the evening was only too happy to drive it back to Leeds...can't say I was overly joyed at being overtaken at the red lights at Thornbury by a tatty looking transit on blues and twos but figured it was his licence so hey? Anyhow, gave it a wash and stuck it on the ad on trader following week at a speculative multiple of the purchase price....unbelievably, the phone started ringing at 7.15 on the Friday morning that the rag came out and was still going well into the following week. Needless to say, it had gone by lunchtime to a guy from Barnsley who was going to convert it into a camper...

Have a look around the water pump. There's an idler pulley that runs off the outer of the aux belt and drives the water pump. Daft set up but if the bearings are noisy (£12.50 from ECP) or the pulley itself has rubber residue from the belt, it can sound like this under higher revs.

Too right. I availed myself of a chicken curry earlier on at Preston and I'm paying for it now.

Another vote from me...it really is a potential nest of vipers that you don't need under any circumstances. Not to mention the potentially quickest way to lose friends and make enemies. As an aside, assuming the cars are viable retail stock for you, why not encourage them to get a valuation from WBAC, then look to step in with a (slightly) higher offer as a 'friend in the trade'?

You're entitled to reduce the amount you refund to take into account the mileage covered by the customer...however, after three days and with the punters head full of tales of woe courtesy of Halfords, you may find it difficult to get them to accept this. At the end of the day, I'd probably just take it on the chin and lick my wounds....even if you did stick to your guns and attend to any issues, the buyer is never going to be happy and will be on your doorstep every week with one issue or another. As stated above, it really is imperative to get the vehicle back in these circumstances rather than letting a third party get involved...I know it's a bit late now but it's something to bare in mind in the future... :-)

Nice looking website, Mat...I may well have a chat with them when I get a few more things in place with the new showroom.

Currently in an old 528i with cloth seats and 170k that I took in px...trouble is, it drives beautifully with no creaks or groans and I can't bring myself to scrap it. It's actually got FSH, the last one of which cost more than the cars value! Having said that, I've got a leggy but tidy E220 diesel W211 coming in next week in a deal so the beemers days could be numbered :-(

Minis are a no no for me, too...last one that went kept me awake for three months until the warranty expired...

Send her a cheque in six weeks... Seriously though, in your position, I'd pay her if only to give me the feeling of being on higher moral ground. Although it would make me a little sad.... :-)

I stand to be corrected but I'm fairly sure it's the customers responsibility to get it back to you...I sold an Octavia to someone 250 miles away that had a clutch linkage issue after a couple of weeks. Luckily, he got it sorted at his local garage at minimal expense...

We are in the north west, on the Yorks/Lancs border. Looking at the £2.5k - £6k end of the market, 4-8 year old small and family stuff. Not really interested in sports/prestige, I tend to look out for low mileage, good historied run of the mill cars, always seemed to do ok. To be honest, I'm not sure how much demand there is for finance for this type but if it results in sales we wouldn't otherwise get, then it must be worthwhile. The whole sub-prime market interests me...I feel there must be a market for better quality cars but perhaps your typical sub-prime client just wants maximum flash? As I say, it's a new area for me....spent years and years with a 'banger pitch' in a large city that did very well back in the 90s but that end of the market would fill me with dread nowadays, what with everyone being a consumer law specialist in their spare time.

Afternoon everyone As above really, any pointers or advice? Having run for a couple of years selling a few £1k to £4k cars alongside the workshop business, that side is doing ok but we're short on space. We've just secured a nice little unit in a local mill complex that'll hold 15 or so cars and enable us to expand slightly. Regarding warranties, I've always 'self administered' as I try to ensure everything we sell is as right as possible in the workshop first before it's advertised. It's always gone ok so the idea is to continue, although I intend to take a closer look at the Lawgistics offerings. When it comes to finance, however, I'm a complete newcomer and would welcome any advice given! We should be getting the keys in about 6-7 weeks so I'm keen to start getting things in order now and I really feel like we should be offering finance facilities to maximise as many potential sales channels as possible. Ive heard good things about Close brothers and not so good things about other companies...please feel free to offer as many words of wisdom as possible! Thanks, Neil

Cheers Mat. Only sold one Mini and was paranoid about any undue noise from the gearbox having heard all the horror stories but I must admit it generated plenty of interest and didn't hang about so perhaps I need to 'grow a pair' so to speak and buy some more! I'm going to take a closer look at Lawgistics: So far, I've just self-warranted anyway with no issues but a few customers have asked for warranty information etc during handover so having everything down in black and white would be useful. Regarding finance, I've been deliberating between Close brothers and First response both of whom seem to be regarded favourably on here? Having said that, I'll take a look at MotoNovo too now. When it comes to business funding, I had the rep around recently from BCA and I can see the advantage should new premises arise in order to fully stock immediately but up to now, I've just reinvested and self funded. Only having space for 8 vehicles tends to keep it simple! Good luck to you too though it sounds like things are going pretty well anyway! All the best, Neil

I've tried a couple of different things over the years but the only one I've gone back to is Renovo...it's a bit messy but it does the trick...

Thanks! Re the VAT, it seemed impossible to get access to Auctions4cars and eBay motors pro without it so it seemed the sensible way forwards. The way things are going, I've turned over around 50k in the last nine months anyway so it's pretty inevitable that I need to go down that road regardless?

Hello....just a quick post to introduce myself and say thank you for the useful pointers and information gleaned from my lurking in the background as a visitor up to now. Based up north (it's not that grim, honestly...) I have a small unit which I moved into last year with a repair workshop and around 5-6 sales cars in stock at any one time. Being a great believer in trying to do the job right, I'm already VAT registered and everything, even though technically I'm probably still under the threshold but I'd far rather start as I mean to go on. I'm not exactly new to the game having had a prominent roadside pitch with 35-40 units in a big city for most of the 90s and early noughties but that was always sub £1000 (actually mainly sub £500 most of the time) so was a different kettle of fish to what I'm trying to build now. As I'm tucked away in a little village these days, all my sales come from online so I'm currently looking to expand into a new site if I can find something locally that'll take maybe 20-30 vehicles and also to start offering finance and also aftermarket warranties etc. With that in mind, I'd be extremely grateful for any advice offered! In the meantime, thanks once again for the goldmine of info already posted on here from those of you with far more experience in the trade :-) Neil