New here, saying hello!

[bimbo 0]

Hi all,

I have just joined and popping by the general forum to say hello.

I am just in the process of setting up as a trader.

Having done a lot of research, there is still a lot more to do but I am confident in what I am learning.

This forum seems to have a great vibe and I look forward to collaborating with you all.

-- If you are interested, I am based in SW London and plan on buy cars around the 3-6k mark, hoping to flip within a couple of weeks of purchasing. Still trying to do analysis on this approach etc.

Cheers

[Blenheim Car Sales 111]

Accountant,  VAT, notify inland revenue, Be legit 

[have a word with the wife 299]

16 minutes ago, Blenheim Car Sales said:

 legit 

seriously though, all the best 

[Casper 272]

1 hour ago, bimbo said:

Hi all,

I have just joined and popping by the general forum to say hello.

I am just in the process of setting up as a trader.

Having done a lot of research, there is still a lot more to do but I am confident in what I am learning.

This forum seems to have a great vibe and I look forward to collaborating with you all.

-- If you are interested, I am based in SW London and plan on buy cars around the 3-6k mark, hoping to flip within a couple of weeks of purchasing. Still trying to do analysis on this approach etc.

Cheers

Hello Good luck wish you all the best .

[tradegirl 112]

Welcome and good luck! You sound positive, which is always great.

[Mikey360 68]

Best of luck Bimbo, consider buying the £10 ebook from the forum for more advice, well worth a read and great to reference back to!!!

 

[It's me 615]

brr brrrrrrrrrrrr good afternoon bimbo car sales how can i help?

customer............do you have any topless cars??????

[bimbo 0]

16 hours ago, tradegirl said:

1 hour ago, jason doyle motor sales said:

brr brrrrrrrrrrrr good afternoon bimbo car sales how can i help?

customer............do you have any topless cars??????

Haha, funny that. I have been contemplating trying to buy a convertible on the cheap during the winter months and selling in the summer. Not sure how well that work though.

2 hours ago, Mikey360 said:

Best of luck Bimbo, consider buying the £10 ebook from the forum for more advice, well worth a read and great to reference back to!!!

 

I sure will, thanks.

19 hours ago, Blenheim Car Sales said:

Accountant,  VAT, notify inland revenue, Be legit 

Yea, absolutely. Totally legit, no other way imho. This will be part time, so I will aim to stay under the VAT threshold. In fact, I don't think I mentioned that. This is just going to be a side business for me. Mainly because I enjoy working on cars and cleaning them up etc.

16 hours ago, tradegirl said:

Welcome and good luck! You sound positive, which is always great.

Welcome and good luck! You sound positive, which is always great.

 

Actually,

I didn't post this earlier, because I was unsure about the response i'd get but here goes..

I am a software engineer and I am in the process of building some tooling that will index all of the (major) car classifieds sites in the UK. With that data, I can then try and get a good view of the market, to determine things such as:

• Average lifetime of an advert
• Average price
• Average price drop (based on original asking)
• Common cars for sale and what makes/models sell best
• What is the average spread between private sales and dealer sales (does one exist?)
• Which model variants are most popular i.e. which have the shorter lifetime

 

This should then help me identify cars worth buying that I will have some confidence of being able to move on.

 

I don't know much about the used car market really and i'm not being naive, I think the software can only help a small bit, there is so much more to do and learn but i'm interesting in learning and getting up to speed. I like trying out new things.

 

 

[CRW 73]

12 minutes ago, bimbo said:

 

Actually,

I didn't post this earlier, because I was unsure about the response i'd get but here goes..

I am a software engineer and I am in the process of building some tooling that will index all of the (major) car classifieds sites in the UK. With that data, I can then try and get a good view of the market, to determine things such as:

• Average lifetime of an advert
• Average price
• Average price drop (based on original asking)
• Common cars for sale and what makes/models sell best
• What is the average spread between private sales and dealer sales (does one exist?)
• Which model variants are most popular i.e. which have the shorter lifetime

 

This should then help me identify cars worth buying that I will have some confidence of being able to move on.

 

I don't know much about the used car market really and i'm not being naive, I think the software can only help a small bit, there is so much more to do and learn but i'm interesting in learning and getting up to speed. I like trying out new things.

 

 

We are in a world that is obsessed by data and whilst I understand its value to a certain extent, the link between data and reality in the motor trade is very different.  

For example, I use Google Analytics to monitor my website traffic. I have invoiced 8 this month, but in the last 28 days, of the top 6 viewed cars on my website, only 2 of those 6 have sold, the 4 others are still here.  Yesterday I watched somebody in a 5 mile radius of me continually hit on a little Peugeot 108 I have in stock, so I quickly spruced the car up just in case they turned up. They never showed.  Im just saying its very easy to get bogged down in data, but data and statistics don't pay the bills.  You need to experiment with what works for you in your area and with your customer base.  

Good luck with it anyway, I hope it works for you.

[David Horgan 564]

Bimbo

Firstly Welcome

We have all heard of the computer analytics trying to play a part in car sales . Auto trader have loads of that going on , telling us this that and the other , Web sites telling us when our busy times are , Autotrader telling us what sells in our area and what doesn't sell as fast .

My opinion , its a load of tosh , pure and simply a load of rubbish . Just like all the car valuations from whoever you like to mention .

CAP is useful for telling you how much you can get on a finance deal and that's about it  . Because most finance Companies do 120% of retail and use CAP . 

The rest is a pure feeling in the fingers of many years experience and a very in depth knowledge of the trade , and a lot of mechanical experience too when buying .

All the best Bimbo and I mean that , but don't rely on your computer background to help buy cars  , it wont work my friend , EG : every POLO SE you will ever have in stock WILL be different  Remember that , its where the feeling in the fingers are needed , One will tap , Another will Knock , one will leak , Another will boil up , one will misfire , one wont turn off , one wont start , and the list goes on , The computer says buy NOW , but the computer wont pay the repair bills 

[andymc1973 199]

It’s all about experience! Every day is a school day 

[justina3 518]

As above stats mean almost zero, one thing you mentioned that i did pick up on.

" This is just going to be a side business for me. Mainly because I enjoy working on cars and cleaning them up etc. " 

Once you start dealing with customers and suppliers trying to shaft you from all angles that will soon fade very quickly. 

Also maybe look up some posts from Mrv and Lucas and see the trouble they had starting out, good examples of just how hard this game really is.

 

[Arfur Dealy 823]

7 hours ago, bimbo said:

 

Actually,

I didn't post this earlier, because I was unsure about the response i'd get but here goes..

I am a software engineer and I am in the process of building some tooling that will index all of the (major) car classifieds sites in the UK. With that data, I can then try and get a good view of the market, to determine things such as:

• Average lifetime of an advert
• Average price
• Average price drop (based on original asking)
• Common cars for sale and what makes/models sell best
• What is the average spread between private sales and dealer sales (does one exist?)
• Which model variants are most popular i.e. which have the shorter lifetime

 

This should then help me identify cars worth buying that I will have some confidence of being able to move on.

 

I don't know much about the used car market really and i'm not being naive, I think the software can only help a small bit, there is so much more to do and learn but i'm interesting in learning and getting up to speed. I like trying out new things.

 

 

Make sure you declare everything as a secondary income, pay your VAT and Tax. Declare you are Trade and don't hide behind being a novice. Do the job right, from the start. We will all help you.

Edited July 21, 2019 by Arfur Dealy

[bimbo 0]

19 hours ago, David Horgan said:

Bimbo

Firstly Welcome

We have all heard of the computer analytics trying to play a part in car sales . Auto trader have loads of that going on , telling us this that and the other , Web sites telling us when our busy times are , Autotrader telling us what sells in our area and what doesn't sell as fast .

My opinion , its a load of tosh , pure and simply a load of rubbish . Just like all the car valuations from whoever you like to mention .

CAP is useful for telling you how much you can get on a finance deal and that's about it  . Because most finance Companies do 120% of retail and use CAP . 

The rest is a pure feeling in the fingers of many years experience and a very in depth knowledge of the trade , and a lot of mechanical experience too when buying .

All the best Bimbo and I mean that , but don't rely on your computer background to help buy cars  , it wont work my friend , EG : every POLO SE you will ever have in stock WILL be different  Remember that , its where the feeling in the fingers are needed , One will tap , Another will Knock , one will leak , Another will boil up , one will misfire , one wont turn off , one wont start , and the list goes on , The computer says buy NOW , but the computer wont pay the repair bills 

I couldn't agree more that data is just complementary to any business and you still need to know the business, which is something I would wholly admit not to knowing a lot about in this case. But it has been proven that data is a powerful tool for any business also and does help, but is certainly not a smoking gun by any means. It certainly isn't a load of rubbish but you do need to know how to navigate the data and use it properly.

A point I don't think I made clear enough earlier was that I would only use the tool to help give me an overview of the market and potentially help identify particular models that could sell well in my location. Once I decide I am going to buy a particular car on paper, I then need to go and view/inspect/haggle/buy and as has been pointed out, no computer program will ever help with that. Aside from an OBDII scan

13 hours ago, Arfur Dealy said:

Make sure you declare everything as a secondary income, pay your VAT and Tax. Declare you are Trade and don't hide behind being a novice. Do the job right, from the start. We will all help you.

Absolutely, I believe if you don't things proper better of not bothering at all.