starting up car business

Honest John Back Room » Motoring discussion
What is life like with your car? Let us know and win £500 in John Lewis vouchers | No thanks
View Threaded
Thu 2 Sep 2004 13:53
starting up car business - daveyK_UK
working in and out of the motor trade, i have always taken a personal and buisness interest in cars.
With a fair ammount of knowledge of motors and a fair/good understanding of the industry and buyers trends, i am tempted to go part-time in work and buy and sell cars with the rest of my time.
I have had various jobs form finding cars for customers to being a vehicle finance manager.
I currently buy a car form a BCA or mainhein auction, keep it a few months and sell it on for slighlty more than the purchase cost.


I was wondering about some set-up costs?

how much is it to open an account with BCC?
Am i best to sell them purely through the auto trader?
What do i do about the cars v5 (ie, register or will i take the part of a trader?)

I also have a few old work collegues who work at various dealers who always give me first look at their part ex\'s before ethey go through the auction which has been profitable in the past.


I have space to store 3/5 cars - and dont really wish to go above this sort of ammount while i get started of.
this is at my home where i will hope to sell them from.


any help or ideas - mucho appreciated
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Thu 2 Sep 2004 14:16
starting up car business - owen
I am doing exactly the same, and have been doing so for the last few months, so any questions feel free to ask.

I have an account with Manheim, but not with BCA. Although i\'ve only bought 1 car at auction, because whenever i go i find that they are (a) too expensive or (b) absolute rubbish or (c) both. Be nice to your dealer colleagues, these will be far better sources of cars.

Advertising when you work like this quickly eats away at your profit, so you need to be selective. Where you advertise depends on the car - a £1000 Fiesta is better off going in the local paper, a £5000 Alfa GTV, for example, may be better in the Autotrader or on owner\'s club websites.

As for the V5, you will have to fill in the motor trade part of the V5 when you buy the car, although if you have bought the car through the trade this part will already have been sent off and you won\'t have to do anything.

Any more questions, happy to help - i got some useful info from this site when i set up, so it\'s nice to be able to repay some of it!
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Thu 2 Sep 2004 17:41
starting up car business - malteser
The best way to get cars from the trade is to make sure that a nice "drink" changes hands for each car! MANY years ago I worked for a main dealer in a London postal ditrict and the local trader who bought most of our trade ins was suitably generous. One must be discreet though. It was only when I had been working at the dealer for nearly 12 months that I was let into the "ring". Standard drink then was a fiver. There was a certain "honour" about it all though. If we had bought a real dog and were stuck for a bit more for it, the fiver was never added to the offer. The price was the price!
--
Roger. (in the UK for 2 more weeks and then back to the sun! )
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Thu 2 Sep 2004 18:16
starting up car business - daveyK_UK
hmmm interesting.

well what i would love is access to the fleet and leasing cars before they enter auction, but i guess it will take many more years to get the contacts.

One old colleague does have, but leaseplan are very funny about him bringing anybody else along.

I often found 2 of my 3 dealers where just from continuous weeks of calling round and asking did they have any part ex cars for sale.

After a while, they began to call me and tell me when they where just coming in.


Any dealers out their who would like to offer their part-ex's feel free to contact me!

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Thu 2 Sep 2004 20:28
starting up car business - malteser
You should be aware of (not exclusively) the following
If you use your home as business premises you may be liable for business rates on part of it. It only takes one disgruntled punter to bubble you to the local council!
Local trading standards DO monitor local rags for cars for sale. If they see the same phone number appear for more than half a dozen times a year, be prepared for a visit. You may be required to prove the mileage on your stock!
The dreaded VAT. Dealing in cars it doesn't take long to reach the threshold for compulsory VAT registration.If you reach the threshold at any time or even towards the end, of the VAT year, the requirement to register and PAY is backdated to cover all your business dealings for that year!
--
Roger. (in the UK for 2 more weeks and then back to the sun! )
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 7 Jan 2011 16:57
starting up car business - Adturb

At risk of sounding a bit dim, I have a question:

I have just bought a traders policy with the intention of doing part time car sales (likely only 3-4 cars this coming year). I had intended to use the Yellow section 9 of the V5 instead of registering the vehicle in my name.

The question is this- If i use put my prospective comapny name down will I have HMRC chasing me for tax and will i need to start filing accounts, etc? Can I instead put my own name and address (already a business address so no council issues as noted on other threads)?

I am reluctant to put the car(s) into my name as this adds to the number of former keepers.

Thanks!

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sat 8 Jan 2011 13:53
starting up car business - Dutchie
The more I read thi
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Tue 11 Jan 2011 13:56
starting up car business - bananastand

speaking as a punter, I find that when I ring the people selling cars in autotrader, around half of them answer "no" when I ask if the V5 is in their name. They have a dazzling variety of excuses... but 99% of them are chancers who have bought a car and want to make a buck. I am sure the OP is an honourable chap, though.

I posted on here a year or two back about a fellow on ebay who was posing as a private seller, but acting as a trader, and jolly aggressive he was too. I'll never be taken in, but obviously plenty are.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Tue 11 Jan 2011 22:56
starting up car business - Rebecca_RJNetShowroom

Good advice so far.

If you plan to be a Limited Company you will need to file accounts with Companies House.

If plan to be a sole trader, self employed, you will be "your name trading as your business name". Are you self employed anyway? You need to get some tax advice from an expert because normally you will be charged basic rate for your second income.

If you are a trader there is no need to put the V5 in to your name and if you buy from the trade you can sign their sales and your acquisition paperwork so there is evidence of where the car came from and for them where it went to.

The best piece of advice I can give is make sure you document everything. All cars bought, sold, profit, expenses. Receipts copies. You need to be able to account for every car that passes through your hands.

Hope I helped.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link

It's FREE to list your classic car on Honest John Classics and promote it to thousands of classic car buyers, owners and enthusiasts on what is one the UK's biggest classic car sites.

Sell Your Classic Car For FREE