Wasn't expecting that

[farrendahl]

As some may know my mum has asked me to sell her car for her and upon talking on the phone tonight she has basically given me Carte Blanche to do whatever I need to do to get the best possible return on it. So have had a crazy idea, it may not be my brightest one yet but was wondering if anybody here thought it might have some merit, so here goes.

1. Sell mums car to dealer
2. Pay a lump of cash into my mums account and hold some aside to go and hit an auction
3. Pick up something at auction, do any lttle bits of work that may be required
4. Sell on and pay another lump of cash to mum
5. Dependant on success repeat steps 3 and 4

Mum has already agreed that anything over her hoped for final sale price I get to keep, so could I possibly make myself some cash down this route, or am I setting myself up for a fall if I do this?

[LuS1fer]

Fall.

You need to know cars inside out to make a decent wedge and you can get burnt badly. Remember you also have to pay the commission and insure and tax the car before you can collect it too.

You're not a dealer, you're not VAT registered, you won't be offering a warranty and you'll be selling a car you won't know and most people will spot that straight away. I'm not saying it can't be done but I've never really had a bargain at an auction. Nearest I came was not bidding £80 for an 80k Suzuki Baleno - could have made a few hundred but not after having to tax it and most people expect a car they're buying to be taxed so they can drive it away.

PS Mike Brewer's rags to riches is mainly b*ll*cks as he can obviously rely on trade insurance and plates that he has anyway.

Edited by LuS1fer on Friday 13th May 21:13

[deveng]

I'd only recommend doing this if you're st hot at spotting dodgy motors and have more than enough skill to sort any problems you're likely to come across

[soad]

Could potentially end in tears. Still- if you're confident you could pull it off, OP?

[farrendahl]

See this is the thing, maybe a little over confidence on my part as part of me is thinking "Yep I can get this done, I can do good by my mum and at the same time help myself out" especially as I don't want to make any huge amounts of money, just a little bit of pocket money if you will. But I also know it's also a minefield of risk that could go horribly wrong. The intentions are good, but the road to hell is paved with those

[AndrewW-G]

So, the OP is planning on selling a car to a dealer, so that he can finance his endeavours as a car dealer why not simply find out how good you'd be at this by selling the car to a punter instead of a dealer!

[geeteeaye]

Seems an odd way to start the process IMO, if you are confident of selling cars in reasonable time and achieving good prices to private buyers, why start off with selling the first direct to a dealer and getting a low price for it?

ETA - beaten to it!

[retrorider]

farrendahl said:

See this is the thing, maybe a little over confidence on my part as part of me is thinking "Yep I can get this done, I can do good by my mum and at the same time help myself out" especially as I don't want to make any huge amounts of money, just a little bit of pocket money if you will. But I also know it's also a minefield of risk that could go horribly wrong. The intentions are good, but the road to hell is paved with those

When i worked in the trade a few years back now, i would buy the odd nice trade in,run around in it for a few months, and move them on,but good cars were few and far between.My friend who also worked at the same place decided he would dabble in antiques and collectables instead.He is now a full time antiques dealer and is doing rather well for himself.My advice is car boot sales and auctions might be more fruitfull to your goal...

[300bhp/ton]

farrendahl said:

As some may know my mum has asked me to sell her car for her and upon talking on the phone tonight she has basically given me Carte Blanche to do whatever I need to do to get the best possible return on it. So have had a crazy idea, it may not be my brightest one yet but was wondering if anybody here thought it might have some merit, so here goes.

1. Sell mums car to dealer
2. Pay a lump of cash into my mums account and hold some aside to go and hit an auction
3. Pick up something at auction, do any lttle bits of work that may be required
4. Sell on and pay another lump of cash to mum
5. Dependant on success repeat steps 3 and 4

Mum has already agreed that anything over her hoped for final sale price I get to keep, so could I possibly make myself some cash down this route, or am I setting myself up for a fall if I do this?

It's possible. But trade insurance would help and after 3 sales you'll be classified as a trader, so technically are liable for more than just a private sale.

You will win and you will lose some.

But being able to work on the cars yourself will save having to pay someone too do it.

Have you been to an auction before? If not, go but take no money with you the first couple of times. Go and see what it's like.

Be sure to understand the commission and any VAT to pay on top of the sale price. And understand exactly what the descriptions and terminology used at the auction mean.

For most cars budget getting it home, some fuel, advertising costs, MoT, 6mnths Road Tax and some funds to tidy/sort it. Anything on top is profit.

Also remember if you go into this as a business, then you'll be liable at some point to pay income tax and NI also.


Personally I'd start small, monkey money and banger motors. If you can make £50-100 per sale then it's not too bad to start and you minimalise the risk. As a £500 car can only really set you back £500 or less. Scrapping it would likely see £80-150. So you won't lose too much if it goes wrong or is a duffer.

If you buy a £5k car and it turns out it needs £2k's worth of work and it's only really worth £4.5k anyhow. Then you can end up very down and out of pocket.

The biggest trouble is buying cars at the right price and being able to do it consistently. Auctions are one place, but also getting to know the local area and where you can maybe find motors cheap is another good thing. So try and make some contacts.


From my experience, diesels, estates and small automatics where always good sellers. As people only usually buy these because they WANT or NEED them. So will actively seek them out.

Small hatches are usually ok too, but much more competition to buy them. Bigger cars like 2.0 Mondeos or Vectras are worthless. Very hard to make money on these unless you buy them for nothing and they can kick around for weeks with little or no interest.

I'd say also stay clear of things like Hyundai, early Kia and Daewoo type cars as parts are often frighteningly expensive for them.

Maybe try and specialise in a single make or a couple. We used to sell mainly Rover's. Easy to work on, very good parts supply and cheap. Plentiful and well know. (Despite the stick they get on here, there are actually lots of people wanting to buy them).

[farrendahl]

AndrewW-G said:

So, the OP is planning on selling a car to a dealer, so that he can finance his endeavours as a car dealer why not simply find out how good you'd be at this by selling the car to a punter instead of a dealer!

I did say this probably wasn't my brightest idea to date lol But no it is a valid comment, the dealer option would be a solely if normal routes didn't generate any interest etc

[rb5230]

Yes as said, sell it privately, give your mum her money and then if there is any extra you can gamble all you like with it.

[OlberJ]

1. Sell it to joe public, don't take a dealer price (learn this from the start)

2. Batter in, as long as it's just the profit you're gambling with, why the fk not?