brachunky
Scotland
Posts: 1,314 
Club RR Member Number: 72
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Buying & selling-which cars?brachunky
@brachunky
Club Retro Rides Member 72
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Almost 2 years ago my better half & me moved to SW Scotland to hopefully enjoy a quieter life and catch our breath after caring for our disabled son for over 20 years. It's been hard work so far but worth it living in a secluded rural environment. Her health has also deteriorated to the point that I am now her carer and had to resign from my job of 19 years to allow me the flexibility to be there, so to speak, for both of them.
If I'm honest, the love of cars and a bunch of good mates have given me the strength to deal with the changes but with financial pressures on us all, I really need to bump up my income a little but need to do it for myself and not with a boss/targets/too many rules looking over my shoulder. I have the space to do a bit of car flipping and minor improvement work to them. I feel I can handle this in between other responsibilities.
The plan is to flip budget entry level cars which is already a challenge with the ridiculous prices they are going for at the moment. Despite this and the acknowledgement that budget cars are not going to bring in a great income, I feel this sector may still be worth honing in on.
I'm thinking Citroen C1's, Ford Fiesta's, Corsa's, Mazda 2's, Fiat Panda's and so on. The possibility of small car based vans for new start up business's also tickles me (think Prozac). I do have an old smiley transporter arriving at some point which will be a boon for cars without MOT's
I would appreciate any advice from those who may already flip or indeed have stopped doing it for whatever reason. What models would you suggest and which ones to steer clear of, be that because they are simply bad news or parts prices etc make them a non starter.
Thanks for reading all this!
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I read it and it touched my heart, hard not to if I'm honest. If you do decide to try this new venture I wish you all the luck in the world and hope it works out well for you. I'll just add that a couple of guys I used to know a few years back did a similar thing but they stuck to one make / model one chose VW Polo's one went with Alfas which I thought was brave, possibly stupid at the time they both made it work I know times have changed somewhat but worth a go, so I'd say go for it and good luck  |
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Buying & selling-which cars?ballbagbagins
@ballbagbagins
Club Retro Rides Member 164
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My mate went through a phase of buying small, cheap cars at auction with the aim of flipping them. He wasn't at all mechanically minded so paid a garage to sort out the issues before selling them on. He did sell the cars but didn't make any money so stopped after about 5 cars.
I guess if he'd been fairly handy he could have saved paying a garage but that wouldn't have worked when he needed the diagnostic tools they had.
What about servicing friends and neighbours cars at your place so you're still at home?
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Dez
Club Retro Rides Member
And I won't sit down. And I won't shut up. And most of all I will not grow up.
Posts: 11,712
Club RR Member Number: 34
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Buying & selling-which cars?Dez
@dez
Club Retro Rides Member 34
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The ‘small cheap car’ market is VERY competitive, totally cutthroat, and the majority of your buyers will be a pain in the  . I’d specialise a bit. Pickup trucks or small 4x4s are a better market and there’s more profit in em. |
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MOGGY
Part of things
Posts: 272
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I’d also add that if you flip enough in a tax year and the hmrc catch up with you it can get messy.
If you turnover over the vat threshold and don’t declare a business they will roger you if they catch you.
I think Dvla consider you a dealer if you sell more than six a year.
Personally I love the idea but it’s almost impossible to buy anything these days with a profit left in it. And modern vehicles come with all sorts of expensive problems, which are often why they change hands.
Good luck to you though.
Ps I was a vat registered motor trader for 30 years till last year and owned hundreds of classic and retros over the years personally, so been there.
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Total classic car pervert
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£85k turnover for vat in any 12 month period so whilst not huge, you would have to be doing either loads of em’ or higher value motors to hit it
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Rich
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 6,234
Club RR Member Number: 160
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Buying & selling-which cars?Rich
@foxmcintyre
Club Retro Rides Member 160
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Just a warning to you, as money starts to get tight at the moment, people WILL be back at your door with 'this such and such has fallen off', or 'it's making a noise' so be prepared for that. I work in motor retail and it doesn't matter if the car is £1995 or £9995, peoples expectations are the same and they do not want spend a penny more over what they already have. Getting stock at the moment is also proving expensive with anything worth having going through auction, at least local to us, at often retail or above. Otherwise, give it a crack!
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Last Edit: Mar 7, 2023 20:07:32 GMT by Rich
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brachunky
Scotland
Posts: 1,314
Club RR Member Number: 72
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Buying & selling-which cars?brachunky
@brachunky
Club Retro Rides Member 72
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Thank you all for taking the time to share your thoughts, it will be taken on board. Just for clarity, although HMRC will want their bit via my self assessment, it's not my intention to become a dealer in the true sense of the word. I'm talking about a couple of cars per month so more like a side hustle without the master hustle if you get what I mean!
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you might find some sensibly priced cars because of people in new ULEZ areas selling off older cars.
sticking with one or two models is a good idea as you can swap parts between them and also get to know them in depth, knowing exactly what to look for when buying them. I would think cars like Yaris and Jazz, Corsa, 207 etc will have lots of buyers. I sometimes buy /fix/sell Berlingos/Partners.
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69 Plymouth Fury Convertible
75 Range Rover 2 door
82 Range Rover 4 door
84 Range Rover 4 door
78 Datsun 120Y 2 door
78 Datsun 120Y Coupe
78 Datsun 620 Pickup
81 Datsun Urvan E23
86 Datsun Vanette van
98 Electric Citroen Berlingo
00 Electric Peugeot Partner
02 Electric Citroen Berlingo
76 Honda C50
04 Berlingo Multispace petrol
07 Land Rover 130
15 Nissan E-NV200
15 Fiat Ducato
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The advise above to specialise is a good thought as it helps to know the model, common faults and what diagnosic tools/software to but etc.
Also if you can, buy simple cars, the more complicated the more there is to go wrong.
It would be worth reading up on buyers rights (if you haven't already) as if you sell even a couple a month you're a dealer and therefore people have a lot of rights that they don't have in a private transaction, reciepts that says sold as seen or similar don't wash if they take you to the small claims court.
One other thought, could you buy and sell classic projects, again if you specialist people will travel and if its a project there is very little comeback, you shouldn't get the idiots who have done 15K miles in a few months delivering pizza's/parcels who don't put any oil in it and then come back screaming when the engine blows up (I know someone this happened to and he had to refund them!).
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