Dan

I've never succesfully been prosecuted from a camera. Obviously I'm a car dealer and we do lots of test drives. I always ask for a copy of the photo to attempt to identify the driver, but then it's hard to tie up the photo of a stranger to the names in the test drive log...I usually find 2 or 3 letters exchanged is sufficient for them to drop the case and move on.

I would definitely contest that ticket, being done for 3 mph is ludicrous, that could easily be down to speedo error, especially if your running none standard wheels/tyres which will throw the speedo miles out. I got an NIP for 44 in an 40 in an LS400 about 2 years ago and got off with it. Appeal mate, it's well worth a try.

Stunning car mate, well done you

I got all moist and excited at the auction on Thursday. I spotted a 55 plate M5 in Silver with 14,000 miles. Car looked split mint so I called Simon ( my salesman ) at the office and had him check on-line how much similar cars were selling for. I always do this when I'm not sure what something is worth, it's far more reliable than Glass's guide...Glass's said the car was £46k trade and yet you can buy one from a dealer for that which obviously tells me that people are paying less than £43k for them. Anyway, Simon said they were starting around £46,000 and running up to £49,995 so I had a rough idea what to pay for it. I waited patiently - it was one of the last cars in, as usual. The auctioneer then announced that it was a 3 owner car and had its running in inspection done at 2800 miles, and therefore the manufacturers warranty may well be invalidated. It had not seen a dealer since. That was pretty much the end of my interest, I wasn't buying it with that sort of history. And yet it still made £43,000, plus the auctions fees. Having said that, I was at the most expensive auction in the UK, I don't really know why I bother going to that one because you can't buy anything for sensible money. But now I really want an M5 :-) The thing looked the dogs danglies up close.

Can't beat MESH mate, they always win Computer Shopper reviews and they are very competitive on price. I recommended one to my salesman recently and he bought one about a month ago and loves it. He paid under £400 including a widescreen monitor. www.meshcomputers.com HTH

PMSL Nice guess, but Mrs. Dan is just as much of a car nut ( and bike nut ) as I am. She works here too

My Daddy bought my first car for me. It was a Morris Marina. I've still not forgiven him

The Tax man always gets you in the end I guess Yeah, Sarnie, my mileage is mostly travelling to Auctions. I go to Scotland at least once a week, quite often twice if we need stock which would be 1000 miles in total, plus I go to an Auction in Leeds every Monday. In a busy week it can be 1200 miles easily, in a quiet week it could be zero, but thats business. What I have been doing for the last few years is always trying to have something interesting for myself to run while it's advertised and I'll typically end up keeping that car 3 weeks or so before it goes, although some take longer. Part of the problem is that there isn't a car that I want badly enough right now to make the sacrifice for, I can own just about anything in the course of my business, use it for a while and make a profit, so it seems a bit pointless letting my money sit in one car that won't earn anything. I only took over this Nissan site a year ago, it's a big site which needs a lot of stock to fill it so I am still chasing growth in my business. I have a target in mind where I know the business won't need any more capital. Once I reach that point I'll maybe see things differently

It knocks you cold when you see something like that doesn't it. I used to do a bit of motor sport in my youth and I've stuffed 13 cars, mostly Minis, but they are surprisingly strong so for a car to come in half like that would suggest it may well have been damaged before - a cut and shut like the other chap said maybe ? They shouldn't be on the road. I have a dodgy neighbour who buys damaged cars directly from Insurance companies, repairs them quickly and sells them "cheap" on Auto Trader from his house. If you run a HPI check on the car it will come up clear, but a few weeks later it will suddenly appear as damaged when HPI catches up - HPI can be a couple of months behind. He is a very dodgy man and we have often seen irate customers shouting in the street a few weeks after they bought their cars when someone points out the damage they never saw.

To put that into perspective, Almeras dropped £400, Micras dropped £225, Focus dropped £200, Z3 BMW dropped £600, RX300 dropped £1050, XJ6 dropped £800. I'm just picking cars at random, but beleive me £225 book drop is very reasonable. Mazda RX8 dropped £275 on 03 to £575 on 06, Audi TT 3.2 dropped £150 on 04 to £200 on 06, Celica dropped £150 on V to £550 on 06. It will be a while before the botton drops out of the Zed market, but the imports aren't helping one bit.

Latest update, the BMW man finally phoned me and we chatted on the phone. Turns out my mileage is really quite an issue and it's becoming apparant that leasing is probably not going to be a good option for me, my mileage makes it much more expensive than it would be for an average mileage driver. This guy suggested I look at a Golf Diesel Looks like I'm going to continue driving stock for the time being at least. Thanks for all the input.

Is that regardless of model year? £225 for an 04 ranging to £325 for an 06. Not a bad book drop. As always it will be the imports that will drop quickly. There are quite a few imports on Auto Trader around the £11k mark but you will still struggle to get a UK car under £14k or £15k with GT pack, assuming average mileage.

Nah, they are holding up okay. They dropped £250 this month in the book, which means they faired better than most cars. Don't PANIC

I log the weather at work in my diary and use it as an indicator against how many people have walked on the pitch during the day. This Sunday made it 5 weeks of constant rain. We haven't had one day in the last 5 weeks where it has remained dry between 8.30am and 6pm. The first week of June was the last time we had a dry day. By now I am usually lobster pink with sunburn and craving either a Convertible or a Motorbike. But not this year. I can't wait to bugger off to Tenerife in 7 weeks time but I must admit to being slightly concerned, because usually getting sunburnt once or twice at home kind of prepares you for Tenerife Sun. This year it's going to be the first Sun we've seen and I just know I am going to be one sunburnt, peeling and very sore ginger kid using Bacardi and Coke as anaesthetic

You can't beat the internet these days, these are cheap and very efficient and I very recently used them myself. My Hotel vouchers had been emailed by the time I got home that very night : www.reserveahotelonline.com And for flights : www.thomsonfly.com Once again, they are often the cheapest and the flight confirmation was emailed immediately after my payment had been processed. Can't fault that. HTH

Thanks for the opinions. As far as I understood it I could lease the car through the business and offset the entire cost against my Tax because effectively the lease is a business expense and comes off my GP, and I would also claim back the VAT. It's no different to my salesmans company car which could also be on a lease but isn't at the moment. I either spend a grand on a lease, or I pay Tax on that grand, so in effect a grand a month is only really £600 a month because I would pay £400 tax on that money if it wasn't spent. Confused ? Yeah, I'm good at that HP or a personal loan would not go through the business, I would be paying that myself and therefore it would carry no Tax benefits. As for tying up capital, it's a very open question how much 60 or 70 grand would earn me in stock, but lets assume I would buy a dozen Micras and each one would earn me over a grand. If any single one of them sold within a month thats the lease paid. Follow me ? In reality I sell half a dozen Micras most months, so 60 grands worth of Micras would be earning me probably £7000 a month which just doesn't compare to the cost of the lease, which is exactly why I don't want to tie up my cash. Now for the news. I went to Mercedes and sat in a new SL 500. I was disappointed. The quality of materials used bears no comparison to that used in the old SL, which was one of my favourite cars. I then sat down with their business manager who proceeded to quote me £1350 with no maintenence and £1530 fully maintained. I had seen it on line at £1050 with maintenence ! During the discussion it became apparent that mileage might be a problem for me. I worked out that I do about 35,000 miles a year visiting auctions etc. which makes a huge difference to the lease figure. Their business manager, in his inifinite wisdom, suggested I run around the auctions in a cheap diesel and save the SL for weekends. Mate, if I'm buying a £70k car my chubby ass will never be out of it They were polite and courteous and insisted on calling me Sir even when I asked them not to, but they failed to sell me the car and they lost my confidence when they suggested I use a cheap diesel I then accidentally fell into the nearby BMW showroom and when I saw a 650 Coupe close up my jaw hit the floor. I've seen loads of them on the road but never really stopped to look at one, if you know what I mean. The car is gorgeous, the proportions and the shape are fantastic. I sat inside and it was quality. And then I spotted the Convertible I had just walked straight past. I spent a good few minutes looking over the Convertible and then asked to get a quote for a lease. The business manager wasn't in so a salesman took my card and promised someone would call me today. They haven't so that particular dealership won't be getting my order. If that salesman worked for me he would be up for a disciplinary tommorow. This is a customer service business and salesman that don't phone customers back are in the wrong job. I haven't been to Porsche yet, but I will before I make any decisions....

Your such a bad influence Paying for it outright is the problem mate. I fancy a 911 Carrera S, with options its practically 70k. Every time I looked at it I would just see £70k sat there and start wondering how much money I could earn with that in stock instead of in a toy. You have to bear in mind you don't hold any stock in your line of work, you don't go out and buy 50 mortgages and then try and sell them whereas in my business stock is everything and its the "opportunity cost" of having that cash in a toy instead of stock. On lease I wouldn't have any capital tied up in the car... Having said that I would much prefer to just pay for it and own it and have no monthly payments. I never had anything on HP before except my house of course, so I may well end up just waiting until the business can afford the cash without being affected.

Ok, first a bit of background, because it will make the question easier to understand : I'm a car dealer, I've been in the trade over 20 years and set up my own dealership about 8 years ago. 12 months ago I bought an ex-Nissan dealership and run it as an Independent Nissan Specialists. Now then, I got involved in this business simply because I love cars, and ever since I went self employed I haven't had a car to call my own - queue violins I've had some very nice cars along the way, but they have always been for sale and someone always comes along and buys them Now this is the problem : I really would like my own car, something to keep for a year or two, something to experience the "ownership" thing again but I'm very ambitious and I want my business to continue to grow so I don't want to take a chunk of money out of the pot to buy myself a car. If I draw say £50k out of the business thats a dozen bread and butter cars that would be missing off my forecourt, which would obviously hurt my business. ( My cars are bought and paid for by me, I haven't borrowed anything, I've just re-invested my profits for growth ). In short, I'm in a cash business, I need my cash to buy stock, so any cash I take away from the business is going to have an effect on the business. SO, finally, to the question : I've been reliably informed that as a self employed person a car could be leased through the business and offset against my Tax. I have to visit Auctions all over the country looking for stock, so I have to have a car, right ? So, do I go for it and sign on the dotted line, or do I continue to drive stock until my business needs no further growth and then I can just pay cash for something tasty ? I know for a fact if I had £50k sat in something I would constantly be thinking about selling it and buying something else. It's just the way my head works, dunno why. Whereas if I had say a grand a month to pay on a lease for 3 years I would know that was my car for 3 years and just enjoy the car. P.S. There are PROBABLY only two cars I would look at, a Merc SL500 and a Porsche 911 Carrera S, although when it comes down to it I would consider every option Thanks for reading, thanks for your opinions, and apologies for the long post !!!

Yeah thats a brilliant series, I've seen a few episodes of that.

PMSL, I know exactly what you mean. I'm dying to do a Highland cruise the next time I pick up a suitable motor but I don't think I can stay awake long enough these days

Whats the daftest cruise you have done, just for the hell of it ? I'll start the ball rolling, so you get the idea. I once did John O'Groats and back in 21 hours, thats 1100 miles averaging nearly 55 miles per hour including stops and getting legged up in Edinburgh traffic. I drove up the east coast, all the way along the northern tip of the country and back down the west coast. This was in a Rover V8 SD1 Vitesse for no other reason than I just wanted to go for a cruise ! I have happy memories of the dawn breaking while I was tooling along a wide open stretch of single track road - thats an A road in the Highlands I had the windows down and I was listening to the V8 burbling along at 80mph. Happy days. So come on guys and gals, lets have your cruise "just for the hell of it" stories...

That wouldn't be the A82 would it

Sorry if thats how it came across, I should have read the whole thread before posting. I'm sure you will love the car mate, I just hope you don't have too much bother with it.

Top bloke, you made the right decision, I hope you love every minute of it mate. Note to self, read all posts in thread before replying - DOH !

Of course he will fit £3000 worth of wheels to save a £15000 deal. He would be stupid not to.