....Well lads bit craic on the 'top gear' thread last night, and got me to thinking. Not to put too fine a point on it, i'm always looking for a way to make a few extra quid, at the end of the day, nobody ever sobbed about having 'too much money', did they? Now, used car prices in Spain are extraordinarily high, as an example, a used Audi TT for my lass, 2003, average miles is around 11,000 euro. To permanently import a car into Spain, so long as the paperwork is in order, and the car has valid mot etc, costs a maximum, in Andalucia at least, of 1000 euro. Now, i know i can buy a 2003 TT in England for £4k at auction, and a few quid more for a perfect example with all the trimmings. Left hand drive cars in the UK carry significantly lower resale prices, and there are plenty about. So, any of you lads involved in the motor trade? Anyone got access to a 'trade in auction' or similar? I know a lad here in Marbella who can deal with import and export licences, and i've had a chat, and we want to try and maybe import a couple of left-hookers from blighty, and see what kind of return we can make on them. It may work, it may not, but if all we stand to lose is £8k (less what we get for resale, of course), it's a gamble worth taking. Funnily enough, there doesn't seem to be anyone tapping this market, certainly not on any kind of scale at least. If you know have contacts in this area, or think you know someone who may be useful, get in touch. PM me and i'll send you my e-mail address away from the board.
Don't know anyone in the trade mate but for a quick fix for you're lass why not give ebay a whirl? and i'm sure there would be no shortage of volunteers to drive it over there for her, maybe for the price of a pint of San Miguel? I've got to go to Wearside Audi next week to get my MOT done and i know the guy in there pretty well so will ask him if he know's of any traders, etc.
This is what i'm trying to establish mate. If i buy a left hooker TT at auction for £4-5k, pay £1k to import and register it here, then sell it for £8k, that's a decent profit. 8k is 3k below the going rate here, so should shift quickly, in theory. I'm gonna try one, see how it goes, someone was selling a Peugeot 306 Sedan, 1997 for 1500euro, you can buy that in England for £300! Madness, there has to be money in it, just a case of finding out if it's enough to justify the effort. Welder, Have a word mate, but be clear that we need left hookers only
I have a mate with an apartment on the coast and he is doing the same thing (not selling the car though) and looking for a Merc E Class Saloon to buy in the UK, drive over there and leave for when he goes to the apt. He says the car prices are ridiculous. Good luck with the venture and after all your hard work, trial and error, if it is sucessful and makes you extremely rich, I'll be happy to come in with you at that point but as I am as skint as a ****ing Zimbawe goat farmer........... I have to say I'm out.....Lol
It's gonna be auction stuff to make it worth the effort, if i bought at £6500, then sold for £8000, by the time i paid import tax, and a commission to whoever found the car, that leaves £500. If i can get them at auction for more like £5k, then it's a £2k profit and worth doing.
Ha, it's just a sideline to be honest Cest, i've got my work, and we have another business which is hush hush, but i'll let you know as/if/when on that one, it'll raise a few eyebrows (in a good way...). We were gonna open a little cafe style place for my lass, but when i got over here and looked around, i realised why i never take her d=advice on bi=usiness, her 'there's hardly any' translated to 'there's ****ing 37 on each street...'. Ha. She's struggling to find work to be honest, we don't need the money, but she will get bored and it'll unsettle her, she's knocked back several jobs, but the one that she wants ain't come back to her yet so she's stressing a wee bit.
Understand where you are coming from mate, was just pointing out that they are cheapest left hookers on ebay, couldn't find much else, even Pistonheads & Autotrader don't have anything.
My uncle is a car trader and has a trade account at the auctions (he is based near Hexham). To be honest though mate all you have to do is register and you can buy from auction and get access to the online auctions. I have imported several cars from Japan in my time. About 10 years ago there was a real market for it because their cars are right hand drive like ours and their stringent MOT rules mean most people buy new and 2nd hand cars have very little value. I almost started a business doing it but I got in too late. Every man and his dog started importing and there was no money to be made. My advise would be to do your research and give it a go if you have the spare cash, if it works do it until everyone else starts doing it or until they close the loop hole as the government did for many jap cars insisted they had European type approval. I am a little like you Bruceys Beak, I look for opportunities to make a bit of extra cash, do my research and if it all adds up I take a small risk.
I've considered buying a car in the UK and having shipped over here in South Africa. The prices of second hand cars here can be almost double the price of the UK. Even new motors are roughly the cost and half on top of what you would pay in the UK. The problem here is the Custom and Excise they went into detail with me has to what the cost would be to bring a used car over, all confusing. You pay a % of what the car cost's, then another % on top of that which they base on a grading system from 0-25 obviously the higher the grading the higher the %, then finally the VAT on top of all that. I asked for the finer detail of how the grading system works, but couldn't really get a proper answer until I actually started the process of buying the car and getting it here, which is a worry if you are suddenly hit with the maximum grading. Personally I still think it's cheaper to buy in the UK and have it shipped over. It's the process and hassle I don't really need.
Not sure if there could be a market for it here BB, advantage here is they drive on the left/rhd, like we do in the UK. I've been thinking about it myself, your prices in Spain seem similar to here as I've mentioned double the price if not more for the higher end model's. e.g. Not that I was to purchase one but saw a Porsche Boxter Spider 2003 model selling here for R260,000 that's roughly equates to £25,000, now I know you can get similar model's in the UK for around £9,000 approx, so it's a big difference in cost's.
BB your shopping in the wrong place to buy it needs to be left handed europe and cheap, Poland,Bulgaria,Romania,Check republic, etc
Price is decent, mileage a bit more, right track though, auction is the way, but i can't exactly nip out in the morning for one, hence my appeal for a contact! Exactly mate, i reckon if i hoy £8k in, and try get 2 cars, worst case scenario i get more or less my money back, and take it no further. I'm not the type to take a reckless risk, but more so i'm not the type to overlook a potential opportunity, i see people do that there whole life!
