Bought, sold and in profit – JAMES BAGGOTT reports on this month’s exploits

What a difference a few weeks make. Last issue, my colleague Duncan was lamenting the hardships we were facing finding a suitable car to splash out on to keep our pot of cash moving skywards.

A search of our friendly local dealership’s part-ex corner had thrown up few scraps, so feeling a bit down on our luck we did what any good man would do. Sulked. Then went back for another go.

Fortunately our second visit coincided with the part-exchange disposal manager taking a week off. At richmond Hyundai, portsmouth, that means the chop-in shop starts to pile high pretty quickly.

A phone call from sales manager rob Kemp suggested we ‘come over quick before he gets back’. So I did. The car park of the dual Citroen/ Hyundai site was teeming with metal perfect for our challenge. I spent a good hour checking out my options. There was a Hyundai Accent in a rather putrid shade of green, a very tidy renault Safrane with leather and low miles, and a brace of Ford Kas.

It was the latter that got my attention. I know they’re as common as trees, but experience has taught us it’s the cheap, low mileage, small- engined motors that sell well, so I tried to strike a deal.

‘I may have been doing this for a year, but there’s still some car dealer lingo I need to learn…’

Kemp was on the other end of the phone with a price list for what each motor stood him and we tried to thrash out a deal. The Accent was £400, Safrane 600 notes and the tidier of the two Fords £1,000. I couldn’t decide which to buy, so put a call in to columnist and real live car dealer James Litton. As usual his turn of phrase caught me out.

‘There’s a Hyundai Accent – looks tidy, high miles,’ I said.

‘How much does it weigh?’ asked Litton.

‘Erm, not sure, looks quite lightweight, why does that matter?’ was my innocent reply.

‘Because that’s about all it’s worth – its weight down the scrapyard,’ laughed Litton.

I may have been doing this for a year, but there’s still some car dealer lingo I need to learn… After he’d stopped laughing Litton advised the gold Ka would be our best bet.

There’s bleeding loads of them, he explained, but price it right and we’d shift it in no time. He suggested sticking it up for about £2,200 and seeing how we got on. In another stroke of luck it transpired it had tax to the end of the month and a year’s MOT. With just over £900 already in the dealer’s bank – left over from the part exchange deal we did on the Citroen – I suggested to Kemp he let us have it for that. And he did.

It didn’t take long to sell either. That weekend a meal round friends revealed their neighbour’s daughter had just passed her test and was looking for her first car. A week later and it was sat on their drive with young Sara Jayne Head about to head off for a test drive.

A bit of research suggested similar models were selling for around £2,200, but to seal a quick deal I agreed to let it go for £1,700. That meant a healthy chunk of cash for our charity pot and although less than what we could have achieved online it was a quick deal and flipped more money than we’d made on the volvo, Fabia and Scenic combined!

With this sale included the pot is now up to £10,145 – easily enough for a 911. We think. At the time of going to press we had a few irons in the fire. Find out next month if we manage to finally achieve our goal.

THE STORY SO FAR…