9:19 am, April 15, 2025
The year is 1998 and finance broker Sheik Hassan is at rock bottom.
His business empire and property portfolio have just gone bust and he is living in a single room with three children to support.
Things appear to be bleak but a chance approach from a friend is about to change everything.
Hassan is asked if he could sell a car for a contact of his and the deal leads to a much needed £800 profit. It is just the spark the struggling businessman needs.
Fast forward 27 years and Hassan is still selling cars – albeit at a much larger scale – as the boss of his own firm, the East Sussex-based Motor 4 U.
The outfit operates from a state-of-the-art 200 car site in Flimwell, having relocated from South London three years ago.
It was a move which was born out of another scare – this time health related rather than financial – after Hassan found himself in the King’s College Hospital following heart failure.
After years of trading in his native Croydon, the ordeal proved to be just the kick the 59-year-old needed to take a long-awaited leap of faith.
The firm has since gone from strength to strength and is a fully fledged family affair, with his three children all now working in the business.
Hassan opened up on his unique journey on the most recent episode of the Car Dealer Podcast, which saw him chat with our very own James Baggott and Jon Reay.
Explaining how things have unfolded, he said: ‘I was a financial broker for 18 years and I lost everything in late ’98. I had a few properties and whatever, and it all went bust.
‘I started again in, I was living in a room with my three children who all work here now, and basically started buying and selling from that one room.
‘One of my friends came around and he said, “Sheik, would you sell that car for me?”. I sold it, I made 800 quid and I thought, I’d start doing it.
‘I used to get up at five, get the Loot newspaper, go and buy a car and trade it for a hundred quid to a mate of mine down the road. Then I always wanted to push on.
‘All of a sudden I took on a site, then another site, then another site but I always held on the back of my shoulders that debt – the scariness of losing everything – so I never expanded to the point where I wanted to be.
‘I was in a site in Croydon which had 27 cars and the rent was nearly £70,000 a year because we were in South London.
‘I wanted to expand and then I got ill with heart failure so I was in intensive care in King’s College Hospital for six weeks.
‘I survived, thank God, came out and I the shackles came off with worrying about the debt.
‘Immediately, I went out, found a new site in East Sussex, which is 250 cars, six ramps, my own body shot, internal valetting, showroom space on two floors.
‘I took it on because I wasn’t scared anymore.’
Despite the success, going from 50 cars to 200 overnight did provide its challenges for Hassan and Motor 4 U.
The firm had to move quickly to put the correct processes in place, including around wages and finance.
‘We went from 50 cars to 200 cars overnight and then we had to bring in the processes.’ Hassan explained.
‘We’ve been here three years now and it’s been great but we’ve had to learn about wage structures, about commission structures, because no one helps you and no one tells you.
‘You’re always learning. Every day is a learning curve.’
The Car Dealer Podcast, sponsored by Carwow, sees an industry guest join our hosts to discuss the motor trade’s biggest headlines of every week.
