Dan

The site looks good Dan. Not too pushy - just welcoming and informative.

Thanks Trev

Dan you old codger where you been hiding

Sorry mate, been mad busy.

I moved premises, had to leave that ex-Nissan site because it was too expensive and all my profit was being eaten by the overheads.

So I moved somewhere cheaper and it has been a bit chaotic but things are just beginning to settle down. Moving 66 cars over a weekend was a lot of fun !!!

Hopefully now I can start putting some money in my pocket instead of just paying the bills

New website : www.SouthamsOnline.com

( shameless plug LOL )

Glad to see you are well mate, and still not embarrased about your sexuality

An excellent choice Jay, perfect for you mate, most Gay people I know drive these

I'm not normally a fan of white cars but certain cars seem to get away with it, even suit it.

This one really looks the business.

Nice car Ricky and some really cool photography

And the clutch grabs, the clutch is heavy even though it's hydraulic. The vibrations from the V twin are horrible, the throttle is super sensitive..etc. etc.

 

Give me an R1 any day...

Ah you lot are all too soft LOL, spoilt by Japanese refinement

The clutches are crap though, mine was shot at 3000 miles, as was the back tyre and I wouldn't ever buy a Ducati second hand, heard too many horror stories LOL, even worse than an Alfa...

I would have described my 996 as "agricultural"....

Yeah, mates always called mine "the tractor" !

I always wanted a Duke and bought a 996BP last October. I hated it, too much like hard work. Sounded and looked great but didn't enjoy riding it. I won't be having another Duke. Mine had £4k's worth of service receipts BTW...

 

I love my R1 though, much nicer to ride and much quicker. It's also got a full Yoshi Race system so sounds pretty nice too...

Yeah I know what you mean, I think the word is "focused". Rock hard ride, radical riding postion, only makes sense when you are on it. But I must confess I'm a Sunday morning rider so I can live with all that. My bike is just a toy and I know I'm never going to do much more than a couple of hundred miles at a time on the thing.

It's the looks and the noise with Ducatis, as you say. Gorgeous things.

And I officially hate you for having had a Duke. I wanted a 916 (and still do) soooo badly. Nothing can come close to the sound of a Duke hammering along

You're gonna hate me even more now !

I've had 4 Dukes, starting way back in 1990 with a 906 Paso, then a 750 Super Sport in 97, then the 900SS in 2000, then a 996 in 2002. I've lost count of how many bikes I've had but it must be heading for 20.

I had a brand new blade in 2001, then from 2003 I had 3 brand new R1s in a row. My first bike was an FZR1000 Genesis so I do have a soft spot for Yams, but my real love is Ducatis.

I'm very tempted with the 1098 right now but I'm getting a bit old for the radical riding postion, and with the powerlifting I'm short of mobility and can't turn my head to see at junctions...

There is a very good chance I'll plump for an Aprillia Tuono because of this.

What are you riding Chris ?

From what I understand you're not the smallest bloke in the world.

Oi, what you tryin to say

LOL, only kidding Chris

Yeah 20 stone naked, must be heading for 22 stone in the leathers and the best part of 30 stone with my small boy hanging on the back, so a 600 does get a little breathless. Plus my favourite route involves some lovely wide open stretches, lightly policed early on Sunday mornings. You can really let fly on there and it can make a 600 feel slow.

Having said all that, my favourite bike of all time is still the Ducati 900 Supersport. That only had 80bhp but ran rings round most bikes on the twisties. I swear I cornered quicker on that than I do on the R1 - I ate the rear tyre in 3000 miles on that Duke ! - but I tend to find the suspension is too soft on Japanese bikes. The Duke had Ohlins suspension, nice and firm, and stuck like glue. Really inspired confidence. Very underated bike, in my opinion. I would buy another but they don't make them anymore.

I'm after a 2nd car, my list goes as far as:

 

Audi A3

Alfa Romeo 147

Clio Williams

Renault Clio Sport 172

Clio Williams and Clio 172 are brilliant fun to drive, I love them both, proper rocket shopper.

You will find one for £3k but you will have to haggle hard.

A nice Williams shouldn't depreciate...

Its just so nice to be able to drive without gridlocked roads. Add to that great scenery and it doesnt get much better

Very true, just a bloody shame I was in a Tino

Can't wait to do it again, but in something decent next time.

Anyone who tells you a 1000 is faster is only right if they are a big bloke or they talks out their ass. Most bikers I speak to say thou's arent any quicker and just go through rear tyres quicker as you just cant use the power.

Give over, a 600 is a good starter bike but with a couple of years experience, depending on your level of ability you will want more power. My wife has an R6 and I pin the throttle to the stop and sit there waiting for it to pick up, and yes although it will wipe the floor with most cars it's not in the same league as my R1. Having said that on the twisty stuff there wouldn't be much in it.

Well as it happened this bank holiday worked out to be my weekend off on the staff rota.

I hadn't planned anything but for a while I had this yearning to do John O' Groats and back, just for the hell of it ( I did it years ago in a Rover 3500 V8 SD1 and loved it back then ).

The missus said I could go, as long as I took the kids and the Dogs because she was working.

So that ruled out taking anything sporty, and in the end I decided to take a Tino...

Well, aside from the vehicle being absolutely crap the trip was fantastic.

The roads up there are fantastic, and so free from traffic. It really is driving heaven.

And it's so far north that it never goes dark. I arrived at John O' Groats at 4.15 in the morning and could comfortably drive with the lights off.

It's 494.7 miles from my house, and I took 8 hours 15 minutes to get there, including petrol stops.

Thats 59.96 mph average in a Tino :-)

In typical lunatic fashion we had a mad hour on a beach at Dunnet Bay which was beautiful and then drove back via a different route...

I arrived home at 3pm in the afternoon, by which point I had been awake since 7.30am the previous day.

I'll tell you what, it was fantastic.

Long drives like that are good for the soul, although maybe not in a Tino.

Lewis loved it, Gemma was bored and slept most of the way through it.

I have decided the next time I have the weekend off I'm going to take the Z4 or a 350z and just take Lewis and a small tent so we can

have a sleep somewhere, make a weekend of it and come back down the west coast.

Superb, open roads and no traffic.

Any petrol head would love it.

Superb pics Stew, thanks mate, really enjoyed this thread.

Reminds me of my John O' Groats and back blast in a Rover 3500 V8 in my youth. 1100 miles in 21 hours, stopping only for fuel and to let my Border Collie have a pee.

Fantastic.

Would love to do that again but I can't stay awake long enough these days

Dan, let me know if you get in a Z4 coupe

Well since I STILL have the Z4 M Roadster ( and still love it ) I won't be buying one anytime soon

And yes, for those who remember, it was sold once. The buyer failed to take delivery. However I had a very nice medium rare fillet and a bottle of red on his £100 deposit

Large pictures on the web : www.TheGlenOnline.co.uk

I have a Sony DSC-W50.

It's a year old now, perhaps slightly older so should be down to your budget.

I asked the opinion of a few experts at the time - probably on here - and was recommended this one and I love it.

Superb piece of kit.

I got a 1gb memory card with it at the time and it's never run out of space.

HTH

Top blokes the lot of you, thank you very much for the good wishes

Thanks to all who responded.

A decision has been made, I signed the lease for the new premises today.

Barring any unforseen events I expect to have the keys within a week or so and then start my renovations. I expect this to take a month or six weeks, and then I'll move lock stock and 70 bleedin cars which will be a fun couple of days driving

What swung it was the option to buy at an affordable level, I could never buy this place where I am now. In 12 months I ought to have banked a 30% deposit for the place and should be in a position to buy.

The Glen is dead, long live The Glen !!!

GIXXERUK and Trev-the-Rev, thanks lads, that sounds spot on.

 

where exactly will the £12,000 per month reduction come from? How many staff will you be cutting?

The main difference is rent, rates, electricity, water rates and 3 wages.

The rates are a killer, apparently it goes off the square footage of your buildings. This place is big, the petrol station has a tiny office so the rates are practically zero. The difference is £1800 per month on rates and £3000 a month on the rent.

My electicity here is £900 per month, my water is £450 per month. The rest is the wages and bits and pieces.

Some very good points there lads, thanks for all that.

Some differing points of view there too, but all appreciated and it's good to see how people see things differently.

I think it's important to mention that there wouldn't just be the one car at £20k sat among a load of cheaper stuff, the general level of stock would be quality so it would be surrounded by similar cars.

Ok, I'll give you the background in a nutshell. I operate from an ex-Nissan Main Dealer. I have a large forecourt with approx 70 cars, a showroom which takes 6 cars, large workshop with 5 ramps, reception area etc. I still attempt to maintain the main dealer type image, but we offer friendly service and we are down to earth people. I'm a car enthusiast at the end of the day, thats why I got into this business. This site is my dream, it really does look the part. So whats the problem ?

Ok, bottom line, the overheads are killing me. My break even is just under £20,000 per month, I have to make £20k to stand still. Thats my bills paid, staff wages, etc. Anything after that is profit, but to be blunt it is very little. I am basically treading water. I have been here for 18 months and basically drawn wages, and not had a return on my investment. Prior to this I had six years on a much smaller plot with a break even closer to £6k. And I made a lot of money.

I have found, almost by accident, this new site which I mentioned. It wants a lick of paint, new fence, cosmetic tidying. It is for sale ( my current site is leased, and the owner will not sell ) or to lease. The owner will do me a 3 year lease and let me buy it at any time, at the market price ( circa £300k now ). It's appearance does not compare to my current site, but neither do the overheads. I have decided that I would take 3 of my staff and with them my break even would be around £8,000. Instead of £20,000. I intend to sell the same cars I am selling now, off the same website, with the same company name and the same salesman, so in theory we would continue to do a similar level of business, and I would be making money again.

It's a big step leaving this site, but I think from a financial viewpoint I am never going to make a lot of money here, I'm always going to be paying the silly bills. I think I have to swallow my pride and lose the image, in return for putting some money in my pocket.

Thanks once again for all the feedback and viewpoints, it's very much appreciated

Please give me your honest opinions :

Ok, your looking for a nearly new 350z, say about £20k.

You start on Auto Trader, then follow the link to the dealers website.

The website looks good.

You phone the salesman, and he is polite and courteous, all goes well.

You decide to make the trip to view the car.

How important is the image of the site when you arrive ?

Imagine it's an old petrol station, with a canopy covering the area where the pumps used to be and a tiny office which used to be the cash office where people paid for their petrol. It's tidy, freshly painted etc, but just an old petrol station with a concrete forecourt.

Does that matter ?

Would it stop you buying the car, or would you prefer to buy from more upmarket premises ?

Thanks in advance.

About to sell my car and was thinking twice about buying a brand new 350z i was thinking what about a really comfortable car with better mpg something a lot cheaper and without the power perhaps a 1.9d vectra for example.

Oh no, don't do it !

Boredom would set in within the hour.

And if you are going to go down this route for god's sakes don't buy new, get to the auctions and buy a 12 month old lease car for less than half the cost new.

i'm hooked now....

 

how to get fired by alan sugar on the first show....

 

tell alan sugar (football fanatic and proper rags to riches) that you dont like football and you are better than these common folk to the right of me.

 

well done Nicholas....twwwaaaaaaaatt!!!

Yeah total plonker, the guy was a barrister and his best defence was they are picking on me because I'm posh and I don't like football

Because they're not particularly intelligent people. They're not in it for the job. It's all about the pseudo celebrity thing. Get on TV. Make a tit of yourself. Get paid to do things like celebrity big brother, that jungle thing, games shows and as many inches as you can get in the tabloids. I bet half the people who applied for it also applied for big brother and pop idol.

 

I did watch a bit of the first series but now I can’t put up with it.

Thats very true, if these people were half as good as they say they are - or think they are - they would already be earning £100kpa and wouldn't make prats of themselves by appearing on a show like that.

Don't talk the talk if you can't walk the walk.