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I buy cars, repair them and recondition them to my level of satisfaction, and send them back out the door, typically targeting 55-65 year olds. I focus mostly
by MrFoof 8y ago
I buy cars, repair them and recondition them to my level of satisfaction, and send them back out the door, typically targeting 55-65 year olds. I focus mostly on entry level luxury crossovers around 7 to 10 years old, though starting to also do hybrids since there’s more profit in it since everyone is seemingly allergic to batteries and pack replacement/rebuilds.
Parts are cheap, I listen to music or a podcast, I do all the “PITA” repairs (replacing wheel bearings, ball joints, tie rods, full brake service) that are really just labor in terms of professional repair cost, perform additional rust prevention, and for sale it goes when I feel a new grandma or grandpa would never give a hesitation to load it up with all their grandkids. They also see a very thorough interior cleaning, and a full exterior detail (including paint correction when required).
It has bought every very nice tool I could ever want, most are 20-30 hours of labor including acquisition, and I’m at the point where I have repeat customers (the put a 2nd alongside the first) and have direct referrals. Now the profit mostly goes towards putting a 2nd interesting car in the garage, and some towards moving up the ladder to try to earn more per vehicle.
Selling cars isn’t bad when you don’t have employees to pay, and it lets you sell really high quality stuff. I keep thinking of how much I couldn’t justify doing, and how much my product standards would suffer if I had to pay help.
- dplgk 8y agoYou must have fixed up cars when you were a kid? How do you handle paint matching?
- MrFoof 8y agoNot really, except out of necessity. Mechanics aren't, cheap, and where I am, really not cheap. Cars are just giant metal Lego. As for paint matching, I don't. If I car needs any significant paint work, I'm not interested in buying it. It's also a sign that when I get underneath a car, I'm going to find other issues which are going to be an immediate no sale (as in welding required). Even at normal, non-insurance repair rates (as in, full price), an independent mechanic charges around twice as much per hour than a body shop does for your average paint work (high end a very different story) -- I can get much more $/hour for my labor doing repairs than I ever will doing anything more than leveling a clear coat.
- SegFaultCDumped 8y agoCan you make YouTube videos about it? I watch Chris Fix all the time, not for educational purpose (I don't own a car), but because they are so freaking satisfying to watch. Seeing things go from 'meh' to 'wow.'
- lohszvu 8y agoWatch south main auto or mustie1
- geocrasher 8y agoVehcor is also quite good. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMgk1R0_ZbEQrEhQWRYkVIA https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMgk1R0_ZbEQrEhQWRYkVIA
- rainbowzootsuit 8y agoPine Hollow Auto Diagnostics https://www.youtube.com/user/motoYam82 https://www.youtube.com/user/motoYam82 And the OG of youtube diagnostics, Scanner Danner https://www.youtube.com/user/ScannerDanner https://www.youtube.com/user/ScannerDanner This only scratches the surface of good diagnostics channels on YouTube, but they along with S.M.A. are my favorites.
- MrFoof 8y agoI think the unfortunate reality of ChrisFix is to make videos at that level of quality... takes real time and effort -- plus a vehicle that merits actual work he's not done a video on yet. Hence he only puts out one or two a month, but they're of an extraordinarily high quality, which is evident in his sub numbers and view count. I've considered making videos, but the reality at the moment is there's not yet the time to do it to my level of quality. At least not yet.
- grogenaut 8y agoThere are a few mechanics who stream on twitch... however that does require some level of interaction and distraction which may just be annoying to you, but doesn't require the post processing. However it's a decent sales pitch and if you do enjoy interactive with people and networking it can be pretty good. I'd love to see your shop or even just time lapses. I really enjoy watching cnc and hand builds on youtube. It's very helpful to watch these to see what's really involved in say pulling the front end off of a mini-cooper.
- bitxbit 8y agoThere’s a sizable market for used Land Cruisers. People will fly across the country or buy cars sight unseen.
- 0x00000000 8y agoIsn't that illegal everywhere in the US without a dealer license?
- pmorici 8y agoNo, there is no law anywhere in the US prohibiting you from selling a used car in a private transaction.
- travbrack 8y agoIt's illegal in my state to sell a car for the purpose of making a profit as an individual without a dealer license, and there's a limit of 4 per year. https://dor.wa.gov/get-form-or-publication/publications-subject/tax-topics/buying-and-selling-vehicles-without-auto-dealers-license https://dor.wa.gov/get-form-or-publication/publications-subj...
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- Teever 8y agoWait, are you saying that private used car sale is illegal in your state?
- travbrack 8y agoNo, private car sales are legal as long as the seller isn't trying to make a profit off the car.
- Teever 8y agoLike if they try and sell it for more than they paid for it? What if they end up selling it for more than it is estimated to be worth in something like blue book? Is that considered profit?
- harrygeez 8y agothat's really cool man I'd like to check out some of your wares some time. I'm very interested in giving old things new leases of lives and just refurbishing some of my old stuffs
- travbrack 8y agoDo you live in the US? In my state (wa) you need to be licensed as a dealership to do this legally and I hear this is the case in all the other states too.
- yeahitslikethat 8y agoGenerally it's sales over a handful a year. It'd take him long enough to fix one up that he'd fewer than the limit I think.
- drchewbacca 8y agoI find it surprising that the US is seen as strongly free market when things like this crop up all over the place. Here's a video of someone failing to get pricing in advance for a medical procedure and an article about how many simple tasks need licences. The fact that a lot of areas only have 1 broadband provider blows my mind. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tct38KwROdw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tct38KwROdw https://www.economist.com/leaders/2018/02/17/america-should-get-rid-of-oppressive-job-licensing https://www.economist.com/leaders/2018/02/17/america-should-... https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/06/50-million-us-homes-have-only-one-25mbps-internet-provider-or-none-at-all/ https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/06/50-mi...
- dboreham 8y ago"Regulatory capture" aka corruption.
- ryandrake 8y agoAs an amateur shade tree mechanic myself I have so many questions! Feel free to ignore if you feel you'd be giving away your secret sauce. 1. Where do you find buyers? I'd be concerned about inventory either piling up or taking too long to sell at a price that even breaks even when you are spending time/money on fixing. 2. Do you feel your value-add is more on the sales side as a broker or is it in the repairs? I know people who just flip cars and do extremely minimal "freshing up" and are also profitable/successful. 3. How do you keep up with the increasingly locked down and opaque ECUs and other systems? More and more diagnostics require factory wizardry these days. 4. You implied that you do paint and body work. Where/how did you learn and become proficient? Most auto repairs are pretty much "follow the steps" work anyone can learn from YouTube, but body work is artistry. 5. Do you worry about liability? I'm OK fixing my own car since if I screw up it's my ass on the line. I'd be less confident in sending the car off to grandma, even if I knew what I was doing.
- MrFoof 8y ago1. Mostly Craigslist, with a bit of AutoTrader. The reality is AutoTrader is swamped with dealer listings and sponsor listings that I don't feel I'm receiving any additional value for their listing fees. 2. Repairs and preventative maintenance. We average ~4 feet of snow a year, so tie rod ends, wheel bearings, control arms, bushes, flex pipes, exhaust hangers, etc. suffer since no one really maintains a steel car properly. The reality is when even a Honda or Toyota dealer is $125/hour and a Lexus or Acura dealer is $175/hour, people don't replace $18/ea bushings -- but when things rattle or feel loose, they sell the vehicle like it's going to explode. These aren't difficult repairs, they just require lifting the vehicle (I have a Bendpak Quick Jack) and doing it. People also don't properly clean their undercarriage, and rustproof. I do. Very easy, very inexpensive. Though when many people treat cars as disposable, it lets a lot of nice stuff come onto the market for the well-inclined. 3. Not an issue unless you're in Porsches on up with encrypted ECUs, and even then, that prevents MODIFYING them, not reading diagnostics. Regardless, this has been a problem 0 times since I've started many years ago. OBD-II is a wonderful thing, and there's no weird shenanigans coming from Honda/Toyota at all. 4. I only do paint correction, as in "level a clearcoat" to a mirror finish, and only for vehicles that merit it (let's ignore that any car sub-$150K new comes with some level of orange peel). I do not buy any vehicle that needs a respray, ever. It can be DIY'd very well, but the amount of labor is prohibitive. Not enough money made for the time spent. 5. I've an umbrella policy, mostly because I have one for my primary business, in the odd event I ever were sued. In general, vehicles are sold as-is. Zero concern here.
- Nabi 8y agoMay I ask what car brands do you usually work on?
- MrFoof 8y agoBread and butter is the Lexus RX, Acura MDX, Honda CR-V and Toyota Highlander. There is zero issue putting them out the door, because the demand is insane. I've also started with Toyota Priuses because there's high-demand, most mechanics are allergic to batteries, and people dump them for cheap over any battery pack issue. Though I've worked on a ton of stuff, the above is where there's A) enough people owning the above who still think all vehicles explode when their odometer hits 100K B) have inexpensive and easy repairs for simple things that are rotting or are wearing out and C) plenty of people who know better and when they test drive a 10-year old one that feels as good and looks as good as new, won't even negotiate your asking price. I've entertained the idea of selling BMW M cars, Audi S/RS and Merc AMGs, but the reality is there's far more labor involved, far more to usually fix, higher acquisition costs, less demand, and buyers who are completely insufferable. I've sold several, but in retrospect it wasn't ever worth the time and effort.
- wycy 8y agoIf you were to start selling BMWs/Audis/Mercs, you might also find your reputation suffering if/when things go wrong shortly after purchase. You're probably better off sticking to reselling the more reliable brands.
- robocat 8y agoEvery reliable source for lifetime cost of maintenance I have ever seen shows Toyota is the cheapest, that most other Japanese brands are close behind, and European brands are way more expensive e.g. https://www.yourmechanic.com/article/the-most-and-least-expensive-cars-to-maintain-by-maddy-martin https://www.yourmechanic.com/article/the-most-and-least-expe... That certainly matches what I've seen happen with my friend's cars: Toyotas just keep going and are cheap to fix, Euro cars have something bust earlier in their lifetime and usually outrageously costly to repair. I am from NZ and as a country we keep driving second hand cars until they are uneconomic to fix, and maybe half of the cars imported from overseas are second hand Japanese cars. We don't have a lot of American cars but my own limited experience with them is that they are as unreliable and costly as the European cars. You can find some individual models within other brands that are reliable, however if you are buying a car that is 5 to 10 years old, you can't yet know if the model you are getting is a good one, so buying by brand actually makes sense. Quote from article about maintenance costs: "Toyota completely avoids the the most expensive models list" which helps averages (although I think they used median costs in that article).
- agumonkey 8y agoI wanted to do this. Restoring devices is very zen like, and I might throw in some computing kits (bt/usb/car tablet).
- dsfyu404ed 8y agoDo you float the titles or just bend over and take whatever arbitrary limit for non-dealer title transfers that the dealers lobbied into existence in your state?
- frosted-flakes 8y agoWhat does floating the title mean? Is it never registering it in your own name and just letting the next guy do it?
- tenpaiyomi 8y agoCorrect. Many states have laws where if you sell over a certain number of vehicles a year, you're considered a used car salesman and must register and get licenced. In addition, if you register the title in your name, you have to pay taxes in most states, just to turn around and sell it to somebody else who also has to pay the same taxes.
- camhenlin 8y agoSome states also take into account intent. Meaning that you need a dealers license and insurance just to purchase and sell a single vehicle, if the original intent of purchasing the vehicle was to sell it. In my state, Oregon, for example, the DMV has agents watching craigslist, facebook, autotrader, etc. who go test drive private party cars under cover and ask the question, "So, why are you selling?" where answering that question incorrectly (along the lines of, "oh I bought it to fix up and make a few bucks") will net you a several thousand dollar fine.
- dsfyu404ed 8y agoThat's such a scummy enforcement tactic since it's literally going out of its way to screw over people who are taking initiative to try to make money. It's not like they're flagging transactions at the paperwork stage.
- 8y ago
- mro_master 8y agoYou should start a youtube channel, buy a wrecked Ferrari from Copart, document the build step by step, then reap youtube riches.
- ComputerGuru 8y agoThere's definitely a benefit to working on the same model/series more than once. Three fourths of my amateur mechanic hours are split between asking "now why won't this darn thing come loose?" and "Oh! So I didnt't need to take all this apart to get to this piece!"