divil

That's what makes him a wheeler-dealer! By low sell high. It's a little different in over there...people are a little more direct in their tone than Americans, especially when doing business. They always make it seem like they're hard done by. Where he comes from, that wouldn't be considered rude. That said, he obviously has to turn it up a little for the tv...

Honestly though his tips for buying cars are not bad imo. He often points out cars that are priced high, but then he keeps looking for a cheaper one instead of wasting the sellers time. When he low-***** someone, it's usually because he can point out something wrong that's going to cost him money, that the seller didn't mention in the add.

Ceenit

You have to figure that the buy and sell portions of the show are prenegotiated and a bit choreographed for the cameras. I haven't seen one yet where buyers and sellers didn't walk away with smiles......tell me that always happens in real life .

Love the show.

Ben951S

I *think* I've seen him go look at a car and not work out a deal and have to look again.... rare because it wastes time, if it happened.

divil

Yep, he does it in the 951 episode actually. He doesn't talk to the owner, he just looks over the car and it had nasty damage to the front wing, then he finds the turbo after that. I think they leave that stuff in occasionally to make the point that sometimes the car won't be all you expect and you have to be prepared to walk away!

Butters944

From what I've heard this is a NEW 951 episode... At least ODURANDINA SAID that it's a silver car, not the red one from '09...

divil

Well I'm not sure if there's a new 951 episode...maybe, but the old one was actually a silver car. They show a red one in the intro, and he goes to look at a red n/a, which he passes on, then they buy a silver 951 and make it into a track car with orange wheels. They also did a red 924 some time before that, I think it was in the first series.

Sentinelist

Thanks for sharing, aben! I hadn't seen that yet, and need to start following this series. Great stuff in this one especially. Love it.

zerMATT951

I enjoy watching the show, but what I don't understand is how they add up the purchase price, parts installed, and body work done, and they act like that's their "break even" price. Apparently their time and labor is free... if it wasn't for the TV show, they wouldn't even be able to pay rent on their work shop.

carlege

Do you value your time and labor on your vehicle? You really cant. So why should they

Butters944

The whole point of the show is to relate to do-it-yourself hobbyists. When you sell your 944, do you seriously count up every hour of work you've put in personally and total that in? If so, the value of our cars would skyrocket and we'd be seeing 5 digits for decent examples!

tkrtape12

Damn It I couldnt wait...I had to watch it...thanks for sharing...

86_951_

I agree completely! My time IS worth $$$$. If I spent 10 hours working on a car with the sole purpose of flipping it, my labor time will get factored into my profit. Either I take total profit and divide by 10 hours, or I establish my own hourly rate, and deduct 10 * Rate from the sale of the vehicle. Either way, if you are trying to flip cars as a business, you would include your time and labor in the equation.

This is not the same as buying a car from a hobbyist who wasn't investing all of that time and labor in hopes of turning a profit, but instead invested it for their own benefit. Two COMPLETELY different scenarios.

Jim Child

I agree that their “profit” calculation isn’t going to pass muster with an accountant. If you’re really flipping cars as a business then you absolutely need to account for labor.

However, their calculation does make sense from the point of view of an amateur mechanic looking to earn extra money from their hobby. Most hobbies cost lots of money out of pocket (don’t even ask me about racing). At least this one has the potential earn money.

aben8057

owning a 951 never equals profit

divil

Bear in mind that they don't choose their cars based on what's going to be profitable, but they could - I bet some models are vastly more profitable than others. In real life you could do many of those and skip the ones that are trouble...but that wouldn't make a very good TV show.