This is not only tantalizing but also teasing!Consider this business idea thrown over to me yesterday night by a car dealer.He says he buys cars from an insurance company at a throw away price and sells them off at a reasonable profit soon after refurbishing them from a garage.He had it that a vehicle whose scrap value is Ksh 300k would cost 150k to refurbish and fetch a profit of at least 50k.With a ready cash the whole transaction of buying,refurbishing and selling would take two months on the higher side.With half a million idle somewhere would you wazuerians advice for or against the business idea.

How many people want to buy ex-accident cars?....Of course you can take advantage of buyers ignorance but the smart ones scour old cars with a magnet.

@Mwala,
Anything is worth a try......but maybe vintage cars would be a better idea.Not necessarily top of the range....Get my drift?...Cars like Datsun SSS,Ford Cortinas,Beetles....and the likes.

a an average return of 10k per month is welcome that makes my investment to grow by 120k after one year.

Mwala. My car (Toyota caldina)2001 model had an accident August last year and was declared a write off. My uncle prevailed on me to buy the salvage so he could repair and sell; I did. The damage was at the front, coz it involved hitting a tree head on.

Initially, the salvage was valued @ 190k. He finally paid 165k for it after some good haggling. There was lots of interest from the managers at the Insurer (one of the best in the market) so the guy had to part with unga in order to get the deal.

The mechanics initially said there was no damage on the engine, so the only repairs were the radiator and the bodywork plus the star thing that holds the wheels together and the dashboard area including the steering .So the guy bought a half cut for 170k. (The half cut comes with full dash board and the whole front except engine)

On opening the engine, they realized the same had been broken and even the gearbox was kaput. They spent another 38k on the gearbox and around 40k on engine items (mountings etc)

The bodywork cost 45k.
So the costs are

salvage 165k, half cut 170k, gearbox 38k, engine items 40k, bodywork and spray 45k, windscreen 8k, side mirror 8k ; Total = 474k.

There were some items from the car they sold at 20k. The garage did a very fine job, one cannot note the repairs. Now this ride is going for around 600k, so a profit of around 130k. So this could be a very lucrative venture. The downside is it takes like 2-3 months to finish off repairs (so your cash is held for that long), secondly you need lots of cash and connections int he insurance sector..its a cartel out there.

Not very sure the name. But its at Tidys Nrb west. Very good with bodywork...but dimwits with engine issues...had to use another mechanic from Grogoni for engine

am meeting the car dealer tonight to get more details