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Well, I've finally done it.  After twelve years in the same job I've decided to leave.  I won't go in to the boring details but suffice to say I don't have anything lined up mainly because I wanted a months rest.

The sad fact is that I do still have to work though, bills and all that.  So after my break I am going to need to do something.  I am 33 so I hope I am still young enough to change career and do a job that fires me.  Cars have always been a passion, so can you think of any different / interesting car related jobs (outside the likes or mechanic or taxi driver) that may be worth looking at?  Possibly something niche?!?

Don't get too hung up on the finer details (previous work history etc), just throw in some ideas.  Be interested to see what I may have missed.

Hi there. I work for one of the most successful saab dealerships in the Uk, I know it's not much to brag about but it's something.

The Car business is a very tough one but if you have the balls you will go far. Sales is the best place to get into. In sales there is only one direction to go in the company and that is up. If you graft hard and pull your own weight then you will reap the benefits. Pro's include company car, bonuses, commission etc. Con's include, long hours, difficult targets and, (at first), low pay for the time spent working.

If you do decide to go into the car trade, try to avoid large organisations if possible such as Arnold Clark, Stratstone and or working for maufacturer owned garages. You will go nowhere with them and the job satisfaction is nill. Try to aim for resonable sized organisations that are family owned as it allows you to build up a more personal relationship with the management and owners. This is the way that you will go far.

Any other questions please post a reply.

Sales? That's merely selling cars.

Then you'd have to worry about Chalmers, the Office bully from pinching your forms, stealing your sales and commission, whilst having it away with your wife. Thats no life for a real man.

No. Become a chauffeur. It pays far better, you get a nice suit, a very nice car, good chums that you can rely on, expense accounts, fuel cards and you can induge yourself shopping at your leisure, whilst waiting on a client.

Mind you, Chalmers will still probably be having it away with your wife. But you now have the opportunity to have it away with his wife!

A bit of a Dutch door action there! Hurrah!!

Stephen, sadly you seem to have missed the point.

Alan Sugar started out selling, Douglas Park started out selling cars and Tom Hunter started out selling and I started selling now I am basically running the place.

It just goes to show that if you stick at sales and manage to overcome the harrasment of 'Chalmers'  :-)  buggering your wife over the desk then it will pay dividends.

(That said the whole Chalmers business does remind me of when I was in sales)

 Bah, a chauffeur? That's merely driving cars.

  What you want to do is make them, it involves 8 months of twiddling thumbs, followed by 4 months of frantic 7 while 10 work, 7 days a week, to meet the beginning of another season, ah, what fun.

Phillip Moffatt:

 Bah, a chauffeur? That's merely driving cars.

  What you want to do is make them, it involves 8 months of twiddling thumbs, followed by 4 months of frantic 7 while 10 work, 7 days a week, to meet the beginning of another season, ah, what fun.

Sounds fun.   Could you clarify?

All my jobs have been 'on the road'.   Started work in theatre at 17 as a stage manager, which involved driving actors/sets up and down the country.  First job involved a Vectra SRi.  Which blew up  on the M1 coming home on last day of tour.

Driving vans/caravelles/cars for over 17 years in theatre isn't that well paid, but got to see the country.  Now I'm allergic to being indoors too long.  A couple of years as a motorbike courier  was fun, but the winter's are tough.

Now I work as a Driving Instructor with young people - tough city kids aged 17-25.  It's part of a project which includes teaching them motor mechanics, and has a side-line in minor-league motor racing, from bangers to go-karts and quads.  It is a lot of fun.  And I still spend 90% of my working life outdoors and on the road.

Good luck finding something you really enjoy. 

 Have to say your's sounds quite interesting for those other 8 months of the year...

Anyway, I help build these:

Which is great fun, but damned hard work.

Worth it when it comes to testing them though, especially as I codrive for a couple of them.

Phillip Moffatt:

Anyway, I help build these:

Which is great fun, but damned hard work.

Worth it when it comes to testing them though, especially as I codrive for a couple of them.

Wowowowowowowowowoowowow ;-0)  Looks like THE best fun.  I am mega-impressed.  

What is she?  What's she do mister?  Looks like purpose built rally car, with slightly Porschey wheels.  Wowowowowow again.  Build it and codrive.  So so cool.      

 That one's a 206 shell over a T45 spaceframe, Richard Kershaw won the British offroad Rally Championship in it last year.

Somewhere between 340-400bhp depending on the setup at the time, 120mph flat out, 6 speed sequential box, 4wd, billet ally diffs, 8xOhlins dampers, etc, etc.

 0-60 is somewhere around 5-6 seconds on virtually any surface you can throw at it.

 There's a supercharged one knocking about 480bhp just finished  too, and there'll be yet another arriving in a different shell with just over 900bhp this winter. There's a fair few about now anyway!

Yes, Hirsch, sales is a bumsteer.....(no pun intended! Well, maybe a little...) Though I never miss the point, I just look at the subject matter, digress, then try to steer the converse onto a subject that I can talk with authority on. Y'know like Politicians.....

Chalmers is a total B******d.

Chauffeurs don't just drive. We chauffeur. It would be like calling a Company Director 'office staff'. Which he is, only much better!

We chauffeur people in comfort without fuss, drama and extremes in attention to detail of comfort. We excel in what we do. Truck driving was a bore and I was hacked off with the moaning and constant intellectual debates on Freud, Cant, general philosophy and the redundancy of  religion in truck stops. I was given the cold shoulder when I told a dirty joke once. Big Reg cried and was comforted by Dr 'Fatty Phil' Trubshaw. Brake-pedal Ken screamed and slapped my chest before collapsing on the truck park in a complete hysteric. 

Just as well I didn't tell them the joke about the nuns..........

Hahahahaha

I have to say stephen that I would imagine that you CV would be a mighty interesting read..................

Born to drive in a manner complying with the legal rules governing our wonderful road system.

Having said that I was completely suicidal the last time I got a NIP for doing 33mph in a 30mph zone, the same day I had my radio pinched from my 1996 Suzuki Swift and was asked by the Police station civilian on the reception desk if I could prove it was stolen.

"Yes. I've been 'permanently' deprived of it, an onus to be proved within the legal rules governing the subject, vis my radio was removed without my consent and not returned. So it is 'not' improper possession, but rather Theft as defined in The Theft Act 1968. Not to mention the damage casued to my property by another without my consent, thus criminal damage." I told the bored desk civilian.

"Everyone is an expert." he replied. Opening his occurrence log book.

"Hardly, but I'd thought I'd wing it. I watch a lot of cop shows." I told him ommitting the fact I was an RAF Policeman for 17 years. "That's not how you spell my name, or Suzuki, or February." I thought I would add.

"How do spell your name them?" He asked irritatedly.

"Well without the 'D', or the 'O', or the 'A' , or the extra 'L'. It's not Dougall.

"That's what you said!" he snapped.

"No. I said 'Guckel'. It's German," I additionally informed him bright and smiley.

"You're Scotch aren't you?" He asked.

"No. I'm Scottish, with German/French ancestry." I corrected him. "Scotch is a drink."

"Here's your crime reference number for your insurance."

"What no CID, rushing around to assist me? Can I speak to the manager or the Chief Constable? I don't mind which."

He walked off shaking his head. You just can't get the staff.