I Bought A Cheap Mercedes Vito! Can I Make a Profit?

本站添加: 2026-05-28

[00:00:09]All right, guys. How's it going? Welcome back. Well, today we bought something a little bit different. We bought a van.

[00:00:15]And not just any old van, either. This is a MercedesBenz van. What I've bought is a 2020 Mercedes VTO in metallic blue with alloy wheels for just £8,800, plus VAT, of course. So, straight away, this seems like quite a modern van for quite a low price. Now, I don't sell that many vans to be honest. Perhaps I should because they always sell quite well, and I like a van. I bought a uh a Voxil Vivar recently, which was turned out to be a really nice van. So, I'm just hoping this one's this one's decent as well. This one's just come in part exchange at a local main dealer, and it's been described to me as being in good condition. I've been told by my contact there that I'll be quite impressed with it. Now, it's done 139,000 mi, so it is quite high for a 6-y old thing. But for a van, I don't think that's awfully high. And I had a quick look at Auto Trader this morning, and I think this could go for 11 grand, 12 grand. So, there should be quite a decent profit margin in it for me. It also had quite a good car vertical score as well, so that's given me a bit more confidence. If you're in the market for a van or a car or a motorbike, it's really important that you do one of these car vertical checks before you hand over any cash. Without that, you really don't know what you're buying.

[00:01:23]This really is the quickest way to learn as much as possible about your new purchase. All you need to do is go to carvertical.com and type in the regge or the VIN and then check vehicle. And this works in 40 different countries. It isn't just a UK thing. And you can save yourself 20% with my promo code high peak. That's high peak all one word. H I G P A K. Yeah. For 20% off. And if you're considering multiple vehicles, you can save 50% with that same promo code if you purchase three reports or more. So yeah, it's quite a good deal really. Anyway, this veto scored well.

[00:01:51]So, it's never been stolen, never been written off, no mileage roll backs, no understanding finance. So, we're all good. One of my colleagues has picked it up for me and dropped it off at my car park. So, we just need to go and have a look around it, don't we? I thought I'd bring you guys along to well to keep me company. I haven't actually seen this in person yet, only a picture of it, but it does look pretty good. Like I said, I'm a big fan of vans and the Veto in general, so I'm hoping this is a decent example. I think the fact that it's metallic paint with alloys really helps.

[00:02:19]If this were a a white van with steel wheels, then it might be a bit of a trickier cell. But um yeah, this one should look the part. So, we're not too far away now. So, I shall see you there.

[00:02:29]See you in a bit.

[00:02:32]Well, we're here and that looks pretty good. You know what also looks good? My P38.

[00:02:37]That's such a cool car. That P. Anyway, right, that's not the subject of today's video. Today, it's all about the Veto.

[00:02:45]That looks very nice, actually. That's a nice color. Blue. So, it's a like a very dark blue. We've got alloys. That looks all right. We've got front fog lights, front parking sensors.

[00:02:57]It's a West of England van originally, Bristol or somewhere. Is it me or does that reg look like W Pongy?

[00:03:06]I hope it's not Pongy.

[00:03:08]Anyway, let's go and have a look, shall we? I was hoping this is nice cuz sometimes with vans this could be a complete like scruffy builder's van or it could have been used just for light work and it might be nice and clean.

[00:03:20]Let's go and see shall we?

[00:03:23]Right.

[00:03:25]Bit of a chilly one today.

[00:03:30]Yeah. How nice is that Range Rover?

[00:03:33]I love it. Um so the van in question.

[00:03:37]This looks very tidy actually.

[00:03:40]Usually with a lot of vans, especially higher mileage older ones, they're always battered and dented because they're just driven by people who don't don't care. But this looks nice. And I mean, I don't know who does this, but we've got a a Michelin tire on the back, a Michelin cross climate on about six mill of tread. Brake discs look okay.

[00:03:58]They're not lipped or anything, so that's good. Wheels in good condition, not badly damaged. Also, we've got both sets of keys, so that's good.

[00:04:07]keying there from JJ Van Sales.

[00:04:10]So, so far then we've got a very tidy van with a with a Michelin tire. The sill's not all stoved in. Panel gaps are good. No dents.

[00:04:20]Very tidy. No scratches.

[00:04:23]There's a tiny little dent there, but we could pop that out. We've got a handcuff tire on the front on about 5 mil. Those brake discs look even better than the back. No lip on those. Few little curb damage, you know, areas there, but that's not too bad.

[00:04:41]Yeah, we've got front fog lights, front parking sensors.

[00:04:47]Don't know where that is. RG2. Is that Reading? Is it RG? I'm not sure.

[00:04:54]Couple of little stone chips, but it's not bad, is it? For 140,000 miles. Few little marks here on the bumper corner, but I think a lot of those would polish out if I get my little buffing wheel on that. That would look pretty good.

[00:05:06]Headlamps don't want to buff. They're good. Plates don't even need replacing really.

[00:05:11]We've got a matching handcook on this side on about 5 mil. That's decent.

[00:05:15]Again, brake disc looks nice and smooth.

[00:05:19]No damage down this side either. Well, so far then, I'm really pleased with this.

[00:05:25]No damage to the sill. just wants a good old clean, doesn't it? And a couple of little touchins. We've got a matching Michelin on the back on about 5 mil.

[00:05:35]Again, this is a nice van. Who puts decent tires on the van? Apart from me, it's a 114 CDI.

[00:05:46]What about the roof? But from a clean, it's not dented. Sometimes, you know, when these have roof bars and stuff, people have climbed up them to load stuff on and quite often there are big craters there where people have, you know, put their body weight on it. But that's nice and tidy. We've got rear parking sensors as well.

[00:06:04]Wonder if it's ply lined. Let's have a look, shall we?

[00:06:09]Ah, it is.

[00:06:12]That looks all right.

[00:06:17]Oh, this is decent. So, we've got twin sliding side doors and then twin doors at the back.

[00:06:25]This is very good. It's very clean, actually. Now, considering this is a six-y old van with 140 on the clock, this is very, very clean.

[00:06:38]Now inside.

[00:06:43]What's that clicking noise there?

[00:06:49]Is that fouling somewhere?

[00:06:55]That's actually That's too close. That that door wants adjusting or the wing wants adjusting. That's not quite right, is it?

[00:07:03]It's like it's too tight. I mean, that panel gap looks fine, I think. Unless that's a little bit too much.

[00:07:10]H. Okay. Well, we'll have to adjust the door then. We got power folding mirrors, electric windows. The seat's not all W.

[00:07:19]Look at the condition of this. This is great.

[00:07:24]This is very clean. You'd expect, wouldn't you, this to be all ripped and worn, that to be all ripped and worn. I bought a lot of vetos in my life, and they normally are.

[00:07:34]So, it's done 139,9993.

[00:07:38]We've got a big screen. We've got USB charging points there. We've got a a broken book pack there.

[00:07:46]I don't think this will have a service book. It's probably all digital.

[00:07:52]Service information.

[00:07:54]Nope. Nada.

[00:07:57]Nada. Nada. Okay.

[00:08:01]Glove component there. This is a nice clean van, you know. Look at the steering wheel.

[00:08:06]Feels like I'm in a C-class or an E-Class or something. This is decent.

[00:08:10]Very decent. It's a six-speed manual.

[00:08:16]Have we got any warning lights on?

[00:08:19]Depress clutch fully.

[00:08:22]Pop it out of gear.

[00:08:26]Wait for the glow plug again.

[00:08:29]And then boom. All good.

[00:08:34]Sounds all right. It's typical Mercedes diesel engine. Crank that heat up because it's a bit chilly today. This is pretty good.

[00:08:44]>> Bit of S-Club 7 that isn't it? Deary me.

[00:08:47]Uh that is Silk 106.9 FM. Mlesfield's finest.

[00:08:52]Uh what else can I show? This isn't touchcreen I don't think is it? Nope.

[00:08:57]Have we got satnav? No. But you can buy I think the Becca satav unit that plugs in there or you can with a lot of Mercedes anyway. So I would have thought this would be the same. So we got Bluetooth handsree there. This is nice.

[00:09:10]Can't wait to drive this. For some reason I get a weird kick out of driving a van.

[00:09:17]I would quite happily daily drive a van.

[00:09:21]See how this door doesn't click cuz there's more of a gap there. So, we just need to adjust that door on the driver's side or the wing.

[00:09:36]Well, there's nothing else to show you really. It's just a nice clean thing.

[00:09:39]Window works.

[00:09:42]Got an armrest as well. This sliding door works.

[00:09:49]Yeah, this is decent, I suppose. Then we should probably take this for a drive, shouldn't we? Make sure there's a clutch in it. Make sure the brakes work. Make sure the steering's fine.

[00:09:59]Make sure it doesn't crunch any of the gears. And then we'll know then at that point whether we've got any profit in this. Right. Then let's get this on the road. We've got an oldfashioned manual handbrake.

[00:10:10]Typical Mercedes.

[00:10:12]Feels all right. Revs nicely.

[00:10:14]Windscreen's not damaged.

[00:10:17]Driver's window works. Already tested the passenger side. This I'm expecting this to drive very well because it's it's in really good condition. We've got auto lights. There's Oh, there is air con. That's good then. It's a nice clean van. That's very nice. Well, the brakes feel okay. Little bit of grinding noise, but I think that'll free off. Might just be a little bit of surface rust.

[00:10:43]Pulls well.

[00:10:45]Nice armrest.

[00:10:47]Third gear is fine. Drives wellless. I would happily drive a van all day long.

[00:10:53]I said this when I was in the Vivaro that I bought recently, but um I don't know. It's just something about driving a van.

[00:11:01]Driving position, visibility, maybe the fact that you sort of feel a bit I don't know. I just feel a bit incognito in a van, bit anonymous, which I quite like. Pulls wellless. Very good. Fourth gear is fine. The gearbox is nice and tight, actually. Fifth, sixth. We're all good then. No crunches on the gearbox.

[00:11:23]That's nice.

[00:11:25]We got cruise control by the looks of it. Says limiter there. I guess that's cruise as well, is it?

[00:11:32]My heater's working.

[00:11:34]This is very nice. We got the displays there for the parking sensors. So really guys, this just needs a valet sign detailing. It needs a serviceote at my local garage.

[00:11:46]That's it. That is it. I think if we give ourselves a budget of 500 quid, we'll more than do this more than. And the good thing is because this has got VAT on it, then it's not This probably won't make sense to you, but let me try and explain. Because there's VAT on it, I don't have to pay VAT on my margin.

[00:12:03]So, anything I get between the purchase price and the sale price, I get to actually keep. I don't have to give 20% of it away. So, that's good. Now, I paid £8,800 plus VAT. So, if I could sell this for, what do you reckon this is worth? If we'd spend £500 on it, then it would owe me 93.

[00:12:20]Got to get 11 grand for it, haven't I?

[00:12:22]Surely. That leave me with a nice £1,700 profit margin. Thinking about prices, I recently got something like 12 grand for a transit, and that was the similar sort of age to this, albeit done slightly slightly less miles. But, um, it's got worth that kind of figure, isn't it?

[00:12:38]Like I said, this if I were looking for a van, this would be the kind of thing I'd buy. Metallic paint, alloys, looks the part. I don't feel like a DPD driver in it. This is good. This is very nice.

[00:12:49]Well, I'm well happy with this. Makes a change, doesn't it? Um, I suppose then we should start off with the mechanicals first. So, I'm going to take this down to my mechanic now. Ask them to do a fresh service, a cleanote with no advisory items. Then from there, we shall get over to Tameside Detail and give it a good old clean. I'll get it back to work. Do some touchins on the stone chips and stuff. I think I've got some of those blue in the stock room. I might order some High Peak plates for a bit of branding.

[00:13:16]That's it really. A nice easy quick turnaround. Leave this with me then. You know, I was going to say because it's been ply lined already, we don't even need to worry with that. With the uh Vivaro I bought recently, I ply line the back door because it was missing some trim. And often with the vans I buy, I have to get them ply lined because if they haven't been done, they look a bit scruffy. So I take them to a place in Ashton and for a couple hundred quid, they ply line the whole thing. And when you open the door, it looks like it's never had a day's work in its life. And I think when you're in the market for a van, that's the kind of thing you want to buy. Well, that's what I'd look for anyway. You don't want to buy some old abused hanging old thing. But this uh this is good. My spend on this is going to be nice. And no, I'm not going to say it. I'm not going to jinx it. This is normally the bit where my mechanic then calls me say, "Oh, it's a veto. Needs £1,000 spending on it." But I don't think this one does. We're not smoking.

[00:14:06]Pulls strong. Clutch is good. I think we're good. So, leave this with me. I should have this spun around in maybe 5 days. I'll see you in a few days time.

[00:14:16]Then we'll get this all sorted. See you in a bit.

[00:14:21]And we're back in my cheap Mercedes Veto van that I bought for just £8,800 plus VAT. And what you're looking at now, well, is a sold van. I've actually sold this. I know this is a bit unusual, but it does happen occasionally. I've sold it before I've managed to finish the video. So, I thought today I'd quickly take the veto out before the new owner picked it up and I'll explain what happened. After we last spoke, bear in mind I was very happy with this purchase. I knew I'd bought a decent one. When you start seeing decent brand tires on a van and an interior as clean as this, you know somebody's looked after it. I was really pleased with it.

[00:14:54]It was very clean, in very good condition. It drove very well and no obvious areas where I'd have to spend a fortune. So, that's already a bit of a win for me. So yeah, after we last spoke, I took it down to my mechanic for a service MOT and asked them to adjust this door or wing. If you remember, the the panel gap between the front wing or guard and this door was well, it was touching. So there'd be an audible click as it sort of fouled on it. So I asked my mechanic to adjust that. Now they've adjusted the door and they've adjusted the wing to give us a a nice uniform panel gap. So that was quite a straightforward fix. In addition to that, they've given it a service and a freshote and it sailed through its with not a single advisor item. So, like I thought, this was quite a good one.

[00:15:37]After a couple of days, it was ready at my mechanic. So, I picked it up and took it over to the lads at Tameside Detailing. Now, bear in mind, it was a very clean van this already. But still, I left it there for a full valet cuz I thought, well, at least then they can clean the seats properly, detail the engine bay, make it look nice and nice and clean. The very next day, I went over to Hide to Tameside Detailing to pick it up. And then I got it back to work, took some photographs of it, and then stuck it on the forcourt. What happened next was a regular customer and I believe a viewer of the channel. So, if you're watching this, John, thanks for watching. Uh, yeah, he stopped by with the view of looking at another vehicle we had in stock. And then he saw this and I think kind of well fell in love with it. It's a bit strong, but I think he saw it and thought that's that's quite a nice van really. So, he's decided to buy it. In part exchange is a Nissan Navara that we sold to him 2 or 3 years ago. It's quite nice. So, I'm quite excited to get that back. He always looks after his cars really well.

[00:16:30]So, that one, although it's done a few miles, shouldn't be an issue. You'll probably no doubt see that in a future video. Anyway, so that's a I think something like a 2020 Nissan Navara, but he was he was kind of looking for a something a bit more practical. As I've mentioned in previous videos, I don't really see the point in pickup trucks.

[00:16:45]Don't think they're very practical.

[00:16:47]Whereas a van like this, not only do they drive better, weirdly, they ride much better. They're also way more practical. So, yeah, he's buying it.

[00:16:54]He's left a deposit and um yeah, he's picking up in the next couple of days.

[00:16:58]I've had to juggle the figures around on his party exchange and on this to make the deal work for both parties, but it's still a decent deal this. Bearing in mind my spend or the, you know, the preparation costs on this were minimal.

[00:17:10]So, what we're going to do next is park with my favorite little scenic layby.

[00:17:13]I'll talk you through my costs and I'll talk you through the potential profit.

[00:17:16]But, it's quite a good figure this and John's bought a really nice van here.

[00:17:20]So, hopefully it'll serve him for many, many years to come. And no doubt I'll take it back in part exchange in 3 or 5 years time when he sees something else.

[00:17:28]So yeah, all around a um pretty good deal. I think I said this in the intro part of this video, but I would genuinely run around in this. I know running around in a big van probably isn't the most sensible thing to do, but I just like the way they drive. And this one's nice and modern, and it's it isn't like driving a van at all. I mean, bear in mind, I learned to drive in a van. I learned to drive in all of my dad's vans really. He had two or three or four or something at one point. So, I learned to drive in a in a 1990 a 1998 Ford Transit Flairside uh flatbed thing. Now, the flare side was quite a rare van. Learn to drive in that. He had an Evco daily um like long back flatbed thing. Learn to drive in that which was a bit more of a challenge. That was like a mid90s non-turbo diesel. Then he got a 2003 turbo. He had them at the same time actually which was much nicer. Used to go to college in that occasionally.

[00:18:20]Everyone must have thought I was a right loser. You had a Citroen Belingo, a Renault Traffic. So, yeah, I just spent my youth driving vans, which I think is why every single time I get in a van nowadays, I don't know. I just feel at home in a van. It's weird. At least the weather's good, though. We got bright sunshine, blue skies, and it is Oh, wow.

[00:18:39]10°.

[00:18:40]I go and put my shorts on. Doesn't half drive well this, you know. I'd rather drive this than the pickup truck that's coming in parts exchange.

[00:18:49]really don't like the way those things drive. But this, on the other hand, is nice and precise.

[00:18:55]Way more comfortable. One thing I should probably mention is I didn't bother changing the edge plates. They're the original Mercedes plates, so I thought, well, may as well just leave it. I know it's good branding, but saved me another £15 plus that, so why bother? Trying to be a bit more shrewd these days. Trying. Right then, here we go.

[00:19:17]You're being spoiled here with a nice view.

[00:19:21]Pop the old engine off. Okay, so we'll forget about the VAT thing because I can't do much about that. I've sold it with VAT. I bought it with VAT. So rather than complicate the figures, we'll just keep it simple. So I paid £8,800 plus VAT for it. And I've spent, let me get my bills out actually. Right.

[00:19:39]So it's had oil, oil filter, PDI, adjust driver's door, and front wing, MOT, and then labor. So my total there was £28,8842 plus 288.42.

[00:19:54]Then on top of that we've got a cost of a detail valet which was hang on a second. I think it was 70 quid but let me just check. Veto van blue full van.

[00:20:01]Oh 90 I guess cuz it's a bit bigger maybe. Got 90 there. I think that's it.

[00:20:08]Literally didn't need anything else.

[00:20:10]Nothing's broken. Nothing needed to be replaced. Nada. That was it. Didn't do any body work. Didn't need it. It's a nice straightforward transformation.

[00:20:20]That's really, well, not really transformation, just a serviceote and clean. Which means my grand total for this van was or is £9,17842.

[00:20:31]Now, I've sold it for £11,500.

[00:20:36]It was advertised for £1995 plus VAT.

[00:20:38]So, like I said, we'll just ignore the VAT for now because that doesn't matter.

[00:20:41]I've literally got to just hand that to uh HMRC. So my actual figure is 115. So the difference between 115 and 92 is basically 23. So I've made 2,32158.

[00:20:55]And of course I don't have to pay VAT on that margin, which is good because you already pay on the on the the product itself.

[00:21:02]So 2,300 quid.

[00:21:05]Keep going there for the key. Have to get used to that. But yeah, 2,300 quid is a very, very good profit margin, isn't it? I'm very pleased with that.

[00:21:14]And hopefully with the Navar in part exchange, I've got another opportunity there to make £1,500, £1,800 maybe, depending what it needs and, you know, what condition it's in and what the market's like. But I think there should be about that sort of figure in it. So, we're doing all right. You know, since I've changed things at IP Autos, I've tried to make my my average profit margin per car from like 11 or 1,200 per car up to 17 or 1,800 per car because I've reduced my stock and stuff. I need to make more from each car, but you know, sell less cars. And this, well, this has proved it. It's working so far.

[00:21:49]So, I don't want to jinx it anyway. But, um, yeah, that's about it, guys. So, as always, thank you once again for watching. Make sure you give the video a thumbs up if you enjoyed it. Make sure you subscribe if you haven't done already. You can follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Tik Tok. I'll leave the links below. And yeah, I shall see you next time. Cheers, guys. Adios.