Selling a cheap car.

[NOMONEYBUTAMERC]

Have bought and sold many cars over the years and been mostly pleased with the transactions . Should have offered SPX £375 for his van. In honesty though , i have wasted hours travelling to look at cars that were quite clearly not as described. made a 65 mile round trip a couple of years ago to look at an "immaculate" Peugot for my daughter. Arrived at the sellers house to find an absolute sh** heap of a car, dented in almost every panel. About to drive off, then decided to knock on the door , and asked the guy if i could see the car that he described on the phone , since it quite clearly was not the one on the drive. He said "just needs a good clean and a couple of dents pulled out". I asked if he could define "immaculate" and suggested he try selling it to a breaker. Having said that , i have also had several bargains from friends that have been offered derisory prices for their trade-ins.

 

[1945wickedred]

Hi yes people will willingly pay £12-13,000 for a SL350 2003 but will not even consider the same car on a private sale for £9500 -£10000 it is madness,I have been trying to sell my SL350 now for about 3 months without success.Dealers are on the whole untrustworthy and will not stand by you in a time of need.Use your common sense and buy from a trusted source.My rant for today,sorry.

 

[bas358]

To many people think they are Mike Brewer and can get a bargain!

Sent from my iPhone using MBClub UK

 

[Seamster15]

Last car I sold was a 525d Touring, I listed the faults and was very clear with all callers what the issues where and the price I expected to get. I sold to the first couple of guys that turned up, still they felt it appropriate (as always) to ask me my "best price" I told them that they knew what I wanted and then invited them to make their best and final offer, at which point if it was not on target I would walk and not sell the car to them at any price.

They took the car at my price.

 

[christopherwk]

Hence why I sold my last car through British Car Auctions.

You drop the car off (or they pick it up for a fee), they'll prepare it for auction, the car gets auctioned, if it doesn't meet the reserve price, they will ring you up, and ask if you still want to sell, if not, you can get your car back or they will put it through an auction again, if you agree to sell the car, you'll get a cheque in the post a week or so later. I find it was worth paying the commission for the hassle you get with selling privately.

 

[cl55 amg]

always had good experiance with Ebay.. Did get the usual 50% offers. Sold an M3 within 30min and the guy drove from london that evening and paid cash. Sold a CL55 with the same results took longer I think around a week, meet the guy at the train station he didnt even drive the car just handed the cash over and off he went.

 

[Sp!ke]

The only problem I have ever had selling old cars was when I used autotrader which resulted in a load of cold callers trying to sell me other methods of advertising the car elsewhere.

Ebay with a classified advert rather than an auction worked for me each time.

 

[davidjpowell]

On the upside it's better to be selling a cheap car than buying one on Ebay.

Am counting the cost on the X5... I did not insist on a drive and that was a mistake. I did not check that everything worked, and that was a mistake, because the Climate Control panel does not operate properly (AC needed a regas also), the rain sensor does not sense, there's a vibration from the back....

I also spotted on the day that the wheels need a refurb (picture on ebay of the one good one!), and the tints need redoing or removing.

I'm put out as I paid a little more than I wanted to, on the basis that it was a low mileage car in good condition. One of those is true. Also seems to have stood for a few years at some point. Mileage checks out.

What really annoys me is I asked if it had two keys. He showed me two, holding the fobs in his hand. What I know now is one of the two is a dumb copy and useless. If I'd have caught this then I'd have walked, less about the key, more about the lack of honesty.

It's taken me two weeks to get over this! Ultimately I think it's a good car, so will slowly sort the issues, but some honesty would be nice!

PS - It's less about Cheap on this more about elderly...