Selling to friends and family

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merc85

MB Enthusiast
SUPPORTER
Joined
Apr 23, 2013
Messages
9,559
Location
Harwich
Car
CLK 500
Do any of you, or have any of you peeps sold a Mb or any other car to a friend or family member?

I've got someone interested in mine but his a cracking chap and i hate anything to go wrong.

Mine is 100% but i couldn't handle it if something went petong lol:crazy:
 
Don't do it!

Even if it blows a bulb 10 years down the road, the conversation will start like this: "that car of your's...."
 
Abide by these rules :

#1 Never sell anything to friends or family unless you can both laugh about it afterwards
#2 Never loan to money to friends or family unless you are prepared to forget that you did

:D
 
As I thought, cheers peeps :)
 
This was my rule for many years. Then I was selling a car (type immaterial) that was nice, clean and fast. My wife's nephew pestered me directly and indirectly for 2 weeks to let him buy it. He raced dirt track Mini's so I figured he knew what he was doing and sold it to him at a knockdown price. Guess what...less than a month later it was parked up, oil dripping out, engine seized. As above, "That car you sold Jimmy...."
 
That's the way. Never sell to friends or family, cos it will always be your fault or your problem.
 
Every car I've sold to public, I've serviced, done anything needing doing, and have never got the money back in the sale, but I couldn't bring myself to sell something I felt was below par.

Always had visions of it being a young lady's first car, and she's over the moon with it, then it breaks down due to failed coil pack and she's gutted and thinks I've conned her.

So, with a massive conscience, I've lost money every time. I never got commendation for it in any way. Maybe because it never broke down, maybe it did and they didn't moan about it, who knows.

My point is that if something does go wrong, even if they don't blame you for it, you'll likely feel some responsibility for it.

I wouldn't sell to family unless I planned to look after the car thereafter too, like a little sister, kids, your old mum, etc.
 
In my family we do pass cars on to one another , but I can't recall money ever changing hands .

A number of years back I gave my 190E 2.6 to my sister , initially as a loan , but she ended up keeping it , after her BMW had engine trouble and was eventually scrapped .

My other sister passed on a Golf to my partner after she replaced it with a newer one , and that car was just recently passed on to my other sister ( the one who got my 190 ) after Jan inherited her dad's newer Ford Focus after he passed away .

Come to think of it , I also got a MK II Polo from my sister who likes VW's a good while back and used it for a few years as a hack for work ( it was the estate version which was good for carrying tools and equipment , and was cheap to run with the 1.05 L engine ) ; that car also went on to another family member , and there was another Polo which passed around the family .

A few of my Mercs have been passed onto friends as well - I gave my first 190 away for nothing to a pal when I got the 2.6 and it went to his parents who used it for a few years ; he also got the 190 2.6 after my sister ran it into the ground ( as she does with all her cars ) , and he got Jan's Hyundai Coupe for a token sum after she got the Golf from my sister . I got my Fintail and my W126 280SE from the same friend , although I ended up paying or swapping something for each of them .

In all cases , things generally have needed done further down the line , but these were always well used cars and such was expected as well as fully accepted .
 
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Yet this is a "loved up" forum, where members happily buy and sell to and from each other! I don't see a difference really, other than conscience playing a part if something unexpected happened. Like i-CONICA, I wouldn't like to sell anything under par, unless I fully appraised the buyer first.

I once sold a car to a friend, and left my private plates on it until my new car was ready for the transfer. My partner had a phone call from a friend of hers, worried that I was having an affair, as she had seen my car parked outside of someone else's house every night for a few weeks!
 
A friend of ours sold his C180 estate to his friend. It was bullet proof, they used to drive it to Germany every year and it was a real workhorse. The car had done over 150k and was going strong, before he sold it on.

6 months after their friend bought it, the engine packed up! Needless to say our friends were feeling a little uncomfortable about the whole situation.
 
Depends on the person; there are certain people in my family who I wouldn't sell a teabag to, just in case it split because I'd never hear the end of it.
 
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Never nor recommend someone in the Building Trade. Always end's in tears or a sarcastic comment of some kind....

SMEESH...
 
Yet this is a "loved up" forum, where members happily buy and sell to and from each other! I don't see a difference really, other than conscience playing a part if something unexpected happened. Like i-CONICA, I wouldn't like to sell anything under par, unless I fully appraised the buyer first.

I once sold a car to a friend, and left my private plates on it until my new car was ready for the transfer. My partner had a phone call from a friend of hers, worried that I was having an affair, as she had seen my car parked outside of someone else's house every night for a few weeks!

That reminds me of another instance where I bought/acquired a 1963 Hillman Minx from a friend ( can't remember the exact circumstances now ) which had a pre-suffix number which he said he wanted to transfer off , only he never did in the three or four years I kept the car ( it was used by my ex , with whom I was living at that time ) . It was only after that car was sold on he promptly said 'but I wanted to keep that number' .

This was the same friend who dragged me along to view a Triumph Herald he fancied buying , only it turned out when he got there he had no money , so muggins ended up paying the £45 asking price ; I took the car home and parked it on my drive telling him he'd get it when he gave me the money . Of course , the money was not forthcoming so I registered it to myself and ran it until the MOT expired ; it turned out the chassis was rotten and it would have needed a lot of work so I just scrapped it , but I got six or seven months use out of it and got £25 back from the scrappy , I think I had put two remould tyres on it but that was all , so still cheap motoring .

I've also remembered that my sister Lesley , the one who likes Volkswagens , passed a couple of aircooled Beetles onto me , we each had a succession of them , our parents having had them since the sixties , as well as Mercs and other vehicles , and I also passed my Audi 100 onto her , which she then ran for a couple of years ; now that I think of it , there was also a MK I Polo hatchback and a Derby which passed around the family , and a yellow Mini which I took pleasure driving around in wearing a tweed jacket , often getting people to point in my direction and giggle 'Mr Bean' , which I found amusing .

Most of these cars transferred ownership , but then , as now , within my family we have been pretty free and easy allowing use ( subject to insurance cover ) of each other's cars .

As also mentioned above , I have sold at least one car ( the W124 E250D ) to a forum member , and I know that car lived on to be sold on again ; besides I have bought lots of stuff from members of this and other forums .
 
The chap interested in mine is after a certain spec and condition of 211, and he is struggling to find a good one, he knows my car and everything ive done to it in my ownership and it fills his spec well.

Its a little early for me tbh to sell as was planing on next year, Think i may pass on the opportunity.

Really appreciate the above replies ;)
 
Quick anecdote;

My dad sold his good work mate a Datsun Cherry in the late 80's, my dad is handy with a spanner so always took care of his own cars and wouldn't dream of selling anything with any type of fault.

Anyway, the radiator cracked over a year later and his work mate asked him to pay to get it fixed! I always wind him up about it, never fails to hit the target. :D
 
Yet this is a "loved up" forum, where members happily buy and sell to and from each other! I don't see a difference really, other than conscience playing a part if something unexpected happened. Like i-CONICA, I wouldn't like to sell anything under par, unless I fully appraised the buyer first.

I always buy on face value from forum members; as long as I can make it home I'm happy.

Cars can and do go wrong, it's people under the impression that every car regardless of age should be brand new that's the headache.
 
Depends on the person; there are certain people in my family who I wouldn't sell a teabag to

Tide git :D
 

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