selling your used car on a garage forcourt

[JohnDeere8530]

Just had a look on Autotrader, put in I wanted a 1.6 auto and up to 3 years old, and there are quite a few there under £10k, some with 20k miles some with 25k and some more, but that sets my target price as sub £10k.
Chili pack cars at dealers are around £11995 mainly, £11500 after a bit of discount?
So I think £11500 is a little optimistic imho.

If you put a decent ad up at £10950 it would appeal a whole lot more.

I think you maybe right. I guess it is not so bad accepting a lower price after advertising it for a period of 5 weeks (which I have done) at a higher price. I would hate to go straight in at a lower price and get an immediate sale

 

[gIzzE]

I disagree with that, I decide what the lowest is I will take and then advertise it, I have sold around 35 cars over the last 14 years including things at £35k, and never taken more than a week to sell them.

 

[JohnDeere8530]

I must admit over past 4 yrs or so sold a ecoupe couple (dec10) for 35; RR sport (in 09) for 39k and an audi a5 convert. for 34k. They all went very quickly in the AT, admittedly they were immaculate, 10kmiles 1yr old cars.

Even sold the ecoupe to a bloke 100miles away, he paid for it in full 1week before he or any garage etc even saw it. He had never met me or even knew of me !!

However this mini is harder nut to crack. I guess its at a difficult price where people who spend this sort of money it is a difficult decision for them. It is not a cheap car, but there again it is hardly a car that the better off buy who have had more experience buying and selling various more costly items, whether cars houses or equipment for their business etc

It looks as if at this price range the buyers are at their most discerning, they are worried for fear of doing the wrong deal

 

[gunning]

well sale or return isnt ideal... just lower your price mate, all the trader will do is sell it for a slightly higher price and give u some spill about how he could only get this for it etc. Iv got a mini at the moment and selling it, iv had to bite the bullet and drop the price quite alot compared to what it was worth 3 months ago. ALso i know what traders are like as thats my families background. Not worth the hassle just drop your price.

 

[Colin_b]

Your ad specifies no canvassers or traders, yet this guy is trying his luck. Maybe he think's he'll get lucky with you where other more legitimate traders haven't. If he's cheeky enough to try it on now, be wary!

Doesn't mention service history. That would put me off, personally.

I'd second the 'be wary' approach.

 

[eagletower]

My brother sold my sisters car like this. He held onto the log book till the car was sold and then went with the log book when the buyers came to pick up the car. handed the log book over and they handed him the cash. My brother arranged a fee up front with the car salesman.

 

[st4]

I would not do this arrangement. Stinks of an attempt to defraud.

All sorts of nasties could happen if the car is damaged, who is liable, if its stolen (what your insurance will say about where they were told its kept etc).

Sell it by all means, but do not hand it over. You'll more than likely be stung.

 

[jaymanek]

Its not really ideal from the dealers point of view either... I have agreed to do this a couple of times but never again.

One time the seller agreed the price he wanted... i sold for only a few hundred pounds more than this after months of advertising, prepping, cleaning, fuelling, replacing some small items etc.
I never felt happy with the whole thing as the owner of the car was not happy for us to spend money on the car getting it A1, he just wanted to sell as is, which is not what we do at all. So of course it took a while to sell.
I just about covered my advertising costs so really sold it for him for nothing. The guy thought I had made more than I was making out and on top of that the car came back to me a few weeks later with a gearbox issue which I had to pay to put right...
Im a dealer and so im responsible for the car, no matter who's it is.

Another time i had a deal done, customer was ready to collect the car when the owner decided he didnt want to sell the car anymore... The buyer was really annoyed and id spent quite a bit again preparing, advertising etc etc.

The only reason a dealer does this is of course so they dont have to put up any capital of their own...
A lot of the classic car dealers work this way but I really couldnt sell anything that wasnt mine...

 

[davidjpowell]

on top of that the car came back to me a few weeks later with a gearbox issue which I had to pay to put right...
Im a dealer and so im responsible for the car, no matter who's it is.

When I sold the last W203 that I had, the dealer had to take it in and then (as I was not happy with his p/ex price) agreed to sell it to a buyer that I had introduced (a member on here) and to pass on the extra over and above to me.

We agreed that I paid for a warranty to cover the dealer for their costs should any problems arise on the car.

Seemed to work well for everyone, and I think the Forum member got the for a good price and I lost a little less than I would have otherwise.