Struggling to sell a car in the NE
Discussion
I've very much been there. Both with buying and selling being a struggle.
My last sale was a CL500. The advert was well written and it had a good deal of email interest, but no one could be bothered coming to look at it.
Eventually, I took the car to Manchester and left it with my Father.
The car sold 3 days later and I had 4 other people chomping to get to see it.
Whilst living up here I've travelled to Enfield for an MR2, Devon for a Legacy and Gloucester for a Skyline. Can't seem to find the right car up here when I want to buy it!
My last sale was a CL500. The advert was well written and it had a good deal of email interest, but no one could be bothered coming to look at it.
Eventually, I took the car to Manchester and left it with my Father.
The car sold 3 days later and I had 4 other people chomping to get to see it.
Whilst living up here I've travelled to Enfield for an MR2, Devon for a Legacy and Gloucester for a Skyline. Can't seem to find the right car up here when I want to buy it!
Lol! Been there too.
When I sold the Skyline I was asked for a discount for travelling. I said no, why don't you just buy one local to you?
His reply "There aren't any that look as good as yours near me."
My reply "Exactly"
He travelled up and due to his cheek I decided not to take an offer on it. He asked for a reduction of £250, which I refused and offered him a lift to the station. He then looked the car over and bought it for the full advertised price.
I enjoy travelling for new cars, especially the journey home.
When I sold the Skyline I was asked for a discount for travelling. I said no, why don't you just buy one local to you?
His reply "There aren't any that look as good as yours near me."
My reply "Exactly"
He travelled up and due to his cheek I decided not to take an offer on it. He asked for a reduction of £250, which I refused and offered him a lift to the station. He then looked the car over and bought it for the full advertised price.
I enjoy travelling for new cars, especially the journey home.
davyvee said:
The only problem being the seller knows he has you if you have travelled so far.
Works the other way I suppose.
Quite. When I bought my Audi A8, the seller was so confident I'd want it that he drove it to Newcastle from Middlesborough to show me it. True to his assumption, I did buy it! But despite being easily the best D2 A8 for sale on the market at the time, he'd had relatively little interest through the forum and had resigned himself to having to wait for someone from down south to show enough interest to come and see it. Works the other way I suppose.
However, when it came to me selling the A8, I didn't struggle as a trader from Coventry came for it, but I have noticed that being in Northumberland seems to put people off. I'm sure if I said "north of Newcastle, south of Scotland" they'd be quite happy with that. But in general, we've got a relatively small population base here and a higher proportion of people on benefits per capita than most areas which doesn't help us when selling cars. Whatever you're selling, you'll got a very small local market. Nothing really happens in the car market until you get to Yorkshire and further south!
it can be a struggle being so far up here, I sold a forester a couple of years ago to a chap in the cotswolds, on the agreement that he paid the asking price and my train fare home if I delivered to him, more recently I sold my morgan to a chap from australia - I dont think location mattered much there.
I spent the last 6 months trying to sell a sailing dinghy, I reckon I could have sold a dozen if I had been in birmingham or a little further south - but what I pretty much did know is that the chap who eventually came to look at it was going to buy it as he had made a decent investment just making the trip!
I spent the last 6 months trying to sell a sailing dinghy, I reckon I could have sold a dozen if I had been in birmingham or a little further south - but what I pretty much did know is that the chap who eventually came to look at it was going to buy it as he had made a decent investment just making the trip!
When I sold my Civic Type R I had numerous calls from people in London, Reading etc calling me to ask about the car, wanting to arrange a viewing them realising the car was in Newcastle and after checking Google maps, realising it's not 5 minutes down the road, then asking for travel expenses or discounts on the price. I wasn't willing to lower the price for that and told them to look at the hundreds of other EP3s on sale in the country. Being up north definitely hindered the sale, with the most northerly interested party being from Manchester, which is a good way south from here anyway.
Depends how expensive and specialist it is in my experience. Cheap sheds I've had no trouble with, anything over about £5000 (including boats) has been to people from at least 2 hours away, but oddly they've always been easy to deal with, polite and not after a huge discount.
I don't mind agreeing a price with a buyer from the other end of the country over the phone if its a fixed price, but I won't drop the price to someone from 10 miles away who can't be bothered to do more than text/email.
I don't mind agreeing a price with a buyer from the other end of the country over the phone if its a fixed price, but I won't drop the price to someone from 10 miles away who can't be bothered to do more than text/email.
Mastodon2 said:
When I sold my Civic Type R I had numerous calls from people in London, Reading etc calling me to ask about the car, wanting to arrange a viewing them realising the car was in Newcastle and after checking Google maps, realising it's not 5 minutes down the road, then asking for travel expenses or discounts on the price. I wasn't willing to lower the price for that and told them to look at the hundreds of other EP3s on sale in the country. Being up north definitely hindered the sale, with the most northerly interested party being from Manchester, which is a good way south from here anyway.
I had exactly the same and it was also with an EP3. Had numerous calls from London offering me tiny amounts for the car (£1800-2000 for a 04 plate with 60k miles and FSH, at a time when a 100,000 mile car was £2500ish). Some guys came up from Coventry after offering a decent amount, then dropped the offer by hundreds when they arrived. I informed them they'd have a wasted journey with their current offer and showed them out. Within 10-15 mins they were on the phone again, incrementally increasing their offer by 50-100 quid at a time. Told them not to bother calling back until they could give me a good offer. Another 10 minutes and I get a call: "we'll pay the full amount".Ended up selling it for what I wanted, but I hated that these guys had travelled up just to offer me trivial amounts for the car, thinking that because I was in the North I'd struggle to sell.
But yeah, almost every call I got was from the South or the Midlands, didn't seem to be much interest at all in the North, despite the car being one of the lowest mileage FSH examples around at the time.
At least some of you guys have had some calls. I've got my C30 T5 up for sale and not had one call. When I bought it I had to travel to Birmingham to collect as no local dealer had one in stock. I know the car is not everyone's taste but it's been on here for 3 weeks and had over 600 views on Autotrader, I have to agree being in the NE must be one of the reasons I've had no calls 
Neith said:
Mastodon2 said:
When I sold my Civic Type R I had numerous calls from people in London, Reading etc calling me to ask about the car, wanting to arrange a viewing them realising the car was in Newcastle and after checking Google maps, realising it's not 5 minutes down the road, then asking for travel expenses or discounts on the price. I wasn't willing to lower the price for that and told them to look at the hundreds of other EP3s on sale in the country. Being up north definitely hindered the sale, with the most northerly interested party being from Manchester, which is a good way south from here anyway.
I had exactly the same and it was also with an EP3. Had numerous calls from London offering me tiny amounts for the car (£1800-2000 for a 04 plate with 60k miles and FSH, at a time when a 100,000 mile car was £2500ish). Some guys came up from Coventry after offering a decent amount, then dropped the offer by hundreds when they arrived. I informed them they'd have a wasted journey with their current offer and showed them out. Within 10-15 mins they were on the phone again, incrementally increasing their offer by 50-100 quid at a time. Told them not to bother calling back until they could give me a good offer. Another 10 minutes and I get a call: "we'll pay the full amount".Ended up selling it for what I wanted, but I hated that these guys had travelled up just to offer me trivial amounts for the car, thinking that because I was in the North I'd struggle to sell.
But yeah, almost every call I got was from the South or the Midlands, didn't seem to be much interest at all in the North, despite the car being one of the lowest mileage FSH examples around at the time.
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Not wanting to play the race card but I assume they were Asian?
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