best way to sell an elise

best way to sell an elise

Author
Discussion

billb

Original Poster:

3,198 posts

270 months

Friday 10th May 2002
quotequote all
As much as it pains me to say it I will prob soon be selling my s2 elise to fund a 6 month round the world trip. Does anyone have any experience of selling one in where is best to advertise? - is top marques any good? do they sell on this site? I need to be fairly specific on when I'm selling it ( last week of juneish ) - would a lotus garage take it off my hands. If so would I get pants money from them? any help would be apreciated - is a black s2 black wheels black interior sports tourer. is there a waiting list for new ones at the mo - if so how long?

adeewuff

567 posts

275 months

Friday 10th May 2002
quotequote all
Sad to hear you're selling the Elise but I know that feeling as well (Got rid of my S1 two weeks ago).

The thing that should decide how you are going to sell your car is going to be how much you want for it. If you go to www.parkers.co.uk it will give you a suggested selling price and you can base it off that.

Be aware that selling privately will not guarantee you a sale immediately and if you want too much for it it might take a while. With a Lotus garage though you will probably get rid of it there and then but they'll initially offer you a stupidly low price and you can 'try' to get more out of them.

billb

Original Poster:

3,198 posts

270 months

Friday 10th May 2002
quotequote all
jesus i just looked at parkers for my s2. admittedly i've done 16K miles but it reckons only £ 19k or £ 17.5 privately. seems a "little" low or is it just me???? knew i should have bought a boxster!

adeewuff how much did u get for your s1? did you sell it privately?

adeewuff

567 posts

275 months

Friday 10th May 2002
quotequote all
Well I was looking to pretty much sell it there and then so I sold it back to the dealer. I only got £11500 for it and I bought it for 17k only a year previously! OK it did have a years warranty with it and I got a free service so I can justify some of the expense but it was a huge drop considering the small amount of time had the car.

I'm afraid that Parkers are usually spot on for their prices and that's the price they will offer you if you want to sell it to a dealer. The thing to consider when getting a new car is that options, such as the touring or race tech pack for the Elise, count for bugger all towards the resale value.

rossc

683 posts

289 months

Friday 10th May 2002
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I've just sold my TVR via this site (thanks ted!) within two weeks of posting it, at the asking price. It is, as always, a buyers market & your car is only worth what someone else is prepared to pay for it. If you price it realistically, it will sell.
There are loads of sites on the web you can advertise for free, you loose nothing by advertising it on all of them.

Best of luck.

>> Edited by rossc on Friday 10th May 14:18

ahagerty

37 posts

278 months

Tuesday 14th May 2002
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I must say its pretty dissapointing the way the 2nd hand market for the Elise 1 and in particular 2 has fallen so much.

Part of the selling point for me was the resale value which my dealer told me at the time that if i put less than 9K miles on the car each year, then after three years he would still write me a cheque for at least 20K.....how stupid was I!

adeewuff

567 posts

275 months

Tuesday 14th May 2002
quotequote all
Just looking in the back of Autocar it says that a Lotus Elise will retain 57% of it's value after 3 years/30,000 miles. So take the basic price (extras count little towards the second hand value) 23k, so 57% of that = £13110.

I think that goes to prove that :-

a) Never buy a car as an investment
b) Only trust your dealer as far as you can throw him!

>> Edited by adeewuff on Tuesday 14th May 15:13

billb

Original Poster:

3,198 posts

270 months

Thursday 16th May 2002
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find parkers prices hard to stomach when there's no elsie's s2's for sale in autocar for less than £22,995 - parkers reckon I'd get £ 19k. Mind you they all have half the mileage of mine ( mines 16k ) - does no-one else actually drive their cars???? with a rover engine should mileage make that much difference? is there that much diff bet 8k and 16k miles?

adeewuff

567 posts

275 months

Thursday 16th May 2002
quotequote all
The lower price you quoted is the trade-in value and is always negotiable (especially on a new car). Parkers prices are only a value to base a selling price on, if you think someone will pay 23k privately for your car then that is what you should price it at. All hope is not lost!

What I don't understand is how people think they can sell a car privately for the same amount as a dealer. Have you seen how many Elises are sitting in the classifieds unsold?

billb

Original Poster:

3,198 posts

270 months

Thursday 16th May 2002
quotequote all
not many s2's.....

dsouthwick

7 posts

289 months

Thursday 16th May 2002
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Sold my S1 four weeks ago. Advertised on this site and had a couple of enquiries which did not come to anything (but thanks anyway Ted!). Put it in Top Marques, a dealer called on the day it came out, had a look, offered me 1k under asking and took it straight away without even test driving it. It was a 99V with 3k on the clock. Got 16.5k for it in the end. Had two other people call after that. So it worked for me!

>> Edited by dsouthwick on Thursday 16th May 14:01

adeewuff

567 posts

275 months

Thursday 16th May 2002
quotequote all
quote:

It was a 99V with 3k on the clock. Got 16.5k for it in the end. Had two other people call after that. So it worked for me!



The reason you sold it quickly is that you were selling at a realistic price for the age and the mileage. Some people are trying to sell older cars with higher mileages for the same price as yours.