Does nobody sell cars privately now?
Discussion
Hugo Stiglitz said:
2k is alot of people's monthly salary after tax.
Say its 2 weeks wages to you.
You'll have worked 100hours to make up say 5hours work selling it privately.
When it comes to vehicles the general public really do throw away alot of money.
To the point!!!! You need to put a bit of effort to save/make money. Say its 2 weeks wages to you.
You'll have worked 100hours to make up say 5hours work selling it privately.
When it comes to vehicles the general public really do throw away alot of money.
I also never understand the argument about the warranty. You can purchase a warranty or if the car is fairly new, it will come with one from the manufacturer.
Im about to sell my car.
Similar cars listed for £40k to £44k
Autotrader suggested private sale price of £37,840
WBAC suggested they will pay £33k
I have a trade offer from a dealer at £35,750
As much as id love to sell private, I know I'll get endless offers at £35k or less, so may as well sell to the dealer.
Similar cars listed for £40k to £44k
Autotrader suggested private sale price of £37,840
WBAC suggested they will pay £33k
I have a trade offer from a dealer at £35,750
As much as id love to sell private, I know I'll get endless offers at £35k or less, so may as well sell to the dealer.
Wilmslowboy said:
Im about to sell my car.
Similar cars listed for £40k to £44k
Autotrader suggested private sale price of £37,840
WBAC suggested they will pay £33k
I have a trade offer from a dealer at £35,750
As much as id love to sell private, I know I'll get endless offers at £35k or less, so may as well sell to the dealer.
Ignore the endless offers of £35k or less. It's that easy. You are talking about binning £5k. I do understand. Mate of mine sold a less than 12month old M2 to WBAC as he simply couple not be arsed to sell it himself. Londoner mind you.Similar cars listed for £40k to £44k
Autotrader suggested private sale price of £37,840
WBAC suggested they will pay £33k
I have a trade offer from a dealer at £35,750
As much as id love to sell private, I know I'll get endless offers at £35k or less, so may as well sell to the dealer.
Not sure how Auto trader "suggested" prices work? I just look at what's for sale, and compare age, spec, mileage, then knock a little off, and that's my sale price.
Griffith4ever said:
Ignore the endless offers of £35k or less. It's that easy. You are talking about binning £5k. I do understand. Mate of mine sold a less than 12month old M2 to WBAC as he simply couple not be arsed to sell it himself. Londoner mind you.
My best case would be to get AT suggested private sale price, so more like £2k opportunity to the trade bid I have (route I will go down).Then some buyer will then pay £5k plus more to buy from a dealer for little more upside (it has over a year factory warranty left and booked in for service next week)
I think private sale / purchase works for good quality £10k or less cars, beyond that buyers are rare, and equally sellers can be greedy.
Wilmslowboy said:
My best case would be to get AT suggested private sale price, so more like £2k opportunity to the trade bid I have (route I will go down).
Then some buyer will then pay £5k plus more to buy from a dealer for little more upside (it has over a year factory warranty left and booked in for service next week)
I think private sale / purchase works for good quality £10k or less cars, beyond that buyers are rare, and equally sellers can be greedy.
I've actually found cheaper cars attract knob heads with silly offers and expensive cars attract quality buyers.I just can't remember and idiots when I sold £30k + cars. The people that had that kind of cash knew what they wanted. Selling an off roader bike (Enduro) on Facebook was an education....Then some buyer will then pay £5k plus more to buy from a dealer for little more upside (it has over a year factory warranty left and booked in for service next week)
I think private sale / purchase works for good quality £10k or less cars, beyond that buyers are rare, and equally sellers can be greedy.
Saying that, I bought my last 2 cars from dealers simply because they had what I wanted and the price was right. Skoda Yeti with a year remaining in manufacturer warranty, and my R8 from a dealer in Kent.
I’d sell privately more, but the thing which puts me off the most is dodgy payments that’d somehow get reversed, or from stolen accounts etc.
Since the average person (me) has no idea what the latest scams/dodges are, you just get caught out.
If banks could actually do their job and know funds coming into your account would never go walkies afterwards it wouldn’t be so bad.
As others have said, a bulk of work is just filtering the idiots.
Once you get to people who’ll actually come see it half the job is done.
But yeah. Selling say a £30k car, money in bank, next day you find out it’s been scammed via a transfer or something…?!
Car gone, buyer gone, money gone. Oh dear.
Since the average person (me) has no idea what the latest scams/dodges are, you just get caught out.
If banks could actually do their job and know funds coming into your account would never go walkies afterwards it wouldn’t be so bad.
As others have said, a bulk of work is just filtering the idiots.
Once you get to people who’ll actually come see it half the job is done.
But yeah. Selling say a £30k car, money in bank, next day you find out it’s been scammed via a transfer or something…?!
Car gone, buyer gone, money gone. Oh dear.
Wilmslowboy said:
Im about to sell my car.
Similar cars listed for £40k to £44k
Autotrader suggested private sale price of £37,840
WBAC suggested they will pay £33k
I have a trade offer from a dealer at £35,750
As much as id love to sell private, I know I'll get endless offers at £35k or less, so may as well sell to the dealer.
God help you if your car is priced above AT, s sugested price. I just about managed to find a buyer early this year for £1500 above there quote .Similar cars listed for £40k to £44k
Autotrader suggested private sale price of £37,840
WBAC suggested they will pay £33k
I have a trade offer from a dealer at £35,750
As much as id love to sell private, I know I'll get endless offers at £35k or less, so may as well sell to the dealer.
Mr Whippy said:
But yeah. Selling say a £30k car, money in bank, next day you find out it’s been scammed via a transfer or something…?!
Car gone, buyer gone, money gone. Oh dear.
Good point. Scary. Not sure what mitigation exist against that risk but I probably never considered it, naively.Car gone, buyer gone, money gone. Oh dear.
I've always bought/sold privately - and saved tens of thousands over the years. If I went to someone and said "I'll give you £3000 to write an statement of about 300 words, take a few calls and handle some emails, and do a meet and greet. 1-2 days work, tops" they'd bite my hand off. Where are you going to earn £3k for a couple of days? (This is PH, so no doubt some powerfully built director will tell me they earn that in their sleep).
TBH I've always bought wierd, niche cars - which probably doesn't attract the scamming types anyway. The idea of selling an AMG Merc or M BMW would lean me towards handing it over to WBAC.... But it's always been the same for me:
1. Owners forums and PH sales are my go-to. Avoided AT/Facebook and all the grimey sites like Gumtree
2. Don't take phonecalls, not for initial enquries. Anyone serious enough will email and it's easier to filter out timewasters.
3. Loads of info in the adverts, S/H, plenty of pictures...
But the best one for me has always been:
4. Mention the negatives. Paintwork issues, interior wear, things broken or not working, etc. I've found that it sets expectations leading to people who actually turn up having a more positive experience, rather than them getting here and being disappointed because pictures can be flattering.
Several posters are suggesting that selling to a dealer is less hassle than a private sale, and generally I agree. However, not all dealers are equal. A couple of potential sales to the trade (for two different cars) I have had recently went like this:
Dealer 1 : He made a fair offer over the 'phone, turned up as promised, was very polite and professional. We went for a drive, he could see that my car was exactly as described. He organised a bank transfer of the agreed sum, which came through instantly. We sorted out the DVLA thing and off he went.
Dealer 2: Initially as per Dealer 1, but he claimed that my car had "had paint" on the front and rear bumpers, which it hadn't. "You can see the paint doesn't quite match" he said, which was simply not true. "I'll call my boss, but our offer will drop by £2k I'm afraid", he said. He also said their offer would decrease because the car was "late with a service in 2020" - true, it was late by two months because of Covid restrictions, which he knew full well. In the end the "best we can do" was £3k below what they'd initially offered. "No chance" I said. "The train station's that way, goodbye." "But I've got to get back to Yorkshire" he moaned. I sold the car to a charming private buyer a week later who paid about £5k more than Yorkshire chap wanted to.
TLDR: while selling to Joe Public can be a massive pain, selling to the trade is sometimes equally painful.
Dealer 1 : He made a fair offer over the 'phone, turned up as promised, was very polite and professional. We went for a drive, he could see that my car was exactly as described. He organised a bank transfer of the agreed sum, which came through instantly. We sorted out the DVLA thing and off he went.
Dealer 2: Initially as per Dealer 1, but he claimed that my car had "had paint" on the front and rear bumpers, which it hadn't. "You can see the paint doesn't quite match" he said, which was simply not true. "I'll call my boss, but our offer will drop by £2k I'm afraid", he said. He also said their offer would decrease because the car was "late with a service in 2020" - true, it was late by two months because of Covid restrictions, which he knew full well. In the end the "best we can do" was £3k below what they'd initially offered. "No chance" I said. "The train station's that way, goodbye." "But I've got to get back to Yorkshire" he moaned. I sold the car to a charming private buyer a week later who paid about £5k more than Yorkshire chap wanted to.
TLDR: while selling to Joe Public can be a massive pain, selling to the trade is sometimes equally painful.
nickfrog said:
Mr Whippy said:
But yeah. Selling say a £30k car, money in bank, next day you find out it’s been scammed via a transfer or something…?!
Car gone, buyer gone, money gone. Oh dear.
Good point. Scary. Not sure what mitigation exist against that risk but I probably never considered it, naively.Car gone, buyer gone, money gone. Oh dear.
It's the same xfer you make when buying a car from a dealer. How do you think they manage? One example : bought a car from an independent high end car dealer 3 years ago. Drove to dealer, looked at car, accepted deal - xferred £45k, as soon as it showed in his bank - I drove off in a V10 R8. What's the difference? none.
Every big sale I've made I moved the money to another account immediately, just to prove to myself it has indeed cleared.
Edited by Griffith4ever on Sunday 24th September 13:05
Edited by Griffith4ever on Sunday 24th September 13:20
Griffith4ever said:
Not sure how Auto trader "suggested" prices work? I just look at what's for sale, and compare age, spec, mileage, then knock a little off, and that's my sale price.
This is what I have done with every car sale bar the last, which was written off. Negates the need to accept any offers without good reason, never mind the piss take ones. Leaves you in a position to state 'find one cheaper'. I sold my last car privately and it worked out okay despite a bit of hassle and a stressful sale day. The buyer was with me over 2 hours kicking tyres and undoing all the fluid caps several times. Then he had problems with payment as his phone app only allowed a certain amount and when he tried to make 3 payments it was blocked. He had to call the bank which took a while.
Last week I had a part ex price of 5500 against quite an expensive car. AT suggests 6200 part ex and 7600 private. They said there was no movement on the purchase price of the car I was looking at but when I said I'd have to think they did up the offer to 6k on mine.
Last week I had a part ex price of 5500 against quite an expensive car. AT suggests 6200 part ex and 7600 private. They said there was no movement on the purchase price of the car I was looking at but when I said I'd have to think they did up the offer to 6k on mine.
Matty_ said:
I've always bought/sold privately - and saved tens of thousands over the years. If I went to someone and said "I'll give you £3000 to write an statement of about 300 words, take a few calls and handle some emails, and do a meet and greet. 1-2 days work, tops" they'd bite my hand off. Where are you going to earn £3k for a couple of days?
Interestingly, I apply similar to any saving or gain made. Save £100, how long does it take us to earn that?Fermit said:
Griffith4ever said:
Not sure how Auto trader "suggested" prices work? I just look at what's for sale, and compare age, spec, mileage, then knock a little off, and that's my sale price.
This is what I have done with every car sale bar the last, which was written off. Negates the need to accept any offers without good reason, never mind the piss take ones. Leaves you in a position to state 'find one cheaper'. Selling my Griff I priced it at the upper end of the market to see what I could get away with as it was garaged and costing me nothing to hold onto. Bloody nightmare as I got all sorts of pedants inspecting the car or demanding RAC inspections. I sold it for a toouch over what it cost me to buy and fix in the end, but I had to come down around £4k. All my other cars I've made a good profit on. TVRs sell to a very small and picky market. Understandably.
Griffith4ever said:
Fermit said:
Griffith4ever said:
Not sure how Auto trader "suggested" prices work? I just look at what's for sale, and compare age, spec, mileage, then knock a little off, and that's my sale price.
This is what I have done with every car sale bar the last, which was written off. Negates the need to accept any offers without good reason, never mind the piss take ones. Leaves you in a position to state 'find one cheaper'. Selling my Griff I priced it at the upper end of the market to see what I could get away with as it was garaged and costing me nothing to hold onto. Bloody nightmare as I got all sorts of pedants inspecting the car or demanding RAC inspections. I sold it for a toouch over what it cost me to buy and fix in the end, but I had to come down around £4k. All my other cars I've made a good profit on. TVRs sell to a very small and picky market. Understandably.
ker'Secondly, a shabby Cat D MK3 Mondeo. Listed all it's quirks and faults, and stated no offers, as £850 it was the cheapest 03 Ghia X for sale anywhere. A guy came to see it (having been told there was no wriggle room, and why) After driving, seeing all the faults first hand etc, offered me £600, 'because of the faults' I replied with 'are you taking the piss?' He bought it at £850.
Edited by Fermit on Sunday 24th September 15:20
Never had issues with buyers low-balling, other than on easily ignored emails/texts, and I've sold every car I've owned privately. The main headache I've found is people agreeing to buy the car and then disappearing or stringing me along with excuses.
I read somewhere that the chances of someone who contacts you buying the car is inversely proportional to the number of messages. The eventual buyers always end up sending a couple of questions, then agree a date to view, and then buy the car there and then.
I read somewhere that the chances of someone who contacts you buying the car is inversely proportional to the number of messages. The eventual buyers always end up sending a couple of questions, then agree a date to view, and then buy the car there and then.
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