Selling a car in storage

Selling a car in storage

Author
Discussion

fido

Original Poster:

17,276 posts

262 months

Tuesday 9th January
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Work keeps sending me abroad (Singapore .. First World Problems eh?) and I never get time to offload a vehicle I have in storage. Any ideas/tips on how to sell a vehicle without being there? It is a premium vehicle so presume it is of interest to a collector / premium car dealer. All the documents and keys can be provided.

DonkeyApple

58,925 posts

176 months

Tuesday 9th January
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Will the storage company not sell it for you?

Kswap

191 posts

48 months

Tuesday 9th January
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Sale or return at somewhere like Munich Legends?

fido

Original Poster:

17,276 posts

262 months

Tuesday 9th January
quotequote all
DonkeyApple said:
Will the storage company not sell it for you?
They don't deal with stuff like this - only MOT and basic servicing - but I will ask if they have done similar. From my understanding ML sell the car for you - would rather sell it outright. It got all 'green' at the last BMW inspection so the last thing I want is ML telling me it needs XYZ with a possibility of no sale.

Edited by fido on Tuesday 9th January 16:15

Kswap

191 posts

48 months

Tuesday 9th January
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Try Appreciating Classics

DonkeyApple

58,925 posts

176 months

Tuesday 9th January
quotequote all
Fair dos. Set up a deal with a SoR dealer and take it to them is probably the best bet. Just check their accounts are in order as best as possible etc. plenty of people deposit classics with dealers over winter just for the free storage.

Fady

364 posts

211 months

Tuesday 9th January
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This is a car forum. Where work keeps sending you is way less interesting than what car it is :-)

Would offer to sell it for you myself but obviously you don't know me from Adam!

SFTWend

1,035 posts

82 months

Tuesday 9th January
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I'd be nervous of SOR as the market most of these dealers trade in is struggling, so risk of going bust and receiver taking your car.

Maybe use an online auction house. A photographer would need access and then the buyer. Most bidders don't view before purchase it seems.

We all want to know what model of beemer it is.

12TS

2,002 posts

217 months

Tuesday 9th January
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I'd want to do my due diligence on any SOR sale, especially if I was out of the country. There were issues with a few (non-franchised) Porsche dealers and the epic Bavarians get a mention here https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

RATATTAK

12,872 posts

196 months

Tuesday 9th January
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Depending on the car I would talk to Bonhams ... they will get a quote for covered transport (about £2/mile), clean and photograph the car, write a blurb, and sell it at auction for you.

I have no connection other than they sold my car for an acceptable price recently.

vanman1936

799 posts

226 months

Wednesday 10th January
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Any more details on the car?

OverSteery

3,667 posts

238 months

Wednesday 10th January
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SFTWend said:
I'd be nervous of SOR as the market most of these dealers trade in is struggling, so risk of going bust and receiver taking your car.

Maybe use an online auction house. A photographer would need access and then the buyer. Most bidders don't view before purchase it seems.

We all want to know what model of beemer it is.
Can the received take the car under these circumstances? A dealer on a SOR doesn't own the car, so the receiver surely has no legal way to take possession of something the dealer doesn't own.

Still make sense not to deal with a dealer who might go bust - the bigger risk I would think is that the dealer sells it and then doesn't pass on the money.

DonkeyApple

58,925 posts

176 months

Wednesday 10th January
quotequote all
SFTWend said:
I'd be nervous of SOR as the market most of these dealers trade in is struggling, so risk of going bust and receiver taking your car.

Maybe use an online auction house. A photographer would need access and then the buyer. Most bidders don't view before purchase it seems.

We all want to know what model of beemer it is.
Yup, certainly important. Must admit, I've never fully understood the legality that results in administrators essentially taking something they know belongs to someone else, can see clearly no funds at all were ever exchanged and using it to part settle someone else's debts.

I had it once happen to me and the owner of the dealer paid me out from his own pocket without asking which I still consider a remarkable act from a good person in an industry where like so many others that type of integrity wasn't ever really there and has certainly moved even further away in recent times.

I believe the key is that under a SoR relationship the car is legally booked as a loan to the business which means if that business defaults then as the owner of the asset that has been lodged you simply join the list of creditors at your defined place in the queue which will be last because of the type of debt. Ergo, other creditors get all of what is left after administrator costs and there's nothing to pay out to the junior creditors.

Considering the average dealer has no real assets and a mountain of bank debt via inventory credit (which I think nowadays is referred to via the Septic term floor plan finance?) then a these types of business can unravel in an instant and go from solvent to insolvent on the back of a phone call from the issuer of the credit line just saying they won't be renewing the facility at the end of term. If the dealer cannot put in place a replacement facility then a perfectly good business is done.

If the speciality lending firms and subsidiaries of banks were to decide to deleverage just a completely legitimate response to a change in risk then you'd probably see a raft of defaults.

And of course, as seen amongst the Scottish banks ten years ago there will always be those lenders who see bigger profits by specifically changing the terms on a client to deliberately move them into special measures so as to extract all the revenue before seizing all the assets.

SoR fees tend to be in the region of £10-£20k and when one considers a realistic price for one's car, the time it would take to sell via SoR and then the potential risk the appearance in recent years of the online classic car auctioneers definitely puts them on the radar. I've used them for classics where their value means the SoR fees represent too high a percentage of the value. But also, above a certain value nor would I use SoR due to the risk.

pb8g09

2,687 posts

76 months

Wednesday 10th January
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Message AutoAlex on instagram and he’ll turn up with a trailer and video camera to take it off your hands!

fido

Original Poster:

17,276 posts

262 months

Wednesday 10th January
quotequote all
vanman1936 said:
Any more details on the car?
I'm not sure if the Editor removed the details on my original post - but it's nothing special (albeit only to me).
I was about to chop it in for Z4 M40 last year (and flog another car) but dithered, also got 1 private offer and 1 from an auction - so all my fault!
Think the stories above have put me off leaving it with a SoR and I will just find time to insure/tax it and take it to a dealer.

Moderator edit: don't turn the thread into an advert please.