Best place to sell a car with a fault?

[Wilmslowboy]

Is eBay still the place to sell a with a fault ? (or do I risk FB mktplace)

Daughter's little runaround developed an overheating issue (very likely to be the head gasket)

It was worth around £5,500 before the fault, the estimated repair cost is £2.5k to £3K (2 to 3 days’ labour and roughly £250 in parts).
(It’s a Smart car, and to access the head the entire engine and rear subframe need to come out. Likely needs a skim and head gasket replacement before being rebuilt.)

I’m hoping a capable home mechanic might take it on and see value at paying around £3k for it (or am I dreaming).

Bit frustrating as I’ve just spent £900 in the past month on servicing, brakes and bushes.

For the avoidance of doubt i'd be 100% transparent about the issue (so not interested in fobbing it off to WBAC).

[Sebring440]

Wilmslowboy said:

I m hoping a capable home mechanic might take it on and see value at paying around £3k for it (or am I dreaming).

You're dreaming.

It just worth scrap value now.

[sixor8]

I've sold many cars and bikes via eBay for over 20 years. As long as you're up front with any issues and honest about condition with lots of photos (you can even add a video now), it's worth a try. I've read many stories about tyre kickers and no shows but it's never happened to me, that's more a Marketplace cesspool thing.

A classified is cheaper on eBay but if you definitely want it gone, an auction has a listing fee plus a final value fee, but you can set a reserve.

[brillomaster]

Sebring440 said:

You're dreaming.

It just worth scrap value now.

This. Stick it on eBay, no reserve, 99p starting price. Obviously be very clear with its faults, sold as spares or repair.

Sold a couple of ex-trackday bmws this way, got about £500 or so for each. Both guys turned up with trailers, cars loaded up and I believe straight off to Poland to be broken for parts.

[milu]

If you’re going to lose loads on the sale plus the 900 already spent. Would it not be better to repair and keep?
Assuming buying something else when it’s gone anyway.

[Wilmslowboy]

Thanks for the replies, all be it not the news I was hoping for.
Just checked autotrader, all similar not cat S cars are listed at £6k.

Assuming I can get it repaired for £2.5k, I’ve read suggestions of as little as £1,500 and as high as £3,000)

The maths suggestions I stump up and get it repaired, rather than sell as is for what I now assume is less than £2k.

[Lefty]

Yeah if I were you I d try to get it repaired as cheaply as possible, see if you can find a cheaper mechanic or somebody who will do a casher .

Having said that a mate of mine has a 20yo son who is doing an apprenticeship to be a mechanic, he’s all over this sort of thing, buy a car that needs some work for £500, fix it, learn some stuff (with free help from his boss) and flip it once sorted for a good profit. Having said that, he only buys cars advertised at rock bottom scrap prices, I think buying something at £3k that might be worth £5k isn t much of an opportunity. £1000 to sell at £5000, sure.

Edited by Lefty on Thursday 19th February 06:48

[Quattr04.]

Sounds like you’re doing yourself out of a lot of money and causing yourself a lot of effort by not just getting rid of it to WBAC

They just send it to an auction anyway, where it will be bought by a dealer, who will sell it on and have to repair themselves or use the warrantee they have.

Or send it to auction yourself and save yourself a lot of hassle

[Belle427]

Engine out job will limit the market too, not something I would want to do outside on the drive personally.
No harm in trying it on ebay and facebook, its an unusual car so you never know.
List it honestly warts and all but dont go into every little detail regarding repair costs etc.

[paul_c123]

Be prepared to list it several times, and be ghosted by winning bidders over and over, on eBay.

[Tisy]

paul_c123 said:

Be prepared to list it several times, and be ghosted by winning bidders over and over, on eBay.

This ^ and this ^ and some more this ^ . This is what regularly happens with Ebay auctions even on fully working cars and it's 100x worse for anything with faults or non-runners. If they don't completely ghost you what happens is they start trying to chip you down from whatever their winning bid amount was and if you don't give them a load of money off they will ghost you and then you're on the marry-go-round of filing claims with ebay to get your fees back and then do it all again.

[littlebasher]

Smart cars are a niche market and have quite a following.

Even broken it'll still be popular on somewhere like eBay or a Smart Facebook group

[Wilmslowboy]

littlebasher said:

Smart cars are a niche market and have quite a following.

Even broken it'll still be popular on somewhere like eBay or a Smart Facebook group

I been offered £2k for it (as is with the fault), but that is £4k less than it's worth repaired.

I defo don't way the hassle and risk of dealing with the repair, but that could be a luxury that will cost me as much as £2K (if I can get it repaired for £2K), or it got be a dodged bullet, if the repair costs £3K and it's not done correctly.

[s p a c e m a n]

If you can't do it yourself then pour a bottle of liquid head gasket in it and sell it to wbac. It feels dirty but anything else you do will cost you loads of time, stress and money.

[Belle427]

Wilmslowboy said:

littlebasher said:

Smart cars are a niche market and have quite a following.

Even broken it'll still be popular on somewhere like eBay or a Smart Facebook group

I been offered £2k for it (as is with the fault), but that is £4k less than it's worth repaired.

I defo don't way the hassle and risk of dealing with the repair, but that could be a luxury that will cost me as much as £2K (if I can get it repaired for £2K), or it got be a dodged bullet, if the repair costs £3K and it's not done correctly.

I think I would consider that offer if it were hassle free.
If it is worth £5500 repaired and the repair bill is £2500 your not that far away really.
Sometimes you have to take it on the chin and move on.

[Tisy]

In light of the fact

a. you don't actually know what's wrong with it and are just guessing at it possibly being the head gasket when it might not be and/or there could be other issues causing it, and

b. these Smart were always troublesome stboxes ever since their inception - you fix one problem and a fresh problem replaces it

I would be reluctantly taking the £2k offered to get shut of it and buying something reliable.

Edited by Tisy on Thursday 19th February 10:23

[ThingsBehindTheSun]

Tisy said:

In light of the fact

a. you don't actually know what's wrong with it and are just guessing at it possibly being the head gasket when it might not be and/or there could be other issues causing it, and

b. these Smart were always troublesome stboxes every since their inception - you fix one problem and a fresh problem replaces it

I would be reluctantly taking the £2k offered to get shut of it and buying something reliable.

This, who's to say it definitely is the head gasket and once stripped down it turns out the engine is terminal?

Tisy said:

paul_c123 said:

Be prepared to list it several times, and be ghosted by winning bidders over and over, on eBay.

This ^ and this ^ and some more this ^ . This is what regularly happens with Ebay auctions even on fully working cars and it's 100x worse for anything with faults or non-runners. If they don't completely ghost you what happens is they start trying to chip you down from whatever their winning bid amount was and if you don't give them a load of money off they will ghost you and then you're on the marry-go-round of filing claims with ebay to get your fees back and then do it all again.

Having sold Sheds on Ebay auctions in the past I would never sell anything via auction. Worse than being ghosted is the time wasters who actually contact you after the auction who ask if they can "collect it after payday?" . You will then get bread crumbed every couple of days with "can't wait to collect this" messages. This will go on for two weeks until they give you a collection date. The night before you will get a final "Sorry, can't collect this car as my mum's dog died" and that will be it. You will relist the car and then all of the other time wasters who messaged you a list of 20 questions will message you saying "what happened, thought this was sold"

Either that or the idiot winning bidder will turn up and just expect to drive it home.

I would take the £2K if it is a real offer

[Decky_Q]

When I sold my roadster with a faulty SAM, it was a guy who specialised in smart cars and parts that bought it, both got a fair deal I think.

With a specialist mark like smart there may well be a 2nd hand parts specialist near you too looking for stock.

[sixor8]

Tisy said:

paul_c123 said:

Be prepared to list it several times, and be ghosted by winning bidders over and over, on eBay.

This ^ and this ^ and some more this ^ . This is what regularly happens with Ebay auctions even on fully working cars and it's 100x worse for anything with faults or non-runners. If they don't completely ghost you what happens is they start trying to chip you down from whatever their winning bid amount was and if you don't give them a load of money off they will ghost you and then you're on the marry-go-round of filing claims with ebay to get your fees back and then do it all again.

As mentioned above, this hasn't happened to me in over 20 years of selling my vehicles on eBay. 28 cars and 12 motorcycles since 2004.Some had major issues, although they've all been runners. Several buyers have been traders / breakers.

Never had a no-show. I did have one buyer complain after the sale about a fault that I'd already told him about (after driving it home 100 miles!), and he knew about. Trying it on for a bit of cashback. Ignored and blocked.

[ilikejam]

How quickly does the issue present itself?

I had an auto with a terminal box a couple of years ago. Went to WBAC to get rid of it and the online offer was £6k for what would have been an easy £10k private sale if it was working (didn't want the hassle of the buyer finding out the next day etc!)

I then googled and tried a few other sites and got similar offers, but found We Want Any Car (I believe now called Money 4 Your Motor) and they offered £8.6k. The downside was they sent a guy out to the house to do an inspection and 1 mile test drive that he just did by himself. Mine survived long enough and I ended up getting £8.3k cash in my account for it.