Selling thru dealer
Discussion
Due to a potential change of working place - to France of all places!! - I'm looking into the best way to sell my beloved 4.2 Cerb (red bull w/grey leather). It's only a year old so I am no doubt going to make a loss on it. I don't have time to sell it personally (never here in weekends), so I was looking at selling it through a dealer. They all seem willing enough to do so but I've had quotes of £3000 for the service... which seems somewhat steep, but maybe that's the going rate. In all, that doesn't do wonders for my already significant loss.
Any comments/tips/suggestions/offers from the guru's on here?
TIA
Maarten
Oh and before you suggest - I've looked into keeping it, but that'd be too expensive (no car allowance in France!!), there are very few dealers and I'd only use it weekends with no possibility to even get it to a repair shop if something goes wrong... so I'm afraid that isn't an option.
Any comments/tips/suggestions/offers from the guru's on here?
TIA
Maarten
Oh and before you suggest - I've looked into keeping it, but that'd be too expensive (no car allowance in France!!), there are very few dealers and I'd only use it weekends with no possibility to even get it to a repair shop if something goes wrong... so I'm afraid that isn't an option.
When it works it is good... when it doesn't it is bad.
Make sure everything is in writing and that the money received is actually sent to the finance company or to you. Many of us at Team Central got into a major problem with Team Central selling cars on behalf of customers and then forgetting to pass on the readies or settle debts with the lease company who actually owned the car. Team Central goes bust, the money goes, the car is with a new owner and the lease company is demanding its money back.
Fortunately Team Central had illegally refinanced my car which meant that the new finance company had to settle with mine and the debt was cleared. If the new owner had paid cash... I would have been liable and with no car.
Lost the Tuscan that I had sold the Cerbera for as well as that was seized by the receiver and sold on. All in all a major horror story so be careful out there.
Steve
www.tvrbooks.co.uk
>> Edited by shpub on Tuesday 30th September 15:43
Make sure everything is in writing and that the money received is actually sent to the finance company or to you. Many of us at Team Central got into a major problem with Team Central selling cars on behalf of customers and then forgetting to pass on the readies or settle debts with the lease company who actually owned the car. Team Central goes bust, the money goes, the car is with a new owner and the lease company is demanding its money back.
Fortunately Team Central had illegally refinanced my car which meant that the new finance company had to settle with mine and the debt was cleared. If the new owner had paid cash... I would have been liable and with no car.
Lost the Tuscan that I had sold the Cerbera for as well as that was seized by the receiver and sold on. All in all a major horror story so be careful out there.
Steve
www.tvrbooks.co.uk
>> Edited by shpub on Tuesday 30th September 15:43
I'd take it to France with you and try and sell it there for a couple of months. Despite being RHD, once French registered and physically there, you might make a bundle from a local or ex-pat? (and you can use it at Weekends till it sells). If this fails, you can then bring it back to UK and a dealer here - perhaps next spring when prices are stronger?
If a dealer makes £3k selling your car, he has to pay 7/47ths tax on this; and put a warranty on the car. That will cost him £1k before he has even thought of servicing it, painting the nose, over allowing for a p/x, good will gestures when it goes wrong, covering his advertising and overheads. And making a profit.
If a dealer makes £3k selling your car, he has to pay 7/47ths tax on this; and put a warranty on the car. That will cost him £1k before he has even thought of servicing it, painting the nose, over allowing for a p/x, good will gestures when it goes wrong, covering his advertising and overheads. And making a profit.
Assuming your car is worth around £30k (it's a 2002 model), £3k sounds pretty reasonable to me. As previously mentioned the dealer has to pay VAT on his margin and put a warranty on the car, not to mention pay all his overheads and try to make a profit. Plus while he's selling your car he won't be selling one of his own. I'm personally surprised that they will do it for 10%. I sell antique furniture and sometimes sell in my showrooms for other people. I charge a lot more than 10%.
I sold my previous Griff on a sale or return basis at Hawthorns.
Basically you agree with them what you want. and they put a margin on top. Their margin would include any work needing doing on the car, tyres, service, any cosmetic type repairs, other faults, warranty, plus a profit. So the more perfect you car is, the margin can come down and give them the same profit.
Obviously the higher the price you want , the longer it might take to sell.
Their was a griff 500 in their recently on the same basis for quite a while, possibly because the guy selling wanted a bit more, but the dealer price was a grand or so more than comparble cars because of this.
Proper agreement was signed, check the insurance, as theirs might value the car a bit less than yours.
Worked for me, BEST thing for me was not to go through all the bother selling privatly, and at the end of the day proably got more than selling privately. Buyers tend to prefer buying from a dealer, so use that to really knock down the price when you are selling privately.
I'm sure other dealers do similar type things as well, depending on your locale.
B
Basically you agree with them what you want. and they put a margin on top. Their margin would include any work needing doing on the car, tyres, service, any cosmetic type repairs, other faults, warranty, plus a profit. So the more perfect you car is, the margin can come down and give them the same profit.
Obviously the higher the price you want , the longer it might take to sell.
Their was a griff 500 in their recently on the same basis for quite a while, possibly because the guy selling wanted a bit more, but the dealer price was a grand or so more than comparble cars because of this.
Proper agreement was signed, check the insurance, as theirs might value the car a bit less than yours.
Worked for me, BEST thing for me was not to go through all the bother selling privatly, and at the end of the day proably got more than selling privately. Buyers tend to prefer buying from a dealer, so use that to really knock down the price when you are selling privately.
I'm sure other dealers do similar type things as well, depending on your locale.
B
Not quite sure what you mean by "£3000 for the service" arrange with the dealer to take it on a sale or return (S.O.R) basis agree on a figure you want returning for your car get it in writing and then let the dealer sell for what he wants.If the car is subject to a finance agreement like Steve says you need to be a little more careful they(Fin Co) would propably want to know other alternative is to ring round the dealers for an outright purchase you would only get trade value but it depends on how quickly you need to sell 
good luck Tony
good luck Tony 
Agree that £3k is good value. The charge when I did the same through a TVR main dealer was 15% (about £5k on my Cerbie).
They had the car for 3 months or so (basically the whole Summer) without a sniff. In the end I took £5k off the price, advertised it on Pistonheads and sold it within a week to the first guy who came to see it.
They had the car for 3 months or so (basically the whole Summer) without a sniff. In the end I took £5k off the price, advertised it on Pistonheads and sold it within a week to the first guy who came to see it.
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