Toyota Corolla - How to Sell?

netwhizkid

I need to sell a Toyota Corolla for my sister as she has changed jobs recently and the commute 60mls a day is killing her in fuel even though the car does over 40mpg.

The plan is to sell the car and move to either a VW Polo 1.4tdi or VW Golf 1.9 tdi. However selling a car now is like squeezing blood out of a turnip.

The car is 1.4 petrol and has got 68,000kms on the clock (and growing fast) and a KY plate, the car is in good shape bar the odd scratch and recently passed its NCT and had a full service. My plan to sell the car is to get it fully valeted and get it waxed etc on the outside and the scratch fixed.

The car was bought for €15k in 2007 2nd hand with 50% finance which was paid off in a balloon payment (taken from savings) last year to avoid rising interest rates at the time.

From looking at comparable cars on Carzone the prices seem to range from €13,450k:eek: to €10,500. Even at the bottom of the scale I can't see it shifting and a trade in would need serious vaseline. The plan is to try sell privately (garages are not buying) and import its replacement from the UK.

I am thinking to maximise the turnaround to try and compare the prices and find a UK car for around €7k with VRT all in aged between 2005 and 2006 and sell the Toyota off for a song at around 8 to 9k, I know it will be a serious hit but the car is a negative equity trap already and is costing too much on the commute running to around €60 a week on fuel and is really not a lot of car after all. It will allow my sis to continue having a nice newish car except one that does better MPG on Diesel and with Oil getting ready to rocket upwards again and the invariable weakening off the Dollar and strengthening of the Sterling that will occur simultaneously it seems a good time to change cars.

I have gotten the job of trying to shift this and import another as my sister knows very little about cars and buying this car was fine two years ago for her when she was on a higher paid job less than 5 miles away, it is time to adapt to the economic reality facing us all and she was paying high interest:mad: to an unnamed financial institution last year until I found out that €13 out of every €50 a week was going towards interest and fees. A sonic boom was heard throughout Kerry when I did my little audit of sis's accounts.:mad::mad::eek:

bmccaff

I dont think it would make any sense to sell.
As you say its a Toyota Corolla (reliable Car) with new NCT and Service and already dose 40mpg.
Her communte is not that excessive at 300 mile per week. I'm assuming 60 mile return each day.
Most Diesels realistically do around 50 mpg. Tax would be higher if it was 1.9 engine.
Her savings on fuel would be very little as petrol and diesel are on a par and both will increase at same rate if oil prices increase.
I would hang on to what she has as loss from selling and buying again would be much greater than the few euro saved on fuel

homer90

bmccaff wrote: »

I dont think it would make any sense to sell.
As you say its a Toyota Corolla (reliable Car) with new NCT and Service and already dose 40mpg.
Her communte is not that excessive at 300 mile per week. I'm assuming 60 mile return each day.
Most Diesels realistically do around 50 mpg. Tax would be higher if it was 1.9 engine.
Her savings on fuel would be very little as petrol and diesel are on a par and both will increase at same rate if oil prices increase.
I would hang on to what she has as loss from selling and buying again would be much greater than the few euro saved on fuel

Good advice

People seem to forget this trying to get another 5 -10 mpg

peasant

indeed, selling it sounds like a bad idea.

The savings you could make are minimal (slightly lower fuel cost vs significantly higher tax) but the "cost to change" in this climate will be pretty horrific and she'd probably have to drive the dweezil for several years before the figures go into the plus side.

fricatus

netwhizkid wrote: »

I know it will be a serious hit but the car is a negative equity trap already and is costing too much on the commute running to around €60 a week on fuel...

Cars depreciate, and it's especially the case at the moment. A different car is not going to change that. The best option economically is for to hold onto the car she has, get it serviced at regular intervals, and drive it until it practically dies. She's not going to do all that much better than €60 a week on fuel with another car.

netwhizkid wrote: »

...and with Oil getting ready to rocket upwards again and the invariable weakening off the Dollar and strengthening of the Sterling that will occur simultaneously it seems a good time to change cars.

I'm curious to know where you're getting your information from. Oil is still falling in price due to the global downturn, and while it should go up in price long-term due to scarcity, that's not likely to happen during the life of your sister's Corolla!. Likewise, Sterling is not likely to strengthen. You just have to look at the controversial comments made by a major investor called Jim Rodgers and reported widely in the media a few weeks back to understand what I mean.