Selling a used car in Ireland guide

colm_mcm

ladystarlight wrote: »

Hi, i´m new, i am about to buy a car in Dublin but i live in Dundalk, so if i buy and drive the car home am i insured? I don´t want to leave the car at the sellers place till i get all this insurance stuff sorted, hope someone can help me, thanks

If you get someone who doesn't own the car (ie not you) to drive the car home for you, they should be covered on their insurance to drive other cars 3rd party

Do you have an insurance policy on another car already

ladystarlight

Hi thanks for reply, i want to view and buy the car today, and i dont have any insurance, sorry my first time buying and inusuring a car so bear with me asking stupid questions, i already asked the seller if he might drive the car home for me but he didnt seem happy to do that

rocky

You can buy insurance online, try 123.ie, chill.ie, aviva, fbd


What car is it? It probably won't be cheap as a first insurance.

ladystarlight

no expensive and i have a learner permit so that hurts, its a opel corsa 2002 new nct, 70.000 miles, costs 1790, its on donedeal, saw it this morning and have to buy cause afraid it will be gone

bazz26

Seems expensive to me for a 12 year old Corsa. I certainly would not rush into buying it despite what story the seller might spin you about it selling fast.

You would nearly buy a Yaris for that money which is way superior.

ladystarlight

Corsa´s cost that much and it 12 years old, but they are good cars and i dont like yaris, looks like a elephant shoe, was my plan viewing it today because as i said afraid it might be gone otherwise, still don´t check this insurance thing, you cant insure a car before you view it, and if you buy it and hand over the money you have to trust the seller, what if someone from Donegal buys a car in Galway? They cant take it home, have to first insure it and drive all the way back again and hope the sellers no dodgy guy thats gone with the money

rocky

You can get quotes online, after you view and buy, can either call the insurance company to activate the insurance, or buy online from your phone...

ladystarlight

Dont think insurance companys work today or tomorrow, just concerned if i hand over the money and and say i´ll pick up the car in a few days that the seller might be gone with the car and the money

bazz26

ladystarlight wrote: »

Corsa´s cost that much and it 12 years old, but they are good cars and i dont like yaris, looks like a elephant shoe, was my plan viewing it today because as i said afraid it might be gone otherwise, still don´t check this insurance thing, you cant insure a car before you view it, and if you buy it and hand over the money you have to trust the seller, what if someone from Donegal buys a car in Galway? They cant take it home, have to first insure it and drive all the way back again and hope the sellers no dodgy guy thats gone with the money

No they don't, here are few examples of 2003 Corsas for less:

http://cars.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/opel-corsa/7156715
http://cars.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/opel-corsa-for-sale/7415635

Also surely a deposit will hold the car with the seller until you sort out your insurance in a few days, any decent seller should have no problem with this. If you think the seller is dodgy then why would you want to buy a car from them in the first place? Plus don't you want a mechanic to check the car out before buying?

L-M

That chap buys and sells cars, so just make sure everything checks out ok.

ladystarlight

I bought the car, wish me luck, can´t start driving cause first have to get the insurance and road tax thing sorted, that will take a few days, the seller even drove me home in my new car

marco_polo

Very unsure over where to price a Focus that has a few issues. It is a 1.6L petrol 5 door Zetec with aproximately 105K on the clock (more on this below), NCT to 05/2015 and Tax to 11/2014.

Few issues which will have a big impact on resale value but I don't want to give it away either.

1) Biggest one is that the instrument cluster replaced in 2009 by official ford dealer, currently 55K on the new one, I still have invoice proving the work but rang the garage in question and they have 0.0 miles on record as the milage for my car at the time. :mad: Was about 48-49K on the clock when it went but only my word for that it seems. Only prior evidence I would have is a form when I imported it in 2006 with which has a record of 27K miles on the clock. (There will be full disclosure of this in ad)

2) Would have serviced it fairly regularly with independant garages, but again can only find a few of the more recent ones.

3) Maybe 3-4 separate dents around the bodywork, inflicted by a mixture of me, the missus ans others , driver side mirror that can't be folded and non working rear wiper motor.

I am thinking that if it were perfect I'd probably get around the 2K mark, but with all of the above would something in the region of 1,250 be fair enough (For me and potential buyer?), or is it likely they would still run a mile given the above.

Bit silly to not have kept better service documentation, but until a change in recent circumstances which will require a bigger car I had full intended on driving it untill the wheels fell off.

L-M

What year is it?

marco_polo

Limerick man wrote: »

What year is it?

Doh , 2003, I had it in a earlier draft of the post.

L-M

The main concern would be the fact it's a 1.6, lots of younger folks would prefer the 1.4.

Ask 2250, flaws and all. It's easy drop, you can't go back up.

FreudianSlippers

I've had no traction on adverts, but I'm ready to sell my car in the coming weeks so I'm going to put it on donedeal and autotrader this weekend.

The price seems reasonable in comparison to some others I have seen advertised, but I would appreciate input nonetheless!

http://www.adverts.ie/5651702

wannabegard

Iv had the ad for my car up about 2 weeks now. Iv had no calls at all about it. 2004 vw polo, fully ncts taxed for 6 months and iv put the price around 2,700 but im willing to go as low as 2,400. Any advice on how to get it sold.

bazz26

FreudianSlippers wrote: »

I've had no traction on adverts, but I'm ready to sell my car in the coming weeks so I'm going to put it on donedeal and autotrader this weekend.

The price seems reasonable in comparison to some others I have seen advertised, but I would appreciate input nonetheless!

http://www.adverts.ie/5651702

Your asking price needs reviewing imo, this is what you are up against:

http://www.driving.ie/used-cars/Volkswagen/Scirocco/SCIROCCO-SPORT/201427225100368/

http://www.driving.ie/used-cars/Volkswagen/Scirocco/%28REDUCED%29-SCIROCCO/201416223260338/

Also here is one a year younger from a main dealer, take into account a cash buyer will probably pay less for it and it will probably come with a 6 month warranty, it makes your 09 private sale look very expensive:

http://www.driving.ie/used-cars/Volkswagen/Scirocco/Scirocco-2.0TDI/61214051026316520/

FreudianSlippers

bazz26 wrote: »

Your asking price needs reviewing imo, this is what you are up against:

http://www.driving.ie/used-cars/Volkswagen/Scirocco/SCIROCCO-SPORT/201427225100368/

http://www.driving.ie/used-cars/Volkswagen/Scirocco/%28REDUCED%29-SCIROCCO/201416223260338/

Also here is one a year younger from a main dealer, take into account a cash buyer will probably pay less for it and it will probably come with a 6 month warranty, it makes your 09 private sale look very expensive:

http://www.driving.ie/used-cars/Volkswagen/Scirocco/Scirocco-2.0TDI/61214051026316520/

Thanks for the input. What do you think is a realistic ask/take on this given the competition? I've been given a trade-in price of €13,500, so I'd ideally like to get at least €14,500 for it if I was selling it privately.

Should I just go for the trade?

bazz26

Trade-in prices can be a distorted view on the value of your car as the trade-in price is very much dependent on what you are trading it in against rather than the real world selling price. Realistically your probably not getting €13500 for it as the dealer is probably adding a bit onto the newer car in order to make the trade-in price look more attractive.

I would shop around and see what sort of trade-in price you would get against a similar car being sold by a different garage. If you are not happy with the trade-in price then you will need to take the above examples of similar private sellers on board. Remember that when it comes to a private sale I would not put an asking price too far out of reach of what you are really expecting to get for it. Nobody looking at your car for €17k will expect to negotiate €1500 or €2000 off a private sale asking price so they just look elsewhere. If you have time on your hands and no pressure to sell I'd change the asking price down to €14500 and see if anyone bites, review it after 2 or 3 weeks and drop a little more. Remember with the end of year approaching and your car becoming nearly a year older you will see it's value drop more especially when trading in.

Another thing is now you can do your NCT at any time and the cert will be two years from past date, this can make your car more attractive to a buyer. If the car is running fine then it may be worth putting a fresh 2 year NCT on it. Also forget about advertising it on adverts.ie, it's out of most viewers price range over there and all you will attract is messors offering half your asking price or looking to swap. Stick it on donedeal.ie or carzone.ie where there is a wider audience.

FreudianSlippers

bazz26 wrote: »

Trade-in prices can be a distorted view on the value of your car as the trade-in price is very much dependent on what you are trading it in against rather than the real world selling price. Realistically your probably not getting €13500 for it as the dealer is probably adding a bit onto the newer car in order to make the trade-in price look more attractive.

I would shop around and see what sort of trade-in price you would get against a similar car being sold by a different garage. If you are not happy with the trade-in price then you will need to take the above examples of similar private sellers on board. Remember that when it comes to a private sale I would not put an asking price too far out of reach of what you are really expecting to get for it. Nobody looking at your car for €17k will expect to negotiate €1500 or €2000 off a private sale asking price so they just look elsewhere. If you have time on your hands and no pressure to sell I'd change the asking price down to €14500 and see if anyone bites, review it after 2 or 3 weeks and drop a little more. Remember with the end of year approaching and your car becoming nearly a year older you will see it's value drop more especially when trading in.

Another thing is now you can do your NCT at any time and the cert will be two years from past date, this can make your car more attractive to a buyer. If the car is running fine then it may be worth putting a fresh 2 year NCT on it. Also forget about advertising it on adverts.ie, it's out of most viewers price range over there and all you will attract is messors offering half your asking price or looking to swap. Stick it on donedeal.ie or carzone.ie where there is a wider audience.

Much appreciated!

Ave Sodalis

Hi,
Just a quick question, I'm wondering what's going wrong so far.
I have my Fiat Punto up on Done Deal and the Dealer and I've had two enquiries but neither have gotten back to me. In the ad I say that it has neither tax nor NCT and I've dropped the price due to this. Both have asked for scapes/rust/dents and when the NCT was up. I told them about two scrapes on passenger side, neither of which are deep and a speck of rust at the edge of bonnet. I was also honest about the NCT, saying it was a few months ago due to the fact I only used to the car around the house and driveway to practice on and knew I was going to sell once I passed my test.

Is it something to do with the NCT being up a few months ago? Or were they just being curious?

bazz26

Buyers will ring about lots of adverts before deciding if one is worth a look. However, when you have someone on the phone try and focus on the positives of your car rather all the negatives. Yes be honest with questions they ask but after answering their questions you need to start talking up your car and it's good points. You have to try and convince a potential buyer that while the car is not perfect it is still worth coming to view.

I would also remove the part about not having insurance on it, that has nothing to do with selling it. A fresh NCT would also make it a more attractive buy or at least a fail sheet for any potential buyer so that they have a fair idea what they need to do for it to pass rather than just taking a gamble.

Ave Sodalis

bazz26 wrote: »

Buyers will ring about lots of adverts before deciding if one is worth a look. However, when you have someone on the phone try and focus on the positives of your car rather all the negatives. Yes be honest with questions they ask but after answering their questions you need to start talking up your car and it's good points. You have to try and convince a potential buyer that while the car is not perfect it is still worth coming to view.

I would also remove the part about not having insurance on it, that has nothing to do with selling it. A fresh NCT would also make it a more attractive buy or at least a fail sheet for any potential buyer so that they have a fair idea what they need to do for it to pass rather than just taking a gamble.

Opps, sorry I meant NCT, not insurance! I'll edit that now.

L-M

Is it expensive? That's usually why a car won't sell.

Ave Sodalis

Limerick man wrote: »

Is it expensive? That's usually why a car won't sell.

Was this for me?
Nope, it wasn't expensive and the price is shown on every ad I've put up.

colm_mcm

sup_dude wrote: »

Was this for me?
Nope, it wasn't expensive and the price is shown on every ad I've put up.

Can you post a link to the ad if you don't mind?

Ave Sodalis

colm_mcm wrote: »

Can you post a link to the ad if you don't mind?

Hi, car's gone now but I can still post it if you like, in case someone else is looking?

colm_mcm

Ah no, you're grand, congrats on the sale.

dodzy

lads, out of interest, I'd be keen on your input on the sale value of a 2005 Jimny, 1328cc, Blue, mint, genuine 35K, only on 2nd owner, NCT till Oct 2015. I'm reckoning about the €4250 mark ?