Selling a 4 year old car at approx 12k privately

Micky 32

Reading a few posts on this forum some mention that selling a fairly recent car say at 4 years (2013) will be impossible because no one would spend that amount of cash without a warranty etc. Would it be hard to shift privately?? It's a fairly popular car on the road.

Sam Kade

If I were spending that much I'd be buying in a garage. What car is it?

Micky 32

Sam Kade wrote: »

If I were spending that much I'd be buying in a garage. What car is it?

VW Passat 2.0 TDI CL

bazz26

Your also competing with people importing from the UK. The exchange rate is taking another dive at the moment with all the Brexit stuff meaning importing is even more attractive. For whatever price you can land a similar car from the UK for you would have to knock more off the price of your car to make it someway more attractive than going to the UK.

Micky 32

Well i had no problem selling it private. Took all of 4 days to sell ;-)

colm_mcm

Should've asked for more :pac:

dubrov

I'd say you sold it for a good bit more than the uk price plus VRT as well

Micky 32

colm_mcm wrote: »

Should've asked for more :pac:

I doubt i would have got more with 180,000kms on it, happy enough i got my target 12500. Having said that it was in excellent condition.

Brian2850

On a similar note to the OP's query, how would people feel about selling something like an X5 privately? Value is probably €20-€25K. Is that at a level where buyers just want to deal with a garage? Just curious on peoples view....

ShadowHearth

Brian2850 wrote: »

On a similar note to the OP's query, how would people feel about selling something like an X5 privately? Value is probably €20-€25K. Is that at a level where buyers just want to deal with a garage? Just curious on peoples view....

Would personally not go near 20-25k private sale on x5. Might go max 10k on something special and rare with private sale, but only if I could not get similar car from reputable garage or dealer.

Then again there are exceptions. There always will be.

Micky 32

ShadowHearth wrote: »

Would personally not go near 20-25k private sale on x5. Might go max 10k on something special and rare with private sale, but only if I could not get similar car from reputable garage or dealer.

Then again there are exceptions. There always will be.[/quote

I would have sold my car twice privately over the weekend after only a few days advertising it ar 12.5 k. Some people would like to have a certain type of car and might not want to or afford a dealer price. That was my experience when chatting to the guy who bought my car. So always worth a try to sell privately.

grogi

Micky 32 wrote: »

Reading a few posts on this forum some mention that selling a fairly recent car say at 4 years (2013) will be impossible because no one would spend that amount of cash without a warranty etc. Would it be hard to shift privately?? It's a fairly popular car on the road.

12k is not a lot of cash for a car. I'd have no issues buying one privately - but it needs to be better (or cheaper) than what reputable garages offer.

grogi

Brian2850 wrote: »

On a similar note to the OP's query, how would people feel about selling something like an X5 privately? Value is probably €20-€25K. Is that at a level where buyers just want to deal with a garage? Just curious on peoples view....

Very difficult I would say.

Atlantic Dawn

Brian2850 wrote: »

On a similar note to the OP's query, how would people feel about selling something like an X5 privately? Value is probably €20-€25K. Is that at a level where buyers just want to deal with a garage? Just curious on peoples view....

If I was in the market for one and the X5 that was on sale private had full service history with all major jobs done and I was able to 100% verify the owner of the car and the car itself I would likely make a move on it if I could save €5k on the price of the same car at a dealers. You would want a good 20-25% saving over a dealer price on a car of that value.

CalamariFritti

I think there are 2 schools of thought. There are the guys that say no way would I buy from a private seller due to no comeback. And then you have people saying private is much better. They would say a dealer guarantee only covers against at total write off. Which you can sort of take out of the equation with a thorough mechanical check by a 3rd party. And with lesser things the guarantee is only worth half the paper its written on anyway as the dealer will immediately wriggle and bend and whatnot. Second thing they will say at least with a private seller - again assuming you get a full mechanical check done - you get a feel who had the car. With a dealer the previous owner could be Anto the drifter and you'd never know. The private seller could be Flanders himself.

Brian2850

CalamariFritti wrote: »

I think there are 2 schools of thought. There are the guys that say no way would I buy from a private seller due to no comeback. And then you have people saying private is much better. They would say a dealer guarantee only covers against at total write off. Which you can sort of take out of the equation with a thorough mechanical check by a 3rd party. And with lesser things the guarantee is only worth half the paper its written on anyway as the dealer will immediately wriggle and bend and whatnot. Second thing they will say at least with a private seller - again assuming you get a full mechanical check done - you get a feel who had the car. With a dealer the previous owner could be Anto the drifter and you'd never know. The private seller could be Flanders himself.

This pretty much sums it up for me. I probably place more emphasis on knowing the background to the car than I do warranty but that's a personal preference. Having said that I understand people's reluctance as Ive had the same fears over how genuine the buyer is.

Thanks for all the replies. I'll probably try the private route and see how I go.

Gryire

I am currently trying to sell privately. Vert little interest yet the car is €3k cheaper than s similar car in garage. I know I will have to reduce further but it is a bad time of year with alot of cars becoming avaiable from 171 trade ins.

bazz26

Cheap PCP rates are making new cars more attractive and affordable than buying used ones, this and/or people are more attracted to buying higher spec cars in the UK.

Gryire

PCP, Sterling, 171 Trade Ins all not helping 2nd hand private trade.

carsfan2

I sold my 2006 BMW X5 privately in 2010. Put it up on Carzone, had nothing for about 3 weeks and then in the space of 2 days three people viewed and made offers. Got high twenties for it if I remember which was a few grand cheaper than garage cars were at the time. I know some people would not spend this amount outside a garage but plenty will if the car is good value and checks out as mine did.
If it suited me and I was sure of the car and seller I would buy privately at this level in the right circumstances.

kala85

How do you manage the money transaction for that amount of money.

Is there anything to be aware of from a sellers point and buyers viewpoint so that you don't get caught out in a possible fraud.

ShadowHearth

CalamariFritti wrote: »

I think there are 2 schools of thought. There are the guys that say no way would I buy from a private seller due to no comeback. And then you have people saying private is much better. They would say a dealer guarantee only covers against at total write off. Which you can sort of take out of the equation with a thorough mechanical check by a 3rd party. And with lesser things the guarantee is only worth half the paper its written on anyway as the dealer will immediately wriggle and bend and whatnot. Second thing they will say at least with a private seller - again assuming you get a full mechanical check done - you get a feel who had the car. With a dealer the previous owner could be Anto the drifter and you'd never know. The private seller could be Flanders himself.

My reasoning for buying cars 10K and up from garages is purely on safety of transaction and convenience. Then again I would not pay 2-3k over for that. Unless it's 20K car.
If I would buy from trader or dealer I would still get my mechanic friend to check very analy car in question and i would not put much faith in to warranty anyway. Its not a selling point for me.

If people think that they can get a lot better quality car, then in private sale, then they need reality check. If I buy car, I much prefer private, as you can see if car used daily, Any oil spils, issues. Garages usually cover up very well and it's a lot harder to judge car. The only issue is that I bought privately up to 8K eu. I would not be comfortable paying over 10K to some fella I just met.

grogi

kala85 wrote: »

How do you manage the money transaction for that amount of money.

Is there anything to be aware of from a sellers point and buyers viewpoint so that you don't get caught out in a possible fraud.

You ask the buyer to PERSONALLY depose the money in your account. Voila.

CalamariFritti

ShadowHearth wrote: »

My reasoning for buying cars 10K and up from garages is purely on safety of transaction and convenience. Then again I would not pay 2-3k over for that. Unless it's 20K car.
If I would buy from trader or dealer I would still get my mechanic friend to check very analy car in question and i would not put much faith in to warranty anyway. Its not a selling point for me.

If people think that they can get a lot better quality car, then in private sale, then they need reality check. If I buy car, I much prefer private, as you can see if car used daily, Any oil spils, issues. Garages usually cover up very well and it's a lot harder to judge car. The only issue is that I bought privately up to 8K eu. I would not be comfortable paying over 10K to some fella I just met.

I was not trying to make a point either way. Just pointing out why someone might think this way or that way.
I'm looking to get a new car myself over the next couple of months and will probably go dealer, simply because most cars are sold by dealers, but I'm not ruling out a private seller at all. Especially since I will be going for a UK import and unless you had some really major problem, nearly a write off, you wouldn't really bring the car back anyway.
So I will pay for an independent mechanical inspection, do the HPI check, verify the service history, have a good look myself and thats it. And I will do that regardless whether I'm buying from a dealer or private.
And yes I agree with you, a dealer will know every trick in the book to dress up a bad car like a good car.