Am I offering too little?

The One Doctor

I've been looking at 2013 Priuses privately. With the private market not great right now I've been offering low money.

For instance, today I looked at one that was advertised for €8000, Jap import. Originally had it advertised for 9250. He used it for 4000km and is now selling it on with 135k Kms. Grand car but in my view not worth 8k... cat conv and brake discs beginning to rust, oil overfilled, entertainment system still in Japanese... minor things.

I offer him 7k cash, take it or leave it. He said he'd spent €8600 getting it here, vrting and NCTing it, and refused. Fair enough, I'm not in a hurry to buy.

Am I mad to think he'd never get 8k for it right now?

Turbohymac

Unfortunately I'd be exactly like that guy if he has a ball of money spent on it and he has come down already then he's actually spot on..think of it if you were selling your car and it was say value around 8 realistically..but you wanted 9k so advertised for 9350..I'm almost certain you wouldn't entertain me rocking up and offering 6.5k
In the last few times that I have sold any vehicle on done deal it seems the norm for people to come in really low balling.. ie asking 11.5k and some guy offering 8.5..
My theory both seller and buyer needs to be happy..if not then it would be a foolish seller to accept very low..hes probably having to put lots money with the sale price to buy his next wheels

Its pointless in you worrying about whether or not he'll sell..he didn't accept your low offer..move on and find your ideal car op

Atlantic Dawn

You can always offer him more, I certainly wouldn't see offering €7k for something advertised as €8k as an insult of an offer.

Have you any idea of the health of the hybrid battery in it? Wouldn't worry about brake disc dust, that's from lack of use. Oil overfilled would have me worried about how it was maintained, it's simple to find out how much oil each car takes and then to measure that amount to go in, perhaps not even the right oil spec used.

Have you thought of importing one from Japan yourself, priced very cheap...
https://www.japanesecartrade.com/stock_list.php?make_id=1&maker_id=134&mfg_from=2013&mfg_to=2013&SA=make&isSearched=1

Duke O Smiley

Just an fyi, expect surface rust on the underside of any Jap import you view. As for brake discs rusting, the car must have been sitting for a while (like a lot of cars over the last few months I suppose), this will clear off after about five minutes driving.

Obviously the new car market has been badly hit, but other than that it seems to be business as usual more or less on the likes on Donedeal, that goes for private and dealer ads/sales. In our case (small dealer) we’ve upped the price of Jap imports because there won’t be any more coming into the country for a while. We sold and delivered two last week over the phone.

You might come across a private seller desperate to sell and get whatever he can, but I think for now many are holding tight and hoping things don’t hit rock bottom.

As mentioned above though a 7k offer on an 8k car from a private sale is not ludicrous. If he didn’t even counter with something in between you’re probably better off looking elsewhere though.

corks finest

The One Doctor wrote: »

I've been looking at 2013 Priuses privately. With the private market not great right now I've been offering low money.

For instance, today I looked at one that was advertised for €8000, Jap import. Originally had it advertised for 9250. He used it for 4000km and is now selling it on with 135k Kms. Grand car but in my view not worth 8k... cat conv and brake discs beginning to rust, oil overfilled, entertainment system still in Japanese... minor things.

I offer him 7k cash, take it or leave it. He said he'd spent €8600 getting it here, vrting and NCTing it, and refused. Fair enough, I'm not in a hurry to buy.

Am I mad to think he'd never get 8k for it right now?

Shop around,and if I was you I'd buy from a garage,not all of them expect huge profits, Declan Gill Santry usually has a decent selection,gives a decent trade-in price, most are jap imports with good spec
PS I couldn't get anything local within my price range and had to travel to Dublin,visited 8 plus garages,did my homework previously,hit what I wanted, saved over e800 by travelling