Selling a banger. Price?

John2002

Hi guys,

I'm planning to sell an old banger, if anyone will buy it! What kind of price do you think I could get for an 85 Micra, 54k miles (seriously!), and NCT'd until July '04? It's in good condition, very clean.

Cheers,

John

Hellrazer

Should get about €400-€500 for it.A years cheap driving for someone!!!!1

John2002

Originally posted by RicardoSmith
Sometimes they still do a scrappage deal where you can get anywhere from 1000 to 2000 off a new car. even if you don't want the new car, once you have the new car you can register it in another persons name and sell it to them.

That's not a bad idea. I think my mother might be buying a new car in the next month or two.

BrianD3

I think some of you guys have failed to understand something about the motor trade. Those scrappage deals give you a discount off the *list* price of the car. You would get a substantial discount anyway if you just walked into the showroom and bought the car on a straight deal with no part exchange/scrappage because there's a margin for discounting built into the list price.

Lets say you want a Micra which has a list price of ~14,000 euros. Ask how much the discount is, haggle a little, and you should be able to get at least 8-10% i.e 1400 euros

Now walk into the same showroom with your piece of sh!te banger which is worth maybe 100 quid. If they offer you 1000 quid off the list price in exchange for your car (doesn't matter whether they say its a part exchange or a scrappage) you're going to think you're getting a great deal cos it appears that they've just offered you 1000 quid for a car worth 100 when in fact you're getting less of a discount than in a straight deal *and* in a straight deal you get to keep your old car to maybe sell privately for a few quid.

Obviously, this doesn't apply to manufacturers who have "open book" prices i.e no discounts but I believe only Opel and Fiat use this system.

Brian

BrianD3

OK you seem to have gotten a good deal on the car. But in the original post you said you got 2k for your old car. So, did you get 2k off the list price (i.e the 2k included the discount for a straight deal) or did you get 2k off the cash price. I'll bet it was the first one, in other words you didn't get 2k for your old car you got 2k minus the discount. If you got 2k as well a discount there's no way that you got the same discount that you would have gotten on a straight deal after haggling - it's impossible! You probably got a much smaller discount or else you underestimated the value of your part exchange and they gave you a lot less for it than it was worth. Car dealers are not charities after all and the profit margins on small cars such as micras are relatively poor anyway. Also there's a high demand for these cars, dealers have no difficulty selling them so the getting rid of stock argument isn't really applicable here. OK lets say a dealer has some old model micras in stock and a totally new shape is introduced (as happened recently) then yeah there would be very good deals on the old models. Bu then you have to consider that the old model will depreciate more rapidly after the new one is introduced which must also be considered by a prospective buyer.

Brian

Blitzkrieger

It sounds like you got a good deal Ricardo, but Brian is giving some good advice.

Of course the first rule is never believe anything the dealer says. If they say they'll give you at least €1,000 trade in/scrappage on any old car, it really means they've upped the prices on all their cars by €1,000. If you see a dealer advertising this, you know you can get at least €1,000 knocked off the sticker price if you don't give him your old car. Maybe a little more, if he's really sick of dealing with other people's rejects. Sometimes dealers have to sell those cars they get in as trade ins at a loss just to get rid of them (especially if it's an old/unpopular model), and hope to come out ahead with the profit they made selling you the new car.

The dealers also get a commission for selling you a finance package so haggle with that too. The discount you get might come out of his commission, but he can't afford to let you walk out the door and buy somewhere else.

The way to get the best deal is to walk in there with a wad of cash (not literally - you'll be mugged), sell your old car privately, and haggle on the price of the new car on it's own. A common trick is to make you sit in a cramped office for ages untill you'll sign anything to get out of there. Sometimes the salesman will be really pushy and sometimes he'll be so nice you'll feel obligated to him. No matter what, be prepared to walk out the door and buy somewhere else.

Never say : "We'll have a deal if you can give me that car at €x,xxx". Always ask : "Can you give me that car for €x,xxx", because once you've agreed on the price of the car, you can sometimes squeeze some extra out of him. It doesn't work so well at small, local dealers, but with big dealers you can try to get a set of alloy wheels off them. If a set costs €1,000 retail, the dealer can probably buy them at trade prices, and will still turn a profit if he sells them to you at €800. See if they'll fit them for free.

See what else they can offer. Maybe a phone kit, or a stereo. See if you can extend the warranty. See if they'll give you a service package. A new (make sure it's new) set of tyres at a discount. Always try to get the best price out of them for everything you add. While you're saving yourself money at every turn, the dealer's profit is still rising with everything you add.

If you're feeling really cheeky, ask him to throw in a set of floor mats or a tank of petrol.

"If you can give me that car with the alloys, new tyres, extended warranty, floor mats, etc. for €x,xxx, we have a deal."