This week's EV bargain that I'm not buying

It's a great time to buy an used EV bargain for sure especially if you're a cash buyer and are good in haggling.

The reality is that a true bargain will sell in a few days. It’s usually a seller who wants it gone asap, a sought after car, and priced at the lowest in the market for a similar condition car.

If you’re car isn’t sold in the first week, it’s not a bargain. It might be cheap, but not a sought after car - or a sought after car but not priced low enough to sell immediately.

If your car is on the market for 2-3 weeks, and your mindset is that “it’s a bargain and I know it is” - you’re probably wrong.

There are at least 135 24kWh Leafs for sale at the moment (at least 4 from boardsies in the last couple of weeks) priced from €3,750 to €14,750. That's a lot of Leafs available in a market that hasn't seen such stagnation in 16 years.

The cheapest one I see is a 2012 with 128k klms on the clock. Claimed range of 70km with no pics of active dash, so probably only 6 or 7 bars. There's another for same price with 143k klms and 9 of 12 bars still there. Both are Acentas and are well priced IMO.

The cheapest Tekna is a €4,500 2013 with 115k klms with 10 of 12 bars and is reserved, or sold already.

The next cheapest available Tekna is a €5,250 2014 with 178k klms with 10 of 12 bars. I consider it a bargain I'm not buying this week.

The next cheapest Teknas are mine and another with similar mileage at €5,500. The other has no battery info, but I assume it's also 10 bars.

It's a market full of hesitant buyers. I know, because I spent many months looking around at 40kWh Leafs when I knew exactly what I wanted. I even kept an eye on and viewed a few 24kWh Leafs as a possible purchase, or a way to best price my own. I wasn't impressed with most of what I viewed, but then we are talking about 8-10 year old models I was viewing. I passed over several bargains posted here which hung around for a few weeks, not because they were not bargains, but because buyers are scarce right now. Remember the Ioniq that didn't shift for weeks at 8.5k asking? Definite bargain, but nobody ready to snap it up in the current market. Nothing is selling quickly. Nothing.

I’d suggest you keep the Leaf for your kids if it’s as good as you describe. You’ll end up paying as much or more for something similar in 12 months time.

They might be decently priced, I don't know, but I think the issue with the lower end of the market is, who is the target market?

I'm sure there are people you know that where a 70-100km range car would suit the majority of their driving, but how many of them would be happy to live with the limitations of it? That Megane would do the runs to the shop, and the school runs but basically nothing else. I can't think of a single person who want those limitations, I know a few who could live with it for the vast majority of driving, but none who would take the plunge.

They potentially suit a couple as the second car, but there is other capital investment like a charger, or maybe even the effort of changing to a energy plan that makes it a bit of hassle. Also, unless they know about the benifits of how cheap it an Ev is, they aren't going to be searching for one.

The other issue with couples is it needs buy in from both, I was talking to a couple last week and explaining about our EV and the cost to run, even something relatively short range like a ioniq 38 100% would suit them, would probably save them 2k a year on fuel and they could trade up from their current second car which is a 161 ice for not huge money. One was all for it, the other wasn't , so the end result is they aren't changing!

My initial thought of going electric was something cheap like a 30kWh leaf, but by the time I had researched the real world range, my 55km each way commute to work, mostly motorway, would have been a challenge. There is a charger at work, but if they are all used up or not working, I'd be stranded! So we eneded up raising the bar of what we were looking for

Assuming the Megane is running fine, someone with the right set of circumstances could nearly have the car pay itself off in fuel savings alone in a year or two. But that person needs to know it exists , not be be put off by the fear/doubt that's the general public's opinion on older EVs, accept that there is no battery warranty and be willing to take that risk/punt.

And the newer 30kWh leafs are nearly worse off in some ways, obviously they should be worth more, but their target audience is basically the same as the bottom end of the market, someone looking for the cheapest car possible. Im sure the 141 leaf is a much nicer place to be than the Megane, and the battery is probably much healthier too, but does the additional range put it in a different category of car? I'm not sure. They have even recently lost their app too right as they were using 2g?

The only reason I would sell now is to have the spare cash to spend on home solar additions. In 12 months time, I can find a bargain, rather than leave the car waiting for months without being used.

I don't know why the market has turned so stale recently. Sales of everything have taken a steep dive, not just EVs. Without going off topic too much, bullion prices are high when the market goes stale and I just checked silver and gold prices have taken off. This happened during covid, and worst of all in 2008/9. I made a small killing on Silver coin during Covid. Just when I needed it as a broke áss student 😂 .

Let's say I offered the car gone for €1k and you knew it was legit. You would buy it not because you wanted to drive it, but because you know you could flip it for significantly more. So…you kinda were meaning to be facetious. There's less demand for cars at the moment. Loan rates are high and although 5 or 6 grand is relatively small money, it's still not the kind of cash most people have between the cushions. My Brother practically begged me to sell the car to him for weekly payments, but while I would like to sell it to family, that doesn't help me with my Solar.

If something is a genuine bargain someone will buy it and flip it.

I suppose I will have to see. I'll keep mine at €5.5k for a week and if not sold by this time next Sunday, I am keeping it. I am going to keep firm on the price too. I am part of the car market, so I also get to decide what it's worth. I would be very, very surprised if it's not sold by then.

Following that logic, there is no such thing as a bargain and there is no rip-off sale, because that's what X sold for on the market.

”Nothing is selling quickly. Nothing’”

This simply isn’t true. I have sold at least 1 car per week for the past 12 weeks with no issues. I wasn’t asking bargain basement prices either. Some cars taking a couple of weeks to sell whereas others are selling within a couple of days. I haven’t had to bump my Donedeal adds that much.

And other posters stating that nobody has any money to spend on cars anymore is incorrect too. My price range is €5,000 to €15,000 and I’m having no problem finding customers for standard petrol cars. And I don’t offer any warranty or finance. Just standard private sales.

Lots of posters in the Bangernomics threads buying or selling cars petrol and diesel cars too. Sorry guys but it seems like its just the EV market that is stale. The only car I’m having trouble with selling is an EV.

There's a market for everything though

If I take my own cars,

222 model3 RWD, 232 ora funky cat, 2011 leaf, 2002 jag s type, 2000 merc e240 w210, 1999 peugeot 406 TD estate, 1994 toyota corona 2.0d. All of them if I listed at the following firesale prices (25,000, 23,000, 2000,1000,1500, 750,1500 respectively) I would bet my left ball they would all be gone inside a week. Maybe a couple of weeks for the first two.

wrt to the m3 rwd there were two 221 plate m3's i was watching on DD that were listed at 29 and 31k respectively. both were sold within 10 days. at 25k your hand would snapped off and you'd be down 1 bollock.

https://www.adverts.ie/car/nissan/leaf/2013-nissan-leaf-tekna-6-6/33406155

Shameless bargain suggestion - happy to negotiate with a boardsie.