Selling Cars Privately

[Carlos]

Yay that's great news

Have a chap coming from London in the morning and he's just phoned to confirm that it's still available and that I'm expecting him, fingers crossed!

[Carlos]

Text at 9.15am its too far to come!

After at least a dozen no shows it's gone to the trade at £2650

Fucking brutal cost of ownership. I don't even want to add it up but it's way in excess of the £5150 i bought it for after depreciation over 18 months.

My daughter loved it and will look back on it as a great first car so that's what matters

[scotta]

FFS.

[Carlos]

It was the third weekend in a row we hadn't gone away due to expecting people and my wife rightly so had a wobbler, I went old school driving around a few local used car places to punt it on.

My favourite piece of feedback was " that's too exotic for us" which sums up how conservative car buyers are locally

[scotta]

What spec was it?

[Carlos]

Twinair so 875cc 2 cylinder turbo, another dealer commented that he'd had a couple of bad experiences with them in Fiats but i suspect the chap meant Alfa's in general.

[Matty]

My favourite piece of feedback was " that's too exotic for us" which sums up how conservative car buyers are locally

Still amazes me that people consider Alfa to be some kind of exotic manufacturer. I used to get it with the 147 and 156...I understand the unreliability concerns of old, but in the case of the 156 it was a black herse on castor wheels, but talked to me like I'd bought some spices back on a boat from the far East.

[Mito Man]

Exotic

[integrale_evo]

Crazy. I bet if it was a corsa of the same spec / engine, age ( yeah, I know they didn’t do a twin air corsa, just imagine) I bet they’d have been biting your hand off for it

[Ascender]

Holy thread bump Batman...

Put the camper van/motorhome up for sale on Autotrader a few days ago. Immediate interest which was good and I guess makes sense as we're coming into Spring.

Punter one... Very interested, sets a time to come the next day. Doesn't appear. I phone him and he says he's interested, then offers 5K under the asking price.

Punter two.. Comes to view it. Loves it. Doesn't seem to know how bank transfers work so goes to the local branch. Says he then has an appointment with the bank the next day. That comes and goes. I text him... "can't get access to my bank at the moment so can't take it. thought I'd texted you."

Punter one... Back in the game mid-punter two shenanigans. "Is it still for sale?". Yes, but someone is coming to look at it and seems very interested. "Is he Irish?" Excuse me. "If he's Irish, it's a scam, he's coming back to nick it. My offer of 5K under is still on the table." Block.

Punters three to five... Can't read the advert. Or CBA to read the advert. But are definitely interested. Hmmm...

Punter six... Suspicious because it's "too clean inside and out" so we must be hiding something. He's thinking about it.

Punter seven... Would we deliver it to Essex?

Webuyanycar/motorhome specialist division... Opening offer is half what we're looking for. Even with their profit margin, feels like its a very bad offer.

We now have someone asking for a lot more photos and videos who seems to have done his homework so we'll see how that goes.

[dinny_g]

"If he's Irish, it's a scam, he's coming back to nick it. My offer of 5K under is still on the table." Block.

Outrageous

but in all seriousness, if any interested parties were Irish, double the locks

[Carlos]

Our motorhome is at a dealer sale or return, i couldn't face dealing with the public

[Ascender]

Our motorhome is at a dealer sale or return, i couldn't face dealing with the public

Yeah, I'm starting to regret my move already. By next week I'll be phoning the first guy back... "pikeys eh? so, that offer of you tea-bagging me and taking the van, is that still on the table?"

[Beany]

I had a guy offer me £3500 CASH for the BMW today, as it sits, shedlike. Same guy I mentioned before who was very very very very enthusiastic about buying it off me a couple of months ago.

I told him I'd think about it then, and I've told him I'm keeping it now. Because frankly, he's a bit annoying in his keenness. Keen enough to ring alarm bells, frankly.

This guy kept at me (and I wanted to get shot of the BMW since it started going wonky after this) and apparently will be providing me with a deposit tonight.

It was meant to be last night. It was actually meant to be two weeks ago but he broke his phone, yadda yadda...

Tick tock motherfucker, neighbour is interested too...

[Explosive Newt]

I always think buying a second hand car privately must be torture but then I read these threads and realise that all you have to do is turn up when you say and offer the asking price and people will fall over each other to sell you the car!

[Rich B]

I've bought and sold plenty of cars privately - the old adage about buying/selling from/to the person is so true. If they come across as genuine, chances are the car/sale will be genuine too.

Any call/email that starts with an offer below the asking price is a waste of time.

[Carlos]

I was asking £18k for my E46 M3 which was mint and still under extended warranty. Chap turns up loves the car and offers me £15k I decline and a local dealer offered to sale or return it for £17,500 to me as he didn't need to prep or warranty it.

The same pleb bought it off him a few days later for circa £19,500!

That is what you are dealing with lol

[Beany]

Deposit taking. Moaning on the internet works!

[Matty]

I've lowballed people - but I usually do it early doors so not to waste their time, and also with reason; like giving comparitive dealer prices, what it's worth p/x and how I've settled on it where I am. I've had it work in the past, and in fact, very recently (although I still rejected the car!)

But like Rich says, for selling it's reading the person. How emails are written, texts are handled. I never, ever take phone calls until I know they're genuine....and you can usually filter out the proper mongs.

Of course, anyone selling an AMG, M or RS car privately has my utmost sympathy. I've heard enough tales, innit.

[Jimexpl]

I've lowballed people - but I usually do it early doors so not to waste their time, and also with reason; like giving comparitive dealer prices, what it's worth p/x and how I've settled on it where I am. I've had it work in the past, and in fact, very recently (although I still rejected the car!)

But like Rich says, for selling it's reading the person. How emails are written, texts are handled. I never, ever take phone calls until I know they're genuine....and you can usually filter out the proper mongs.

Of course, anyone selling an AMG, M or RS car privately has my utmost sympathy. I've heard enough tales, innit.

I don't know if it's because I've done a significant amount of time in the motor trade, but I had no real issues selling a couple of M cars privately, or an RS for a friend. You get loads of crap enquiries, but don't ask any of them if they'd like to see it; just give them the info they ask for on phone/email/text then shut up. The genuine buyers will come back asking to arrange a visit. The messers/dreamers always say 'yes' if you are the one asking them to come and look at it.