Anyone bought or sold a car privately recently?

[Stevoraith]

Pricing seems all over the place just now.

Did an initial WBAC quote for mine nearly three weeks ago.
Had two emails since then increasing the offer, now at about £350 more than the initial offer.
Nothing like the wild variations you saw but definitely unusual I’d say.

No wonder your car sold so quick if you priced it at what WBAC offered, I’m hoping for a bit more

[ryallm]

I sold my Caterham recently via Pistonheads. The buyer called me from a pipe laying ship in the North Sea, and paid a deposit after I'd given him a video walk around of the car. 3 weeks later he flew from Norway to Amsterdam, then to Edinburgh. Met him at the airport where he transferred the rest of the money, before driving up to Ullapool in pouring rain to catch the ferry to Stornoway where he lived. That is keen Caterhams are a very niche market of course, but I reckon a good car at the right price will sell even in these strange times, and a video walk around always helps give potential buyers confidence.

[rossybee]

I sold my Caterham recently via Pistonheads. The buyer called me from a pipe laying ship in the North Sea, and paid a deposit after I'd given him a video walk around of the car. 3 weeks later he flew from Norway to Amsterdam, then to Edinburgh. Met him at the airport where he transferred the rest of the money, before driving up to Ullapool in pouring rain to catch the ferry to Stornoway where he lived. That is keen Caterhams are a very niche market of course, but I reckon a good car at the right price will sell even in these strange times, and a video walk around always helps give potential buyers confidence.

Wasn't a chap called Finlay by any chance?

[ryallm]

I sold my Caterham recently via Pistonheads. The buyer called me from a pipe laying ship in the North Sea, and paid a deposit after I'd given him a video walk around of the car. 3 weeks later he flew from Norway to Amsterdam, then to Edinburgh. Met him at the airport where he transferred the rest of the money, before driving up to Ullapool in pouring rain to catch the ferry to Stornoway where he lived. That is keen Caterhams are a very niche market of course, but I reckon a good car at the right price will sell even in these strange times, and a video walk around always helps give potential buyers confidence.

Wasn't a chap called Finlay by any chance?

Nope, not a Findlay. Can't imagine there are too many Caterhams in the Outer Hebrides though!

[Stevoraith]

That is dedication!
I think you’re right that the right car/right price combo should always find a buyer.

Mine won’t be the cheapest but it is a good one and hopefully that will show in the advert.
Never thought of a video walk around but it’s a good idea to offer one, it’s always useful when a dealer does it.

[scott_e]

Spotted this article from 5th Oct. Will be having a huge effect on used car supply , pushing up prices.

"Worst September for UK car sales this century"
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-54415947

Just to check my argument spotted this.

https://cardealermagazine.co.uk/publish ... nse/197770
"Reports suggest the used car market is currently buzzing with consumers flocking to car dealers and the motor trade is running seriously low on stock."
"Demand is likely to outstrip supply"

Good time to sell if you have something good

[rossybee]

Bought a car on Sunday, collect this afternoon.

Specialist Cars Skoda in Dundee.

A few things done remotely such as payment but other than the wiping down of pens/iPads during the deposit phase it's been fine!

[Stevoraith]

Thought I would update this thread now that it has a resolution.
Sold the car today after 6weeks on sale.

All of the serious potential buyers came from Autotrader.

I only had one response from gumtree who asked in his first message if I’d take £8k for a car that was advertised at £9600.

Quite a few responses on Facebook marketplace. The majority were from Eastern European guys and the majority wanted me to take a part-ex.
I was offered An A4 S-line, a convertible Jaguar XK8 and a 300k mile Passat.
Needless to say I passed on those.

I had a small nibble from my advert on here but that didn’t come to anything.

I think in all I must have had a dozen responses on Autotrader- 3 Serious sounding emails In the first 24hrs..... but then BoJo announced a lockdown in England the following day and everything went quiet.
Then in the last week I had two serious buyers- one who said he would collect it as soon as he got the insurance payout for his written off car but was travelling from Manchester and then a more local guy who came this morning and paid full asking price.

So in summary it’s not easy to sell a car privately at the moment.
If I was selling a similar priced car again I’d advertise on here and on Autotrader and probably wouldn’t bother with Facebook or gumtree- I think those are for cheaper cars to be honest.

[douglasgdmw]

Good that you got the car sold and for what you wanted.

No surprise that Facebook/Gumtree generated a load of chancers as found that with the Defender.

George

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

[Stevoraith]

I also found that the normal etiquette of buying a car doesn’t tend to apply on Facebook/ Gumtree.
A lot of the chancers who contacted on those platforms tended to go straight in with “what’s your lowest price?”

Eh no, that’s not how it works. I’ve put a price in the advert. If you don’t want to pay that, make me an offer and we’ll probably meet somewhere between the two.
That’s how it works.

Or am I just an old fart that is refusing to move with the times?

[StiflerMR2]

I think most people understand there is the price you advertise for and the price you're willing to take. I'd read it as people just short cutting to the latter tbh.

Selling anything these days is a real pita and my last few cars I've just offloaded direct to specialist dealers. Yes, I've lost some money on the sale price but I gained a lot of time back with zero hassle and instant payment.

Trying to buy atm is proving a bit of a struggle but that's mainly due to lack of stock!

Glad you got the car away for the price you wanted.

[Stevoraith]

I think most people understand there is the price you advertise for and the price you're willing to take. I'd read it as people just short cutting to the latter tbh.

Yeah, I get that, but why does a buyer expect a seller to remove all of their bargaining power in one go?
The buyer may have been willing to pay more than my absolute minimum so why should I reveal that straight off that bat?
Buyer and seller both want to get the best price for them so why should one party instantly go to their worst-case price?

Play the game- make an offer that you think is a bit cheeky and expect me to knock you up a bit to what we both know the car is worth.
That's the way I look at it anyway- maybe it's just the younger generation who are used to things happening instantly and can't be bothered with a bit of back-and-forth!

Anyway, won't be selling another car for a few years so don't have to worry about that for a while.

[rossybee]

My gumtree experiences (not just with cars) is frustrating at times - some folk are downright rude, like if selling something for say £250, the first message was just a number, and one which is/was nowhere near the advertised price, such as "100".

I got to the stage of replying with "100 what?"

My take on this is that there's the faceless element which makes it easier to make a cheeky offer in an unpleasant and downright lazy fashion, and not be on the end of verbal abuse or a punch on the nose

I sold our old trusty Volvo Estate a few years ago via Gummers and it was laughable some of the messages I received.

Further up the tree it's definitely a crap time to sell - I didn't get any real bites with the Cerbera, but then I wasn't desperate to sell and therefore didn't stoop to some of the silly offers received.

At the end of the day, buying/selling is all about how keen you are to buy or sell, and where your financial limits lie

That's said, if anyone fancies a healthy yellow TVR I'll possibly be advertising early spring - time to eventually scratch the quarter-century lotus itch

[woody]

Sold my 330d via Facebook marketplace and Gumtree a few months ago. Absolute torture.

Bought a mini via Collecting cars after that, very easy in comparison. Actually, too easy. Oops.

[campbell]

Ross, it’s a feature of the remote emotionless comms enabled by “Web 2.0” a few years back.

Totally agree people feel shielded by the lack of verbals and/or eye contact / physical presence. Makes the lesser types more gallus. (sp)

Others are just sh*t with devices / keyboards and are necessarily terse. Which we can interpret as rude.

Even the phone would be better, since it’s a synchronous convo and tone can / will be transmitted.

Steve, as for negotiation skills, that’s a whole other topic. Amazon’s “one-click-to-buy” simplicity has made purchasing too easy and even eBay’s auto-bidding system removes the need for thought / strategy. New generation don’t stand a chance

I think a lot of people have learned a lot about true human nature this year. That may be a good thing or a bad thing. I like to think it’s good - we might get along a bit better as a result. Bit more consideration / empathy for others perhaps.

Optimist over n out