Supercars For Sale

[Ken_Code]

Tyre-kickers and dreamers* are a real thing, and avoiding them is worth a significant amount of money.

The economics all-round of having a dealer prepare and warranty the car (and likely get a higher selling price for it) make more sense as the price of the car increases.

• and theives.

[ex-devonpaul]

mirsgarage said:

There is an image problem with a private sale supercar, I think. It attracts low-ball offers, traders, and generally if you're selling the car yourself, you're usually at or under the market floor, as no dealer margin to consider, so you'll go 4-5k under what a dealer would price it at, and you're still 10k+ better off.

Other things to consider.....

For a lot of people with these cars, especially multiples, their time, peace of mind, and perhaps most importantly privacy, is worth more than a few grand. Given depreciation from new, the difference for first or second owners is not worth the hassle. They can haggle that off their RR SVR daily.

As they get older and drop to the £100k range, then things start to change. At that level £10k less to a dealer is a large amount of the price, although SOR then starts to look attractive. Less of a cost, but still fairly hassle free. The problem then is they are more affordable to the optimists and chancers, so you get the idiots crawling out of the woodwork. Not just the complete idiots, you'll always get those, but the sort that think they migt be able to possibly afford it and convince you to let them have a spin behind the wheel.

There's also a whiff of "tight with money" on a private sale - rather like those that sell a £750k house through Purplebricks. They're either very confident in their negotiating skills, or think they are, and you're deling with a personal investment in their asset that a trader doesn't have and some don't take well to having faults pointed out.

Then there's the "what's wrong with it, why doesn't a dealer want it?" issue.

Older 'classics' are slightly different, I think 360/430 or 12C R8 V8 etc are old enough to to appreal to the Instagrammers and more likely to be bought privately.

[murphyaj]

Ken_Code said:

The economics all-round of having a dealer prepare and warranty the car (and likely get a higher selling price for it) make more sense as the price of the car increases.

Dealers do add genuine value to the sale, even if it's down to the buyer/seller whether it is actually worth it. (it's borderline for me to be honest).

Collecting Cars / Pistonheads auctions however, well they never touch the car, don't prep it, don't liaise with buyers, don't handle test drives, don't provide any warranty, don't accept any liability for accuracy, don't handle the transaction, don't provide finance and don't offer part ex, and don't provide the buyer with legal protection under the Sale Of Goods Act, and yet somehow still manage to get away with taking a £7200 cut from the sale. Which is not that far off what a SOR dealer would take in return for doing all of those things. I will never understand how they get away with it.

[mirsgarage]

Very much does also depend on the car itself and the value of it.

Generally £100-140k I'd also be liable to take a punt on a private sale. Probably a bit more. But once you get to £200k or thereabouts I'd want some dealer involvement. If it's a bit of a special car, i.e my Pista, I'd be very hesistant to go with a private sale and would want a car that's in the dealer network, unless the price was significantly below dealer floors.

[NRG1976]

It’s a hassle to sell a car, if you want to avoid the chore then trade it in.

Money saved vs. effort is a personal equation for each individual.

[RSbandit]

I sold a 570s privately in 2022, had car fully serviced and prepped before advertising and also had the balance of the manufacturers warranty which could be transferred to the new owner upon sale, the latter point is a massive help when selling one of those. Serious buyers tended to call and I had about 4 of those over the 2 weeks it was advertised. The dreamers would usually email bidding way below or offering an exchange , v easy to ignore those types of messages and simply not respond. I was realistic on price and had the service and warranty to offer peace of mind so it was sold within 2 weeks of advertising. I’d estimate a £7k saving for 7/8 hours of time all told. This was a sub £80k car but wouldn’t be afraid to try it again on a higher value one.

[Ken_Code]

NRG1976 said:

It’s a hassle to sell a car, if you want to avoid the chore then trade it in.

Money saved vs. effort is a personal equation for each individual.

Why? Why not have a dealer sell it for you if that works better?

[Sarnie]

Ken_Code said:

Why? Why not have a dealer sell it for you if that works better?

Define "works better"?

What "works better" for me, is to not give away £20k and spend a bit of time selling the car myself, this is what I did with all 4 of my McLaren's.

[Ken_Code]

Sarnie said:

Define "works better"?

What "works better" for me, is to not give away £20k and spend a bit of time selling the car myself, this is what I did with all 4 of my McLaren's.

Which dealer was going to charge you £20,000 to sell it for you? That’s more than twice the highest amount I’ve ever been quoted.

[murphyaj]

Sarnie said:

Ken_Code said:

Why? Why not have a dealer sell it for you if that works better?

Define "works better"?

What "works better" for me, is to not give away £20k and spend a bit of time selling the car myself, this is what I did with all 4 of my McLaren's.

I think he means why are you apparently excluding selling through a dealer as an option. You said if you don't want to sell privately then trade in, which sounds like you are excluding the middle ground of SOR. That may or may not have been your intention.

[Boleros]

I tried selling my F430 last year and whilst I didn’t have that many enquiries, the quality of stupidity was excellent. Questions about whether the cam belts had been done, whether I would take a swap plus cash for some barried up monstrosity and straightforward lowball cash (bruv) offers.

I did have one genuine enquirer but in the end I kept the car, at least for another year anyway. Trouble is I have no idea what to replace it with. Another discussion perhaps!

[Sarnie]

Ken_Code said:

Which dealer was going to charge you £20,000 to sell it for you? That’s more than twice the highest amount I’ve ever been quoted.

Have you ever had a bid on your car from a McLaren dealer? If you can even get one at all.......

That leaves SOR but there are way too many horror stories of dealers disappearing with cars and/or the money.

Plus, I want to to maintain use of the car........

[murphyaj]

Boleros said:

I tried selling my F430 last year and whilst I didn’t have that many enquiries, the quality of stupidity was excellent. Questions about whether the cam belts had been done, whether I would take a swap plus cash for some barried up monstrosity and straightforward lowball cash (bruv) offers.

While I had more success than you selling my 430 I must admit I did have more than 1 person asking if the cambelt had been changed recently.

Honestly I think the biggest problem with selling privately is the fairly small pool of buyers who are willing to purchase a car like this without the safety net of a dealership. That means that while a car will sell at the right price it requires patience as you wait for a buyer to come around. I was in no rush and purchased an unlimited AutoTrader advert, fully expecting to be waiting for months but being happy to do so. It was the same with my DB9, the sale was painless it just took a long time, I had nothing for weeks on end, no calls or emails, then eventually I got a call and the first person to see the car bought it.

[Ken_Code]

murphyaj said:

I think he means why are you apparently excluding selling through a dealer as an option. You said if you don't want to sell privately then trade in, which sounds like you are excluding the middle ground of SOR. That may or may not have been your intention.

Exactly so. Telling people that they are wrong to have a dealer sell it for them is a bit strange.

If that’s what works best for people then why is he telling them not to do it?

[Boleros]

murphyaj said:

Boleros said:

I tried selling my F430 last year and whilst I didn’t have that many enquiries, the quality of stupidity was excellent. Questions about whether the cam belts had been done, whether I would take a swap plus cash for some barried up monstrosity and straightforward lowball cash (bruv) offers.

While I had more success than you selling my 430 I must admit I did have more than 1 person asking if the cambelt had been changed recently.

Honestly I think the biggest problem with selling privately is the fairly small pool of buyers who are willing to purchase a car like this without the safety net of a dealership. That means that while a car will sell at the right price it requires patience as you wait for a buyer to come around. I was in no rush and purchased an unlimited AutoTrader advert, fully expecting to be waiting for months but being happy to do so. It was the same with my DB9, the sale was painless it just took a long time, I had nothing for weeks on end, no calls or emails, then eventually I got a call and the first person to see the car bought it.

Lol, you had the cambelt question as well? Bonkers. But yes, completely agree with you that the pool is small. I bought mine privately so I know it can be done but as you say, you need a bit of patience.

[Griffith4ever]

murphyaj said:

I just sold my 430 privately it was absolutely fine. I sold two of my three Aston Martins privately, and both times that was also fine. I bought the Ferrari privately too, and the guy I bought it from also hadn't had any bother.

I think people really do build up the problems in their minds. They have convinced themselves that they will be absolutely inundated with non-stop time wasters, or badgered by traders. None of that happened. It took a good while to sell the car, about 10 weeks I think, but that is because I put it on for an optimistic price and gradually lowered it until people started to bite.

I probably took no more than 10 to 15 phone calls, mostly people asking for more information. There was quite a bit of back and forth over emails regarding things like service history and condition, but that is just understandable due diligence. Three people came to see the car, of which only two wanted to be taken out in it as passengers and one was satisfied with a walk around, but all were happy to wait until a deposit was paid until driving it on the road. I would estimate I spent maybe 6 to 8 hours cumulatively taking pictures, writing the ad, on the phone, answering emails or showing people the car, and for that I ended up getting £8000 more than the best price I was offered part ex, and £5000 more than the estimate I was offered via SOR; and for that I would have been without my car for potentially months as they wanted to hold it.

So my time spend dealing with the sale privately netted me somewhere around £700 to £1000 an hour. I'm okay with that. I totally get that some people are just simply too busy to do any of that, or are so wealthy that £8000 is not worth half a day of their time. But the idea that you can't possibly sell privately because it'll be a horror show is simply not true.

And no, bank transfers can't be recalled as long as it is a direct transfer from a UK bank to a UK bank. Once it's in your account it's your money. I did get one person asking to pay cash, but I declined and he accepted that.

Honestly I think that all this fuss about selling privately being a nightmare is just a bunch of people who have never done it getting all hot and bothered and talking themselves into a corner. It's like McLaren ownership; non stop horror stories all over the internet and most of them from people who have never owned a McLaren.

Edited by murphyaj on Tuesday 7th May 09:20

That all echos my experience . I've sold lots of fast cars and it's all been easy enough. You just have to be patient, honest, and ignore the idiots. - I don't even reply to the piss takers. Never had any fraud attempts either. It's very, very obvious when a real buyer gets in touch. You can tell instantly when someone actually wants to buy your car.

I did have a laugh once with a very much not-supercar. Mazda Bongo camper. Agreed a price, deposit paid, 100% clear that that was the deal, non negotiable - I had loads of interest so deposit was to buy and take it off the market. the "lady" sent a Polish chap down with a holdall with cash. He tried to take £2k off and "found" all sorts of "issues". I just stood my ground. He had several heated conversations on the phone with the "lady" buyer. He had to catch a 20 min taxi from the station to me and I simply walked off and told him to order a cab back to the station. He soon came round and paid the agreed price. A actually enjoyed that :-)

[Davyt]

I advertised a 14 month old Nissan GTR back in 2019 on AT, someone from The Port of Tobago attempted to make a few calls on it but no way was I ever answering them,,

[jasonrobertson86]

Griffith4ever said:

He soon came round and paid the agreed price. A actually enjoyed that :-)

same day?

[Griffith4ever]

jasonrobertson86 said:

Griffith4ever said:

He soon came round and paid the agreed price. A actually enjoyed that :-)

same day?

Yep - as in "came around to my way of thinking". I walked back inside my house and he knocked on the door 5 mins later and said, "OK, I pay".

I quite literally had to say, "look, your boss agreed the price, that's the price you are paying, or, you need ot catch a cab and go home", and walked away :-)

[Davyt]

Good on you !