Tales of selling your car private
Discussion
Most unfortunate car-selling moment I had was with a Mk3 Golf GTI I owned whilst at law school. A youngish fellow and his father came to view it only for the dratted clutch to fail mid-way through the test drive! They still bought it but I had to knock £200 off the asking price…
Cars have that knack though. I recall one guy coming down to view my 500E and the Merc's wretched alarm system, which had never ever played up before and was only two years old, decided that this was the moment to have a tantrum. He left without buying it and thereafter the alarm never played up again. When I did eventually sell it, to a PHer whose exploits with it have been the subject of a PH Car Pool article, he turned up on a Sunday with the readies in cash. This had been reluctantly agreed by me in advance as he seemed (and turned about to be) a chap of good faith and the money was neatly bagged in sealed bank security packages, but still I wasn't totally comfortable until it was in the bank. Plus, don't know about you but I personally don't much enjoy sitting on the tube with a large wodge of cash in my jacket pocket – you get paranoid that everyone must know you have it.
Easiest was my 330d Touring. It sold inside a week of going on Autotrader. A pleasant young couple travelled up from Bristol one week day evening to view it, agreed on the asking price less cost of a new tax disc and, thanks to the miracle that is on-line banking, managed to pay the circa £22k into my account and drive off back to the West country in the BMW the same evening. The entire encounter took less than two hours. If only it was always that easy!
Cars have that knack though. I recall one guy coming down to view my 500E and the Merc's wretched alarm system, which had never ever played up before and was only two years old, decided that this was the moment to have a tantrum. He left without buying it and thereafter the alarm never played up again. When I did eventually sell it, to a PHer whose exploits with it have been the subject of a PH Car Pool article, he turned up on a Sunday with the readies in cash. This had been reluctantly agreed by me in advance as he seemed (and turned about to be) a chap of good faith and the money was neatly bagged in sealed bank security packages, but still I wasn't totally comfortable until it was in the bank. Plus, don't know about you but I personally don't much enjoy sitting on the tube with a large wodge of cash in my jacket pocket – you get paranoid that everyone must know you have it.
Easiest was my 330d Touring. It sold inside a week of going on Autotrader. A pleasant young couple travelled up from Bristol one week day evening to view it, agreed on the asking price less cost of a new tax disc and, thanks to the miracle that is on-line banking, managed to pay the circa £22k into my account and drive off back to the West country in the BMW the same evening. The entire encounter took less than two hours. If only it was always that easy!
Not quite on topic but.
i had an old jag that my brother liked and i bought another in exactly the same colour for a donor car and parked them nose to nose. after about 3 weeks, i had aken off everything i wanted from the donor,that night someone nicked the donor car, i dont know if they knew, but i felt very relieved.
in the same road, which was a cul de sac. the lady at the end asked me to get rid of her old mini, and gave me £50 to do it, i went out and came back later and there were two scruffy looking blokes about to put the mini on a low loader, i asked them what they was doing. they said they had been asked to tow it away, i said no they hadnt because it was mine. i said they could have it for £50, and they said yes and took it away the easiest £100 i have ever made i think :-)
i had an old jag that my brother liked and i bought another in exactly the same colour for a donor car and parked them nose to nose. after about 3 weeks, i had aken off everything i wanted from the donor,that night someone nicked the donor car, i dont know if they knew, but i felt very relieved.
in the same road, which was a cul de sac. the lady at the end asked me to get rid of her old mini, and gave me £50 to do it, i went out and came back later and there were two scruffy looking blokes about to put the mini on a low loader, i asked them what they was doing. they said they had been asked to tow it away, i said no they hadnt because it was mine. i said they could have it for £50, and they said yes and took it away the easiest £100 i have ever made i think :-)
Just been having a read of this old thread, having put Mrs Saleen's MX5 up for sale yesterday she gets an email today asking if the alloy wheels are damaged, we take pics of the wheels and forward them on (slight curbing on the rim edge on 2 of them), a reply arrives asking how the damage occured!, well I thought that was obvious so reply with the obvious answer, next reply back is asking if the car is ok driving up a kerb?!, as we are unsure about what they are asking we just reply saying the car is standard ride height and it has been parked on a kerb with no problems when using a dropped kerb, we havn't replied to their last reply as they have asked for us to take a photo of the car parked up a kerb!
Had my e46 bmw for sale on ebay and had lots of interest but no takers. Was getting ready to drop the price when I get a message asking if I would do a straight swap for a Clio 182. Bearing in mind my bmw was worth £1600 I thought a bit strange but thought why not. Met up with the guy and test drove the car, looked irt over and made sure everything checked out, then onto my car and the guy looked at it and said "yep that will do" no test drive nothing. Thought this was a bit strange but done the deal as I knew I would be coming out better off.
Kept the Clio for a month and sold it for £2400. Can't complain about that win.
Kept the Clio for a month and sold it for £2400. Can't complain about that win.
Had to sell my puma recently to fund my land rover project, now I bought my puma on a whim when I needed a cheap car to get to a course and not deprive my wife of the family snotter, read some good things about them so bought it unseen off eBay as the only bidder when I came across the advert 10 mins before the end, wife was less pleased when I asked her what her opinion of pumas was, because I was picking one up tomorrow!
Anyway I completely fell in love with that car, every journey put a smile on my face and even after I had bought my dream land rover for a ridiculously low price I considered selling it again to keep the puma so needless to say my efforts to sell it were a bit half arsed and I had overpriced it, this was not a bad car, it had a little bit of the usual surface rust on one arch but was still at the saveable stage and the clutch was a bit high but it drove lovely and the rest of it was perfect. I also had a set of toyo tyres in my shed that I had never got round to fitting, my wife got fed up and took over the selling, 2 hours after putting the advert up a young guy messages to say he'll be round in half an hour, he turns up in a battered Clio, has a look around, asks me to start it then says I'll be back later, no indication if he wants it or anything.
So a little confused a short while later I pop into town to pick up a take away, while walking back to the car said Clio drives passed me and driver shouts out he's definitely having it, be back in half an hour!
So half an hour later, he turns up, asks if we have finished dinner, pays asking price and drives off very happy!
Turns out while I was hunter/gathering he had turned up and looked gutted when he thought I might have sold it in meantime! Still miss that car!
Anyway I completely fell in love with that car, every journey put a smile on my face and even after I had bought my dream land rover for a ridiculously low price I considered selling it again to keep the puma so needless to say my efforts to sell it were a bit half arsed and I had overpriced it, this was not a bad car, it had a little bit of the usual surface rust on one arch but was still at the saveable stage and the clutch was a bit high but it drove lovely and the rest of it was perfect. I also had a set of toyo tyres in my shed that I had never got round to fitting, my wife got fed up and took over the selling, 2 hours after putting the advert up a young guy messages to say he'll be round in half an hour, he turns up in a battered Clio, has a look around, asks me to start it then says I'll be back later, no indication if he wants it or anything.
So a little confused a short while later I pop into town to pick up a take away, while walking back to the car said Clio drives passed me and driver shouts out he's definitely having it, be back in half an hour!
So half an hour later, he turns up, asks if we have finished dinner, pays asking price and drives off very happy!
Turns out while I was hunter/gathering he had turned up and looked gutted when he thought I might have sold it in meantime! Still miss that car!
This is a story of when my mate went to buy a car.
Prob 1998/99, the said car was a h reg white fiat tempra (utter filth)
He called to arrange a viewing & asked me for a lift & my other mate who was handy ish with cars.
We get to this house & there's the tempra looking hideous parked outside, it was prob a few hundred quids worth at best. Anyways the vendor comes out, guy in his late 60s, purple hair from his botched up home back to black job & he's got to massive Doberman dogs with him. He said he'd lost the keys & then chased us off his drive monty burns style about to release the hounds! Classic.
My mate ended up with a equally bad rover 400 in the end!
Prob 1998/99, the said car was a h reg white fiat tempra (utter filth)
He called to arrange a viewing & asked me for a lift & my other mate who was handy ish with cars.
We get to this house & there's the tempra looking hideous parked outside, it was prob a few hundred quids worth at best. Anyways the vendor comes out, guy in his late 60s, purple hair from his botched up home back to black job & he's got to massive Doberman dogs with him. He said he'd lost the keys & then chased us off his drive monty burns style about to release the hounds! Classic.
My mate ended up with a equally bad rover 400 in the end!
Cfnteabag said:
Had to sell my puma recently to fund my land rover project, now I bought my puma on a whim when I needed a cheap car to get to a course and not deprive my wife of the family snotter, read some good things about them so bought it unseen off eBay as the only bidder when I came across the advert 10 mins before the end, wife was less pleased when I asked her what her opinion of pumas was, because I was picking one up tomorrow!
Anyway I completely fell in love with that car, every journey put a smile on my face and even after I had bought my dream land rover for a ridiculously low price I considered selling it again to keep the puma so needless to say my efforts to sell it were a bit half arsed and I had overpriced it, this was not a bad car, it had a little bit of the usual surface rust on one arch but was still at the saveable stage and the clutch was a bit high but it drove lovely and the rest of it was perfect. I also had a set of toyo tyres in my shed that I had never got round to fitting, my wife got fed up and took over the selling, 2 hours after putting the advert up a young guy messages to say he'll be round in half an hour, he turns up in a battered Clio, has a look around, asks me to start it then says I'll be back later, no indication if he wants it or anything.
So a little confused a short while later I pop into town to pick up a take away, while walking back to the car said Clio drives passed me and driver shouts out he's definitely having it, be back in half an hour!
So half an hour later, he turns up, asks if we have finished dinner, pays asking price and drives off very happy!
Turns out while I was hunter/gathering he had turned up and looked gutted when he thought I might have sold it in meantime! Still miss that car!
Cool story and a great wee car , father in law drove one for a while and i can see what all the fuss was about.
Anyway I completely fell in love with that car, every journey put a smile on my face and even after I had bought my dream land rover for a ridiculously low price I considered selling it again to keep the puma so needless to say my efforts to sell it were a bit half arsed and I had overpriced it, this was not a bad car, it had a little bit of the usual surface rust on one arch but was still at the saveable stage and the clutch was a bit high but it drove lovely and the rest of it was perfect. I also had a set of toyo tyres in my shed that I had never got round to fitting, my wife got fed up and took over the selling, 2 hours after putting the advert up a young guy messages to say he'll be round in half an hour, he turns up in a battered Clio, has a look around, asks me to start it then says I'll be back later, no indication if he wants it or anything.
So a little confused a short while later I pop into town to pick up a take away, while walking back to the car said Clio drives passed me and driver shouts out he's definitely having it, be back in half an hour!
So half an hour later, he turns up, asks if we have finished dinner, pays asking price and drives off very happy!
Turns out while I was hunter/gathering he had turned up and looked gutted when he thought I might have sold it in meantime! Still miss that car!
Cool story and a great wee car , father in law drove one for a while and i can see what all the fuss was about.
I just put up and sold an old 2001 Pug 206 for £700, no tax but with full 12 months MOT.
Had 128K on it and some young lass wanted it for a little run around. Was up for £750 but she was kind (and attractive) and asked if I wouldn't mind taking off £50 to go towards taxing the vehicle. Agreed to this and she turned up the next day after insuring and taxing the vehicle with an envelope with exactly £700 and off she went.
Easy.
Had 128K on it and some young lass wanted it for a little run around. Was up for £750 but she was kind (and attractive) and asked if I wouldn't mind taking off £50 to go towards taxing the vehicle. Agreed to this and she turned up the next day after insuring and taxing the vehicle with an envelope with exactly £700 and off she went.
Easy.
Took me a month on autotrader to sell my 08 plate peugeot 207 sport with 58k miles... was being offered 2.5k part ex for a car worth 4k, ended up having it up for 3.3k after no interest for few weeks and then sold it at 3.2k, Pretty sure they got a good deal but I was just happy to get rid of it in the end
Thank you all, I have enjoyed this thread. 
My selling pains came from the scammers who had buyers lined up and (for shame), the first one caught me.
After that, I would speak to them for ages winding them up ('tell you what, you sell my car for what I am asking for and then I will pay you double what you are asking me for now... what do you mean no, you make it sound like some kind of con...') or putting them on hold, etc.
Once on selling on AT, I kept reducing the price towards the end of its listing period. Then a buyer came round with the paper version (showing a higher price to the website).
The car had several smaller faults like dings, having to reset the trip recorder on start up, which were priced in, but there had been little interest when people had been told about or seen them.
Trying a new tact, I showed him all the faults first and he raised his eyebrows saying 'That was honest'.
'Saves time,' I replied with a smile.
He offered me less than the magazine but more than the website, so I grabbed it, both were happy.
I recall someone who really wanted another car, but kept making silly offers and telling me they were cash (as if paper money is worth more than that transferred into the bank
) which he showed me.
Came close, but still insisted on a full tank and road tax.
I enjoyed the last phone call when he rang up with yet another (better) offer when I told him it had been sold to a nice chap who made a realistic offer. 's
t' he said, (he'd really wanted the car 
).
My selling pains came from the scammers who had buyers lined up and (for shame), the first one caught me.
After that, I would speak to them for ages winding them up ('tell you what, you sell my car for what I am asking for and then I will pay you double what you are asking me for now... what do you mean no, you make it sound like some kind of con...') or putting them on hold, etc.
Once on selling on AT, I kept reducing the price towards the end of its listing period. Then a buyer came round with the paper version (showing a higher price to the website).
The car had several smaller faults like dings, having to reset the trip recorder on start up, which were priced in, but there had been little interest when people had been told about or seen them.
Trying a new tact, I showed him all the faults first and he raised his eyebrows saying 'That was honest'.
'Saves time,' I replied with a smile.
He offered me less than the magazine but more than the website, so I grabbed it, both were happy.
I recall someone who really wanted another car, but kept making silly offers and telling me they were cash (as if paper money is worth more than that transferred into the bank
) which he showed me.Came close, but still insisted on a full tank and road tax.
I enjoyed the last phone call when he rang up with yet another (better) offer when I told him it had been sold to a nice chap who made a realistic offer. 's
t' he said, (he'd really wanted the car ).James91mr2 said:
Took me a month on autotrader to sell my 08 plate peugeot 207 sport with 58k miles... was being offered 2.5k part ex for a car worth 4k, ended up having it up for 3.3k after no interest for few weeks and then sold it at 3.2k, Pretty sure they got a good deal but I was just happy to get rid of it in the end
THe cold winter nights must fly by In your houseJames91mr2 said:
Took me a month on autotrader to sell my 08 plate peugeot 207 sport with 58k miles... was being offered 2.5k part ex for a car worth 4k, ended up having it up for 3.3k after no interest for few weeks and then sold it at 3.2k, Pretty sure they got a good deal but I was just happy to get rid of it in the end
Forgive me but then it wasn't worth 4k, was it?It all depends on what sort of car you're trying to sell. I sold my spotless Fiat 500 through Autotrader and it was a joy. Effortless sale to a lovely posh girl and her charming husband. But I once offered to sell my Dad's last car for him when he gave up driving. A five year old Nissan Bluebird. Oh Lordy Lordy. That brought out every Asian family with ten kids in tow from a twenty mile radius, all wanting to bargain me down to half the (very reasonable) asking price.
I might sell my v70 myself as I reckon the folks who buy them are usually alright...aren't they?
I might sell my v70 myself as I reckon the folks who buy them are usually alright...aren't they?
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