Advice needed on buying a K-Series Caterham Seven

[rubystone]

TTwiggy said:

It's the £12k blue one. All prices are open to negotiation of course!

Is that the car that was advertised on Blatchat? If do, you should buy it. It's a perfect 'starter' 7 with the best 'box and an engine that gives real 'fizz' without scaring the bejesus out of you.

[ForzaGilles]

rubystone said:

TTwiggy said:

It's the £12k blue one. All prices are open to negotiation of course!

Is that the car that was advertised on Blatchat? If do, you should buy it. It's a perfect 'starter' 7 with the best 'box and an engine that gives real 'fizz' without scaring the bejesus out of you.

+1

[Caterham84]

TTwiggy said:

Caterham84 said:

TTwiggy said:

There might just be a 1.4K SS in budget on the classifieds now...

I've just had a quick look, and there are now two Supersports available within my budget - one for £12,000 and one for only £9,250!! Maybe patience is the key to this game after all.

Which of them is yours?

It's the £12k blue one. All prices are open to negotiation of course!

I've just been browsing through some old threads, and I noticed that you were selling a K-series Caterham for £10,000 at the end of last year! Is this the same car?

[radical78]

might sell my 06 reg 1.6k ring 07808041479 if interested

[bertberr]

Hi there, I was looking at 7s on here about 8-10 months ago, and the prices are noticeably higher than they were then, but with (real) inflation, and time of year that's not really that surprising. I was quite interested to note that of the first 15 cars shown (in price order), 6 of them were for sale back in October when I last looked (all trade sellers)!!!
Be patient, something will come up, and if it ticks most of the boxes then pop in an offer, worst they can say is no...

[TTwiggy]

Caterham84 said:

TTwiggy said:

Caterham84 said:

TTwiggy said:

There might just be a 1.4K SS in budget on the classifieds now...

I've just had a quick look, and there are now two Supersports available within my budget - one for £12,000 and one for only £9,250!! Maybe patience is the key to this game after all.

Which of them is yours?

It's the £12k blue one. All prices are open to negotiation of course!

I've just been browsing through some old threads, and I noticed that you were selling a K-series Caterham for £10,000 at the end of last year! Is this the same car?

That was the same car, yes. Long story short, I had an opportunity presented to me but needed some quick cash to take advantage of it. As it was a bad time of year to sell a Caterham I pitched the price low, hoping for a quick sale. But all I got was a lot of time-wasting emails telling me my car was too exepensive!

I've now priced it closer to what I was advised to on here, but as I said, it's an asking price and I expect to negotiate.

[BertBert]

There's also a 1600ss for sale at just over 12k in the classifieds. Not sure why is should have had a rebuild, but might check out ok.
Bert

[Caterham84]

Thanks for all the replies. I really ought to check this forum more often.

CharlesElliott said:

An ex-race car would fit your price range easily (and probably with loads of 'spares' you could sell on). Although of course I would much prefer race cars stayed as race cars!

Indeed. If you're prepared to take the risk, the ex-race/track cars appear to offer the best value for money. Most (and perhaps all) of the cars that I've seen within my budget appear to have been raced at some point.

Unfortunately, most of them would need to be significantly modified to get them to the spec I want, which of course adds to the overall expense. However, even when you take that into account, they still appear to offer the best value for money.

bertberr said:

Hi there, I was looking at 7s on here about 8-10 months ago, and the prices are noticeably higher than they were then, but with (real) inflation, and time of year that's not really that surprising. I was quite interested to note that of the first 15 cars shown (in price order), 6 of them were for sale back in October when I last looked (all trade sellers)!!!
Be patient, something will come up, and if it ticks most of the boxes then pop in an offer, worst they can say is no...

I've been monitoring the second-hand Caterham market for several weeks now, and I've noticed the same thing. The same cars keep cropping up again and again. They don't appear to sell very quickly. I think that's partly the very niche nature of the market. At any given point of time, there are very few people looking to purchase a second-hand Seven, and very few Sevens for sale. So it inevitably takes longer for a buyer to find a car than meets his requirements. However, I also think it suggests there might be a mismatch between what prospective purchasers are willing to spend on a second-hand Seven, and what sellers think their car is worth.

Also, as you point out, a disproportionate number of cars are being sold by dealers, with a markup that's considerably higher than the dealer markup that you'd typically see with more mainstream cars.

[culminator]

Never had a problem selling any of the 7's I've had (apart from a BDR). If it's priced correctly and its a good spec, they tend to sell quite quickly in my experience.

[rubystone]

culminator said:

Never had a problem selling any of the 7's I've had (apart from a BDR). If it's priced correctly and its a good spec, they tend to sell quite quickly in my experience.

Me neither...those that hang around are either scruffy or overpriced, or both.

[bertberr]

culminator said:

Never had a problem selling any of the 7's I've had (apart from a BDR). If it's priced correctly and its a good spec, they tend to sell quite quickly in my experience.

I tend to agree with this, right spec at right price and it goes fairly quickly, summer or winter, trade or private. My 'favourites' at the moment are the '95 live axle 4 spd 1600 xflow Cat C that was originally listed privately on here some months ago for 9.7k then after some weeks was dropped to 8.7, then some weeks after that it reappeared with a trader for 9.7...!!! And the 1700 xflow (std engine not RK or anything else fancy) flared wing car for 18k...

Having said that I think there are quite a few well priced / decent spec K's available on here at present, so happy hunting!