Private buyers - errgh!!!
Discussion
I've *touch wood* never had a problem selling my cars privately. I take decent photos, write a detailed description covering just about every point I can think of, and price it keenly. Every one to date has sold to the first person that's come to see it. Maybe I've just been lucky, but I don't even get 'innit bruv m8' texts. There are certainly decent buyers out there.
I've only ever traded one car; all the rest were private sales and I'd never had a problem, aside from a few time-waster calls, until I went to sell an old Volvo a few years ago.
I decided to take advantage of PH classifieds and advertised this 160k mile Volvo estate at a cheeky £1100. Safe to say two or three weeks passed without a nibble so I was just about to reduce the price and advertise on AT when my phone rang.
It was a young lady calling about the car. Her first question was ' Is it a GLE or GLT?' I replied, I had no idea. She then asked whether the car had cruise control, to which I answered 'No'. Her response ' Must be a GLT then' to which I replied 'You clearly know more about old Volvo's than I do'.
A number of other questions ensued along a similar vein, after which she said she'd think about it and call me back.
I put the phone down and thought to myself 'we've got a live one here!'
Ten minutes later the phone rang again and I was subjected to a further ten minutes of questions concerning the 'extras' and features of the car; it was a 13 year old Volvo heap for God's sake!
This second call closed with her saying she'd call back later. Sure enough the phone rang again and she told me that this was the car for her and could she see it immediately! I explained that would be difficult as the car was 70 miles away from where I was. She replied, 'No problem tell me where it is and I'm on my way and we can meet up at your convenience'.
So at this point I just had to ask 'Who are you?'. The reply was' Oh, didn't I say, I'm calling from BBC Top Gear'. The following day I had £900 and two tickets to the show. Still the best private sale I've ever had.
I decided to take advantage of PH classifieds and advertised this 160k mile Volvo estate at a cheeky £1100. Safe to say two or three weeks passed without a nibble so I was just about to reduce the price and advertise on AT when my phone rang.
It was a young lady calling about the car. Her first question was ' Is it a GLE or GLT?' I replied, I had no idea. She then asked whether the car had cruise control, to which I answered 'No'. Her response ' Must be a GLT then' to which I replied 'You clearly know more about old Volvo's than I do'.
A number of other questions ensued along a similar vein, after which she said she'd think about it and call me back.
I put the phone down and thought to myself 'we've got a live one here!'
Ten minutes later the phone rang again and I was subjected to a further ten minutes of questions concerning the 'extras' and features of the car; it was a 13 year old Volvo heap for God's sake!
This second call closed with her saying she'd call back later. Sure enough the phone rang again and she told me that this was the car for her and could she see it immediately! I explained that would be difficult as the car was 70 miles away from where I was. She replied, 'No problem tell me where it is and I'm on my way and we can meet up at your convenience'.
So at this point I just had to ask 'Who are you?'. The reply was' Oh, didn't I say, I'm calling from BBC Top Gear'. The following day I had £900 and two tickets to the show. Still the best private sale I've ever had.
Finally sold my Bluebrid after nearly 2 months. I think it was 4 no shows in the end, although knowing full well they weren't likely to turn up I didn't take any time off or stay in just to wait. Several "what's your best price cash" messages, someone going on about coming down from Scotland that I couldn't even be bothered to answer and some stupid questions such as "is it rear wheel drive?" (try looking at the photo I put up of the engine).
What looked to be no show number 5 did turn up - 10 minutes before I told him I was going to work. Nice enough guy though, had a quick poke round and agreed to buy it. I was a bit sad to see it go, and still feel it was worth more but I can only get what someone is willing to pay.
What looked to be no show number 5 did turn up - 10 minutes before I told him I was going to work. Nice enough guy though, had a quick poke round and agreed to buy it. I was a bit sad to see it go, and still feel it was worth more but I can only get what someone is willing to pay.
Negative Creep said:
Finally sold my Bluebrid after nearly 2 months. I think it was 4 no shows in the end, although knowing full well they weren't likely to turn up I didn't take any time off or stay in just to wait. Several "what's your best price cash" messages, someone going on about coming down from Scotland that I couldn't even be bothered to answer
Dodged a bullet there eh, little known fact that folk in Scotland don’t buy cars.Uncle Gueber said:
Negative Creep said:
Finally sold my Bluebrid after nearly 2 months. I think it was 4 no shows in the end, although knowing full well they weren't likely to turn up I didn't take any time off or stay in just to wait. Several "what's your best price cash" messages, someone going on about coming down from Scotland that I couldn't even be bothered to answer
Dodged a bullet there eh, little known fact that folk in Scotland don’t buy cars.Negative Creep said:
Uncle Gueber said:
Negative Creep said:
Finally sold my Bluebrid after nearly 2 months. I think it was 4 no shows in the end, although knowing full well they weren't likely to turn up I didn't take any time off or stay in just to wait. Several "what's your best price cash" messages, someone going on about coming down from Scotland that I couldn't even be bothered to answer
Dodged a bullet there eh, little known fact that folk in Scotland don’t buy cars.It's like people who've had germans or Danes transfer money for a car on the basis of a phone call, and turn up 2 days later to collect. IT might seem bizarre to you, but for them they're making a massive saving and are willing to travel to get what they want.
Ray Luxury-Yacht said:
Well, if my Polish builders are anything to go by - yeeep!
They've done two or three re-fits of my shop, one of them major - decorated all the wood on the outside of my house, built me a garden wall, block paved a mate's driveway and did 10 grands worth of decorating and toilet re-fitting at a place I was working at last year.
On every single occasion, I call the main man up. 'Marek' I say 'got a load of work here for you, can you start next week?'
He huffs and puffs and tells me I make it 'difficult for him on purpose with my tight deadlines' in a wonderful, almost comic Polish - cliche accent...
Then him and a team of guys arrive at 8am on the day, and swarm round the job like a team of locusts - seemingly grafting all day without taking a break - and the work is done, on time, to a good standard, for a great price.
He's worth his weight in gold, is Marek
Have you thought of selling this programming format to channel 5 ??They've done two or three re-fits of my shop, one of them major - decorated all the wood on the outside of my house, built me a garden wall, block paved a mate's driveway and did 10 grands worth of decorating and toilet re-fitting at a place I was working at last year.
On every single occasion, I call the main man up. 'Marek' I say 'got a load of work here for you, can you start next week?'
He huffs and puffs and tells me I make it 'difficult for him on purpose with my tight deadlines' in a wonderful, almost comic Polish - cliche accent...
Then him and a team of guys arrive at 8am on the day, and swarm round the job like a team of locusts - seemingly grafting all day without taking a break - and the work is done, on time, to a good standard, for a great price.
He's worth his weight in gold, is Marek
I have only attempted to sell a vehicle private and I am highly unlikely to do it anytime soon.
Back in the 90's, I was looking at selling my White Fiesta RS Turbo. Car was immaculate, full service history, all the old bills, etc and I was an RS Owners Club Member.
A man came round with his wife. She always wanted one and mine was "right up our street". They checked the car over and all was good. They took it for a good long test drive, must have been 40 minutes and used a fair bit of fuel. When we arrived home, they said they was interested but as they had been out in the car so long, had to finish off their shopping and would call back later. Stupidly I did not ask for a deposit.
They never did call back. I called the next day and asked the reason why they had not bothered to call and was anything wrong with the car. Turns out she does not like white cars, she only wanted red or black
The next bloke came to look at the car and was not happy that he found a receipt for the front bumper repainted. He asked if it had ever been in a crash to which I replied honestly, it had not. I did it for stone chips as I took it to the RSOC events and wanted it to look its best. Nope, he would not have it, the car had a front end smash as far as he was concerned and I was trying to hide it from him.
So, I give you the full history file to read through with nothing to hide and you come across a bodyshop receipt..... yup, very dishonest of me....
Back in the 90's, I was looking at selling my White Fiesta RS Turbo. Car was immaculate, full service history, all the old bills, etc and I was an RS Owners Club Member.
A man came round with his wife. She always wanted one and mine was "right up our street". They checked the car over and all was good. They took it for a good long test drive, must have been 40 minutes and used a fair bit of fuel. When we arrived home, they said they was interested but as they had been out in the car so long, had to finish off their shopping and would call back later. Stupidly I did not ask for a deposit.
They never did call back. I called the next day and asked the reason why they had not bothered to call and was anything wrong with the car. Turns out she does not like white cars, she only wanted red or black
The next bloke came to look at the car and was not happy that he found a receipt for the front bumper repainted. He asked if it had ever been in a crash to which I replied honestly, it had not. I did it for stone chips as I took it to the RSOC events and wanted it to look its best. Nope, he would not have it, the car had a front end smash as far as he was concerned and I was trying to hide it from him.
So, I give you the full history file to read through with nothing to hide and you come across a bodyshop receipt..... yup, very dishonest of me....
Edited by Rew on Thursday 18th October 18:47
I think I must have been very lucky as I've sold 5 cars privately in 12-odd years and had no issues.
Everyone's turned up; I've only had 2 people turn up to view and actually not buy the car...
The only 'fear' I have is dodgy cash, insurance, etc but I think you have to use your instincts. If it feels dodgy then you can't be too careful with that kind of money.
Buying privately however, I have a £5k ceiling as I don't trust iffy sellers!
Everyone's turned up; I've only had 2 people turn up to view and actually not buy the car...
The only 'fear' I have is dodgy cash, insurance, etc but I think you have to use your instincts. If it feels dodgy then you can't be too careful with that kind of money.
Buying privately however, I have a £5k ceiling as I don't trust iffy sellers!
james280779 said:
I travelled from Essex to Bridgend to see a nice Chimera, took me 8 hours to get there.
We took it on a test drive and it was lovely, We had to stop to get petrol and I told him to fill it up, I would pay the asking price plus cost of fuel. When he filled it up it started behaving erraticaly and kept cutting out.
I told him it was the fuel pump (which it was having owned a Chimp before), a new one was about 100 quid so knock that off the 8500 asking price and I would get the AA to recover me home and I would fit one myself.
he refused to take off any cash whatsover, he didnt have any mechanical knowledge so it would have cost him three times that to do it himself at a garage. I tried explaining this to him and he was one of the most obtuse men I have ever met. in the end I decided an 8 hour train journey back was better than dealing with that moron.
So I left.
Jeez, you couldn't have been more reasonable I reckon! £100 off £8500 asking price is nothing...We took it on a test drive and it was lovely, We had to stop to get petrol and I told him to fill it up, I would pay the asking price plus cost of fuel. When he filled it up it started behaving erraticaly and kept cutting out.
I told him it was the fuel pump (which it was having owned a Chimp before), a new one was about 100 quid so knock that off the 8500 asking price and I would get the AA to recover me home and I would fit one myself.
he refused to take off any cash whatsover, he didnt have any mechanical knowledge so it would have cost him three times that to do it himself at a garage. I tried explaining this to him and he was one of the most obtuse men I have ever met. in the end I decided an 8 hour train journey back was better than dealing with that moron.
So I left.
I must have been lucky, as when i sold my car in august, the buyer called, asked a few questions.
Turned up at correct time 2 days later, had a look round it, gave him a test drive. he was happy about the overall condition of the car. Asked my best price which i said was the list, due to having 5 decent michelin's, new brakes, prop bearings etc. He paid the list price.
I however, was likely a HUGE pita when i bought the disco, i called the buyer a few times, emailed him a few times more. Got the car's MOT number's to check the history, got the car taken to a garage to get checked over. Had a wheel bearing and alternator replaced.
However, i did transfer the deposit when asked, and travelled the 200 miles on the day we agreed, turned up at the agreed time, took a test drive and paid it.
My questions and stuff was to make sure it was a good one. So far it is.
Turned up at correct time 2 days later, had a look round it, gave him a test drive. he was happy about the overall condition of the car. Asked my best price which i said was the list, due to having 5 decent michelin's, new brakes, prop bearings etc. He paid the list price.
I however, was likely a HUGE pita when i bought the disco, i called the buyer a few times, emailed him a few times more. Got the car's MOT number's to check the history, got the car taken to a garage to get checked over. Had a wheel bearing and alternator replaced.
However, i did transfer the deposit when asked, and travelled the 200 miles on the day we agreed, turned up at the agreed time, took a test drive and paid it.
My questions and stuff was to make sure it was a good one. So far it is.
caiss4 said:
I've only ever traded one car; all the rest were private sales and I'd never had a problem, aside from a few time-waster calls, until I went to sell an old Volvo a few years ago.
I decided to take advantage of PH classifieds and advertised this 160k mile Volvo estate at a cheeky £1100. Safe to say two or three weeks passed without a nibble so I was just about to reduce the price and advertise on AT when my phone rang.
It was a young lady calling about the car. Her first question was ' Is it a GLE or GLT?' I replied, I had no idea. She then asked whether the car had cruise control, to which I answered 'No'. Her response ' Must be a GLT then' to which I replied 'You clearly know more about old Volvo's than I do'.
A number of other questions ensued along a similar vein, after which she said she'd think about it and call me back.
I put the phone down and thought to myself 'we've got a live one here!'
Ten minutes later the phone rang again and I was subjected to a further ten minutes of questions concerning the 'extras' and features of the car; it was a 13 year old Volvo heap for God's sake!
This second call closed with her saying she'd call back later. Sure enough the phone rang again and she told me that this was the car for her and could she see it immediately! I explained that would be difficult as the car was 70 miles away from where I was. She replied, 'No problem tell me where it is and I'm on my way and we can meet up at your convenience'.
So at this point I just had to ask 'Who are you?'. The reply was' Oh, didn't I say, I'm calling from BBC Top Gear'. The following day I had £900 and two tickets to the show. Still the best private sale I've ever had.
That's an awesome anecdote!I decided to take advantage of PH classifieds and advertised this 160k mile Volvo estate at a cheeky £1100. Safe to say two or three weeks passed without a nibble so I was just about to reduce the price and advertise on AT when my phone rang.
It was a young lady calling about the car. Her first question was ' Is it a GLE or GLT?' I replied, I had no idea. She then asked whether the car had cruise control, to which I answered 'No'. Her response ' Must be a GLT then' to which I replied 'You clearly know more about old Volvo's than I do'.
A number of other questions ensued along a similar vein, after which she said she'd think about it and call me back.
I put the phone down and thought to myself 'we've got a live one here!'
Ten minutes later the phone rang again and I was subjected to a further ten minutes of questions concerning the 'extras' and features of the car; it was a 13 year old Volvo heap for God's sake!
This second call closed with her saying she'd call back later. Sure enough the phone rang again and she told me that this was the car for her and could she see it immediately! I explained that would be difficult as the car was 70 miles away from where I was. She replied, 'No problem tell me where it is and I'm on my way and we can meet up at your convenience'.
So at this point I just had to ask 'Who are you?'. The reply was' Oh, didn't I say, I'm calling from BBC Top Gear'. The following day I had £900 and two tickets to the show. Still the best private sale I've ever had.
WeirdNeville said:
I've heard of stranger things. Cars are rare in Scotland - finding one you want can be very hard, and if you're flying from Glasgow or Aberdeen to Newcastle for a car, you may as well fly to plymouth.
It's like people who've had germans or Danes transfer money for a car on the basis of a phone call, and turn up 2 days later to collect. IT might seem bizarre to you, but for them they're making a massive saving and are willing to travel to get what they want.
Friend of mine flew to Bournemouth from Edinburgh for an MR2 rather than buy one up here. He was looking for weeks and every one he looked at up here was either shagged, most definitely not as described, holier than the Pope or an import being passed off as a UK car. Saved himself £500, got a mint UK model and a wee adventure to boot.It's like people who've had germans or Danes transfer money for a car on the basis of a phone call, and turn up 2 days later to collect. IT might seem bizarre to you, but for them they're making a massive saving and are willing to travel to get what they want.
Well,I'll never learn will I....
Put the car on a 7 day ebay auction last week.Didnt really want to but the local Audi garage had given me such a piss poor trade in value on a car I want to buy that I couldnt let it go for that little.Also was not 100% sure exactly how much it was worth so thought I'd try my luck.
Bidder no1 has 11 feedback and all were for cars and all positive.When I read the feedback the comments on all of them were absolutley slating this guy.no contact,no payment ect.Cancelled his bids.
Bidder no2 has 7 feedback on an account which is 18 months old.Ok I think.
Bidder no3 has 0 feedback in a 3 week old account.Emailed asking for landline no so I could verify his bid.No contact.Cancelled bid.
Auction ends Wednesday with Bidder no2 winning.Send invoice.No response.
Send second e-mail 24hrs later asking for contact.30 mins later receive e-mail back saying 'I made a mistake bidding on your car,I thought I was bidding on another similar one.Just got back from abroad,ectect...'
Basically a load of b
ks.He even signed it off a completly different name which was on his contact details.So now I have the hassle of getting a final value credit and a waste of 7 days of my life waiting for it to sell.
Never again.Will either take the hit and trade in or stick it on Autotrader for a couple of weeks.
Tossers.
Put the car on a 7 day ebay auction last week.Didnt really want to but the local Audi garage had given me such a piss poor trade in value on a car I want to buy that I couldnt let it go for that little.Also was not 100% sure exactly how much it was worth so thought I'd try my luck.
Bidder no1 has 11 feedback and all were for cars and all positive.When I read the feedback the comments on all of them were absolutley slating this guy.no contact,no payment ect.Cancelled his bids.
Bidder no2 has 7 feedback on an account which is 18 months old.Ok I think.
Bidder no3 has 0 feedback in a 3 week old account.Emailed asking for landline no so I could verify his bid.No contact.Cancelled bid.
Auction ends Wednesday with Bidder no2 winning.Send invoice.No response.
Send second e-mail 24hrs later asking for contact.30 mins later receive e-mail back saying 'I made a mistake bidding on your car,I thought I was bidding on another similar one.Just got back from abroad,ectect...'
Basically a load of b
ks.He even signed it off a completly different name which was on his contact details.So now I have the hassle of getting a final value credit and a waste of 7 days of my life waiting for it to sell.Never again.Will either take the hit and trade in or stick it on Autotrader for a couple of weeks.
Tossers.
CaptainSlow said:
What sort of value is the car? I've sold 3 cars all under £1k and had no problems with the winners. I had to cancel a bid on the last one though due to 0 feedback and not being able to read my request for sub 10s to contact me first.
Around 6k.Never ever again.Just written Autotrader add.Negative Creep said:
Uncle Gueber said:
Negative Creep said:
Finally sold my Bluebrid after nearly 2 months. I think it was 4 no shows in the end, although knowing full well they weren't likely to turn up I didn't take any time off or stay in just to wait. Several "what's your best price cash" messages, someone going on about coming down from Scotland that I couldn't even be bothered to answer
Dodged a bullet there eh, little known fact that folk in Scotland don’t buy cars.Turns out its one of the best Mk3 Golfs I've had, and I've had LOTS of them
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff