How honest are you when selling a car?
Discussion
I'm usually fully open and honest.
As per a previous post, I usually spend most of the time when owning a car putting niggly faults right. Also, I'm usually very quick selling cars. I'll put bullet points showing the main info people want to know, then a detailed description after for those who are still interested. That coupled with a basic spellcheck and decent photos, you shouldn't NEED to hide any faults!
As per a previous post, I usually spend most of the time when owning a car putting niggly faults right. Also, I'm usually very quick selling cars. I'll put bullet points showing the main info people want to know, then a detailed description after for those who are still interested. That coupled with a basic spellcheck and decent photos, you shouldn't NEED to hide any faults!
I'm not dis-honest, in that I don't lie when directly asked something or deliberately bodge/cover up.
However, I also don't believe in providing extra information in addition to that which I've been asked about, which could be detrimental to the sale process.
As a buyer on a private sale, you know you're not getting a car with the back-up and peace of mind of a warranty. Therefore you should either
a) be clued up enough to inspect the car thoroughly yourself
b) Pay someone to cover a) for you
c) Accept the risk of not doing a) or b)
When I go and look at a car, I accept that I need to find faults for myself as it's not in the seller's interests to disclose them.
Deliberate bodges are not cricket - newspaper stuffed into the sills, etc. However, if there are some small scratches or the exhaust rattles a bit - I'm not expecting that information to be provided to me as a bargaining tool.
I don't see anything wrong with buying or selling this way. All my cars have been priced up correctly and all have sold fairly quickly, with no comeback.
Look at it this way, if you were selling your house, would you walk around behind each viewer pointing out where the floorboards creak a bit, the tap leaks in the bathroom and the kitchen is past it?
However, I also don't believe in providing extra information in addition to that which I've been asked about, which could be detrimental to the sale process.
As a buyer on a private sale, you know you're not getting a car with the back-up and peace of mind of a warranty. Therefore you should either
a) be clued up enough to inspect the car thoroughly yourself
b) Pay someone to cover a) for you
c) Accept the risk of not doing a) or b)
When I go and look at a car, I accept that I need to find faults for myself as it's not in the seller's interests to disclose them.
Deliberate bodges are not cricket - newspaper stuffed into the sills, etc. However, if there are some small scratches or the exhaust rattles a bit - I'm not expecting that information to be provided to me as a bargaining tool.
I don't see anything wrong with buying or selling this way. All my cars have been priced up correctly and all have sold fairly quickly, with no comeback.
Look at it this way, if you were selling your house, would you walk around behind each viewer pointing out where the floorboards creak a bit, the tap leaks in the bathroom and the kitchen is past it?
EazyDuz said:
Likewise i'm selling a car which throws out a p0303 cylinder 3 misfire. The problem is it only does it ONCE every 2 or 3 months. I've checked the plugs which look fine so it could be the coil pack, but i dont want to spent a load buying new parts fault finding something that happens so rarely. I just clear the ECU fault codes using a bluetooth OBD thing and it gets out of limp mode on the fly, engine light goes out and its good again for weeks. So should i mention this in the ad or not bother?
Painful though it may be, personally I'd be mentioning that. Your buyer is unlikely to have a bluetooth OBD thing or know how to use one. To them it will be a trip to the garage every few months to get the fault cleared and could be a miserable, expensive diagnostic process while the garage try replacing this or that until something fixes it. This will probably spoil the car for them.Would you fancy buying that car if you didn't know about the fault, or how to clear one?
Sold two cars last year that was very easy to do. Both went to the first viewers who more or less bought them on the spot with little/no negotiation after a test drive.
We were open and honest about the condition of the cars - we had documented/disclosed all costs (both major and minor). Both were in excellent, if not perfect, condition especially considering their age(s).
Both went to very good petrolhead homes, and I would certainly consider buying the cars back if/when they go up for sale again provided they're as well looked after as they were with us
We were open and honest about the condition of the cars - we had documented/disclosed all costs (both major and minor). Both were in excellent, if not perfect, condition especially considering their age(s).
Both went to very good petrolhead homes, and I would certainly consider buying the cars back if/when they go up for sale again provided they're as well looked after as they were with us
Monkeylegend said:
Out of interest how did you finish up with that dealer who was chasing you about recompense for the piece of s**t Corsa? you traded in?
He is still contacting me and asking me to cover the cost of the repair bill. I told him the car was fine when i sold it but he seems to disagree. He wants £500 to cover the cost of the repair and his time. He will soon go away as i have stopped replying to him. So glad he paid me in cash man. Honest and up front about everything.
I have sold my last 6 cars privately and have never had any come backs. The last one (an 04 Smart) about a month ago. I listed it on Ebay with all known faults, which there wasn't a lot of. I set a realistic BIN price and also had an auction going too. The first call I got was from a bloke asking if he could come and see it, he came down a couple of hours later. I talked him through the good and bad points. He took it for a drive and on our return pointed out an issue with the steering causing a bit of wear on the inside of both the front tyres, something I had never noticed. I think he had a valid point. He wanted to knock off £300 off the BIN, which I thought was a bit excessive. We agreed at £150 off as it's something I wouldn't have been able to fix at home and would probably of cost me that much to get repaied at the garage. He was happy, as was I. He paid in cash. I gave him a receipt listing the faults.
He then tried to insure it, but discovered it would cost him £60 more if he'd insured there and then rather then leave it 24 hours. I told him if he wanted to leave it on the driveway and pick it up the following day it wasn't an issue. As he has both sets of keys he knew I couldn't anything with the car so he agreed. I dropped him off at the nearest Station which saved him a 15 minute walk/£5 cab journey.
He returned the following day and took the car. Haven't heard back
I have sold my last 6 cars privately and have never had any come backs. The last one (an 04 Smart) about a month ago. I listed it on Ebay with all known faults, which there wasn't a lot of. I set a realistic BIN price and also had an auction going too. The first call I got was from a bloke asking if he could come and see it, he came down a couple of hours later. I talked him through the good and bad points. He took it for a drive and on our return pointed out an issue with the steering causing a bit of wear on the inside of both the front tyres, something I had never noticed. I think he had a valid point. He wanted to knock off £300 off the BIN, which I thought was a bit excessive. We agreed at £150 off as it's something I wouldn't have been able to fix at home and would probably of cost me that much to get repaied at the garage. He was happy, as was I. He paid in cash. I gave him a receipt listing the faults.
He then tried to insure it, but discovered it would cost him £60 more if he'd insured there and then rather then leave it 24 hours. I told him if he wanted to leave it on the driveway and pick it up the following day it wasn't an issue. As he has both sets of keys he knew I couldn't anything with the car so he agreed. I dropped him off at the nearest Station which saved him a 15 minute walk/£5 cab journey.
He returned the following day and took the car. Haven't heard back
Roman Moroni said:
Honest and up front about everything.
I have sold my last 6 cars privately and have never had any come backs. The last one (an 04 Smart) about a month ago. I listed it on Ebay with all known faults, which there wasn't a lot of. I set a realistic BIN price and also had an auction going too. The first call I got was from a bloke asking if he could come and see it, he came down a couple of hours later. I talked him through the good and bad points. He took it for a drive and on our return pointed out an issue with the steering causing a bit of wear on the inside of both the front tyres, something I had never noticed. I think he had a valid point. He wanted to knock off £300 off the BIN, which I thought was a bit excessive. We agreed at £150 off as it's something I wouldn't have been able to fix at home and would probably of cost me that much to get repaied at the garage. He was happy, as was I. He paid in cash. I gave him a receipt listing the faults.
He then tried to insure it, but discovered it would cost him £60 more if he'd insured there and then rather then leave it 24 hours. I told him if he wanted to leave it on the driveway and pick it up the following day it wasn't an issue. As he has both sets of keys he knew I couldn't anything with the car so he agreed. I dropped him off at the nearest Station which saved him a 15 minute walk/£5 cab journey.
He returned the following day and took the car. Haven't heard back
He then probably popped into his local national tyres on the way home presented them with a 50% off voucher for wheel alignment and paid £15 to sort the issue. You gave him 90% more since your a generous sort of guy eh ?I have sold my last 6 cars privately and have never had any come backs. The last one (an 04 Smart) about a month ago. I listed it on Ebay with all known faults, which there wasn't a lot of. I set a realistic BIN price and also had an auction going too. The first call I got was from a bloke asking if he could come and see it, he came down a couple of hours later. I talked him through the good and bad points. He took it for a drive and on our return pointed out an issue with the steering causing a bit of wear on the inside of both the front tyres, something I had never noticed. I think he had a valid point. He wanted to knock off £300 off the BIN, which I thought was a bit excessive. We agreed at £150 off as it's something I wouldn't have been able to fix at home and would probably of cost me that much to get repaied at the garage. He was happy, as was I. He paid in cash. I gave him a receipt listing the faults.
He then tried to insure it, but discovered it would cost him £60 more if he'd insured there and then rather then leave it 24 hours. I told him if he wanted to leave it on the driveway and pick it up the following day it wasn't an issue. As he has both sets of keys he knew I couldn't anything with the car so he agreed. I dropped him off at the nearest Station which saved him a 15 minute walk/£5 cab journey.
He returned the following day and took the car. Haven't heard back
Bennet said:
Painful though it may be, personally I'd be mentioning that. Your buyer is unlikely to have a bluetooth OBD thing or know how to use one. To them it will be a trip to the garage every few months to get the fault cleared and could be a miserable, expensive diagnostic process while the garage try replacing this or that until something fixes it. This will probably spoil the car for them.
Would you fancy buying that car if you didn't know about the fault, or how to clear one?
No but a quick google of said code tells me within 30 seconds the most likely cause. So i'm still undecided. More towards telling them though, even though it happens so rarely, and it is a 12 year old car.Would you fancy buying that car if you didn't know about the fault, or how to clear one?
UK345 said:
He then probably popped into his local national tyres on the way home presented them with a 50% off voucher for wheel alignment and paid £15 to sort the issue. You gave him 90% more since your a generous sort of guy eh ?
Not really,I was prepared to knock off a £100 the BIN price. Therefore I was £50 down. Even if he took it into NT for the wheel alignment I'd be £35 down, Then there was the issue of 2 replacement tyres, even if he bought 2 part worns @ £20 each I'd be a fiver up
There's being honest and there's being too honest. The way I see it is if you point out noticeable faults with the car that the buyer will see anyway then that is all you have to do. End of the day you want as much money as possible and be able to shift on your problem. It's the reality of selling cars and all those claiming to be honest are probably the opposite. Buyer inspects car at time of purchase and makes decision based on inspection. If they don't notice anything then tough
ChasW said:
I never negotiate over the phone. If the caller sounds genuine (it's not hard to qualify people) and is prepared to travel a long way I might encourage them and say "if you can give good reason why I should sell for less than I am asking then I am open to a discussion". This means they have to find fault or come up with a strong argument. The pre-requisite is a decent, honest ad with all the key information and a fair price. I live in the Thames Valley and buyers of cars I have recently sold have come from Shropshire, Lincolnshire and Coventry. Honesty is key but equally the onus is on the buyer to ask the right questions too.
When I sold my wife's Audi the buyer was the type that had to get something off the price, irrespective. He came with his wife and I could tell she was convinced it was the right car for them. He presented his negotiating evidence in the form of print outs of Autotrader ads for similar cars nearly all priced below ours. I'd seen all these anyway when I was deciding how to price mine. I politely suggested he should look at others if he was unsure. His OH told him to cough up so and settled on £100 off (£13.5k asking price) and I chucked in some snow chains as part of the deal. Everybody happy.
This is the sort of slick language & procedures which any car salesman whose has been on the company sales course trots out. "Qualifying" the buyer is the give-away phrase as is not negotiating on the phone, which I admit is fair enough. When I sold my wife's Audi the buyer was the type that had to get something off the price, irrespective. He came with his wife and I could tell she was convinced it was the right car for them. He presented his negotiating evidence in the form of print outs of Autotrader ads for similar cars nearly all priced below ours. I'd seen all these anyway when I was deciding how to price mine. I politely suggested he should look at others if he was unsure. His OH told him to cough up so and settled on £100 off (£13.5k asking price) and I chucked in some snow chains as part of the deal. Everybody happy.
Was speaking to a friend at the pub last night and he is wanting to shift his motor. The problem is the car has a slipping automatic gearbox but it is only intermittent. He was saying that he has put it on autotrader and not mentioned the fault in the hope that it doesn't do it on the test drive. After reading a thread on here about private buyer taking seller to court I recommended that he mentioned the fault unless he was trading it in. He didn't agree and said that he wants to recoup as much money as possible. He also wants it sold within 2 weeks as he is moving house therefore the buyer wouldn't be able to contact him. He has it all planned out.
UK345 said:
Was speaking to a friend at the pub last night and he is wanting to shift his motor. The problem is the car has a slipping automatic gearbox but it is only intermittent. He was saying that he has put it on autotrader and not mentioned the fault in the hope that it doesn't do it on the test drive. After reading a thread on here about private buyer taking seller to court I recommended that he mentioned the fault unless he was trading it in. He didn't agree and said that he wants to recoup as much money as possible. He also wants it sold within 2 weeks as he is moving house therefore the buyer wouldn't be able to contact him. He has it all planned out.
In advising your friend to mention the fault haven't you just completely contradicted your own post of 9th February?UK345 said:
There's being honest and there's being too honest. The way I see it is if you point out noticeable faults with the car that the buyer will see anyway then that is all you have to do. End of the day you want as much money as possible and be able to shift on your problem. It's the reality of selling cars and all those claiming to be honest are probably the opposite. Buyer inspects car at time of purchase and makes decision based on inspection. If they don't notice anything then tough
Whilst I take your point, I will give you an example. I was selling my BMW. For reasons which can only be explained by my being a divvy boy, I put her through the car wash with the electric aerial up......... This was not a wise move.The buyer came along and didn't notice. Whilst discussing price, I said "and I'll take £50 off so you can get the aerial fixed". He bought the car.
This way my conscience is clear and I have treated someone the way I want to be treated.
I also don't understand this "oh we are not discussing price until you've wasted 3 hours driving here to discover it is a heap of s**t". I've wasted too much time visiting cars which are "pristine" only to arrive and find rather a lot wrong with them, I no longer bother to travel to ones where the seller sounds like one of these people - to me they think once you've travelled 3 hours you will buy it anyway. Wrong.
Sold all bar one of my last 12 cars to first person to view and never dropping more than £100 from the asking price
A thorough and fair description, lots of photos, never had any comeback from buyers and often get told my cars are far better than I described them
I tend to be OCD about condition so my good is probably most peoples excellent.
Way I see it is my time is precious - don't want to waste it or potential buyers by painting a better picture of a car than the reality
A thorough and fair description, lots of photos, never had any comeback from buyers and often get told my cars are far better than I described them
I tend to be OCD about condition so my good is probably most peoples excellent.
Way I see it is my time is precious - don't want to waste it or potential buyers by painting a better picture of a car than the reality
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