Where are all the private sales?

[spanky3]

I've been looking for a decent early 2000's K series seven for a while and would love to buy privately rather from a dealer but all I see are trade sales. Am I looking in the wrong places or do owners not sell their cars any more?

[spanky3]

Stubo, message on the way.

Just in case anyone else knows of cars for sale I'm after an roadport, supersport, ex-academy or similar with a 1.6 K series, paint rather than bare ally and ideally Tillets.

There's one on here for £13k at a dealer that looks ok. While I don't have anything against dealers (especially specialists), they do have to make a living so whoever sold it to them will have lost a few quid, plus it's nice getting the full history from the previous owner.

[spanky3]

Hi

I'm looking at cars up to about £13k which may increase with a) the longer I wait and b) the less I spend on the wife's new shopping car* which I am looking for in parallel. There's a couple of ex-academys on here of interest, one trade at the right price and one private which is up for just a bit more than I want to spend. Definitely pm me if you have anything you're looking to sell.

Prices do seem massively variable - I'm thinking some very optimisticly priced classics, and also seeing how little price difference there can be between some 4 year old and 12 year old cars.

I've had some really helpful info from McMillan Motortsport who seem like top people and have suggested looking at ex-grad cars. They seem to go for fair prices given their background and I can see why they're attractive to sell on after a cleanup.

• Search for wife's shopping car - a few years ago autotrader would have been 50/50 private/trade adds but now its all car supermarkets and dealers. I guess that's the 'we buy any car' effect, hoovering everything up for a valet and a quick 20%. Same on here - the for sale section is full of 'Caterhams wanted' ads. So much for disintermediation.