Selling cars privately

[Vocal Minority]

A while ago there was a thread 'why don't people sell their car privately any more'. Well....



Car is advertised in local rag as is nothing terrbily special. Had 3 phone calls yesterday and arranged a series of viewings for the car today. All 3 have not shown up.

I do like a wasted Saturday. If you decide after a phone call you are not interested, please have the testicular fortitude to say so, and don't waste my Saturday!!

..OK all done. That was cathartic.

[PaulB81]

Id honestly rather waste a couple of grand and PX it than have to deal with all the morons you get when selling privately!!

[Chipper]

PaulB81 said:

Id honestly rather waste a couple of grand and PX it than have to deal with all the morons you get when selling privately!!

I hate to admit it but I'm the same. You really can dig up the dregs of society when selling a car.

[Vocal Minority]

Starting to learn this...

[Dave Hedgehog]

Chipper said:

I hate to admit it but I'm the same. You really can dig up the dregs of society when selling a car.

joy riders, time wasters, tyre kickers, stolen drafts, forged money, robbers, the hassle of getting them to pick it up the day you get your new car or rent something or even worse if the monkey lunches the engine a week after picking it up and then wants his money back

its worth loosing a little money not to go though all that crap and hassle

and sometimes dealers give you half decent money, i got 10k for my R32, it needed 1500-2000 (retail) on paintwork to make it sellable, they have it up for 11995 with warranty / px and finance options, i would have struggles to get 11k for it and it would have been a tonne of hassle

Edited by Dave Hedgehog on Saturday 28th January 17:33

[Zwolf]

It's little different to selling them for a living...

[tim0409]

I have always bought at auction and sold privately but in the future I might consider going to a dealer. When you add the private buyers premium at auction to the sale price combined with time/hassle factor it's less of a good deal than in the past. Selling a car privately is also getting more of a PITA - I have a car for sale at the moment and every day brings a pointless enquiry - "wots ur best price for cash" or "or will you take X for cash" (where X=1/2 trade value). It never used to be this bad but I think it's just a reflection of the way society is going (more and more illiterate oxygen thieves)

[iva cosworth]

Dave Hedgehog said:

Chipper said:

I hate to admit it but I'm the same. You really can dig up the dregs of society when selling a car.

joy riders, time wasters, tyre kickers, stolen drafts, forged money, robbers, the hassle of getting them to pick it up the day you get your new car or rent something or even worse if the monkey lunches the engine a week after picking it up and then wants his money back

its worth loosing a little money not to go though all that crap and hassle

I would rather set fire to my car than go through any one of the above

[matthias73]

Would just like to add that working in any retail/consumer industry makes you feel like humanity is going down the drain :P

[badlands1]

PaulB81 said:

Id honestly rather waste a couple of grand and PX it than have to deal with all the morons you get when selling privately!!

This

[Spanna]

I'm about to sell my car privately, but I'm just going to stick on eBay with no reserve and let it go. No doubt I won't get quite what I want, but it will be gone pretty quickly. I know there are loads of timewasters and non-paying bidders on the bay, as well as the usual mongs saying 'ill giv £300 cash tomoz mayte its doin u a favour.'

My car's trade in value is about £750, but I can't afford to lose the extra money I should get on a private sale.

[S3_Graham]

im going through this currently. its a royale PITA.

ive had 3 parties interested. 1st guy made loads of enquiries and organised a viewing on a friday so i took a day off. no show / no contact.

2nd guy agrees a price (even though in my ad it says no offers via email) granted i cock up and give him a wrong mobile number but we sort it and arrange another viewing, never heard again

latest guy spent all week trying to haggle with me over email, i finally give in and agree a price - he still hasnt seen the car - i spent today cleaning the car. I got a text about half hour ago saying he cant be bothered to come over tomorrow and might come over if the car is available next weekend.

Im thinking about taking it to a dealer tomorrow afternoon........

[r1ch]

Sometimes I think about changing cars, just for a change, but i can't be arsed to have my time wasted.

[SuperHangOn]

Another reason I like cheapies. If its very good I pass on to family (just did with my W124), if ok send through the local auction (most you lose is a few hundred), if borked break up/scrap. No dealings with pond life.

[Scootersp]

The worst thing for me is as experienced above the no show and the time it wastes..........these days I simply only arrange viewings when i'd be in anyway, do not rearrange your plans, if they want it they will come when you say they can.

[Rich_W]

Sadly cuts both ways.

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Add to that the 6-7 people I messaged through eBay this week to ask a few questions of. Nothing stupid, just HPi clear and history? Only 3 replied. And one of those was a dreamer (one of that ever growing band of dickless wonders that offers a car with no reserve, starts at 99p when they want over £3500 so will no doubt pull it 5 mins before the end of the auction)

Saying that. Today I have set up and attended 2 viewings. One a substantial distance away. Sadly neither car was EXACTLY as described. "FSH" means up to 2008/10k ago, nothing since. It's not a bad car but I don't think he'll move as much as I want given the defects. And of the other, apparently "excellent condition, just waiting valet" means missing the nsf indicator lens and bottom of passenger door is bent out of alignment.

Edited by Rich_W on Saturday 28th January 20:05

[bigricho]

matthias73 said:

Would just like to add that working in any retail/consumer industry makes you feel like humanity is going down the drain :P

This. A little off topic but my company has been b2b since it was first formed 30 years ago. Last year I set up a very small side venture on ebay, which has grown pretty quickly to the point where we now ship 700 individual orders every month. Anyway, the major downside to this is the significant minority of the general public who are just complete aholes. Some emails i get every day are just so rude, there is no way I would ever imagine speaking to someone like it in real life.

A prime example would be Mr. X who rang up on Monday saying how he has been sitting on his arse for the past week waiting for his stuff, it turns out he only ordered it on Friday, what did he expect? The conversation escalated to him saying he would put me on my arse if i met him in a bar, how he owns a 4 litre BMW! and he employs 6 people! A quick check on duedil.com shows that infact Mr X has been a director of 3 companies all of which have gone bust!

Literally no idea how I did not get negative feedback for that one.

[carmonk]

Last car - sold on ebay, no reserve. Bloke turned up, gave me book price in cash, didn't even want test drive, then loaded it onto a wagon and drove off. 15 minutes tops. Car before that, ebay no reserve. Bloke turns up, gives me book price in cash, didn't want test drive - just turned the engine over, then drives off. 20 minutes that time as he had a piss too, plus he was a Geordie so I couldn't understand a word he said. But overall not had any problem. On the downside, if things didn't work out I could end up on the news, I'm not the most tolerant of people.

[300bhp/ton]

Vocal Minority said:

A while ago there was a thread 'why don't people sell their car privately any more'. Well....



Car is advertised in local rag as is nothing terrbily special. Had 3 phone calls yesterday and arranged a series of viewings for the car today. All 3 have not shown up.

I do like a wasted Saturday. If you decide after a phone call you are not interested, please have the testicular fortitude to say so, and don't waste my Saturday!!

..OK all done. That was cathartic.

As a small car trader I can say this was pretty much the norm. Totally amazed me at first how inconsiderate people can be, as none ever phoned to say sorry the can't make the viewing.

That said - if you don't want the hassle of selling privately, trade it in or send it to the auctions. As lets face you are only selling privately because you want the max you can get for it.

[stevensdrs]

I guess it depends on what you are selling. Sold a car in the summer, advertised on a free website and had 2 calls within 15 minutes of posting it. Second caller came to view that evening in the rain and left a healthy deposit. Came back 2 days later with cash and drove away.
I made a nice profit too so all the sweeter having had free use of said car for a month.