Stupidly cheap estate?
Discussion
Hi all,
A chap who works for me is moving away in a week, and has told me today that he would like to sell on his car as soon as possible.
The vehicle itself is a dark grey 2004 '04 Honda Accord Tourer 2.2 diesel, in what I believe is base SE spec, with around 85k on the clock. It has a few extras (I think) such as half-leather, Sport alloys and electric tailgate.
It does have a number of problems, such as:
- It needs a new battery. The old one works, but is apparently on its last legs.
- it needs an exhaust manifold
- There is an intermittent fault that sometimes manifests itself in the offside side-light failing. A couple of independent garages have had a look and can't locate the problem, although it hasn't been looked at by a Honda main dealer.
- The air-con needs gassing
- There are a few age-related scratches and scrapes here and there, but significantly there is a deep 20-inch scratch and (slight) ding along the nearside (across both doors). It isn't awful, but doesn't look great.
- There is limited service history on the car, although I know for a fact that it has been regularly serviced.
- The CD player has two (yes, two) CDs stuck in it, and hence won't work at all.
- The car itself is very dirty inside, but would receive a full valet before he sold it.
All that said, the bloke has offered me the vehicle for...£1k.
This seems like a very cheap car to me, and a quick look on autotrader would suggest its value might be a fair chunk higher. Now I'm very tempted to buy this as a workhorse car, have the non-cosmetic stuff sorted and just run it into the ground. The question is, is it wise to buy a car that I know needs quite a bit doing to it, whether it is cheap or not. It would be tough to sell on as - in my very limited experience - the ding/scrape alone would cost maybe £1k to sort on its own.
Thoughts?
Regards,
EYW
A chap who works for me is moving away in a week, and has told me today that he would like to sell on his car as soon as possible.
The vehicle itself is a dark grey 2004 '04 Honda Accord Tourer 2.2 diesel, in what I believe is base SE spec, with around 85k on the clock. It has a few extras (I think) such as half-leather, Sport alloys and electric tailgate.
It does have a number of problems, such as:
- It needs a new battery. The old one works, but is apparently on its last legs.
- it needs an exhaust manifold
- There is an intermittent fault that sometimes manifests itself in the offside side-light failing. A couple of independent garages have had a look and can't locate the problem, although it hasn't been looked at by a Honda main dealer.
- The air-con needs gassing
- There are a few age-related scratches and scrapes here and there, but significantly there is a deep 20-inch scratch and (slight) ding along the nearside (across both doors). It isn't awful, but doesn't look great.
- There is limited service history on the car, although I know for a fact that it has been regularly serviced.
- The CD player has two (yes, two) CDs stuck in it, and hence won't work at all.
- The car itself is very dirty inside, but would receive a full valet before he sold it.
All that said, the bloke has offered me the vehicle for...£1k.
This seems like a very cheap car to me, and a quick look on autotrader would suggest its value might be a fair chunk higher. Now I'm very tempted to buy this as a workhorse car, have the non-cosmetic stuff sorted and just run it into the ground. The question is, is it wise to buy a car that I know needs quite a bit doing to it, whether it is cheap or not. It would be tough to sell on as - in my very limited experience - the ding/scrape alone would cost maybe £1k to sort on its own.
Thoughts?
Regards,
EYW
It sounds as if the cheap car could easily cost you another grand on top of the purchase price.
- air con repairs. Could be a regas, could be a lot more...
- exhaust manifold. Cost of parts plus a load of labour for seized studs from heat cycling, etc.
- do you know a good bodyshop? creasing over a couple panels will cost you a few hundred at least
- new CD player
- new battery will be more than a hundred.
On top of that a car that clearly hasn't been looked after with a patchy history. Modern diesel = when things go wrong they will be expensive.
Once the money has been spent it's not a cheap car any more and you will throw more money at it if other issues rear their heads.
I'm not sure I'd be interested at any price because it needs investment...
- air con repairs. Could be a regas, could be a lot more...
- exhaust manifold. Cost of parts plus a load of labour for seized studs from heat cycling, etc.
- do you know a good bodyshop? creasing over a couple panels will cost you a few hundred at least
- new CD player
- new battery will be more than a hundred.
On top of that a car that clearly hasn't been looked after with a patchy history. Modern diesel = when things go wrong they will be expensive.
Once the money has been spent it's not a cheap car any more and you will throw more money at it if other issues rear their heads.
I'm not sure I'd be interested at any price because it needs investment...
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