Selling an elderly relative's car (14 plate)- issues!!

[sat1983]

My uncle has given up driving at the grand old age of 87. He was one of those people who changed his cars every 2 years on the dot.

He bought a Fiesta 1.25 Zetec in metallic blue in June 2014 and has driven just under 20,000 miles. All is good so far except the bodywork! It's terrible. He's deaf and had poor mobility and every panel is either scuffed or scratched. It's even missing the casing for a wing mirror!

I have no idea on how to sell such a young car with such a lot of damage- can anyone help with suggestions!

[M3333]

You work out the market value in comparison to others.

Work out the repair costs required.

Discount this from the market value. Someone will buy it.

Either that or get it repaired somewhere and sell it.

eBay might not be a bad punt with a semi sensible reserve.

[sat1983]

Thanks. Difficult however to know how to work it out. The car needs a full respray to be back to anything like decent!

[Truckosaurus]

Take the car to a local bodyshop for a quote and then onto a couple of car dealers to see what they'd offer for it as is. Use the WBAC estimates to see what a 'clean' example would fetch.

[sat1983]

Truckosaurus said:

Take the car to a local bodyshop for a quote and then onto a couple of car dealers to see what they'd offer for it as is. Use the WBAC estimates to see what a 'clean' example would fetch.

Worth roughly £6250- and was offered £4200 by an indy dealer!

[ikarl]

If it really does need a full respray, £4200 might not be a million miles away....and would save a lot of hassle.

[sat1983]

I guess it's a fair offer but can't believe how relatively little it's worth!

[anonymous-user]

sat1983 said:

I guess it's a fair offer but can't believe how relatively little it's worth!

Well (literally, in these eyes of) the buyers point of view it's obviously not been looked after and with it being such a common car, said buyers can be very pick. So yes it's not going to be worth a lot is it?

[Truckosaurus]

Also, a brand new Fiesta has a list price of £10k and I assume discounts (and finance) are available for the asking.

[wildcat45]

If he's giving up driving can he not get some of the damage repaired on his insurance admitting fault etc?

He's not going to be worried about it damaging his future insurance premiums if he's not going to be taking out insurance again.

[LordJammy]

I'll give you 500 quid for it.

[rallycross]

Either fix the bodywork and then try to sell via auto trader or accept a bid from a dealer.
I might be interested at £4,500 depends on how bad the damage is will send you a pm.

[wack]

If you're anywhere near Portsmouth I can recommend a body shop who won't rip you off and does excellent work

[TooMany2cvs]

wildcat45 said:

If he's giving up driving can he not get some of the damage repaired on his insurance admitting fault etc?

How many individual incidents is it? Excess for each...

[anonymous-user]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Agreed, find a local smart repairer with a good reputation and let them loose on it. My neighbour bought a fairly battered but low mileage Mercedes SL and out local guy (ex body shop, now does mobile repairs) spent almost a week on it. Looked like new at the end of the process. You'll be amazed what can be done by somebody who knows what they're doing.

That dealer you're considering selling to will do the exact same thing then flog it on as a low mileage car in immaculate condition!

[ZX10R NIN]

Do what someone suggested earlier put a claim in on the insurance as it's not going to affect his no claims now he's not driving then put a bit towards the cheaper repairs & you'll get closer to the £6250

[sat1983]

Chipsaway quoted nearer the £1000 and I have no idea of the quality of his work... If I knew someone in the trade who I could trust I may go ahead but I think I am better off selling the car as it is for a fair price.

It's just finding the right person!

[Butter Face]

The £4200 offer sounds decent. Say you spent £1000 on the bodywork, has it been serviced this year? If not that's another £150, so you put it up for sale for £6000, someone offers you £5500 and you settle on £5750.

All that hard work has netted you an extra £400. Not worth it IMO, get shot of it ASAP and get him the money back in his pocket. He won't be buying another car so I would just get it gone.

[veccy208]

I think you would be better trying to sell it privately than trade in. Dealers just see something that will cause some effort to sell and give a very low estimate. As most above have said, price based on what it would be to put right and tell buyer that when they come to view it. Up front honesty goes a long way in a private sale.

[AH33]

Good for him on giving it up though - hope the scrapes on every panel were from road furniture rather than scraped along other people's cars, on behalf of everyone who's returned to a car park to find a nice big scrape and no note.