Biggest profits/losses you’ve made on selling cars?
Discussion
Remembering the profit I made on my first car, a Volkswagen Polo just got me thinking - what are the biggest profits/losses you’ve made?
I was lucky enough to have my first car bought for me, a Volkswagen Polo in absolute base spec (no central locking, no electronically operated mirrors, no AC, black plastic trim and primer grey). It was also the less desirable three door.
My dad paid £6100 for it when it was 3 years old, and had 22,000 miles on it (IIRC)
It served me well for another 2 and a half years, but when I had saved enough money to change into something else, I was allowed to sell it to partially fund my next car.
I managed to get £7,750 for it which I thought was pretty good considering it now had 38000 miles, and was 6 and a half years old.
Okay so that profit doesn’t set the world on fire but I was chuffed because even after you take into account COVID tax I had managed a <£1500 profit on something that was essentially undesirable. Nobody really wants a car with nothing on it and that takes 16.5 seconds to go to 60mph at that price, as much as PH likes to champion these basic cars.
I was lucky enough to have my first car bought for me, a Volkswagen Polo in absolute base spec (no central locking, no electronically operated mirrors, no AC, black plastic trim and primer grey). It was also the less desirable three door.
My dad paid £6100 for it when it was 3 years old, and had 22,000 miles on it (IIRC)
It served me well for another 2 and a half years, but when I had saved enough money to change into something else, I was allowed to sell it to partially fund my next car.
I managed to get £7,750 for it which I thought was pretty good considering it now had 38000 miles, and was 6 and a half years old.
Okay so that profit doesn’t set the world on fire but I was chuffed because even after you take into account COVID tax I had managed a <£1500 profit on something that was essentially undesirable. Nobody really wants a car with nothing on it and that takes 16.5 seconds to go to 60mph at that price, as much as PH likes to champion these basic cars.
3 stuck out for me...
1) 2003 BMW E39 540i sport - bought from BCA for £2.5k, ran it for 3.5 years spending ~£1,800 in repairs (inc gearbox rebuild). It was crashed into and written off and I was paid out £5.5k. I bought it back for £550, spent £700 fixing the bent bits and sold it 3 months later for £3.5k.
2) 2007 Lotus Exige - bought for £24k, ran it for 4.5 years with all running costs (about £3.5k) offset by a pothole claim, sold it for £28.5k
3) 2013 Honda CBR125R - bought at 2 years old and 3k miles for £1100 from a salvage auction (cat-d). It was written off 3 years later with 18k mikes and I was paid out £1950. I retained salvage for £300 then sold it "as was" for £1k
1) 2003 BMW E39 540i sport - bought from BCA for £2.5k, ran it for 3.5 years spending ~£1,800 in repairs (inc gearbox rebuild). It was crashed into and written off and I was paid out £5.5k. I bought it back for £550, spent £700 fixing the bent bits and sold it 3 months later for £3.5k.
2) 2007 Lotus Exige - bought for £24k, ran it for 4.5 years with all running costs (about £3.5k) offset by a pothole claim, sold it for £28.5k
3) 2013 Honda CBR125R - bought at 2 years old and 3k miles for £1100 from a salvage auction (cat-d). It was written off 3 years later with 18k mikes and I was paid out £1950. I retained salvage for £300 then sold it "as was" for £1k
Remember the MGTF deal...
My crusty 1970 MGBGT and £800 my way for a 54 plate TF with 40k on the clock. Twist of Pepper wheels (very rare), alcantara seats, private plate.
Had it 2 years then managed a straight swap for a 2001 Jaguar XKR 100 edition (very rare car)
Kept that for a couple of years then sold it for £8k
Worst deal, 1967 Mini Mk2, had it since 1990, spent over £30k, sold for £3k.....
Tom
My crusty 1970 MGBGT and £800 my way for a 54 plate TF with 40k on the clock. Twist of Pepper wheels (very rare), alcantara seats, private plate.
Had it 2 years then managed a straight swap for a 2001 Jaguar XKR 100 edition (very rare car)
Kept that for a couple of years then sold it for £8k
Worst deal, 1967 Mini Mk2, had it since 1990, spent over £30k, sold for £3k.....
Tom
I once made a 50% profit in one day on a van.
Bought it for £30 with one months MOT to collect some bulky parts with the intention of keeping it and sold it for £60 (when I realised it was full of filler) to a guy who desperately needed a van for a week, because his brand new one was being repaired in a body shop.
Mk2 Escort Van - in 1989.
Bought it for £30 with one months MOT to collect some bulky parts with the intention of keeping it and sold it for £60 (when I realised it was full of filler) to a guy who desperately needed a van for a week, because his brand new one was being repaired in a body shop.
Mk2 Escort Van - in 1989.
I'm not very good at selling cars really.
I kept my first Clio for 150,000 miles, eventually was sold with no MOT for about £30 as they wanted the doors, so I suppose in some ways a total loss
I bought a W202 C250TDI estate (with a MANUAL!) for £377 for a stag do, sold it a year later with no MOT for £300.
Bought a V70 D5 (with a manual again) for £2,500 and a few years later just gave it to a friend.
Bought an Alfa Brera Prodrive V6 for £10,000, and 3 months later straight swapped it for a Holden Ute.
My only real 'success' would be buying an Alfa GTV V6 (the FWD one) for £2,900, and selling it about 9 years later for £6,500. I think in terms of maintenance costs it would've probably broken even, but insurance and tax would ensure it wasn't a profit making exercise.
I kept my first Clio for 150,000 miles, eventually was sold with no MOT for about £30 as they wanted the doors, so I suppose in some ways a total loss
I bought a W202 C250TDI estate (with a MANUAL!) for £377 for a stag do, sold it a year later with no MOT for £300.
Bought a V70 D5 (with a manual again) for £2,500 and a few years later just gave it to a friend.
Bought an Alfa Brera Prodrive V6 for £10,000, and 3 months later straight swapped it for a Holden Ute.
My only real 'success' would be buying an Alfa GTV V6 (the FWD one) for £2,900, and selling it about 9 years later for £6,500. I think in terms of maintenance costs it would've probably broken even, but insurance and tax would ensure it wasn't a profit making exercise.
I've never lost money on a car but if you want to know what's about to shoot up in value check out what's ever I'm selling!
2002 Impreza STI - Sold in 2015 for £6k - now worth around £15k
1998 Lancer Evolution - sold 2016 for £8.5k - now worth around £23k
1996 Skyline GT-R - sold in 2018 for £17k - now worth whatever you want but probably north of £30k+
For the eagle eyed investors our there I sold a Chimaera and a C5 Corvette this year
2002 Impreza STI - Sold in 2015 for £6k - now worth around £15k
1998 Lancer Evolution - sold 2016 for £8.5k - now worth around £23k
1996 Skyline GT-R - sold in 2018 for £17k - now worth whatever you want but probably north of £30k+
For the eagle eyed investors our there I sold a Chimaera and a C5 Corvette this year
Bought a Chrysler Neon Sport Coupe for 60,000, ran it for 6 months around the island. When it was time to leave, I had the cheapest sub-woofer installed, wrote an advert on a local expat website that would appeal to da yoof, sold for 93,000
They were never good cars, but this one was well looked after and in decent condition. 33,000 profit, except this was NTD, so only about £1,300. I have to say for such a bad car I actually liked it.
They were never good cars, but this one was well looked after and in decent condition. 33,000 profit, except this was NTD, so only about £1,300. I have to say for such a bad car I actually liked it.
Back when I could be arsed buying cars to fix up I was offered two Vectra Bs.
One was MOT failure due to emissions. Got it for £40. Needed a set of plugs. Was only a 1.6 16V LS, but both my mate and my dad borrowed it for about 3 months each. Sold it for £800.
Guy at work had a 2.0 16V Estate auto. Non-start one day. Had it towed to local dealer who diagnosed a currupt ECU, £800 for a 3rd party replacement.
I got it for £50. 10 mins with a multimeter diagnosed main fuse to ECU had blown. Which was obvious really as no ECU light on dash at all. Well done Vauxhall dealer! Sold it to another guy at work who just offered me £1000. Accepted no worries.
About 4 years later of it doing the rounds through various mates when things went wrong (coolant leak, ECU water logged, stem seals) I was given it back, fixed it and sold it on eBay for £480!
Biggest loss was an Astra H Turbo. It was an early demonstrator car so had ALL the options including hill assist, heated leather, steering headlights, climate etc. Bought with a dodgy box for £700. Bought a box on eBay, had it rebuilt, fitted it for about £800 all in (cruise control never worked again bizarrely). Then it started to smoke. A couple of turbo cores, new complete turbo, stem seals, and two engines later I threw in the towel. Probably owed me £3500, covered less than 10k miles in it. Got rid on Facebook Market place for £800, with issues described.
One of my most beloved cars, Corsa C SRI 1.7 CDTI. Bought for £400 as a post-accident fixer-upper (bumper bracket, headlight). Made sense for the then-wife to use on her commute. She went, I kept it as my long distance car to London (fitted cruise, AC worked lovely). Had it 9 years and covered 62k miles in it. Fitted a single mass flywheel for some reason (do not do this) and 1st gear synchro died 20k miles later. Could not justify £400 on a proper DMF and clutch and sorting the box so sold it with fault declared for £500. Engine was perfect at 169k miles.
I had a horrid R53 Cooper S which I bought for £1900 after the poor seller spend about £500 fixing the ABS and AC before I bought it. Did about 6k miles in it. Was just thinking about getting rid when I smashed it into the back of a 1 series. Insurance gave me £2100 for it. First time I've ever claimed on my own policy, but I had zero desire to fix the awful thing.
And for the future, I paid £175 for my Astra GTE 16V. I reckon I might make a profit on that.
One was MOT failure due to emissions. Got it for £40. Needed a set of plugs. Was only a 1.6 16V LS, but both my mate and my dad borrowed it for about 3 months each. Sold it for £800.
Guy at work had a 2.0 16V Estate auto. Non-start one day. Had it towed to local dealer who diagnosed a currupt ECU, £800 for a 3rd party replacement.
I got it for £50. 10 mins with a multimeter diagnosed main fuse to ECU had blown. Which was obvious really as no ECU light on dash at all. Well done Vauxhall dealer! Sold it to another guy at work who just offered me £1000. Accepted no worries.
About 4 years later of it doing the rounds through various mates when things went wrong (coolant leak, ECU water logged, stem seals) I was given it back, fixed it and sold it on eBay for £480!
Biggest loss was an Astra H Turbo. It was an early demonstrator car so had ALL the options including hill assist, heated leather, steering headlights, climate etc. Bought with a dodgy box for £700. Bought a box on eBay, had it rebuilt, fitted it for about £800 all in (cruise control never worked again bizarrely). Then it started to smoke. A couple of turbo cores, new complete turbo, stem seals, and two engines later I threw in the towel. Probably owed me £3500, covered less than 10k miles in it. Got rid on Facebook Market place for £800, with issues described.
One of my most beloved cars, Corsa C SRI 1.7 CDTI. Bought for £400 as a post-accident fixer-upper (bumper bracket, headlight). Made sense for the then-wife to use on her commute. She went, I kept it as my long distance car to London (fitted cruise, AC worked lovely). Had it 9 years and covered 62k miles in it. Fitted a single mass flywheel for some reason (do not do this) and 1st gear synchro died 20k miles later. Could not justify £400 on a proper DMF and clutch and sorting the box so sold it with fault declared for £500. Engine was perfect at 169k miles.
I had a horrid R53 Cooper S which I bought for £1900 after the poor seller spend about £500 fixing the ABS and AC before I bought it. Did about 6k miles in it. Was just thinking about getting rid when I smashed it into the back of a 1 series. Insurance gave me £2100 for it. First time I've ever claimed on my own policy, but I had zero desire to fix the awful thing.
And for the future, I paid £175 for my Astra GTE 16V. I reckon I might make a profit on that.
Only car I recall making a profit on was a 1983 Range Rover Vogue. Bought it for £1500 and a couple of years later I managed to get £2200 trading it in against a 1988 325i convertible. Broke even on a couple – a 1996 2.6 Audi A4 Avant (bought and sold for £1200) and a 1995 Peugeot 306 (bought and sold for £550).
Managed to lose quite a lot on a 2002 Audi A6 3.0 quattro when I moved abroad in 2005. Bought it for £22K in 2003 and sold it 18 months later for £14.5K which was a bit of a sore one.
Managed to lose quite a lot on a 2002 Audi A6 3.0 quattro when I moved abroad in 2005. Bought it for £22K in 2003 and sold it 18 months later for £14.5K which was a bit of a sore one.
Only made a profit on two vehicles, the best was a tatty old campervan I bought off eBay for Glastonbury. Spend a few hundred quid fixing a few really bad bits, gave it a good clean and sold it for £800 more that it had cost me all in. Paid for my entire festival weekend. The other was a £500 punto traded in under the scrappage scheme, cheating I know but got me a new Mazda 2 for £7300 or as it was at the time £94.51 pcm on 0%.
Lost about £9k on a brand new S3 by trading it in after just a year in 2012. I’d been dumped so consoled myself with an RS5 that I didn’t need. We got back together a few weeks later which made life very expensive for a while.
Lost about £9k on a brand new S3 by trading it in after just a year in 2012. I’d been dumped so consoled myself with an RS5 that I didn’t need. We got back together a few weeks later which made life very expensive for a while.
I had a corsa zlet which cost me 10k to build, I tried to sell it for 10k which no one wanted to pay so I stripped it down to nothing and got a total of 17k lol!
7k profit as such on a 10yr old car! I very nearly bought a 996 turbo at 22k then fancied a 355 which was 30-35k in 2011-2012
But wife fell pregnant so it went towards the house deposit
7k profit as such on a 10yr old car! I very nearly bought a 996 turbo at 22k then fancied a 355 which was 30-35k in 2011-2012
But wife fell pregnant so it went towards the house deposit
I sold a Saab 9-3 estate for £200 more than I paid for it about 7 years ago. But I had spent out more than that on servicing and a new steering rack so to say I'd made a profile would be stretching it!
Biggest loss on a non-new car was my other half's 2006 Mercedes SL. Considering it was over ten years old when we bought it for about £12k, we thought the price wouldn't drop hugely in the 18 months or so we had it, it didn't pile on the mileage either. When we came to sell it, there was literally zero interest in it. We ended up trading it in for around £6,500 which was pretty gutting. Compared to brand new it's not a vast loss but quite a loss on an already old car.
Thankfully the replacement car (Merc CLS) served us well for 3 years and we sold it for strong money and a much smaller loss.
Biggest loss on a non-new car was my other half's 2006 Mercedes SL. Considering it was over ten years old when we bought it for about £12k, we thought the price wouldn't drop hugely in the 18 months or so we had it, it didn't pile on the mileage either. When we came to sell it, there was literally zero interest in it. We ended up trading it in for around £6,500 which was pretty gutting. Compared to brand new it's not a vast loss but quite a loss on an already old car.
Thankfully the replacement car (Merc CLS) served us well for 3 years and we sold it for strong money and a much smaller loss.
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff