Patiently waiting for an advertised car to become cheaper

[mellowman]

I've seen quite a few £5-10k cars reduce in price by up to a £1500 if unsold over a period of a month or more. Anyone else on here who patiently waits to strike a bargain when a desperate seller needs to shift their car?

The background to this is I fancy buying a third car, as the other household regulars are a minibus and a Hyundai i10 (the to-be restored Porsche and high-days and holidays TVR are safely tucked up in the man's shed).

I keep a rolling list of suitable cars (and bikes) on my Ebay watched list, or as Autotrader saved ads.

I'm homing in on a few to try out in the flesh next week, but it will likely be a large engined car, as the engine feel and sound is important - an Audi TT 225 Quattro bought a little while ago just didn't involve me enough.

If you're not in a rush, and you have several alternatives, it's a great time to be buying a car

[mcflurry]

A mate of mine goes through the adverts, highlights the cars he is interested in, and then puts away the magazine / turns off the pc.
Then 2 or 3 weeks later he will call them up, ask if the car is still available and make a lower offer.
So far he has got 2 cars with about £1000 off

In the interest of balance, he has also missed out on others, been told to "go away" impolitely and had offers refused too..

[steve-5snwi]

You would have to ask yourself if it hasn't sold after a month whats wrong with it.

[blearyeyedboy]

steve-5snwi said:

You would have to ask yourself if it hasn't sold after a month whats wrong with it.

And that's precisely the attitude which puts off other buyers, leaving interested parties in a stronger negotiating position.

You need to question carefully, but I would for a car purchase anyway.

[Sir Bagalot]

steve-5snwi said:

You would have to ask yourself if it hasn't sold after a month whats wrong with it.

Sometimes because it's overpriced.

Several years back we saw a car at Car Giant. They have a policy of reducing after X days and then at regular intervals. Two months later after coming down just shy of £2.5K we viewed it again and bought it. And beat someone else to it by 20 minutes who was also watching it for 2 months!

[93DW]

steve-5snwi said:

You would have to ask yourself if it hasn't sold after a month whats wrong with it.

Sometimes its just the way it goes. I've got a little i10 up for sale at the minute, 1 owner from new with FHSH, Top spec with barely a mark on it. It's currently £1000 under Auto Traders market value & shows on CarGurus as "Great Deal £1230 under market value". I've had it up for 6 weeks and not taken a single call or showed it to anyone. On Saturday I sold a Corsa 1.2 with 90k on it and a patchy history for the same price, Go figure.

[Kettmark]

Some luck involved with selling a motor.
I'm currently considering purchasing a 997 gt3 & patiently waiting for prices to drop on the cars that have been sat at same price point for last 4 plus months.
I'm a patient man & not in a hurry.

[steve-5snwi]

93DW said:

Sometimes its just the way it goes. I've got a little i10 up for sale at the minute, 1 owner from new with FHSH, Top spec with barely a mark on it. It's currently £1000 under Auto Traders market value & shows on CarGurus as "Great Deal £1230 under market value". I've had it up for 6 weeks and not taken a single call or showed it to anyone. On Saturday I sold a Corsa 1.2 with 90k on it and a patchy history for the same price, Go figure.

Nobody wants an i10 though ... everyone for some reason wants a Corsa, the i10 attracts different customers.

I've got a TT that i'm going to sell, its in good condition low mileage etc, i'll price it above tatty TT's, it may sell, it may not but any silly offers after 6 weeks will still be dismissed, i'll be in no rush to sell it. Wanting thousands off can only apply to cars