Advice on selling a car with a known fault
Advice on selling a car with a known fault
Author
Discussion

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

84 months

Thursday 19th January 2023
quotequote all
What is the best way to sell a car that has a known fault?

It has low compression pressure in one cylinder, sometimes leading to hesitation and jerky acceleration.

The car is old so I can’t be bothered to fix it. I don't want to be dishonest and palm it off without being up front, which due to its intermittent nature, might not be obvious. There aren't any check lights on etc.



Edited by anonymous-user on Friday 20th January 01:11

jeremyh1

1,525 posts

157 months

Thursday 19th January 2023
quotequote all
stick it on Gumtree and be honest about the fault somebody will pay good money for it as the world has gone mad

BananaFama

5,041 posts

109 months

Thursday 19th January 2023
quotequote all
If you sell it privately ,get a receipt signed that mentions the fault to prevent any I want my money back BS .

Moodyman1

155 posts

69 months

Thursday 19th January 2023
quotequote all
The fault is only known to you. Depends how well you sleep at night. Just saying.

SeekerOfTruthAndPies

266 posts

67 months

Friday 20th January 2023
quotequote all
I'd be up front about it. If it's old and relatively cheap then people won't expect it to be perfect. It's one thing not mentioning a known fault in an advert, quite another when a prospective buyer is standing in front of you and asks directly if there is anything you know about. Moral dilemma time.

kiethton

14,663 posts

210 months

Friday 20th January 2023
quotequote all
bung it through we buy any car, else an ebay auction with a very short/no description

Howard-

4,964 posts

232 months

Friday 20th January 2023
quotequote all
If you're not bothered by how much (or little) you get for it, stick it on eBay, list its good and bad points, let people bid it up to what they think it's worth.

What The Deuces

2,780 posts

54 months

Friday 20th January 2023
quotequote all
Advertise it with known fault. Keep record of advert. Sleep soundly

brillomaster

1,895 posts

200 months

Friday 20th January 2023
quotequote all
I'd mention it in the advert, and tell any buyers who come view it. otherwise you're asking for a whole world of pain later down the line.

I'd be fuming if i bought a car advertised as no faults only to discover one of the cylinders has low compression. its not the kind of thing a buyer can easily check when viewing.

gred

461 posts

199 months

Friday 20th January 2023
quotequote all
When selling a car privately I always have two receipts ready and get one signed by the buyer. State the problem, or ‘sold as found’ so there’s proof if you ever need it that the buyer knows the problem.

Filibuster

3,406 posts

245 months

Friday 20th January 2023
quotequote all

WBAC will offer you £2'500 for it. Only comparable car on PH sold by AA is £3'400.
Either bring it to WBAC or auction it with fault on ebay starting at £1.

Bennet

2,133 posts

161 months

Friday 20th January 2023
quotequote all
Moodyman1 said:
The fault is only known to you. Depends how well you sleep at night. Just saying.
Don't really want to get into this, but no one else has picked it up so.....

fk off you selfish, dishonest wker.

Or, preferably, shake yourself off and join the rest of us as decent people. The door is open. beer

PurpleTurtle

8,874 posts

174 months

Friday 20th January 2023
quotequote all
Advertise it honestly, keep a copy of the advert, sleep soundly.

I once distance-bought a new car and offered a shed in part-ex that was really only fit for scrapping.

I went into great details as to its myriad faults, dealer still gave me 500 quid for it, and his retiree delivery driver made it all the way back from Reading to Edinburgh in in, "great little car", according to him!

SeekerOfTruthAndPies

266 posts

67 months

Friday 20th January 2023
quotequote all
Bennet said:
Moodyman1 said:
The fault is only known to you. Depends how well you sleep at night. Just saying.
Don't really want to get into this, but no one else has picked it up so.....

fk off you selfish, dishonest wker.

Or, preferably, shake yourself off and join the rest of us as decent people. The door is open. beer
I think most people were treating it with the disdain that it deserved.

Pica-Pica

16,668 posts

114 months

Friday 20th January 2023
quotequote all
SeekerOfTruthAndPies said:
Bennet said:
Moodyman1 said:
The fault is only known to you. Depends how well you sleep at night. Just saying.
Don't really want to get into this, but no one else has picked it up so.....

fk off you selfish, dishonest wker.

Or, preferably, shake yourself off and join the rest of us as decent people. The door is open. beer
I think most people were treating it with the disdain that it deserved.
Agreed. One of those posts you shake your head at and move on.

soad

34,701 posts

206 months

Saturday 21st January 2023
quotequote all
Filibuster said:
WBAC will offer you £2'500 for it. Only comparable car on PH sold by AA is £3'400.
Either bring it to WBAC or auction it with fault on ebay starting at £1.
2009 Mk6 Golf 1.6 fsi with 83k miles? wink

Filibuster

3,406 posts

245 months

Saturday 21st January 2023
quotequote all
soad said:
Filibuster said:
WBAC will offer you £2'500 for it. Only comparable car on PH sold by AA is £3'400.
Either bring it to WBAC or auction it with fault on ebay starting at £1.
2009 Mk6 Golf 1.6 fsi with 83k miles? wink
wink

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

84 months

Saturday 21st January 2023
quotequote all
WBAC was quoting £2.7k, once I put all the cosmetic issues in, stone chips and scratches etc. about £2k. Wasn’t an option for the cylinder issue the nearest was something like rough running engine that shaved off another £1k. So might get £1k from them.

Seen similar cars on sale on Autotrader for about £3.6k.

Will start looking into what people have said in this thread in the coming days, thanks all, but this looks like a project car or a punt for someone willing to pay a few hundred quid, hoping the issue is on the cheaper end of the scale to fix.

Edited by anonymous-user on Sunday 22 January 18:58

ZX10R NIN

30,614 posts

155 months

Saturday 21st January 2023
quotequote all
Sell it Ebay under spares & repairs that way you cover yourself.

HTP99

25,351 posts

170 months

Saturday 21st January 2023
quotequote all
wyson said:
WBAC was quoting £2.7k, once I put all the cosmetic issues in, stone chips and scratches etc. about £2k.

Seen similar on sale on Autotrader for about £3.6k.

Wasn’t an option for putting in other issues, but can’t see the car making that much because the engine fix prices the mechanics are quoting are between £1.5k and £3k depending on the severity of the problem.

Will start looking into what people have said in this thread in the coming days, thanks all, but this looks like a project car or a punt for someone willing to pay a few hundred quid, hoping the issue is on the cheaper end of the scale to fix.

Edited by wyson on Saturday 21st January 13:41
Why don't you WBAC it, hopefully the issue won't rear its head when you are there and they will give you far more for it that if selling for spares or repair etc?