Do people buy cars privately anymore?

[Jefferson Steelflex]

Orangecurry said:

Jefferson Steelflex said:

I was historically against private sales, but having been burnt on Collecting Cars last year, I'm glad I went private sale this time. Hardly any effort and far more cash in my pocket.

Do you mind sharing what went wrong, if we are allowed to say anything negative about CC?

As I have just suggested to a friend he puts his 996 C2 to sell via that platform.

I think it's a great service, just in my example they told me there was pent-up demand for my car with some serious buyers lined up (I guess they could tell by the views and watchers or something) and that I should remove my reserve price to encourage more bids on the final day. I did that, and didn't get any more bids and therefore gave my car away for £3k below the reserve I had set.

I'm a big boy and understood the risk, but nonetheless I was less than happy.

[Orangecurry]

Thanks for that honesty

[Andyoz]

douglasgdmw said:

I sold my 987 Spyder to a dealer in about a day a couple of weeks back and got a good price as it was very competitive. I think I still have the details of a private buyer who was interested in mine, if you send me your advert or car details by PM/DM I will text him in case yours is of any interest.

The most response that I have was on the Facebook page "Porsche for Sale UK" - was really surprised but when I put it up on the Saturday got 5 or 6 enquiries straight off and then sold it on the Sunday.

George

100% agree about FB forums and FB marketplace in general. Something appearing on a persons FB feed is different to someone going to look for it. These can be emotive buys and FB feeds into that. I got my R that way.

[Andyoz]

Jefferson Steelflex said:

I think it's a great service, just in my example they told me there was pent-up demand for my car with some serious buyers lined up (I guess they could tell by the views and watchers or something) and that I should remove my reserve price to encourage more bids on the final day. I did that, and didn't get any more bids and therefore gave my car away for £3k below the reserve I had set.

I'm a big boy and understood the risk, but nonetheless I was less than happy.

Yes, that's a bit invasive of them isn't it. Which car was it out of interest? Cool if you don't want to share.

[Jefferson Steelflex]

Andyoz said:

Jefferson Steelflex said:

I think it's a great service, just in my example they told me there was pent-up demand for my car with some serious buyers lined up (I guess they could tell by the views and watchers or something) and that I should remove my reserve price to encourage more bids on the final day. I did that, and didn't get any more bids and therefore gave my car away for £3k below the reserve I had set.

I'm a big boy and understood the risk, but nonetheless I was less than happy.

Yes, that's a bit invasive of them isn't it. Which car was it out of interest? Cool if you don't want to share.

It was early days on the platform, and I think there were good intentions. Car was a 991.2 Carrera.

The point is that selling on CC is probably the easiest way to sell a car these days, but they are not a barometer of realistic prices because you're generally getting close to trade bids on a retail platform. Only truly rare stuff seems to go for a premium.

[LemonTart]

Well I am pleased to confirm people do, ace chap got in touch last week, clearly very knowledgeable and paid a deposit Friday and came up from Surrey to pick it up today.

[Andyoz]

LemonTart said:

Well I am pleased to confirm people do, ace chap got in touch last week, clearly very knowledgeable and paid a deposit Friday and came up from Surrey to pick it up today.

Well done

[Andym3]

LemonTart said:

Well I am pleased to confirm people do, ace chap got in touch last week, clearly very knowledgeable and paid a deposit Friday and came up from Surrey to pick it up today.

Yep, me too.. just sold my Cayman R in less than 36 hours of the advert going live to a chap who paid in full even before he collected the car. He bought it unseen and didn't even request an inspection.

[SV_WDC]

Does anyone know why private sellers price their vehicles close to the retail trade-in price?

I see a lot more of this across the range but am unsure why would sellers put up with the hassle of selling their car privately than selling to Trade for almost the same price?

[KPB1973]

SV_WDC said:

Does anyone know why private sellers price their vehicles close to the retail trade-in price?

I see a lot more of this across the range but am unsure why would sellers put up with the hassle of selling their car privately than selling to Trade for almost the same price?

Possibly because a lot of people don't like dealing with people whose job it is to hammer people on price.

Also, some cars get heavily discounted over time by private owners who need them gone.

To answer the original question, I've sold 3 cars privately in the last 4 months. No problems at all with the buyers - all of them were straight up people and polite.

2 via ebay and 1 via FB.

[diffstar]

KPB1973 said:

Possibly because a lot of people don't like dealing with people whose job it is to hammer people on price.

Also, some cars get heavily discounted over time by private owners who need them gone.

To answer the original question, I've sold 3 cars privately in the last 4 months. No problems at all with the buyers - all of them were straight up people and polite.

2 via ebay and 1 via FB.

But if you don't mind me asking what sort of value were they?

[Skyedriver]

Almost always buy private.

[jimmy p]

I like to buy private if its worth while. For a private sale I expect the sale price to be somewhere between trade and retail so both parties win, I just struggle when private sellers expect retail price's with no warranty.

I also always sell my cars private even if its often traders who end up buying them, as long as I'm happy with the price there's no issue

Edited by jimmy p on Thursday 13th October 20:26

[julian987R]

LemonTart said:

Do people buy cars privately anymore?

Considering 41,107 private sales exist on AT, surely that reflects that the platform works and people use it. Admittedly it is 10% of the market, not huge, but yes, people buy cars privately.

[KPB1973]

diffstar said:

KPB1973 said:

Possibly because a lot of people don't like dealing with people whose job it is to hammer people on price.

Also, some cars get heavily discounted over time by private owners who need them gone.

To answer the original question, I've sold 3 cars privately in the last 4 months. No problems at all with the buyers - all of them were straight up people and polite.

2 via ebay and 1 via FB.

But if you don't mind me asking what sort of value were they?

£20k, £9k and £7k.

I've sold a few £20k-region cars privately in the last few years.

[alltalk]

Sold 50k Porsche privately, dealers were difficult, chap came to see agreed price, turned up two days later. Sat in my kitchen whilst transferred cash, saw it in my account off he went. Easier than dealer and both won I got a bit more he paid a bit less. Neither of us were greedy.

[SpyderMatt]

I sold my 987 Spyder about a year ago now. A few phone calls and photos exchanged, met half way at a service station as he was @ 80 miles away and he paid me online over next week and picked it up a week later. I got pretty much dealer price (did have Porsche warranty) but he got the best car available.
Dealer bids were >£5k less, all “well Spyders arent as strong as they were, blah, blah, blah” total BS but hey they’re looking for the margin. So yes, cars still sell/buy privately I certainly wouldn’t rule out buying privately, imo it’s pretty instant if the situation feels good, how long the cars been owned service history etc.
And Oracle Finance offer PCP on private cars now so that last bastion of dealer buying has just gone…

[ditchvisitor]

I have just sold my 996.1 GT3 K400 Manthey via PH in 5 days; I paid for a professional photographer, spent a fair while writing a decent advert and was fortunate that it attract a genuine buyer who didn’t mess me around and was a genuine pleasure to sell to.

[ChrisW.]

I have bought privately as well as from dealers ... sometimes finding the right car is the most important where numbers are limited ...

Condition and history is really important to me, so buying from a long term owner is a real plus. A dealer has the potential to tell you what you want to hear ... an owner may fib but with a good paper trail it would be easy to ask testing questions and a knowledgeable owner carries a lot of credibility ...

It's my experience that some dealers hide behind GDPR ... ditching previous paperwork can hide the good and the bad ... good dealers tend not to be shy about paperwork which is a very important part of the provenance of the car ... IMHO.

When selling I have often sold privately gradually reducing a well researched price to the point where, sometimes, a dealers agent has bought the car or even a dealer has bought the car "for himself".

[Royal Jelly]

The GDPR bit is an excuse to cover up gremlins, in my opinion.

I don’t care as much about stamps as I do about invoices.

No problem (in fact I prefer) buying privately. You get a sense of the situation and ‘feeling in your water’ about the seller quite quickly. My last purchase in the U.K. was initially sharing general info via email and as it progressed, he shared with me the service history documentation which is where I think the comfort factor kicks in, particularly when the seller was candid from the get-go.

Couple of phone chats later (we’d agreed the price subject to it all being as expected on viewing - which it was) and we did a preliminary cash transfer of a couple of quid so we were all set for game day.

A thoroughly nice chap who was accommodating to me (I was flying in from Hong Kong to buy) and a serious petrol head. Certainly the most pleasant buying experience I’ve had.

Most recent purchase was my Macan in Dubai. Dealer, but GDPR isn’t a thing so I could see some invoices etc.. No real advantages other than a 3rd party warranty, but out here the world of private sales is the Wild West! I still made a point of disregarding the service schedule and booking it into a specialist for a major service, where a few things were also replaced at my request - tensioners, plugs, belt etc..