Buying a car to re-sell...insurance issues?

[Shuvi McTupya]

SantaBarbara said:

How did you get it home or to your workshop?

I got one day insurance and drove it back.

It does start 90% of the time.

[daemon]

Shuvi McTupya said:

Ok..I have been having a good look and fiddle with things today and I now suspect that the intermittent starting issue is a problem with the key not communicating with the car properly as it is not an original ford key.

I have discovered some other stuff too, some bodging has happened with wiring in the engine bay and certain things are not original( I don't know what they do, but the mounting arrangement doesn't match up with what was once there) I don't know if they are actually causing any issues.

The window is not getting power for going down but is fine for going up, that window can be operated from both sides of the car and neither switch supplies 'down power'.

It also seems to need some kind of sensor replaced to sort out idling when cold.

I am not quite ready to put it back to auction but that remains an option

Sounds like it needs a fair bit of money and time spent on it. I'd say the owner has had difficulties with it tried to fix it and has traded it in quietly somewhere, the dealer has maybe had a crack at fixing it and then dumped it through the auction.

In theory its maybe a £795 or £895 car once you have it on its toes. Hard to know what to do. I take it £300 was the hammer price? How much does it stand you after fees, insurance and any other sundries / fuel so far?

[Josho]

I've had one of these for a sale for a while and it's struggling to sell.

I would however be interested in it as I know exactly what the starting issue will be.

[daemon]

Josho said:

I've had one of these for a sale for a while and it's struggling to sell.

I would however be interested in it as I know exactly what the starting issue will be.

Then presumably you're going to do the decent thing and let a fellow PHer know what the problem is?

[Shuvi McTupya]

daemon said:

Sounds like it needs a fair bit of money and time spent on it. I'd say the owner has had difficulties with it tried to fix it and has traded it in quietly somewhere, the dealer has maybe had a crack at fixing it and then dumped it through the auction.

In theory its maybe a £795 or £895 car once you have it on its toes. Hard to know what to do. I take it £300 was the hammer price? How much does it stand you after fees, insurance and any other sundries / fuel so far?

I reckon you are about right with your resale estimate, and The auction price plus fees was just under £350. Add some petrol and one days insurance and I am all in at £400.

If it needs a new key and some sensors fitted, that could be a deal breaker for me really. My initial googling and a couple of calls haven't found me a key for less than £160 but I am sure it must be possible to get that price down some how.

[Shuvi McTupya]

Josho said:

I've had one of these for a sale for a while and it's struggling to sell.

I would however be interested in it as I know exactly what the starting issue will be.

Well, you may as well share that info with me cos I am sure you don't want to come to north Scotland to pick it up having said that I don't know where you are..

[arsenalmorris]

Josho said:

I've had one of these for a sale for a while and it's struggling to sell.

I would however be interested in it as I know exactly what the starting issue will be.

Why if you have one you are "struggling to sell" would you be interested in another??

[C70R]

Josho said:

I've had one of these for a sale for a while and it's struggling to sell.

I would however be interested in it as I know exactly what the starting issue will be.

What a weird, unhelpful post.

[Shuvi McTupya]

C70R said:

What a weird, unhelpful post.

At least he could give me a clue

It must be either a dodgy chip in the key or a problem with the immobiliser.

[Toaster Pilot]

Cat said:

Trade plates have nothing to do with insurance. They allow the use of untaxed/unregistered vehicles on public roads, nothing more.

Cat

Correct but these days you must have them on the MID via your trade policy or you'll have a tough time with the BiB - which leads to people thinking they are related to insurance.

[katz]

Shuvi McTupya said:

daemon said:

No my ethics are fully reconciled - you're the one whos prepared to take a particular view that best suits your particular skew on circumstance.

If i buy from auction i have certain limited rights. I know i am buying at a risk.

If i buy privately i have certain limited rights. I know i am buying at a risk, however i have the right to expect the car to be as described and if its being sold as a private sale, it is not unreasonable to expect it to be being sold by the keeper / owner of the car.

If i buy trade, i have enhanced rights, which the dealer budgets for from his profit margin.

If i sell as private but am trade, i am removing the customers rights to line my own pockets with extra profit.

If you are happy to sell your car on as "trade" in the advert, i have no issues. Good on you. If you're proposing selling it as private, then you're no better than pond life.

Well, if it will make you happy..maybe I will put 'Trade' on the advert, we know that traders are all upstanding members of society and none of them are pond life..

Either way, they would be buying the car from the owner and it will be 'as described'.

Or if it turns out to be a total death trap I will do the right thing and sell it to some poor sucker through an auction house and everyone wins.

As a buyer of low end cars, I would happily buy a £500 car from a genuine private seller, knowing I had no comeback. But the fact is that I can question a private seller about why they are selling, , look up the MOT etc and decide if they are telling me the truth. I agree with Daemon, if you are going to sell cars for profit why not declare so? A private seller I can ask what they have done in servicing over the last year or so, what maintenance has been done, and they should be able to answer. If you answer is I don't know, I bought the car from auction a couple of weeks ago, seems fine, I would walk away. Especially for a 2004 Fiesta which at £500 seems a bit dodgy.

[anonymous-user]

I bought an Aston Martin DB9 recently for £36,000 and sold it for a shade under £41,000.

It was a fun car to own for a few weeks and I made just under £5000 for doing effectively nothing apart from making sure I produced a really good advert and photographs when I sold it.

I'll be sellng a classic Porsche shortly for around £12,000 more than I paid for it.

I don't intend to make a profit... it just keeps happening. If I see something for sale at a bargain price I'll snap it up if I can.

I say if you can buy nice cars at the right price, enjoy them and make money when you sell them, go for it.

I don't see what the problem is. If you make it absolutely clear to the prospective buyer that it is a private sale, there is no warranty, the car is sold as seen, and that they must satisfy themselves that the car is suitable for them, then that's fine.

We are all consenting adults.

[clarkey]

Lord Marylebone said:

I bought an Aston Martin DB9 recently for £36,000 and sold it for a shade under £41,000.

It was a fun car to own for a few weeks and I made just under £5000 for doing effectively nothing apart from making sure I produced a really good advert and photographs when I sold it.

I'll be sellng a classic Porsche shortly for around £12,000 more than I paid for it.

I don't intend to make a profit... it just keeps happening. If I see something for sale at a bargain price I'll snap it up if I can.

I say if you can buy nice cars at the right price, enjoy them and make money when you sell them, go for it.

I don't see what the problem is. If you make it absolutely clear to the prospective buyer that it is a private sale, there is no warranty, the car is sold as seen, and that they must satisfy themselves that the car is suitable for them, then that's fine.

We are all consenting adults.

I agree. I think the OP need to change the story a bit though - buy a shed at auction, tidy it up, sort out an ignition problem, and explain away the short ownership by saying that you didn't like, or the wife didn't like it, or whatever. Surely that's acceptable for a £500 car?

[daemon]

katz said:

As a buyer of low end cars, I would happily buy a £500 car from a genuine private seller, knowing I had no comeback. But the fact is that I can question a private seller about why they are selling, , look up the MOT etc and decide if they are telling me the truth. I agree with Daemon, if you are going to sell cars for profit why not declare so? A private seller I can ask what they have done in servicing over the last year or so, what maintenance has been done, and they should be able to answer. If you answer is I don't know, I bought the car from auction a couple of weeks ago, seems fine, I would walk away. Especially for a 2004 Fiesta which at £500 seems a bit dodgy.

And has indeed turned out to be dodgy. The only difference here compared to what usually happens is that the driveway trader in this case has got "caught" with the problems, not the end customer (who would then be told "sorry pal, private sale innit?")

[daemon]

Lord Marylebone said:

[b]I don't see what the problem is. If you make it absolutely clear to the prospective buyer that it is a private sale, there is no warranty, the car is sold as seen, and that they must satisfy themselves that the car is suitable for them, then that's fine. [/b[

If you've bought to resell for profit then its not a private sale and the buyer does have rights - thats the problem. Clearly not a problem for you as you're using "private sale" to avoid your responsibilities.

If theres not a problem with it all, why not just say "i'm a part time trader, however no warranty is implied or given" (which is perfectly legal to do - you merely need to warrant the condition of the car when its being sold) - why do you need to hide behind terms like "private sale, no warranty, sold as seen"?

[daemon]

clarkey said:

I agree. I think the OP need to change the story a bit though - buy a shed at auction, tidy it up, sort out an ignition problem, and explain away the short ownership by saying that you didn't like, or the wife didn't like it, or whatever. Surely that's acceptable for a £500 car?

Or maybe man up and admit what hes doing? Trying to make a bit of profit every now and again by buying a car and reselling it?

If theres no harm in what hes doing - which there isnt if its declared - then why not be honest about it?

Why lie? (other than to avoid your responsibilities?)

[daemon]

clarkey said:

I agree. I think the OP need to change the story a bit though - buy a shed at auction, tidy it up, sort out an ignition problem, and explain away the short ownership by saying that you didn't like, or the wife didn't like it, or whatever. Surely that's acceptable for a £500 car?

Say your dad went out and bought a car with his hard earned to get him to work and back or to potter about in it and it turned out to be a complete shed of a thing needing a fortune spent on it to get it up to the standard you'd reasonably expect. He'd bought it "in good faith" from what he thought was a private seller. You then googled the buyers phone number and it turned out the seller had had a string of cars for sale recently, but when you ring him to confront him he says "sorry pal, private sale. I just do this as a side line".

You'd be happy about that would you? Because i suspect not.

[Shuvi McTupya]

daemon said:

And has indeed turned out to be dodgy. The only difference here compared to what usually happens is that the driveway trader in this case has got "caught" with the problems, not the end customer (who would then be told "sorry pal, private sale innit?")

That's not strictly true, if I had no scruples I could easily sell it as is, but I never had the intention of taking advantage of anyone.

[daemon]

Shuvi McTupya said:

daemon said:

And has indeed turned out to be dodgy. The only difference here compared to what usually happens is that the driveway trader in this case has got "caught" with the problems, not the end customer (who would then be told "sorry pal, private sale innit?")

That's not strictly true, if I had no scruples I could easily sell it as is, but I never had the intention of taking advantage of anyone.

Yes, and not worded correctly on my part. I wasnt implying you would have done that, merely that thats normally what happens - its the unsuspecting buyer at the end who gets "caught" with the problem

[Shuvi McTupya]

daemon said:

Yes, and not worded correctly on my part. I wasnt implying you would have done that, merely that thats normally what happens - its the unsuspecting buyer at the end who gets "caught" with the problem

I would like to hear back from Josho though as I don't want to spend loads of money of a new key if that is not the issue! Luckily I am in no real hurry. It's not like it has to be sold this week, but of course that would have been nice