Buying my bother-in-law's car. Please help

[belfry]

My brother in law has offered me the chance to buy his DBS before he part exchanges it against a new AM.

My wife and I would love to buy it, and I would like to know what it'd be worth 'in the trade' or what it would retail for if sold by a private vendor.

Please help me to get some idea of the value of this car so that I can make him a realistic offer without falling out with him.

2009 Casino Royal grey auto with 5,800 miles. The car is unmarked and immaculate.

Thanks

[kev1966900]

The rule of thumb seems to be to find a similar car advertised on the AM website and deduct £10k which would roughly give you a part exchange figure. I'm sure somebody on here will be able to give you a more accurate figure though

[belfry]

Thank you. So his px figure is likely to be around £85K ?

[BravoV8V]

Why doesn’t he just ask the dealer what figure that they would give him for a part exchange?

And then you match (or slightly beat) that?

[Graze01]

BravoV8V said:

Why doesn’t he just ask the dealer what figure that they would give him for a part exchange?

And then you match (or slightly beat) that?

+1 for this approach

he can then negotiate direct with the dealer who will no doubt give him a better price on the new car as they know what they are dealing with

good luck - car sounds wonderful

Graze

[belfry]

He’s being a bit of a c**k. He seems to want me to make the first move. The sensible approach would be to tell me the px figure wouldn’t it?

So in the real world, would a dealer offer him £85k, £80k, £75k or less?

[raceboy]

BravoV8V said:

Why doesn’t he just ask the dealer what figure that they would give him for a part exchange?

And then you match (or slightly beat) that?

+2 for this, it's the only way to accurately predict the numbers and the standard procedure for these kind of things, you regularly see adverts quoting a part ex figure and £1k over that takes the car, I sold mine for £500 over the part ex number.

belfry said:

Thank you. So his px figure is likely to be around £85K ?

Can't help but think that's a little optimistic, admittedly his car is a very low miles car, but this is 2 years younger and retailing at £86k at a main dealer so I'd be very surprised if the figure starts with an '8' but the only person that can be sure is the salesman at Aston, as there are lots of other factors to be considered.

https://used.astonmartin.com/en-GB/Search/Details~...

[DocW]

Just a note of caution, it’s a nine year old under used beautiful car. Try head over heart for a minute. Are the tyres the original ones, if so they need changed so budget for that. I would be a bit concerned for example if I were planning to take it to the south of France when previously it had only done 600 miles a year. You might have no intention of doing that of course. Be prepared for things to go wrong and how dealing with a relative fits in with that. I will probably be shot for pouring cold water on this and I hope I’m wrong but stop for a mo and think again.

[anonymous-user]

belfry said:

He’s being a bit of a c**k. He seems to want me to make the first move. The sensible approach would be to tell me the px figure wouldn’t it?

So in the real world, would a dealer offer him £85k, £80k, £75k or less?

Thats easy if he wants you to make the first move, go in low, say £62k. He will refuse that so then ask him what he would take for it if thats not enough.

Sounds like a bit of a dick if hes trying it on with you, he must know what the px is so the grown up approach is to simply ask you to improve on the dealer offer instead of wanting you to bid on a car you have no commercial experience about.

[dbs2000]

raceboy said:

Can't help but think that's a little optimistic, admittedly his car is a very low miles car, but this is 2 years younger and retailing at £86k at a main dealer so I'd be very surprised if the figure starts with an '8' but the only person that can be sure is the salesman at Aston, as there are lots of other factors to be considered.

https://used.astonmartin.com/en-GB/Search/Details~...

Pretty sure that's a PH members old car (but could be wrong), if it is then it's been babied.
I'm hoping mine will fetch a minimum of 85k at the silverstone auction next weekend and mines a (allegedly sought after) manual with 25k on the clock.

[jonby]

belfry said:

My brother in law has offered me the chance to buy his DBS before he part exchanges it against a new AM.

My wife and I would love to buy it, and I would like to know what it'd be worth 'in the trade' or what it would retail for if sold by a private vendor.

Please help me to get some idea of the value of this car so that I can make him a realistic offer without falling out with him.

2009 Casino Royal grey auto with 5,800 miles. The car is unmarked and immaculate.

Thanks

Have had a couple of family members/close friends in similar situations

The only fair way IMHO is for him to get a quote from the garage for the px figure against the new car and also, what they would charge him for his new car (or more to the point discount) if he doesn't px as he needs to compare the two situations

Theoretically, he should be happy to let you match the garage or pay a tiny bit more

Any other method is bound to lead to one party feeling unhappy

[Big Ry]

Please tell me your BIL isn't try to make a few quid out of you ?

If I were selling a car to a family member instead of part exchanging it, I'd just offer it for for dealer PX value and not a copper coin more. What's up with people trying to make a buck out of absolutely everything these days.

I bought my aunts SLK once in exactly the same situation. She was sitting in the MB dealer about to trade it in for a new SL, she phoned me from the dealers desk and said they have offered me £X, do you want it for the same. We agreed that the car was solid (which it was), but if the gearbox fell out next week then it was my issue (which clearly it would have been)..........job done.

If it were me I'd be half tempted to let him trade it in, then go straight to the dealer the same day and offer them £5k more than he got for trade in, as that would include a years AML warranty and some form of comeback.

[raceboy]

belfry said:

He’s being a bit of a c**k.

Based on this I'd just step back from the whole deal, if it's a faultless car that has an unblemished history of total pampering, then maybe kick him in the balls with a low offer, definitely in the £60's. This should be an opportunity for you both to do each other a favour, he sells you a car below retail, you buy a car slightly over trade, it should be a win win but it needs openness and transparency on both parts, not sodding sealed bids.
As has been mentioned it may well need tyres, a service, who knows what else, and factor in the price of an independent inspection, at the end of the day it's an £80k private car sale with no comeback other than moaning at family BBQ's. Timeless cars are available for £80k serviced with an Aston warranty, I know which I'd be buying if the prices were too similar.

[S1-NOS]

There's no benefit in him selling the car for the same price he'd get PX - unless he believes in charity.

The fairest deal would be him to receive more than the PX offer and you get the car for less than it would sell privately. So as others have suggested, a couple of grand over the PX price would be fair.

You're better off being straight and saying "what have they offered you, and how much do you want for it?". And get the dealer to verify !

[AMVSVNick]

Not sure what is going on with DBS at the moment. I would say your brothers mileage and colour combo makes it fairly desirable. That said none of them seem to be shifting at the moment.

Perhaps early Vanquish 2 depreciating to near similar values is the issue?

[Monkeylegend]

belfry said:

He’s being a bit of a c**k. He seems to want me to make the first move. The sensible approach would be to tell me the px figure wouldn’t it?

Offer him low and see what his response is. He clearly knows what he can get in part ex but seems like he wants an easy sale with more money from you.

You can always match a proven part ex offer plus maybe a little bit up to the point of him getting his new car so no rush presumably on your part, let him sweat a bit.

[raceboy]

Run it through 'We Buy Any Car' and see what that number is?

[JaseB]

See where this one ends up:
https://themarket.co.uk/listings/aston-martin/dbs/...

Ends tomorrow, can't be too dissimilar...

Not mine btw!

[Big Ry]

S1-NOS said:

There's no benefit in him selling the car for the same price he'd get PX - unless he believes in charity.

Charity........really.........it's family FFS !!!

I for one would not try and make money out of my own family, but each to their own.

[anonymous-user]

Hmm.

Closest comparators I can see:

Black, 2010, 15.5k miles @ £97k

Black, 2009, 10.4k miles @ £105k

Meteorite, 2010, 13.4k miles, @£100k, AM Dealer

Carbon black, 2010, 14.5k miles, @£100k, Independent

Quantum, 2009, 13.5k miles, @£110k, Independent

The low mileage cars appear to hold their value quite well compared to those with mileages in the 20k+ range.

Ignoring things like options, number of previous owners and so on, based on that information I'd say it's a safe bet your B-in-l's car would sit on a forecourt at 100-110k. Probably closer to the top end of that bracket.

Whether any of those cars actually achieve that sort of money - who knows.

For him, the question is simple: "what can I get for it?". I would think the market for a private sale of a car like that in that price range is very small. He might get a buyer, but chances are he would have to bide his time. So realistically he is looking at a trade in price. Personally, and without one single jot of hard data to back it up, I would be surprised if a dealer would be offering £10k below resale sticker price on a trade in. If it is the case that DBSs are priced high at the moment in anticipation of an uptick that hasn't quite got here yet, and so very few are shifting off the forecourt, I would guess closer to £15-20k under. So I'd guess that a dealer would offer him 90-95. Perhaps even a bit less than that.

For you, the questions are (I imagine) slightly different:
(1) am I in the market for this type of car?
If yes (2) am I interested in this specific car, or would I prefer something newer/different colour/a manual/a Vanquish/a V12V etc (£85k+ is a *lot* to spend on something that's not "just right")
If yes (3) is the price right for this car, bearing in mind I won't get an warranty (assuming there's not one to be transferred to you), it may not come to me serviced, it won't necessarily come to me with everything checked and working in the way that it would if I were buying from a dealer.

Working on the figures above, your b-in-l can look forward to getting (say) £90k without having to spend a single penny more on the car to get it into a saleable condition. So he has no incentive to go lower than that number. whereas if you're prepared to match that number, or even better it, that comes with the risk to you that you may have to spend more money on the car.

For me, the decision would revolve around question (2) above - am I interested in this specific car, given what else is available at that price bracket.