4C - Where are we with prices right now?

4C - Where are we with prices right now?

Author
Discussion

andygtt

8,344 posts

264 months

Monday 15th June 2020
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CostaBrava1972 said:
Surely if you take it back in - and they give it 'The Mother of All Official Services', stamp the book accordingly - then any purported 'defect', history-wise, is fully cured?
That is what i have done, cam belt, bolt tightening etc etc... makes no difference to the 'history' before 1200miles tho.

Doesn't matter as i'm keeping and enjoying it now.


lawrywild

157 posts

62 months

Monday 15th June 2020
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Do people really think that not servicing a year where it's only done 1,200 miles within a few months of the service schedule is really a huge issue? Sounds like a load of nonsense to me and just an attempt to try to hammer your price down.

Look at the service histories of all the "well maintained" examples of a Ferrari 360 or something and they all have those "holes" where it got serviced a few months later than scheduled or whatever. That's life. Could've been in a showroom, could've been on holiday, could've been away on a work trip. As long as it isn't left 3 years and 30,000 miles between services who cares?

Yes these cars have the bolt tightening every 2 years but other than that it's more or less an oil change with oil and air filters each year, not anything special and these modern synthetic oils don't break down in a few months extra beyond 12 months. Let's be honest, this car is basically a hot hatch in a carbon tub and some exotic body panels round it. It's not a Mclaren P1 or CGT etc. A slightly imperfect service history shouldn't make a large difference to value here IMO.

I'd have no issues buying your car if I was in the market for one.

Edited by lawrywild on Monday 15th June 12:30

Terminator X

15,041 posts

204 months

Monday 15th June 2020
quotequote all
andygtt said:
CostaBrava1972 said:
Surely if you take it back in - and they give it 'The Mother of All Official Services', stamp the book accordingly - then any purported 'defect', history-wise, is fully cured?
That is what i have done, cam belt, bolt tightening etc etc... makes no difference to the 'history' before 1200miles tho.

Doesn't matter as i'm keeping and enjoying it now.
I don't know how this works re Alfa but perhaps like the BMW "run in service", some people don't get it done (and/or done on time) which does tend to get people a bit sniffy after the fact.

TX.

Fessia fancier

1,000 posts

183 months

Monday 15th June 2020
quotequote all
lawrywild said:
Do people really think that not servicing a year where it's only done 1,200 miles within a few months of the service schedule is really a huge issue? Sounds like a load of nonsense to me and just an attempt to try to hammer your price down.

Look at the service histories of all the "well maintained" examples of a Ferrari 360 or something and they all have those "holes" where it got serviced a few months later than scheduled or whatever. That's life. Could've been in a showroom, could've been on holiday, could've been away on a work trip. As long as it isn't left 3 years and 30,000 miles between services who cares?

Yes these cars have the bolt tightening every 2 years but other than that it's more or less an oil change with oil and air filters each year, not anything special and these modern synthetic oils don't break down in a few months extra beyond 12 months. Let's be honest, this car is basically a hot hatch in a carbon tub and some exotic body panels round it. It's not a Mclaren P1 or CGT etc. A slightly imperfect service history shouldn't make a large difference to value here IMO.

I'd have no issues buying your car if I was in the market for one.

Edited by lawrywild on Monday 15th June 12:30
That makes sense to me too. I doubt anyone can say it does damage tightening the bolts a bit late.

highway

1,946 posts

260 months

Monday 15th June 2020
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I called a couple of dealers for a price on his 4C Spyder last year. I won’t name them here. Suffice to say they were all advertising cars at the time, with lower spec and higher miles than his, at £38-£40k.

They all showed interest at high £20’s best was early £30’s. Leaving me to conclude most wanted the thick end of £10k out of his car. Unsurprisingly he sold it privately. Quite why anyone values the dealer experience is beyond me. What value are they actually adding?

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

54 months

Monday 15th June 2020
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The awkwardness is that you know it's good, the dealer that sold it to you knows it's good but that's where that certainty stops. Anyone else you pass it on hasn't that certainty. There's only trust. I'd be doing what you're doing if I was you and I was a dealer, looking at buying it from you, I'd be really cautious and wary.
Is there anything that the dealer, who sold it to you, can do to help, by offering some kind of provenance in writing?

ETA, nice car to be 'stuck with' though!
Surely there must come a point where service history early on loses its significance so every year you keep it you move closer to buyers thinking nothing more than 'meh' about that little service transgression and specialists crop up to help appraise it and offer the buyers that extra confidence to buy?

Edited by anonymous-user on Monday 15th June 17:10

lawrywild

157 posts

62 months

Monday 15th June 2020
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anonymous said:
[redacted]
Trust about what though? A service means nothing really. It won't tell you if a car is a lemon or not, it just means somebody did regular maintenance on it. If we are talking about selling/buying in the first 3 years and therefore whether the car still has warranty or not, I could understand, but after that?

If a car's bolts are falling apart after 1,200 miles from coming out the factory because somebody didn't have a bolt tightening service then I think there would be much bigger issues at play.

andygtt

8,344 posts

264 months

Monday 15th June 2020
quotequote all
Terminator X said:
I don't know how this works re Alfa but perhaps like the BMW "run in service", some people don't get it done (and/or done on time) which does tend to get people a bit sniffy after the fact.

TX.
The car had the run in service done at the correct time, then the next service was a big one at 1200 miles...

Im told the car wasn't used for the first few years hence it wasn't 'needing' a service (Alfa dealers claim).. when it started to be used they did the big service and along I came and bought it... I got it at 1400miles and a year later its at 4700, still low mileage in my eyes.

After I found out about the missing service history I spoke to AW who i consider the actual experts on the 4C's and they said not to worry as long as i kept the services up to date, these cars are after all incredibly reliable and its not missing any mileage based services... the Cam belt was apparently a must as the car is 5 years old... funny its supposed to be done at 60k miles, i clearly need to use it more lol

jimmynitro

10 posts

128 months

Monday 15th June 2020
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Andy. I would have thought a car that spent most of its early life inside a glass box would be a better buy than a leased car sat on someone’s driveway without ownership interest. These are slow to sell but there are buyers so be patient and enjoy your ultra rare lightweight gem.

lawrywild

157 posts

62 months

Monday 15th June 2020
quotequote all
andygtt said:
The car had the run in service done at the correct time, then the next service was a big one at 1200 miles...

Im told the car wasn't used for the first few years hence it wasn't 'needing' a service (Alfa dealers claim).. when it started to be used they did the big service and along I came and bought it... I got it at 1400miles and a year later its at 4700, still low mileage in my eyes.

After I found out about the missing service history I spoke to AW who i consider the actual experts on the 4C's and they said not to worry as long as i kept the services up to date, these cars are after all incredibly reliable and its not missing any mileage based services... the Cam belt was apparently a must as the car is 5 years old... funny its supposed to be done at 60k miles, i clearly need to use it more lol
AW can produce a full engineers report on the car, don't know if you discussed that with them but could be an option to support the car's condition on future sales.

DeejRC

5,779 posts

82 months

Monday 15th June 2020
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Follow my lead above Andy, just let Jamie and Ben loose on it and enjoy the fruits of their labour...!

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

54 months

Monday 15th June 2020
quotequote all
lawrywild said:
anonymous said:
[redacted]
Trust about what though? A service means nothing really. It won't tell you if a car is a lemon or not, it just means somebody did regular maintenance on it. If we are talking about selling/buying in the first 3 years and therefore whether the car still has warranty or not, I could understand, but after that?

If a car's bolts are falling apart after 1,200 miles from coming out the factory because somebody didn't have a bolt tightening service then I think there would be much bigger issues at play.
Anything missing or out of the ordinary, in terms of scheduled items, just gives people the willies.
Cars can miss their scheduled services just because 'forgot' or perhaps because 'was lying in pieces, after a crash, waiting to be put together again for a year'.

omniflow

2,570 posts

151 months

Tuesday 16th June 2020
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The only time that a missing service would concern me in these circumstances is if it was something like a 1,200 mile running in service on a performance car where the engine oil gets changed from running in oil to standard oil.

On the 4C, Alfa are being pretty good on warranty repairs. My leased 4C went back after 2 years - it didn't have the second service. Also, I had the Alfa workshop Geo mod installed shortly after I got the car, that was left on when it was returned. The car then sat at Manheim for probably 6 months before being bought by Auto100. A chap on here then bought it from Auto100. He took it to an Alfa main dealer and had the front wishbones replaced under warranty without issue.

To me, the far bigger issue with the car being discussed is the lack of a leather dash, but I presume that's already been factored into the price.

Chrisatronic

293 posts

99 months

Tuesday 16th June 2020
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omniflow said:
On the 4C, Alfa are being pretty good on warranty repairs. My leased 4C went back after 2 years - it didn't have the second service. Also, I had the Alfa workshop Geo mod installed shortly after I got the car, that was left on when it was returned. The car then sat at Manheim for probably 6 months before being bought by Auto100. A chap on here then bought it from Auto100. He took it to an Alfa main dealer and had the front wishbones replaced under warranty without issue.
Dunno if you're talking about me but, this is my exact experience aswell smile. My warranty expires next week but I don't think I'll extend it, seems rare to have major issues and the service from AlfaWorks is a million times better than Alfa themselves so I'd want to use them anyway.

Edited by Chrisatronic on Friday 19th June 09:32

Chris-596aj

17 posts

69 months

Wednesday 17th June 2020
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I work for a main Aston Martin dealer and i would say suggest that almost all customers are very "picky" when it comes to servicing history.

The whole network, Aston Martin and enthusiasts themselves fully accept that if a car is not serviced on time (perhaps due to SORN or various other reasons) as long as its brought back up to date with a full service then no warranty or part exchange price will be affected. (there arent any running in services to worry about with AM)

Just delivered a 10 year old DBS with no service completed for almost 3 years as its been in storage. Full service and various rubbers/belts replaced and its back up to scratch....

vivalastratos

34 posts

218 months

Saturday 20th June 2020
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lawrywild said:
arow said:
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2020...

I think this is the cheapest I have seen yet. Decent spec / milage / condition too.
Indeed, clearly looking for a quick sale.
I bought it.! It’s Lovely. Had to dive in quick, for me I think it was a great price.
( he did have a couple of people chasing it, but I suspect dealers trying to offer a lot less initially)
It’s been off road the for a while (12-18 months) and needs full belts service due to age, but other than that it’s mint. - This was accounted for in the price we agreed on.
Two dealer service stamps and receipts are fine for me at 10k miles in the first 3 years on the road, it’s nothing to worry about for me with that low miles. It’ll be done annually from now on regardless.
It had the Alfa ‘Pit Stop’ too.
Booked in for the full Service next week, so it’ll be up to date, and whilst it’s apart we’ll see if it has already had everything off for a bolt check. It’ll get one anyway and an Air Con re gas too at some point.
I’m very, very happy with it, that’s the main thing. Hoping to keep it for a long time.

lawrywild

157 posts

62 months

Saturday 20th June 2020
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Congrats and enjoy it, got yourself a bargain


vivalastratos said:
I bought it.! It’s Lovely. Had to dive in quick, for me I think it was a great price.
( he did have a couple of people chasing it, but I suspect dealers trying to offer a lot less initially)
It’s been off road the for a while (12-18 months) and needs full belts service due to age, but other than that it’s mint. - This was accounted for in the price we agreed on.
Two dealer service stamps and receipts are fine for me at 10k miles in the first 3 years on the road, it’s nothing to worry about for me with that low miles. It’ll be done annually from now on regardless.
It had the Alfa ‘Pit Stop’ too.
Booked in for the full Service next week, so it’ll be up to date, and whilst it’s apart we’ll see if it has already had everything off for a bolt check. It’ll get one anyway and an Air Con re gas too at some point.
I’m very, very happy with it, that’s the main thing. Hoping to keep it for a long time.

MellowshipSlinky

14,694 posts

189 months

Thursday 25th June 2020
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Was there ever an official ‘carbon edition’ 4C?

T5GRF

1,976 posts

264 months

Thursday 25th June 2020
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MellowshipSlinky said:
Was there ever an official ‘carbon edition’ 4C?
Not in the UK, the anniversary cars had most of the carbon options as standard such as the roll bar, binnacle, mirror caps, Etc.

MellowshipSlinky

14,694 posts

189 months

Thursday 25th June 2020
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T5GRF said:
MellowshipSlinky said:
Was there ever an official ‘carbon edition’ 4C?
Not in the UK, the anniversary cars had most of the carbon options as standard such as the roll bar, binnacle, mirror caps, Etc.
Thanks