Bit of advice- MX5 Content

[mpm1987]

Hi All.

Im after a bit of advice for my dad.

End of Janurary 2011, He purchased a Brand new (60 plate) 2.0 MX5 Hardtop, in dark silver with bose, bluetooth etc.

Since then he has only done 500 miles in it, when the weather was nice- he didn't see the point in taking it out when it was raining.

Fast forward to last week, he has now injurered himself, torn a tendon, which means he is unable to drive a manual car for upto a year, whilest it repairs.

Now he has asked me to help sell it.

We are contacting the Mazda dealer from where he purchased it from, see if they want to buy it back, and are going to list it on Autotrader, and on PH.

Im looking for a bit of advice, or pointers of other avenues I can look down.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Matt

[300bhp/ton]

mpm1987 said:

Hi All.

Im after a bit of advice for my dad.

End of Janurary 2011, He purchased a Brand new (60 plate) 2.0 MX5 Hardtop, in dark silver with bose, bluetooth etc.

Since then he has only done 500 miles in it, when the weather was nice- he didn't see the point in taking it out when it was raining.

Fast forward to last week, he has now injurered himself, torn a tendon, which means he is unable to drive a manual car for upto a year, whilest it repairs.

Now he has asked me to help sell it.

We are contacting the Mazda dealer from where he purchased it from, see if they want to buy it back, and are going to list it on Autotrader, and on PH.

Im looking for a bit of advice, or pointers of other avenues I can look down.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Matt

Advice to do what??

Selling private will offer the highest potential sale price, but the most work and hassle.

Selling back to the dealer will ensure a low price.

Not really sure what else you could be after???

Only other things - is it possible for you to have it or 'borrow' it for a year?

Or maybe see about swapping/trading it for an auto something. Although 500 miles in 5 months, to me it would seem not worth having.

[Chrisw666]

300bhp/ton said:

Or maybe see about swapping/trading it for an auto something.

Don't Mazda do an Auto MX5?

The loss after doing 500 miles in a car would hurt me more than keeping the car unused and in a garage until I could use it anyway. Aren't most new cars at the steepest part of their depreciation curve in the first 18 months or so?

[entwisi]

Park it (Legally) outside the Mazda dealership with For Sale sign listing all details/specs and "Sale due to illness", keenly priced a little under what the dealers will drop to and you should be good to go, passing trade are likely to be in the market for one and if they can save an extra few hundred quid towards fuel /insurance then everyones a winner

[Aizle]

entwisi said:

Park it (Legally) outside the Mazda dealership with For Sale signr

Is there a legal way of doing that? I'm not too sure.

[mcflurry]

Aizle said:

Is there a legal way of doing that? I'm not too sure.

Not on the double yellas

[entwisi]

Aizle said:

Is there a legal way of doing that? I'm not too sure.

by which I meant in a position that there is no legal challange to have it moved , i.e. insured, taxed, no parking restrictions etc, it may not be directly outside but getting it as close as possible on the main route to the dealer should be good enough.

[Parrot of Doom]

It's sunny, it's almost summer and it's a great car.

Don't sell it to the dealer, he'll offer you nothing. Stick it on the road, big sign in the window (don't bother saying FOR SALE, just put the price in massive letters).

Advertise it on PH, then in a few weeks time, on Ebay, Autotrader, etc.

[D1bram]

Possible that a dealer would take it on a sale or return basis.

It sounds a great buy for someone, and the sad reality for your Dad is he will lose several thousand on it. Personally I'd keep it for the year, doubtfull it will lose much more value in that time and if he then decides he wants another he will be hit a second time.

Does he have a minimum price in mind? how does that compare to similar cars for sale (I realise not many will have such low mileage, but say upto 5k miles).

[offshorematt2]

You don't say if it's his leg or his arm that is the problem. But if it's his leg, he could consider a temporary conversion to hand clutch?

http://www.alfredbekker.co.uk/alfred-bekker-produc...

Conversion would probably cost less than he would lose on the car and he can remove it in a year?

[hornetrider]

Think you have the angles covered OP. Mazda will give you bugger all, so try and flog it for in the region of 16k.

[Baryonyx]

Chrisw666 said:

Don't Mazda do an Auto MX5?

They do but from what I've seen they're not terribly well spoken of. And this makes sense, given that the rifle bolt gearshift of the MX5 is one of the best things about it, and it's a car that really needs a manual box to get the best from it's slightly meagre power reserves.

[LukeBird]

Chrisw666 said:

300bhp/ton said:

Or maybe see about swapping/trading it for an auto something.

The loss after doing 500 miles in a car would hurt me more than keeping the car unused and in a garage until I could use it anyway. Aren't most new cars at the steepest part of their depreciation curve in the first 18 months or so?

This.

Assuming he wants to drive it when he's better, it'd be far better (financially, at least!) just to garage it until he's better.
It'll look a bit odd (even if injured) to flog the car on with so few miles over such a (reasonably) long time as well.