Buying and selling cars - anyone come out on top?
Discussion
Heres one for you - just looking at the purchase and selling prices of cars you have bought and sold again, who has the least loss over their time motoring?
for sake of ease, i'm going to exclude any cars that were bought and then written off, since insurance payouts are often woeful. And also exclude cars that were sold for scrap.
the ones i can remember...
peugeot 306 - bought for £1800, sold for £1000 = -£800
mazda mx5 - bought for £2400, sold for £1500 = -£900
nissan 300zx - bought for £3000, scrapped = n/a
honda civic - bought for £2400, crashed into = n/a
nissan 350z - bought for £6400, sold for £5000 = -£1400
bmw 335i - bought for £8200, sold for £7000 = -£1200
bmw 330d - bought for £6000, crashed = n/a
bmw z4 - bought for £3000, sold for £2400 = -£600
total for cars across a 12 year period is -£4,900, or £408 a year.
Anyone managed to turn a profit? i'm hoping that a current car (porsche boxster) may be worth more when i sell it on, maybe...
for sake of ease, i'm going to exclude any cars that were bought and then written off, since insurance payouts are often woeful. And also exclude cars that were sold for scrap.
the ones i can remember...
peugeot 306 - bought for £1800, sold for £1000 = -£800
mazda mx5 - bought for £2400, sold for £1500 = -£900
nissan 300zx - bought for £3000, scrapped = n/a
honda civic - bought for £2400, crashed into = n/a
nissan 350z - bought for £6400, sold for £5000 = -£1400
bmw 335i - bought for £8200, sold for £7000 = -£1200
bmw 330d - bought for £6000, crashed = n/a
bmw z4 - bought for £3000, sold for £2400 = -£600
total for cars across a 12 year period is -£4,900, or £408 a year.
Anyone managed to turn a profit? i'm hoping that a current car (porsche boxster) may be worth more when i sell it on, maybe...
Yes. Once.
Six months back I bought a 2006 Volvo V70 for £1,300. I sold it two months later for £3,150, making £266.
It was advertised badly on Gumtree with no description and when I phoned the owner he said it had no service history. I phoned my local Volvo dealer and they told me it had a full Volvo service history and that they could send me a couple of stamped service books as evidence.
I subsequently bought it, had new Brembo discs and pads fitted, a replacement alloy wheel as one was distorted, four new Michelin Pilot Sport 4 tyres, wheel alignment and a few other bits and bobs including the service books.
All in, including the cost of the car, train to get there, fuel to come back, £1,000+ of new parts and cost of advertising etc., I sold it for £3,150 and made £266. Had I skimped on the parts fitted, it could have been more…
Six months back I bought a 2006 Volvo V70 for £1,300. I sold it two months later for £3,150, making £266.
It was advertised badly on Gumtree with no description and when I phoned the owner he said it had no service history. I phoned my local Volvo dealer and they told me it had a full Volvo service history and that they could send me a couple of stamped service books as evidence.
I subsequently bought it, had new Brembo discs and pads fitted, a replacement alloy wheel as one was distorted, four new Michelin Pilot Sport 4 tyres, wheel alignment and a few other bits and bobs including the service books.
All in, including the cost of the car, train to get there, fuel to come back, £1,000+ of new parts and cost of advertising etc., I sold it for £3,150 and made £266. Had I skimped on the parts fitted, it could have been more…
I did with my Defender, bought it with Galv chassis, polybushed, stiffer springs but not a lift, 76k original miles, full wading kit I put some standard but chunkier size tyres on it, a new rear door, fixed the bulkhead corner that was rotten out, had it painted.
Cost £2500
Money put in £2000
With running costs it owed me £5k
Sold it last year for £12k, and bought really, the cheapest, not broken TVR Chimaera out there, flew through an MOT and had a considerable amount of work done it, so basically got a free TVR, which is also worth more than what I paid for it.
Everything else I have lost on.
Cost £2500
Money put in £2000
With running costs it owed me £5k
Sold it last year for £12k, and bought really, the cheapest, not broken TVR Chimaera out there, flew through an MOT and had a considerable amount of work done it, so basically got a free TVR, which is also worth more than what I paid for it.
Everything else I have lost on.
I bought an old Jeep Cherokee for £1100 off of ebay. It was mainly used as a 'dump car', bikes dog rubbish all sorts went into it. Over the course of the next 5 years it ran like a dream no issues whatsoever, however i was starting to get a few advisories at MOT time so a couple of years ago i decided to let it go and put it back on ebay and sold it for £1500!
If you buy a car at the right part of the depreciation curve it can help go in your favour but it would need to be a limited market car to make that work.
Mercedes SL55 - bought £12000 - sold £18000
Honda CRZ - bought £5750 - sold TBC...
The main issue I have personally is I put far more effort in to hunting a car obsessively and then not buying cheap, and a relatively low effort with the sales preparation, photos etc as I generally just want rid at the end. If I was doing this for profit I would likely do better buying sheds unemotively tidying them up and then selling.
Mercedes SL55 - bought £12000 - sold £18000
Honda CRZ - bought £5750 - sold TBC...
The main issue I have personally is I put far more effort in to hunting a car obsessively and then not buying cheap, and a relatively low effort with the sales preparation, photos etc as I generally just want rid at the end. If I was doing this for profit I would likely do better buying sheds unemotively tidying them up and then selling.
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