Advice on selling a car with a known fault
Advice on selling a car with a known fault
Author
Discussion

wyson

Original Poster:

4,034 posts

131 months

Thursday 19th January 2023
quotequote all
What is the best way to sell a car that has a known fault?

It has low compression pressure in one cylinder, sometimes leading to hesitation and jerky acceleration.

The car is old so I can’t be bothered to fix it. I don't want to be dishonest and palm it off without being up front, which due to its intermittent nature, might not be obvious. There aren't any check lights on etc.



Edited by wyson on Friday 20th January 01:11

jeremyh1

1,501 posts

154 months

Thursday 19th January 2023
quotequote all
stick it on Gumtree and be honest about the fault somebody will pay good money for it as the world has gone mad

BananaFama

4,994 posts

106 months

Thursday 19th January 2023
quotequote all
If you sell it privately ,get a receipt signed that mentions the fault to prevent any I want my money back BS .

Moodyman1

135 posts

66 months

Thursday 19th January 2023
quotequote all
The fault is only known to you. Depends how well you sleep at night. Just saying.

SeekerOfTruthAndPies

266 posts

64 months

Friday 20th January 2023
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I'd be up front about it. If it's old and relatively cheap then people won't expect it to be perfect. It's one thing not mentioning a known fault in an advert, quite another when a prospective buyer is standing in front of you and asks directly if there is anything you know about. Moral dilemma time.

kiethton

14,599 posts

207 months

Friday 20th January 2023
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bung it through we buy any car, else an ebay auction with a very short/no description

Howard-

4,964 posts

229 months

Friday 20th January 2023
quotequote all
If you're not bothered by how much (or little) you get for it, stick it on eBay, list its good and bad points, let people bid it up to what they think it's worth.

What The Deuces

2,780 posts

51 months

Friday 20th January 2023
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Advertise it with known fault. Keep record of advert. Sleep soundly

brillomaster

1,827 posts

197 months

Friday 20th January 2023
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I'd mention it in the advert, and tell any buyers who come view it. otherwise you're asking for a whole world of pain later down the line.

I'd be fuming if i bought a car advertised as no faults only to discover one of the cylinders has low compression. its not the kind of thing a buyer can easily check when viewing.

gred

459 posts

196 months

Friday 20th January 2023
quotequote all
When selling a car privately I always have two receipts ready and get one signed by the buyer. State the problem, or ‘sold as found’ so there’s proof if you ever need it that the buyer knows the problem.

Filibuster

3,392 posts

242 months

Friday 20th January 2023
quotequote all

WBAC will offer you £2'500 for it. Only comparable car on PH sold by AA is £3'400.
Either bring it to WBAC or auction it with fault on ebay starting at £1.

Bennet

2,133 posts

158 months

Friday 20th January 2023
quotequote all
Moodyman1 said:
The fault is only known to you. Depends how well you sleep at night. Just saying.
Don't really want to get into this, but no one else has picked it up so.....

fk off you selfish, dishonest wker.

Or, preferably, shake yourself off and join the rest of us as decent people. The door is open. beer

PurpleTurtle

8,846 posts

171 months

Friday 20th January 2023
quotequote all
Advertise it honestly, keep a copy of the advert, sleep soundly.

I once distance-bought a new car and offered a shed in part-ex that was really only fit for scrapping.

I went into great details as to its myriad faults, dealer still gave me 500 quid for it, and his retiree delivery driver made it all the way back from Reading to Edinburgh in in, "great little car", according to him!

SeekerOfTruthAndPies

266 posts

64 months

Friday 20th January 2023
quotequote all
Bennet said:
Moodyman1 said:
The fault is only known to you. Depends how well you sleep at night. Just saying.
Don't really want to get into this, but no one else has picked it up so.....

fk off you selfish, dishonest wker.

Or, preferably, shake yourself off and join the rest of us as decent people. The door is open. beer
I think most people were treating it with the disdain that it deserved.

Pica-Pica

16,420 posts

111 months

Friday 20th January 2023
quotequote all
SeekerOfTruthAndPies said:
Bennet said:
Moodyman1 said:
The fault is only known to you. Depends how well you sleep at night. Just saying.
Don't really want to get into this, but no one else has picked it up so.....

fk off you selfish, dishonest wker.

Or, preferably, shake yourself off and join the rest of us as decent people. The door is open. beer
I think most people were treating it with the disdain that it deserved.
Agreed. One of those posts you shake your head at and move on.

soad

34,521 posts

203 months

Saturday 21st January 2023
quotequote all
Filibuster said:
WBAC will offer you £2'500 for it. Only comparable car on PH sold by AA is £3'400.
Either bring it to WBAC or auction it with fault on ebay starting at £1.
2009 Mk6 Golf 1.6 fsi with 83k miles? wink

Filibuster

3,392 posts

242 months

Saturday 21st January 2023
quotequote all
soad said:
Filibuster said:
WBAC will offer you £2'500 for it. Only comparable car on PH sold by AA is £3'400.
Either bring it to WBAC or auction it with fault on ebay starting at £1.
2009 Mk6 Golf 1.6 fsi with 83k miles? wink
wink

wyson

Original Poster:

4,034 posts

131 months

Saturday 21st January 2023
quotequote all
WBAC was quoting £2.7k, once I put all the cosmetic issues in, stone chips and scratches etc. about £2k. Wasn’t an option for the cylinder issue the nearest was something like rough running engine that shaved off another £1k. So might get £1k from them.

Seen similar cars on sale on Autotrader for about £3.6k.

Will start looking into what people have said in this thread in the coming days, thanks all, but this looks like a project car or a punt for someone willing to pay a few hundred quid, hoping the issue is on the cheaper end of the scale to fix.

Edited by wyson on Sunday 22 January 18:58

ZX10R NIN

30,401 posts

152 months

Saturday 21st January 2023
quotequote all
Sell it Ebay under spares & repairs that way you cover yourself.

HTP99

24,990 posts

167 months

Saturday 21st January 2023
quotequote all
wyson said:
WBAC was quoting £2.7k, once I put all the cosmetic issues in, stone chips and scratches etc. about £2k.

Seen similar on sale on Autotrader for about £3.6k.

Wasn’t an option for putting in other issues, but can’t see the car making that much because the engine fix prices the mechanics are quoting are between £1.5k and £3k depending on the severity of the problem.

Will start looking into what people have said in this thread in the coming days, thanks all, but this looks like a project car or a punt for someone willing to pay a few hundred quid, hoping the issue is on the cheaper end of the scale to fix.

Edited by wyson on Saturday 21st January 13:41
Why don't you WBAC it, hopefully the issue won't rear its head when you are there and they will give you far more for it that if selling for spares or repair etc?