Home Build v Factory Build Price Variation ?

[sjr-997]

I am looking at buying a mid 2006 Superlight R300 and wondered what price difference I should expect to see between a factory built and a home built ?

At the moment what is a good price to pay in minus 3/4/5 today England :-) for a 2000 mile 1 owner in fairly basic spec ? It would be either a private sale or from a trader. thank you.

[snapper seven]

To be honest I don't think you will see a big difference in price between factory and home built cars. Many home builds are probably better put together anyway and many return to the factory for their inspection checks too.

As with most, you will see the biggest price differences from whoever is selling. Caterham cars always seem to be £2-3000 more than private sales through the club etc.

SS

[Tango7]

As SS says there is little difference between a factory built or home built car with the irony being that plenty of people would prefer to have a home built car as it may have been built with more care and attention and time than a factory built one. Cost wise, factory build adds £2.5k to the purchase price but doesn't add much to the sale price.

For a low mileage 2006 R300 I would expect it to be mid £20's (25/26/27k) from a dealer and probably £3k less from a private sale. Despite being the middle of the winter, prices for Caterhams at this level don't really change and most people would probably hang on to them until the weather picks up late March when sales will start to happen as the temperature picks up.

BTW buy on specification and condition rather than age and mileage as these cars are unlikely to be high mileage cars. An R300 should have wide track, LSD, maybe Tillet seats, possibly a Stack dash (optional), full carbon pack, 6 speed, big brakes on front, at least an Apollo anti-captivation tank or (if you are lucky) dry sump if you want to do track days. All these items are expensive to fit retrospectively if you want them.

HTH

Nick

[sjr-997]

if i could get a mid 2006 for £22k would you consider that a good price ? (no caterham dealer, but a dealer all the same...no warranty though..)

[sjr-997]

If i can secure a deal for a mid 2006 from a non caterham dealer without warranty for £22k would you say that was a fair price ?

[Tango7]

If the car has the option packs I mentioned above, then yes I reckon its a very good price and would be a lot more from Caterham themselves - although this is due to the warranty they have to offer on a used vehicle but with such a new car, low miles (assuming they aren't all track miles.... ration of 5:1 springs to mind!) and A1 condition I don't expect you could hope to pay too much less for a car through the classifieds.

[Neal H]

I paid £24.5k for my Jan 07 R300 with 2300 miles from Caterham Midlands. The warranty they gave with the car was only three months, so hardly generous!

The spec was fairly basic - no dry-sump, LSD or Stack instruments. It did however come with Tillett seats, race harnesses, change up lights, heater, aeroscreen plus windscreen and full weather gear. The condition was also immaculate.

Neal.

[sjr-997]

i've secured the R300 for £21,950. inc 6 months tax, all the toys we've talked about already. best of all it was a BMW main dealer. they knew nothing about the car. probably the first and last time I ever buy anything from a BMW dealer ;-)

[atom-ick]

I have owned a couple (one factory, one kit built) and it didn't seem to affect the resale value