marc_ely

My scooby is proving diffiicult to flog and I am getting impatient. It's currently on Ebay after being on Autotrader too. I have the car sitting valeted in the garage waiting to sell, while I drive a runabout around. I don't need another "nice" car at the moment as I only do low mileage and the rubabout is good enough, but...

Current idea is to trade the scooby in at a dealer for something that is more saleable privately.

Question is: For 17k or so - what would be a good bet as a private re-sale after a short ownership period? I don't need to actually like the car, it just has to be a good re-seller.

Any ideas?

Marc

CooperS

Cooper S convertible mate, There's a waiting list though unless they've already been allocated.

I bought my Cooper S for £16,300 in July 2002, and sold it last week for £13,500 with 25K on the clock, they really hold their value.

Andy

what would scooby do

Secon choice would be a honda civic Type R in black, there is also a waitlist for these at the moment though !

wheelwright

Why bother to p/x for a car thats going to be sold @ retail price to you and get a

low p/x price.

Its going to be worth the day after 1 / 2k less private sale ??

Why not just lower your asking price on the Scoob ?? And then go buy private ?

What Scoob R U you selling, price etc as you may be asking to much hence no sale

SJJ84

Or just take your scoob to a dealer and ask them how much they will give you for it. Will be a little less than if you part ex against another vehicle, but if you just intend to sell on that vehicle you will lose again. Got rid of a couple of cars that way as most people want to buy more expensive cars from dealers rather than private.

Mica Blue

If u put an order in for an S Convertible, you won't get it until next year!!

Massive waiting list!

ProperCharlie

as above - the idea makes no sense.

you are asking too much for your car. i had to accept £2.5k less than i wanted when i sold mine (i.e. £15k depreciation in 18 months). unfortunately, newish imprezas are very difficult to get rid of.

MGJohn

Unless you're lucky and have something people form queues to obtain, most used cars can be difficult to sell for a reasonable price, particularly those not very old. If you need to dispose of it quickly, selling to a dealer could provide an answer but you'll have to get used to a rather lower price than you'd have to pay for YOUR same car at that same dealership.

Part exchange against any much lower value vehicle MAY provide a suitable compromise answer for you if you look at some thing around only 2-3 Grand with the balance for your higher value car in cash/cheque. Most of the new car dealerships round my area are awash with used cars, be they fairly new, not very old or simply old ... old meaning five years or over nowadays. Most new car dealerships auction or 'trade' on these old (5 year and over cars) taken in p/x against new - they simply don't want them in their used car displays unless they are exceptional in some way. Some of the prices of cars at auctions or traded on are real eyeopeners as a visit to one of the auction sessions in any area will illustrate all to plainly......

The sooner the average UK car buyer gets the message that 'high residuals' is UK motor trade speak for making us pay over the odds for our cars in the first place compared to most other countries .... the better. Don't hold your breath though .... some still form queues to pay over the odds to own a car!

Simon S3

This is very true! I have a good friend who lost 12 grand on a Boxster S in just over a year! These cars are supposed to have cast iron residuals, in reality, they don`t and any car is only worth what somebody is willing to pay for it.

Flat 4x4

Look on Autotrader and see what the typical range of prices is for your model / spec/ year of car, and then reduce your price below the lowest. It will sell.

N1 SPAN

Different Subaru dealers will pay different prices for the same car. e.g. I sold a bugeye sti to a dealer 250 miles away because they offerred more than any other dealer I spoke to. Just a big train ride home. Certainly les hassle than buying another car to sell on though. Like the above comments say, it is very unlikely you would end up on the right side doing that.

marc_ely

Thanks for all the responses.
I thought it was a bit of an odd idea but it's always worth asking people.

The car (2000-X P1) is now in the ForSale section.

There are dozens of them on AutoTrader for 16k-20k but I didn't get a sniff for 17k. It didn't sell on Ebay for 15k, but the end of auction did co-incide with the end of the distatrous England-Portugal game (does the Ref have a timeshare in Portugal perhaps?)

Thanks.

Marc

wheelwright

Looks a nice motor mate for 15k, that IMHO is a very fair price and should sell
No problem

The Ad

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

I suppose its just a case that second hand cars are cheap nowadays, even things like a P1 need to be cheap to sell, the ones with all the money buy new and part ex and those on a budget tend to be tighter with the readies, a P1 is an amazing motor but its getting on for five years old and the Impreza peaked image wise a few years back, new stuff is coming out all the time and cars have got cheaper.

For example, My Fiat Coupe was nearly 25 grand new, I paid 7k earlier this year and I reckon its worth about 5 and a bit now, depreciation is a fact of life for Fiat owners !

Dracoro

Premium 2nd hand roadsters tend to hold their value better than most types of cars. S2000, Boxsters, TTs etc. Even some non premium ones too such as MX5 etc.

For example. I bought a 2 1/2 year old Honda S2000 for £18,500. Ran it for 18 months and then sold it for £17,000. That's a grand a year depreciation and what a car to boot too. Reliable so no 'extra' running costs, when purchased was still in warranty so could get anything sorted no probs. Basically, total cost ownership, it's the cheapest car I've ever owned.

Generally, Buy/Sell privately will be the best economic way to own cars. There are exceptions but people only usually realise this after the event.

mike16v

instead of trading in against something, to try and then sell what you get... why not just sell straight to a dealer??? Surely they will take a P1 for £15k, as they'll lob it on their forecourt for £19k+ ?? Better than losing an extra £2k by taking something you don't want at retail price, to then sell that at trade????

BedHog

http://www.parkers.co.uk/pricing/use...e=65&pay=false

Trade £13.5K - Thats what most dealers will offer - In my experience they just go for the book and offer that.

Private good condition is only 15K.

Bobby Peru

People looking for a P1 are looking for extremely low mileage above all, admitedly yours is not high miles, but the value of a P1 is highly affected by mileage, if I was in the market for another, I would be a after <20k, would be easier to just drop your price a bit.

shamrock

Have you tried the P1 owners club (www.p1woc.co.uk)

I'm currently looking to buy a P1 but I'm only interested in purchasing one with an extended warranty. It may help your sale if you could extend the warranty ..

marc_ely

I have a couple of buyers lined up around 15k now... but nothing concrete as yet.

The price of these things is tricky...
A week or so back (20/6/04) I surveyed AutoTrader (as a benchmark) and I got:
- Only one is priced less than 15K(with a dodgy engine)
- Two are at a similar price (but with far more miles on them)
- The rest (41 cars!!!) are all higher priced

Today I get a similar picture:
A handful now under 15k, but with far higher mileage
Similar mileage to mine trading for 16k'ish
And the rest all way above that.

As to an extended warranty - mine expired and I don't think Subaru will let you extend it if there has been a gap. A point to keep in mind if your's is up soon.
This is still not a guarantee of sale anyway - an immaculate P1 on ebay last week had a 2year extended warranty, low mileage and was from a reputable source - and it still didn't make its reserve, just getting to £13,500

As far as I am aware the basic engine in the powerful cars hasn't changed in donkey's years. Same block/head/turbo etc. All 2.0 turbos apart from the 22B.
Some people seem to think the classic cars with 280bhp or so are somehow unreliable (P1's or STi's etc) - yet they don't think twice about the Spec-C or WR1 where the basic same engine makes 50bhp more?!?! I must be missing something there but that sounds a more highly stressed setup to me.

I think the main problem with re-selling the UK cars like P1's, STi's & RB5's is the glut of imports which are just as fast for a lot less money.

Marc