*sigh* seems the bottom has dropped out of the market for big, thirsty 2.5 litre V6 motors...
I\'m in the process of changing car (to an nice frugal diesel!) from my Sep-2000 (W Reg) 2.5 V6 Vectra CDX Estate, 41K miles. OK, my car has a nice bit of power & acceleration, but 28mpg combined is extracting the urine a bit...
Looking at book prices, I was hoping to get around £4,500 to £5,000 offered by the dealer as a p/x... no such luck. Apparently no-one wants the big gas guzzlers anymore and I\'m only being offered £3,700. Local car dealer has offered £4,000, but this is still lower than I really needed for the car I\'m after.
Looking around, I see many similar cars (even identical ones, normally with higher mileage) being offered at around £6 - £7K sticker price, so are they offering me too little or is the price about right?
I know that, at the end of the day, a car is worth what someone will pay for it, but is it worth my while hunting around to other dealers or do you reckon I\'ll get pretty much the same story?
Of course, if you look at my other recent posting, you\'ll know that there is a teensie problem with the car (i.e. either the head gasket or the heat exchanger could be knackered, causing a constant coolant fluid leak - or it could just be a loose pipe in the depths of the engine somewhere - no loss of performance of the car) so maybe I\'m best just to take the £4k and run?
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*stop press*
Now been offered £4,500 for it in p/x - but ONLY by a local Renault Dealer trying to get me to pay £2K more than my budget for a new-shape Scenic. If I was to look at a cheaper car, he \"doubts they\'d be able to offer me the same for the car\"!!
So a) it\'s a \"conditional\" trade in value (i.e. only if you spend way more than you wanted) and b) against a car I don\'t want anyway! (Was really unimpressed by the Scenic inside, to be honest... it was only 9 months old and it looked like it had been beaten to death with a machete... and they wanted £13,995!!! ha!) car dealers...! (only joking guys, I know some of you are nice guys really...)
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Sell it privately. You'll never get more than rock-bottom prices on a trade-in basis. It's in the price range where private sales happen; I failed to sell a more expensive car privately and had to resort to trade in, the dealer's verdict being that it was well above the price range in which most private sales are made.
Having sold it privately, you'll be armed with more cash to negotiate. There's nothing like cash to soften up a dealer.
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Yeah but what's the position regarding the fact that I know it has a problem of sorts? OK, it may be a minor problem, but if it's a major one, does the buyer have any comeback, or is that why they should get a full mechanical inspection done?
Just would feel a bit of a shyster passing on a car to a private buyer when I could be selling them a complete lemon!
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Why the two threads?
My advice: you're obviously not comfortable with a private sale, I don't think the car's worth more than £5,500 on an independent forecourt, before hagging/part-ex over allowance, etc., expenses, risk for it having a problem anyway.
You do have to answer the buyer's questions honestly; if you lie, he has a comeback. That applies to private purchasers and traders, but a private guy will ask "Have you had any problems with the car?" and while a dealer will pretty much trust himself to find them, and/or expect you to lie, a private person is far more likely to ask, get an inspection, and so on.
If it were me I'd take the £4k offered by the dealer for a cash sale and be thankful to get rid of it. The alternative is quite a protracted process and the alternative of lying or declaring the problem, if you're asked - which you probably will be.
If you fancy its chances of making more at auction, by all means go for it. If not, you can always take it to an independent mechanic and see what they say; they should quote you far less than £1k to fix.
Realistically, in a private sale (unless you're a Network Q franchise) your asking price is going to be £5k or a couple of hundred more and you'll end up being haggled down to £4,750 or so.
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Cheers - sounds like good advice. I didn't plan the two threads to end up quite as close as they have - one was meant to be to do with the "ethics" of selling a known (or at least suspected) dodgy car and the other was bemoaning the fact that the market appears to have disappeared (to all intents and purposes) for greedy old gas guzzlers like mine...
However, with hindsight, your point is a valid one and they have ended up converging to a point where one or other is redundant.
Apologies for that.
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Never forget that a car salesman needs you far more than you need him - if you don't get a reasonable deal (and one that's fair for both parties) then simply walk away.
There are thousands of cars for sale and dozens of car salesmen out there who will be happy to do business with you over some pleasant and reasonable haggling.
If you want finance, I know the big car dealerships can obtain it for a little as four and a half per cent at present if really pushed - the financial institutions know the large franchised dealers put a lot of business their way over the course of a year...
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Managed to get £4,400 trade-in value in the end!
Traded it against a 3-month old Xsara Picasso 1.6 Hdi Exclusive (I paid £7100 + my p/ex) with only 3K miles on the clock. Got some proper lockable roof bars & 12 months road tax thrown in too.
When I take into account what the true value of my poor knackered old Vectra should have been, I think I got a bit of a bargain...
Really pleased with the Picasso so far. Had to drive it back from dealer 2 hours away so got a good long drive. Good motorway cruiser with no problems going up hills. Nice driving position (I'm 6' 5" tall) as well - like being slightly higher up! Really pleased with the acceleration too, considering I'm used to a 2.5 litre V6!
Took family out for a drive last night and it met with universal approval. Wife thinks passenger seat is far more comfortable than the Vectra was and kids love the extra room they have in the back.
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Managed to get £4,400 trade-in value in the end!
According to the Glass's guide, that's around the figure they recommend for an average conditioned W Reg 2.5CDX Vectra Estate.
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Absolutely. But as the best I was being offered was £3,700 until then, the old adage of "your car's worth what someone will pay for it" was starting to ring very true indeed...
Allegedly the market for big-engined petrol guzzlers, particularly V6 versions is rapidly drying up. Happens every time the petrol price skyrockets.
Thing is, we're now moving into permanently high prices and now that the diesel engines are starting to return the performance to go with the economy, you have to have deep pockets to want to run a thirsty car...
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Not that I'm a fan of Picasso's but it looks to me that you did get a good deal.
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Allegedly the market for big-engined petrol guzzlers, particularly V6 versions is rapidly drying up. Happens every time the petrol price skyrockets.
Or could it be performance diesel engines that are now appearing? I've got a 2.2 petrol Vectra C with 155 bhp, and there's also a 1.9 CDTi diesel engine available that pumps out 150bhp and gives nearly twice the mpg.
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