Two of my friends are at the negotiating stage in a deal to buy off the other a rather leggy 1993 Mondeo.
Trouble is the car is rather tired and I can see problems ahead in terms of reliability, parts costs, MOT repairs, potential breakdowns etc.
My point is isn't it a golden rule of friendship is NEVER sell/buy to/off a car to each other?
Is this a fastrack way of testing friendship to the limit?
What do you think?
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No. Don't do it. Not never.
On the other hand, I suppose it's worth only a couple of hundred quid. How wrong can you go?
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My mother sold her ten year old Escort to a friend back in 1989, asking only the p/x price she'd been given by the main dealer against her new Fiesta. The friend ran it for a year, put 25k on it (it started with 63k) and scrapped it. Everyone was happy.
Assuming that the car is dirt cheap (not even usual private sale money) then I don't suppose the buyer can complain when it inevitably goes bang. For £250 or whatever, I think that's par for the course.
If however they want £800 or something silly like that, then it could get messy. The problem is that if you intervene, you'll be taking sides in an argument that hasn't even happened and probably create one that way, especially as it's far more likely that the seller has an inflated view of the car's value, rather than is trying to rip off the other friend.
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I bought a Citroen BX 1.7td from a friend for £500. It wasn't used for about six weeks whilst I sold my other car, but I started it up every few days just to keep things in order and watch in amazement as it raised itself up.
On the third start up, the battery decided it had had enough....£35.00, and about three weeks later there was a burning rubber smell, which was the main hydraulic pump seizing......£35.00 second hand and this was all before it got on the road. SWMBO was sure that our friends had an inkling that all this was about to happen, but after much persuasion believed me that they could not have known.
It turned out to be a great car that I enjoyed driving and owning very much. I had it for about a year or so with nothing else going wrong and about 12K added to the odometer. I actually sold it back to the same friend for £300 with a nearly illegal tyre (he wanted it for a relative). I never told him about what had happened until about nine months after I had bought it. We are still (and always were even when it went wrong) very good friends.
Reggie
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Last year I sold my Passat estate to my father.Ten days later the air-con compressor failed !!!.I think he has now forgiven me.
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Sold two Hondas to friends but knew they were A1 cond. I would not have sold my Volvo, as I knew there were some minor faults that didn't affect the driving at all but were a pain to fix.
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Espada III - well if you have a family and need a Lamborghini, what else do you drive?
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The golden rule should be dont buy from a friend. You always feel bad about haggling over the price and then resent it when the thing breaksdown as it inevitable does.
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Actually I would have no issue buying from a friend, even if the thing when toes up 24 hours later.
But I would never sell to a friend.
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But I would never sell to a friend.
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Ha Ha.
With your much trumpeted policy on servicing, maintenance and cleaning, which friend would want it? ;-)
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There are those who believe that if you're not prepared to sell to a friend you shouldn't sell priveately to anyone.
But I disagree with that. There are some cars I've had that I would have been only too happy to sell onto a friend, even if it had known faults, that I would be completely open about. However I have had the odd car that I would NOT want to sell to ANYONE I know! That would include anyone here.
...and that's not because I knew there were faults and would declare them, but more because I never knew when the next fault would arise and how much it would cost to put right.
H
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touche Tom, very good!
I would never sell to a friend, I would have too much feeling of responsibility for it after the sale.
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[This is a placeholder for a witty, amusing, intelligent, yet brief and cutting riposte to Tom. Please treat this comment as if it exhibits all those qualities until such time as it has been replaced by one that does]
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Hahahahahahahaha
That's made my day :-)
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Adam
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Well the deal was done for 475 sovs.
A bit excessive i think but still,i never said nowt..
Car in question is a 1.6LX in that metallic green colour so it don't look to bad for the money.
Will monitor situation carefully and hopefully no fists are thrown over coming months!
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