Idly flicking through Autotrader, as one does, there are some cars - generally big, semi-luxury cars (Audis, Subarus, the like) for sale with private sellers for well over trade prices. £2k for a mid-90s car, anybody? At what point do people give up and decide that the car is hopelessly over-priced - when similar versions, 5 years younger, are chaper? And then what do they do?
Or will it sit on the drive, SORNed for months?
|
The first question has to be - how many of those private sellers really are private sellers, or are they semi-pro traders purporting to be selling their Dad's car?
Some of those cars will sell, just not at that price. Buyer goes along, cash in hand, makes a silly-ish offer, has the money on the spot, seller gets real, real fast, everybody happy.
|
Some people also have a massively inflated idea of what their car is worth. You get the "I paid £10000 for it three years ago and there is no way I am excepting less than eight" brigade, who can't seem to understand that if their pride and joy is now regarded as economic poison they can't force someone to pay what they want.
There are the other type who think that because they have sunk half their salary into replacing most of the componants on some old nail it somehow increases the value way above book price.
|
|
My partners uncle is one of those! Has a saab 9-5 (I think) which he couldnt sell, but decided that it was far to good to give away or Auction (as I suggested to him). Cant get his head around the fact that it is a depreciating asset so has been keeping it in his mothers garage for a year
|
It's very similar to the housing market at present. Some people I know are struggling to sell their properties at the moment, but I have a mate who declares he could readily attract buyers on their behalf.
He works on the basis that if the price is right then such properties will sell, credit crunch or not. What the sellers cannot comprehend is that they will have to lower their expectations, as they still believe their properties are worth £xxxxx or more.
It's exactly the same with cars.
|
There is a 10 year old MPV for sale near me - started off at £2.5k two months ago and now down to £1.6k - still over Parkers value for a Private sale by a few hundred quid. A similar or better car is available from a Trader (with of course some recourse if the gearbox drops out during the first hundred yards).
They must have wasted hundreds of pounds advertising with Autotrader ... very frustrating as we'd be interested if there was a reasonable starting point.
|
See Lexus LS400 on ebay.
Under £750 for a 12 years old FSH taxed and MOT with 120k miles good for another 100k miles.
Some people asking £2500...!
I am waiting for an 8 year old one sub £1500,,
|
|
|
|
He works on the basis that if the price is right then such properties will sell credit crunch or not. What the sellers cannot comprehend is that they will have to lower their expectations as they still believe their properties are worth £xxxxx or more.
You're right up to a point, but with cars, and especially second hand cars, many people will be paying cash from their savings accounts. With houses most people need mortgages, or they need to sell their existing property to someone who needs a mortgage. Firstly it is much more difficult to get a mortgage now and secondly people with mortgages are much more wary than they were even six months ago of increasing their borrowing or taking on the extra costs associated with moving house. We are currently paying off our mortgage as if the interest rate were 9% and we have been for over a year now. Interest rate and tax cuts just mean we will pay it off even quicker and I know we are not alone. That's what is meant by credit crunch. I think your mate is being disingenuous and that it is in his interest to talk up the market. If he's an estate agent he's screwed.
Price is certainly the deciding or most significant factor with cars, but with houses it is only one issue.
|
|
Had a very similar discussion with my uncle last night. He was offered £2,500 by the trader who sold him the car a year ago for £4,000 and is reacting as if the guy has robbed him. Just can not comprehend prices have dropped.
|
"He was offered £2,500 by the trader who sold him the car a year ago for £4,000"
Explain to your uncle that the trader bought that car in for about £3,200, I'd guess, so to the trader the car has fallen in value by £700 - not really all that much, and cheap compared to a high VED car that cost £10,000 a year ago...
|
I have no sypmathy at all, if you buy a mainstream car for £4k then sell it a year later, you are going to loose a lot of money it is a fact of life. If the car was a lot of trouble then I do feel sorry for the these people.
I paid £350 for my Fiesta and have discovered it needs some work, I actually debated selling it on, but I would loose so much doing this it will be a lot cheaper just to get the work done on it.
|
To all those who are waiting for ever decreasing car prices to fall within your grasp you'll then have to sell on your current model...........................................At top book price obviously ;o}
Only then to be outraged when someone trys to chip you £50 :oO
;o)
|
The hilarious aspect to this bizarre conversation was that he was only asking for a trade in value as the dealer had a newer shinier car marked up cheap.
Logic and my uncle unfortunately don't go together.
|
|
|
|
Chop the roof off, fill the car with top soil and plant some bulbs.
Makes one hell of a garden feature!
|
You laugh?
A couple of years ago when househunting we saw one property with three abandoned vehicles on the land. They were the owners previous cars which he'd decided to keep as they weren't worth selling. The Landrover was covered in honeysuckle and some sort of rose - only just visible.
|
A mate of mine's parents bought a house back in the 80s, which had a largeish garden, at the back of which was a small copse which they had not thoroughly investigated when viewing the house. Once they had moved in they set about the undergrowth with a machete. CLANG! One 1960s VW Beetle discovered under the ivy.
Friend wanted to get it running as he was approaching his 17th, however Dad thought it too far gone and off it went to the scrappie.
My family also benefitted from a barn find at a farm we bought in Wales which had been abandoned for many years. We discovered a brown Wartburg estate in a barn, which we hadn't known was there. This we did manage to get going and it did sterling service charging around the place carrying logs and the like as we cleared out various orchards and fields. Never put it on the road, but it was much more fun than a tractor and a great learning cuve for me as I was under 17.
Edited by Alanovich on 18/11/2008 at 14:32
|
Quote:...""There is a 10 year old MPV for sale near me - started off at £2.5k two months ago and now down to £1.6k""
There's a 10 year old MPV for sale near me too, also for £1.6 K. As I walked past I mentally said to myself '£800' !!!
|
Quote:..""A couple of years ago when househunting we saw one property with three abandoned vehicles on the land.""
Reminds me of a farm I visted when I was a lorry driver. The crochety old farmer ran an Austin Cambridge that had been repainted badly by hand. He'd also kept his previous cars, which were just abandoned in a line behind a barn when he no longer wanted them.
|
|
|
|
