>£1,000
When my target car is priced at £1900, open to offers... £1k would be somewhat generous.
That said, Glass's suggests a trade-in value for the car of £950, and dealers are pricing similar motors around trade-in.
I wondered whether, in valuing the cost-to-change, I could persuade him to take the difference between the trade-in values of his car and mine, and then add on, say, £200 profit for him?
Except... he appears to have had the car since January, so he's probably lost an absolute shed load on it.
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Only one thing matters in a p/x deal and that's the cost to change. How they jiggle the sums between the car price and p/x value is up to them.
When we were looking for our Scenic, the Renault dealer offered me £2k for my old Mondeo which was worth about £600. Clearly a trick designed to impress. I said OK, but what's it going to cost me to change my car? Every subsequent calculation was with the car at screen price, surprise surprise.
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I always think ebay is the best way to get rid of bangers, I've never had any hassle. I write a long description, list every fault and the buyer just turns up with the cash not even wanting to test drive it. This worked really well for a friend a year ago.
Sold her rust snapped in half Ford Ka (w reg) which also had bodywork damage and a clonkling suspension as a result of a bump, had no MOT either and stalled if left ideling for more than 5 minutes. Stuck it on ebay for £650 buy it now, or highest bid, it sold within an hour for the full £650 price. Bloke came next day with the readies, stuck on his truck and of he went. She then bought a 4 year old top spec Renault Clio of her friend, giving a total cost to change of round £2900.
The dealer price of the Clio would have been £4995 according to the guides, and if they did a minimum part exchange that of £500 that would have been a cost to change of £4495!
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I ebayed the aforementioned Mondeo with great success. If the seller's intentions were right, it is now a left hooker and chugging around Warsaw, serving its new Polish family as well as it served me. :-)
The most hassle free car sale I have ever made. Bid won, and I had the full amount in cash and no car less than 24 hrs later. And the guy came all the way from Poland!
Cheers
DP
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>Every subsequent calculation was with the car at screen price ..
Of course it was. If you have no p/x, the dealer is the only one over a barrel. If you do, you are just swopping cars and have to agree what each is worth to you. The dealer can give you £8k for yours, and you can pay £9K for his when the guide prices are about £1500, if it makes you both feel better.
I did a p/x deal for my present car in 2002 which cost me zero. It felt a bit strange, and the salesman thought he had to 'ask the boss', but I didn't see why it was different from any other sale, as their resale margin would still be there.
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I did a PX this year which involved getting a cheque for the balance from the dealer. A very odd feeling.
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Stick your old car on ebay auction - no reserve, £1 start, run it over a weekend finishing at a sensible evening time. Take lots of nice pictures - list any faults (you usually get a better price listing faults as not as people assume there are faults anyway and think an honest seller better).
Then go shopping with the cash.
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>>Then go shopping with the cash.
Eh? Go shopping, and then sell your car. You might not find a car you fancy, and then where will you be...?
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Indeed PD. When I was looking at cars I would always avoid the N reg 100k Fiestas which apparantly had no faults. So the rockers were like new then were they? No faults is often down to ignorance, people think if a car stops and goes it has no faults. It will be interesting to see what I get for my Fiesta if I decide to sell it when the ticket runs out in April. Now I reckon with a bit of sand paper, primer, spraypaint and a good t-cut I can easily get £450 for it with a fresh MOT.
I once saw a Punto MK1 advertised on ebay as perfect, as soon as I started it up you could see a pool of water under the exhaust, the coolant was blew mininum and the temperature went up quite quickly, it took me about 30 secodns to conclude a blown HG.
I never understood why people don't write long car adds on ebay.
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My ad was very long and listed everything I knew about the car, including where I'd bought it from and when, every mark or imperfection that I knew about, every single fault/demerit that I was aware of (including that a former owner had replaced the Quickclear screen with a standard item), and what I'd used the car for in the time I'd had it. I also invited people to come and look at the car before bidding, and made it very clear that the winning bid was therefore final. Not legally enforceable, but grounds to give any idiot who tries it on a proper piece of my mind.
Listing started at 99p and no reserve. I actually forget what it did make in the end, but it was mid £600's. A rather tatty (but not rusty) 8 year old Mondeo mk2 diesel in good running order, regularly serviced and maintained but not documented, and with a few outstanding jobs needed. It had a short ticket, and best part of 150,000 miles on the clock. About what it was worth really. If it had been cosmetically tidier, I'd have gone for a grand in the free-ads, but these things are ten a penny, and anyone with any sense would move onto another if asked to pay top whack for one with so many stone chips and parking dints.
Ignore all the "what will you take for it now" and "would you describe the car as perfect condition?" nonsense, answer the serious questions honestly, and you'll be surprised. Also check the bidders feedback carefully to avoid getting saddled with one of the serial timewasters that unfortunately do appear on Ebay.
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