Sold my Car!

Odd_Fellow

I've thought of selling my car. It's an old Mercedes E280 estate and it's got a electrical fault that flattens the battery. It's been mothballed since June last year and is being used as a storage shed on the drive. There's no outgoings on it at all and it's worth about £1500 (if I'm lucky).

We have three (3) other vehicles. My wife's car (a diesel Picasso) which is fitted with the requisite three child seats, an old Bedford Midi Van that I use for carting big stuff and building materials around in and a Morgan sports car that's used during the summer.

We own all the cars so the only outgoings are running costs and depreciation. However, we are horribly overspending each month and not on luxuries. It's bad cash flow and slack business times.

I am loathe to sell the Morgan as I know that I'll find it very difficult to be able to afford another one in the future. We could sell the Picasso and get a lower value family car, but it's only worth £4k anyway, so getting a safe family car that does 50mpg for less than £4k would seem to be a tall order.

The option, therefore, is to MOT and Tax the Merc and see if I can get some money on it.

My hesitance in doing anything is the fear of loosing a vehicle that I might not be able to replace in the future.

Cantdance_2

Thanks for all the hints and tips people... and DFW chat of the week, wow!!

:j

Yep, pretty impressed to cut back around £450 a month - cutting my pension contributions helped, as well as slashing the shopping budget at least in half by shopping in Netto / Lidl / Aldi...

Also cut right back on mobiles, negotiated half price Sky (which I can't cancel till August), switched providers on a couple of things and cancelled some pointless direct debits!

As for completely getting rid of the car, well that's got to be the next stage. We were talking about it but then my parents offered us this car for nothing so we decided we'd take it and use it until it falls apart.

So yes, we could still be saving even more although the cost of the two of us getting the bus to work every day is actually more per week than the petrol costs in the car...

James

northern_star

Well done on downsizing, James.

I've been thinking about it for a while - ultimately I'd like to be car free but it's not an option at the moment (although it is something I aspire to). Currently I have an 02 plate fiesta zetec with very low mileage, it's a lovely car and probably worth upwards of 4k if sold privately. It would make good MSE sense for me to sell this and buy something older and cheaper (thinking towards a small engined corsa or clio - you're all raving about them -as my 18 year old is a new driver), thereby releasing the 2k I need to replace old draughty windows!

My 'obstacle' is that I've never sold a car privately before and I wouldn't know where to start. Any advice? or can someone direct me to another thread, please?

Rachman_2

northern_star wrote:

Well done on downsizing, James.

I've been thinking about it for a while - ultimately I'd like to be car free but it's not an option at the moment (although it is something I aspire to). Currently I have an 02 plate fiesta zetec with very low mileage, it's a lovely car and probably worth upwards of 4k if sold privately. It would make good MSE sense for me to sell this and buy something older and cheaper (thinking towards a small engined corsa or clio - you're all raving about them -as my 18 year old is a new driver), thereby releasing the 2k I need to replace old draughty windows!

My 'obstacle' is that I've never sold a car privately before and I wouldn't know where to start. Any advice? or can someone direct me to another thread, please?

The car (assuming 1.25) is worth about £2,500 to a trader if it's about 40K miles. Private it's worth about £3,100 to £3,400 to sell depending on who turns up to buy. Sorry, but it's heading towards half a decade old and it's not exactly rare. The 1.4 and 1.6 are not worth any more (worth talking about). If it's got aircon it will sell a lot quicker and for more.

If you own the thing outright, you are taking a £1000 (the cost of an engine, gearbox or something big) gamble on an older car with more miles that you don't know. If it were me, I would keep what I have unless I really needed £2K that much or were mechanically minded enough not to buy a lemon. The potential to lose out on both the sale and the purchase could easily eat that £2K and leave you with no working car. Unless you know what you are buying, you will end up paying a lot for a much older car with uncertain provenance and more potential for bills.

Corsa is OK but has niggles with electrics and if it's a Clio for god's sake buy a basic one without lots of added extras, good fun when they work but so expensive to fix - French engineers are good, French electricians not so good - and don't buy an automatic if it's French..... (google Renault Laguna and automatic gearbox problem if you want to see why).

With respect, it's a lot cheaper to simply not insure the 18 year old on it and if he wants to buy a Clio or Corsa (and show the world he knows sod all about cars BTW [as a drive a Corsa is crap, as are most non-Renaultsport Clios (which he can't get insured on)]) let him buy his own - they are bling mobiles for the kids, nothing more.

ken_1969

Good job James - I just sold my £10k sporty little Racing Puma and am going to buy a classic VW Beetle for under £2k which will also save an extra £170 a year on road tax. I have a friend who has promised to do any maintenance for me so I'll save money there as well.

The remaining £8k will of course be going towards paying off my other debts. I still have quite a chunk to pay off but hope to be clear of loans/cards within two years maximum thanks to Martin's sage advice, and then will be using the spare cash to pay off chunks of the mortgage asap.

We have always been a two car family and although I cycle to work most days I have to do site visits to customers all over the UK so I can't quite justify getting rid of the second car completely. Still, a Beetle with zero road tax to pay and minimal maintenance costs is the next best thing.

Rachman_2

ken_1969 wrote:

Good job James - I just sold my £10k sporty little Racing Puma and am going to buy a classic VW Beetle for under £2k which will also save an extra £170 a year on road tax. I have a friend who has promised to do any maintenance for me so I'll save money there as well.

Good on you for getting £10K for a Racing Puma - you sold very well - £8K is more like what a average one gets these days - and that's on a good day.

As for buying, if you are not the spanner man, pay someone to inspect it for you - a shiny 1970's Beetle is still a 1970's rustbucket if you get it wrong - and it's not always that easy to spot terminal problems as they are not priced any less. There are some horrific 'classic' Beetles out there that people won't accept are only good for scrap and many buyers who just want an air cooled shiny Beetle.

THE_LONE_RANGER_4

forget that buy a landrover series2 diesal canvas back i adnmit i live in a very rural area so it doesnt look out of place bought it 2 years ago when skint for 1500 quid loads of fun wife takes it to supermarket instead of the family car (super market bumps) and we pull a trailor with it , i love it and will get another in the next few years parts are dirt cheap to, go on to auto trader have a look

Rachman_2

THE_LONE_RANGER wrote:

forget that buy a landrover series2 diesal canvas back i adnmit i live in a very rural area so it doesnt look out of place bought it 2 years ago when skint for 1500 quid loads of fun wife takes it to supermarket instead of the family car (super market bumps) and we pull a trailor with it , i love it and will get another in the next few years parts are dirt cheap to, go on to auto trader have a look

for most people who are not spanner monkeys, a carefully bought used Nissan Primera, Mondeo or Honda Accord will cost even less as they use half the fuel and can be used on motorways and if you buy right, will cost you less than sod all in parts .... - LR Series II is great in the aftermath of a nuclear war and there's an electromagnetic pulse though

THE_LONE_RANGER_4

Rachman wrote:

for most people who are not spanner monkeys, a carefully bought used Nissan Primera, Mondeo or Honda Accord will cost even less as they use half the fuel and can be used on motorways and if you buy right, will cost you less than sod all in parts .... - LR Series II is great in the aftermath of a nuclear war and there's an electromagnetic pulse though

behave yourself landies forever :j :T :rotfl: my landie also took me to whitby 203 miles one way motorway included it was great lifes an adventure that journey sure as hell was

Rachman_2

THE_LONE_RANGER wrote:

behave yourself landies forever :j :T :rotfl: my landie also took me to whitby 203 miles one way motorway included it was great lifes an adventure that journey sure as hell was

Problem is you set off in 2001 and are still on the return journey....

I like LRs - mate had a Lightweight that was fantastic fun, but seriously, unless you have some mechanical ability, buying the Jap car or the privately owned repmobile that's been used by a retiree is the way to go - engine's big enough not have been stressed, usually good spec, history to the eyeballs, space for family and usually safety count ain't bad either.

Just don't buy an Ecotec or dti Vectra or Chavalier - 20K service intervals when new ruined them as they get older....