Never sold a car privatly

rjm2k1

Any experiences of selling cars privatly? I'm considering this as I've been offered a pathetic amount for mine as part ex and a high price for the second hand car I wanted. I can get a brand new car for ~£1,500 more to my exact spec and around £1,500 more for my car as a private sale.

Any tips/suggestions?

The car I currently have is an 04 reg focus 1.6 petrol estate with ~53k on by the time the new one is ready, I guess this should be reasonably easy to sell? Was offered £3,500 and £3,900 by 2 ford garages and private seems to be ~£5,900 so say £5,500, has FSH and is in good nick, mot until next august.

BenL

I've taken this from parkers used car pricing and assumed LX model

Ford Focus Estate (98-04)

1.6 LX 5d (01) 2004/04

Average mileage 20,000 miles


Original Price£13,882
Franchised Dealer£5,585
Independent Dealer£5,250
Private Good £4,870
Private Poor £4,155
Part Exchange £4,680

So part ex value of £4680 at 20,000 miles, yours at 53,000 miles the £3900 starts to look pretty good.

Private Sale - Good condition £4900 with 20,000 miles. You'll be down near £4500 ish maybe less after bartering.

Take a look at the prices for the car you want to buy and see how that matches up. You maybe able to squeeze more discount from the dealer if they are underquoting for your car but well over quoting for the new one.

Ben

rjm2k1

Thanks, that's for the LX, mine is a zetec with climate pack, not sure how much of a difference that makes. The one they have is an 07 focus 1.6 diesel zetec with climate and 6k on it for 12k , the new one is brand new from drivethedeal for 13.5k for a 1.8l diesel.

nullogik

Places to advertise your car:

- Autotrader (lots of exposure)
- Loot
- Local Newspaper Classified Section
- Traditional sign in window - fine to do this on private property, but some councils will remove cars that contain such notices if they are parked on public roads

You've made the right decision to sell privately :T. Really part-ex should be extinct these days, where else would you knowingly take a valuable possession to be sold knowing that you'll be offered about 40-60% of the market value. I personally never part-ex, because I can gain more from selling the car privately which I can then put towards the new car.

Badger_Lady

I've always done well from selling my cars on eBay, but you have to know what you're doing... and it probably works better for older cars (I've never sold anything younger than 10 years).

Stick a 'For Sale' sign in the window and park it up at your local Asda!

rjm2k1

nullogik wrote: »

notices if they are parked on public roads

You've made the right decision to sell privately :T. Really part-ex should be extinct these days, where else would you knowingly take a valuable possession to be sold knowing that you'll be offered about 40-60% of the market value. I personally never part-ex, because I can gain more from selling the car privately which I can then put towards the new car.

What got me the last time I part-exd was that I saw my old car on the forecourt for 2k more than I'd been given for it!

rjm2k1

nullogik wrote: »

notices if they are parked on public roads

You've made the right decision to sell privately :T. Really part-ex should be extinct these days, where else would you knowingly take a valuable possession to be sold knowing that you'll be offered about 40-60% of the market value. I personally never part-ex, because I can gain more from selling the car privately which I can then put towards the new car.

What got me the last time I part-exd was that I saw my old car on the forecourt for 2k more than I'd been given for it! The sales guy I've been dealing with this time was tying to get

rjm2k1

nullogik wrote: »

notices if they are parked on public roads

You've made the right decision to sell privately :T. Really part-ex should be extinct these days, where else would you knowingly take a valuable possession to be sold knowing that you'll be offered about 40-60% of the market value. I personally never part-ex, because I can gain more from selling the car privately which I can then put towards the new car.

What got me the last time I part-exd was that I saw my old car on the forecourt for 2k more than I'd been given for it! The sales guy I've been dealing with this time was tying to get be to believe that they make

rjm2k1

nullogik wrote: »

notices if they are parked on public roads

You've made the right decision to sell privately :T. Really part-ex should be extinct these days, where else would you knowingly take a valuable possession to be sold knowing that you'll be offered about 40-60% of the market value. I personally never part-ex, because I can gain more from selling the car privately which I can then put towards the new car.

What got me the last time I part-exd was that I saw my old car on the forecourt for 2k more than I'd been given for it! The sales guy I've been dealing with this time was

rjm2k1

nullogik wrote: »

notices if they are parked on public roads

You've made the right decision to sell privately :T. Really part-ex should be extinct these days, where else would you knowingly take a valuable possession to be sold knowing that you'll be offered about 40-60% of the market value. I personally never part-ex, because I can gain more from selling the car privately which I can then put towards the new car.

What got me the last time I part-exd was that I saw my old car on the forecourt for 2k more than I'd been given for it! The sales guy I've been dealing with this time was tying to get be to believe that they make about £750 on a second hand car, after taking into account free-recovery, HPI checks etc!

nullogik

Wow what a lot of posts!

The thing about part-exing a car is that you'd never do the same thing with any other object. Would you sell your family antiques for about 40-60% of the market price? How about your house? Jewellery?

So why are people willing to do this with their cars?