What to do with my car?
Dec 20th 2007, 4:46 pm
#16
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Re: What to do with my car?
Dont know if id sell a car on Ebay after the experience my sister had.
She sold the car dirt cheap (needed the money to come out here for my wedding last minute) and there was absolutly nothing wrong with it. After she sold it the guy who bought it from her called her up saying it had all kinds wrong with it and wanted his money back. He started getting abusive....calling the house numerous times.....turning up on the doorstep...threatening her amongst other things.
Eventually they had to get the police involved to sort it all out. It left her very shaken up and worried for weeks after incase this guy showed up again and tried to do something.
I know this could happen whenever you sell something privately but after that it put me off using ebay for high value purchases/sales.
She sold the car dirt cheap (needed the money to come out here for my wedding last minute) and there was absolutly nothing wrong with it. After she sold it the guy who bought it from her called her up saying it had all kinds wrong with it and wanted his money back. He started getting abusive....calling the house numerous times.....turning up on the doorstep...threatening her amongst other things.
Eventually they had to get the police involved to sort it all out. It left her very shaken up and worried for weeks after incase this guy showed up again and tried to do something.
I know this could happen whenever you sell something privately but after that it put me off using ebay for high value purchases/sales.
Dec 20th 2007, 4:47 pm
#17
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Re: What to do with my car?
We had the same problem before we came over... only we had to sell two cars. First of all we put them on ebay - the month long auction - and there was alot of interest. However, we also took them to a local private dealer near us, who managed to sell them on our behalf. This means he didn't buy them from us, he advertised them at the price we wanted, took photos etc but only took his cut once they were sold. The good thing about that was we could still drive around in them! Which was handy.
So we never found out how they would have done on ebay.. whether they would have reached their reserve or not.
If you can find a dealer who is willing to sell on your behalf, it may be worth a try. Yes they still take quite a large cut (think 1000 pounds for each of ours) but they had alot more selling power and reach than auto trader (IMO.) In fact, the person that bought my Z4 came all the way from Edinburgh!! And we lived in Northamptonshire!
Hope that helps
Regards Keira
So we never found out how they would have done on ebay.. whether they would have reached their reserve or not.
If you can find a dealer who is willing to sell on your behalf, it may be worth a try. Yes they still take quite a large cut (think 1000 pounds for each of ours) but they had alot more selling power and reach than auto trader (IMO.) In fact, the person that bought my Z4 came all the way from Edinburgh!! And we lived in Northamptonshire!
Hope that helps
Regards Keira
Selling something like a Z4 i would possibly agree - but if you are selling something like a 2 grand Focus then its a bit different.
did we ever find out what the car in question is?
Dec 20th 2007, 8:04 pm
#19
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Joined: Nov 2007
Location: Carson City, NV
Posts: 789
Re: What to do with my car?
The car's not on finance then by any chance? Not on a personal loan, but the kind of car finance that shows up on an HPI check?
If it does, the car would most likely be very hard to sell privately - if it's valuable enough for you to have gap insurance, chances are that a potential buyer will run an HPI check...
In that case, the first people you'd need to call before even advertising the car would be your finance company. Of course if your wife has bought the car on HP (Hire Purchase) and paid off more than 50% of the value of the car, there'd also be the option of handing it back to the finance company.
As pretty much everybody else said already, it's a bad time to sell a car in the UK so your wife needs to figure that into the price. I've bought and sold both motorbikes and cars via ebay, haven't had any real problems with that so far but you pretty much take the same risk every time you sell a vehicle privately - sometimes you just get a muppet buyer.
If it does, the car would most likely be very hard to sell privately - if it's valuable enough for you to have gap insurance, chances are that a potential buyer will run an HPI check...
In that case, the first people you'd need to call before even advertising the car would be your finance company. Of course if your wife has bought the car on HP (Hire Purchase) and paid off more than 50% of the value of the car, there'd also be the option of handing it back to the finance company.
As pretty much everybody else said already, it's a bad time to sell a car in the UK so your wife needs to figure that into the price. I've bought and sold both motorbikes and cars via ebay, haven't had any real problems with that so far but you pretty much take the same risk every time you sell a vehicle privately - sometimes you just get a muppet buyer.
Dec 20th 2007, 9:13 pm
#20
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Thread Starter
Joined: May 2007
Location: Johns Creek, GA
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Re: What to do with my car?
The car's not on finance then by any chance? Not on a personal loan, but the kind of car finance that shows up on an HPI check?
If it does, the car would most likely be very hard to sell privately - if it's valuable enough for you to have gap insurance, chances are that a potential buyer will run an HPI check...
In that case, the first people you'd need to call before even advertising the car would be your finance company. Of course if your wife has bought the car on HP (Hire Purchase) and paid off more than 50% of the value of the car, there'd also be the option of handing it back to the finance company.
As pretty much everybody else said already, it's a bad time to sell a car in the UK so your wife needs to figure that into the price. I've bought and sold both motorbikes and cars via ebay, haven't had any real problems with that so far but you pretty much take the same risk every time you sell a vehicle privately - sometimes you just get a muppet buyer.
If it does, the car would most likely be very hard to sell privately - if it's valuable enough for you to have gap insurance, chances are that a potential buyer will run an HPI check...
In that case, the first people you'd need to call before even advertising the car would be your finance company. Of course if your wife has bought the car on HP (Hire Purchase) and paid off more than 50% of the value of the car, there'd also be the option of handing it back to the finance company.
As pretty much everybody else said already, it's a bad time to sell a car in the UK so your wife needs to figure that into the price. I've bought and sold both motorbikes and cars via ebay, haven't had any real problems with that so far but you pretty much take the same risk every time you sell a vehicle privately - sometimes you just get a muppet buyer.
Dec 20th 2007, 11:42 pm
#22
Bugger Off!
Joined: Sep 2006
Location: Michigan
Posts: 2,858
Re: What to do with my car?
The car's not on finance then by any chance? Not on a personal loan, but the kind of car finance that shows up on an HPI check?
If it does, the car would most likely be very hard to sell privately - if it's valuable enough for you to have gap insurance, chances are that a potential buyer will run an HPI check...
In that case, the first people you'd need to call before even advertising the car would be your finance company. Of course if your wife has bought the car on HP (Hire Purchase) and paid off more than 50% of the value of the car, there'd also be the option of handing it back to the finance company.
As pretty much everybody else said already, it's a bad time to sell a car in the UK so your wife needs to figure that into the price. I've bought and sold both motorbikes and cars via ebay, haven't had any real problems with that so far but you pretty much take the same risk every time you sell a vehicle privately - sometimes you just get a muppet buyer.
If it does, the car would most likely be very hard to sell privately - if it's valuable enough for you to have gap insurance, chances are that a potential buyer will run an HPI check...
In that case, the first people you'd need to call before even advertising the car would be your finance company. Of course if your wife has bought the car on HP (Hire Purchase) and paid off more than 50% of the value of the car, there'd also be the option of handing it back to the finance company.
As pretty much everybody else said already, it's a bad time to sell a car in the UK so your wife needs to figure that into the price. I've bought and sold both motorbikes and cars via ebay, haven't had any real problems with that so far but you pretty much take the same risk every time you sell a vehicle privately - sometimes you just get a muppet buyer.
Dec 22nd 2007, 5:40 am
#24
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Dec 22nd 2007, 7:31 am
#25
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Joined: Nov 2007
Location: Carson City, NV
Posts: 789
Re: What to do with my car?
Anyway, IME the best way to offload a vehicle quickly if you're willing to take the hit would be ebay, but at the cost of selling it cheap. Same goes for a lot of the other quick ways of selling a car like selling it through a car auction (which I wouldn't recommend, because it seems that private entries to the regular trade auctions tend to be viewed with suspicion by most traders). If the car is remotely special/sporty, you may also want to have a look at advertising it via a website like Pistonheads or an owners forum.
