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getting annoyed at selling a car...

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frankenstang57

frankenstang57

Jedi Warrior
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Ok, so I'm selling my sister-in-law's 4x4 '91 Legacy wagon. I'm starting to get annoyed by all the nit-picking from potential buyers. So you, the peanut gallery tell me what you think it's worth. It's a 2 owner car, owned by my brother and his wife since '99. It has 156k on it, it's clean, never wrecked, minimal rust(one small spot behind passenger side wheel), loaded, everything works minus the driversdoor lock tumbler and one of the drivers door window switches.(window does work with it's door switch) Tires are 33%, new clutch/flywheel last spring and a new alt about 2 months ago. AC blows cold. (yes it's winter, but...) What it will need in the future; t-belt, rear brake pads, a vc gasket, and supposably a "new axle". This is according to one of my former potential buyers. The car runs and drives good as is. IMHO all of this stuff is pretty minor. If it really does need a CV shaft, the yards out here are full of them for about $20 or so. What's it worth and am I being reasonable? I've never had this much grief getting rid of a car!
 
and what are you asking? low book is what it sounds like you are describing....


mark
 
Geez -- if I said I'm afraid it might annoy you more.

I guess in the end it's only worth what someone will pay.

It can be very frustrating to sell an older non-collector vehicle. I just figure that after 200K miles or whatever, anything I can get for it is enough and certainly going to be more than any dealer would give me as a trade-in.
 
Besides a few weird phone calls & emails when listing a vehicle I've always got my asking price and almost always sell it to the first or second person to actually come & kick the tires.

As for pricing I've always tried to go with-in a $100 of high blue book value for a “good to excellent” vehicle, as almost all of my vehicles have been well maintained with good records to back up my claim.

I’ve never really had to do any haggling as the vehicles pretty much sold themselves in relatively short times. However every time I’ve sold a vehicle – I’ve always told myself that if it doesn’t sell quickly then I try to set a time frame of about a week for when I would start to consider lower offers.

But as I said in each case I’ve always asked fair prices and people usually tend to jump on them right away & have never had one listed for more than a few days (never through a weekend) so I must be doing something right.

My advice is to not get upset & simply tell these people that your not ready to come down in the price just yet and leave it at that.
 
There are always people that look and either don't have the money or just don't want what you have. Often they also don't have the courtesy to just say no thanks, I'm not interested.

But sooner or later someone will come along that just has to have that vehicle. Just look at what goes down the road every day. What you have is better than a lot of them.
 
Lesse a 17 year old car with a buck anna half on the odo, rust, problem in the driveline, electrical glitches and will need most of the major services in the near future.....
(most people don't see timing belts and brakes as minor)
Round here you'd be lucky to get $1500. mebbe more like $1000... and that's if it looks presentable and runs good.
that's a tough sell. Most do-it-yourselfers would be looking to pick up somthing like that for a few hundered bucks, and most average buyers are gonna be leary of the issues it has (especially the CV shaft). and it being a 5 speed puts off some people too.(not me, but others)
sorry, I'm not trying to be critical, just giving a buyers eye perspective.

~edit~ I just re read your post, and saw that the CV shaft was only a "possible" problem....
That helps things a bit.
 
Make sure you spiff it up inside and out. That's worth another $500 (maybe).
 
Put a bullet hole in the hood. It will ad "character".
Bruce
 
I just went through selling my daughter's 2000 Volvo S40 - after she & her husband had tried for months to no avail....

I brought it home, spent $967 repairing things I thought would affect the sale (to include a new timing belt & serpentine belt), cleaned it up, printed the NADA & Blue Book pages from the internet & then printed a CARFAX to show potential buyers.....put a 9-day ad in the paper so it'd get 2 weekends visibility & decided if I didn't sale it, all my daughter was out was the $976 & she could donate it to charity!

Oh, I priced it between mid & high value ($2500 more than daughter wanted)....first person who called gave me what I was asking after we toured my garage & I gave him the car's history (along with the original window sticker)!

Its all in presentation!

...& understanding the buyer needs the car more than you!
 
Thing about used car market is: There is scads and
scads of competition. Used, high mileage vehicles
everywhere. That's the problem. Pesonally, I hate
selling a used vehicle.

Similar position, though. Old faitful just died --
1991 Chevy Astro. Good engine/tranny; but the front
axels went -- just too much to rehab. Selling for
parts.

Sorry for your pain.
 
I suggest taking it to a local Carmax for a quote. In two recent cases of selling a car, I found them about 15-25% below "street price." I use their price as a "minimum" reference when selling a car. In the first case, my car was in great shape and "wanted", and I sold it private party. The second car had a few "issues", and I used the Carmax price as a counter, and got a little (but not much) more.

Generally cars beyond 100k miles are tough sells. Good luck!
 
Popeye said:
I suggest taking it to a local Carmax for a quote. In two recent cases of selling a car, I found them about 15-25% below "street price." I use their price as a "minimum" reference when selling a car. In the first case, my car was in great shape and "wanted", and I sold it private party. The second car had a few "issues", and I used the Carmax price as a counter, and got a little (but not much) more.

Generally cars beyond 100k miles are tough sells. Good luck!
Click to expand...
My son-in-law did that & they offered him $4,500 for the car...he was trying to get $6,000...I spent the $967 in repairs & got $8,000!
 
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