Do private sellers and sometimes traders overprice their cars?

[Ibanezvaio]

For what it's worth, dealers do use the book prices when bending you over offering a price for your trade in! I know, I'm in that position now and learning that I stand to lose £4.5k in 10 months-no chance mate!

All that money to own an Ed30 is not going to happen!

[Oli]

   To be fair, and I've said this loads of times, Glasses, CAP and especially Parkers have never been more of a 'guide' than now, and have been poor since 2008, playing catchup all the time.  We look at them briefly, but most times look at local trade ads on autotrader to give us a basis on sale and part ex price.

An advert is an invitation to do business, everything is always open to offer. Cars should be looked at before making judgment. I got £2500 off my Porsche by hard bargaining, and it was only up for £36000, so that a fair chunk of discount.

Most times if a car is cheap, it is so for a reason, however there is always the one exception to the rule, and it's just great when you find a true genuine bargain 

[Ibanezvaio]

Oli, I wish we had people like you on the isle of man! Dealer here hasn't seen my car and is offering me the book price for a 60k mile car.....mine has 42k lol.

On top of that, he's sourced and Ed30 ont' mainland and added approx £4k to the price!

Suffice to say, I've just sent a strongly worded email letting him know 'I'm out' and continuing my search alone!

[Ibanezvaio]

In fact Oli, you won't believe this but the car I was offered by this dealer is actually the one you have in the forsale section lol! Just checked the reg against the pics I got sent!

[driver rider]

Hi guys,

thanks for all your feedback.  I will sit down and reread all that has been said.  You have definitely help shed some light onto the situation.  I guess going by my admitedly limited experience I can safely say that at this moment in time it is a "buyers" markert. 

I have noticed cars staying on auto trader for weeks at a time....occasionally months.  The poster who  story of a dealer having a car on his forecourt for a year really highlighted how slow moving the car market it presently.  I mean taking 2K of a forecourt price in a year is quite a hammering in my book.  Thank you tamiyoman for that post.

galaxie500 I love bikes but my family are scared of them :-( I'll just use these guides as pointer and not as gospel truths and thanks for the good luck, think Im going to need it!

frodo-anni have u driven a non edition 30 GTI?  Think I'll go for the edition 30. 

Thanks for all the comments.  Ive now seen first hand as well written post said that an advert is an invitation to do business I won't make the mistake of taken the advertised price as the price to pay.


It's also interesting to note that many members on here have spent months looking for their ideal spec car.  I shall take my time viewing cars especially as I plan on keeping the car for quite some time.

[Frodo-anni]

frodo-anni have u driven a non edition 30 GTI?  Think I'll go for the edition 30. 

I used to own the mk4 25th Anniversary, so was automatically attracted to the edition 30, but did also consider the mk5 GTI, which for me would still have to have a high spec, with full leather, xenons, armrest, highline etc... The colour coding valances/sideskirts is also a plus point. With the eddie i love the Interior and the origins of the mk1 GTI, the car is great to drive, but also an animal when re-mapped as demonstarted to me by Beddie 

If i'd have gone for a standard GTI i would only have been looking back wishing i paid that bit more. Only had it since saturday and already been stopped twice in car parks, saying how nice it is! 

[Tamiyoman]

finally found my candy Ed30 5Dr DSG, Xenons, park sensors, winter pack, sunroof and sat nav it is an 08 plate 39K FVWSH within my budget  

Where did you end up finding your car?

Not far from manchester, forgot to add it also had highline, MFSW, Armrest too and had 2 owners.

@ driver rider, the £2k off forecourt price happened in the space of 9 weeks mate, think they finally realised that it was a low spec car and not worth the money they asked (and I bet they only paid £10k for it at most with high miles and low spec!!).

[AlanEdition30]

With private sellers it does obviously depend on the sellers individual circumstances. For example if someone is moving abroad or desperate for some cash it will be keanly priced. Whereas even after 4 years of ownership i still cherish my edition 30, if the GF wants it gone for a deposit on a house expect it to be for sale soon for 20K   

I bought my edition 30 when it was 6 months old, seeing the prices of them now - 11k- 13k i feel like there being given away 

[VC]

I'm gunna weigh in here and totally agree with throwing guide books out

Examples I'll give are the discovery I bought for the mrs for one. Booked at £30k forecourted at the main dealer for £28k as he was over stocked. Cash purchase and he took a further 6k off the car, and threw in loads of extras to complete a sale. That's £8k difference.

Sold my .:R32 at the start of the summer, Booked at £15k sold it privately for £24.5k, demand outstripped the supply as it was one of a kind, bought by someone who didn't even come and look at the car and then had it delivered. But for such a car there were people happy to pay the price, all offered the asking price.

My Defender that I sold the week before Xmas booked at £15.5k forecourted at £22k I sold it for £18.6k to a chap that did a 1200 mile round trip to come and buy it, it was only slightly modded but enough to set it apart from the norm - blowing the myth that mods don't add value out the water, a favourite dealer line sometimes. Mods if done right can make a car attractive and easier to sell, eg two Gti's next to each other and identical but one has bbs rims.... Which one you gunna buy

Sold the mother in laws Audi Q5 back to the dealership in December too, bought for £40k a year earlier and they bought it back for cash for £39k, a case of demand outstripping supply.

As for forum cars? I've just bought a forum car, collect it this week. The member had a high post count so I was able to read back through posts they had made on the forum and find out massive amounts of information on the car that sometimes stay hidden.  For example if it's been damaged, broken down, any mods, issues with performance etc.  when people have problems they post, when they mod they post and this all adds up to a history you can read before buying the car.  It's enabled me to virtually look round the car with photos and so buy it remotely without travelling to view just to collect

In a nutshell, if you want a certain car you have to pay for it, if the seller knows your want it they won't budge on price or if they have other genuine buyers in the wings. But if the car they have is merely stock to them the margins will always work in your favour, if they say they have others interested then they would have sold it already and only a foolish salesman would let a good sale fail purely for a margin of movement on the price

[Dw1]

VC - you seem a savvy exception to the rule and posts of others on here. I'd love to enroll your help when it come to selling and buying a car as you seem to have it nailed and able to buck the general market trend.

As a recent buyer of a gti, I used autotrader as my price guide and a pal who has been in the trade. The reality the market is dead at the moment, the cars that are shifting are the ones being sold for a sensible price for the spec. E.g. 8.5 to 9k in great condition, fvsh, for a gti with 60k, full leather, good bodywork, Highline, 6 cd, satnav mfd2, heated seats, dual climate is about right for a final sale price. At that price (which is a lot of car for the money) they will go reasonably quickly. That same spec priced at 10k and you'll see the car linger in the ads until the seller drops the price. That's the reality I experienced when buying and I'm not a brilliant haggler.

My BMW I sold was at rock bottom, but again a factor of the market and whilst I didn't like the price it was the reality, but the upside is I felt that the golf was a reasonable price. If the economy gets better the prices might firm up a bit but I doubt they will go up.

Sellers who embrace market reality will sell promptly, those who don't will take longer and perhaps need to discount (with the exception of VC) 

[driver rider]

frodo-anni have u driven a non edition 30 GTI?  Think I'll go for the edition 30. 

I used to own the mk4 25th Anniversary, so was automatically attracted to the edition 30, but did also consider the mk5 GTI, which for me would still have to have a high spec, with full leather, xenons, armrest, highline etc... The colour coding valances/sideskirts is also a plus point. With the eddie i love the Interior and the origins of the mk1 GTI, the car is great to drive, but also an animal when re-mapped as demonstarted to me by Beddie 

If i'd have gone for a standard GTI i would only have been looking back wishing i paid that bit more. Only had it since saturday and already been stopped twice in car parks, saying how nice it is! 

when you say mapped is this a stage one or stage two that makes the car quicker out interest?what tuner did the work?  Whats the spec of your car?

Lile you after seeing the mark V GTI and driving it I couldn't help but think Id forever be looking and hankering after an eddy.I originally wanted to spend 8-9 K for a high spec example.  Eddies seem to start at 11K for three door DSG examples.

[driver rider]

finally found my candy Ed30 5Dr DSG, Xenons, park sensors, winter pack, sunroof and sat nav it is an 08 plate 39K FVWSH within my budget  

Where did you end up finding your car?

Not far from manchester, forgot to add it also had highline, MFSW, Armrest too and had 2 owners.

@ driver rider, the £2k off forecourt price happened in the space of 9 weeks mate, think they finally realised that it was a low spec car and not worth the money they asked (and I bet they only paid £10k for it at most with high miles and low spec!!).

Your experience has shown me that there really is room
for haggling!!! thank you

[Tamiyoman]

I think my car was up for £12795 (I forget exact amount as I have mis-placed the advert) and I got it within my budget of £11650 so yes deffo haggle, if the seller wants to sell you will get a good discount, dont forget your probably the first person to actually see the car after he has had a few calls in a matter of weeks so he will likely want to sell and if you go armed with details of other cars and prices etc he has not really got ground to argue his car is "Worth" what he is asking 

[DJM]

As said previously the book is useless. If the book price was bang on everyone would be happy with the value the insurance pay out if you was to write off lol.

In my experience the book price isnt going to adjust the price for the spec etc. Look at white gti's they will fetch around £1000 more than a silver one i found when looking. All down to what the market is selling like to what prices will be.

Prime example is the mk1 focus RS i had before. For a 53 plate car (8 years old at time i bet the book price wouldnt be 10k). I know they still fetch over 10k now in mint condition.

YOu just got to pay what you feel is reasonable for the car. Wouldnt worry about book price as car will fetch what market is saying more or less.

[Tamiyoman]

In that case i deffo got a good deal on my candy White Ed30 5dr (only saw 2 white 5 doors for sale in the 3-4 months I was looking), I did have to spend £500 on the car tho to get ut upto my std, including 2 new tyres, front splitter repainting and getting a spare key cut, otherwise it was fine.