Trade in vs private sale

the corpo

Thinking of upgrading our 2003 Yaris to a newer Ford Focus. That year Yaris is averaging 5k on carzone, and newer Focus' are around the same.

Obviously, be far handier to use a dealer and trade in, but would I better off trying to sell the Yaris privately, or have private sales totally dried up these days?

EPM

Carzone prices are often in dreamland and bear little resemblance to actual selling prices. If you have found a car you like try the dealer for a cost to change. If you want to sell your car privately to have any hope it needs to be the cheapest of its kind. No harm putting it up for sale and buy with cash afterwards - probably be the cheapest option

Owen

The advantage to selling your own privately, is that you will be able to negotiate for discount on the car you're potentially buying. But the only way your Yaris will sell, is if yours is the cheapest online, the cheapest reasonable mileage Yaris from 03 online is 4000 Euro, and I'm sure if you met the guy in person selling that you'd haggle a few hundred off it - so if you want to sell yours, you'd need to be willing to let it go for 3500 or thereabouts IMO.

BlackWizard

A friend sold her 2001 Yaris for 2000 euro privately.

you'd need to be willing to let it go for 3500 or thereabouts IMO.

yup! or possibly even less when someone trys to get a discount from you

BigZack

Average price today for a clean 03 Yaris would be around 5k with 1 - 1200 Euro to play with for discount.

Try advertising it online for 4,500. If you get 4 you'll be in a strong position to negotiate on the focus as a cash buyer. Remember its the cost to change that's important so find out what the best cash deal is on the focus before you make up your mind.

the corpo

another question on this as we're keen to move on it now.

the car has a few scratches on it and a tiny dent or two, and definitely needs touching up to look pristine again. when we were getting the car serviced a few months ago i mentioned offhand to the mechanic about it getting it done, in lieu of trading in with a dealer, and he said he wouldn't bother, a dealer will have their own crew to do the work for next to nothing where a member of the public could spend a fortune to get it done.

obviously, if we're selling privately i'll get it done, but was he right? should i bother if we do decide just to trade in??

Heroditas

the corpo wrote: »

another question on this as we're keen to move on it now.

the car has a few scratches on it and a tiny dent or two, and definitely needs touching up to look pristine again. when we were getting the car serviced a few months ago i mentioned offhand to the mechanic about it getting it done, in lieu of trading in with a dealer, and he said he wouldn't bother, a dealer will have their own crew to do the work for next to nothing where a member of the public could spend a fortune to get it done.

obviously, if we're selling privately i'll get it done, but was he right? should i bother if we do decide just to trade in??

Don't bother getting it serviced if you're going to trade it in.
It really won't affect the trade-in value but you'll be out of pocket due to the servicing. A valid NCT that has just been obtained will be more valuable because it indicates the car is in roadworthy condition.

the corpo

it's not the service that concerns me, simply aesthetic problems like paint patch ups

Heroditas

the corpo wrote: »

it's not the service that concerns me, simply aesthetic problems like paint patch ups

You'll find he'll huff and puff about it and how it'll reduce the value but sure he'll probably just give it a damn good cleaning, waxing and some t-cut and then mask some of the scratches.
I wouldn't worry about it