Anyone sold a 'large 1.8+' petrol engined, high mile (70k +) car privately recently?

KFed

How long did it take to generate any interest? Did you have to drop the price significantly to sell?

I'm emigrating and I need to sell mine but I've had no interest whatsoever having had the ad on the web for a week now (busiest site traffic wise I can think of) so has anyone any suggestions?

As i'm emigrating, a trade in isn't an option, plus it's only 8 years old so wouldn't really attract any interest from a scrappage minded buyer.

I've had 222 page views in a week but not one phone call. Car is amonst the lowest priced for it's year, about 10k miles less than most others, but I think the tax and fuel economy of a 1.8petrol are scaring people off. Short of giving the thing away what can I do?

I have it priced with it in mind that an interest buyer will probably offer 500 - 1,000 less than it's advertised at anyway so don't want to drop too low on the advertised asking price.

As it stands now the car is parked on my driveway most days (I get the train to work) but should I start taking to leaving it parked in areas where it might catch passing pedestrians interest and put A4 printed ads in the windows - CAR FOR SALE, personally i don't think this is likely to lead to a sale but wondering if any boardsies have had any luck with similar tactics?

Also, I think this is hugely unlikely, but does anyone know of any garages that would offer cash for a second hand car and then sell it themselves? Personally I doubt very much that any second hand dealer wants any more stock, particularly 8 year old 1.8petrol cars!

dirtydiesel

I always have a car in my yard for sale,im not a garage but like to buy cars one at a time that need light repairs,do the work and get em tested and sell on agian. I call them projects.
Now in my experience if its a small petrol car it sells easy but anything above 1.4 petrol I find hard to sell.
I prefer to work on diesels and never have a problem selling either a 1.8d or 2.0d car.
Maybe you should send it to an auction.

E39MSport

Price it to sell or you won't sell it. If its not in the very bottom end of the price range then you're wasting money advertising it.

I lost 32k on an rrs in one year.

edit: my m8 sold his Hyundai trajet petrol to one of those 'we buy any car crowds'. It was a right sh1t box.

alias no.9

If you're getting views but no calls, then there's either something in your add that's putting people off or the the price is. If you have an 8 year old car, with a large petrol engine, priced such that you're allowing room for €800 - €1000 of negotiation, that may be your problem.
If you search on Carzone for private sales, 2002 reg, petrol engined cars between 1800 and 2000cc, weed out the dreamers and the rare/unusual models, you're left with a price range of anywhere between €1k and €7k, even at the top end of that range, you're leaving way to much padding on the price, particularly this weather. Get it up there at your rock bottom price + €100 or €200, you'll never sell it if you can't get someone to view it.
I've sold a few cars privately (three of my own and one for my brother) and the first person to view them has always bought them. There's never been much movement on the price either, people recognise when cars are priced right in the first place. The biggest was €500 off a €12,500 asking price and that was my brothers car and he had left the country. The rest were all sub €3k and €50 to €200 of haggling.

smash

KFed wrote: »

I think the tax and fuel economy of a 1.8petrol are scaring people off.

Seriously, 1.8 is not a big engine ffs - if it's not selling then you're asking too much or your ad is badly written or you have crap photos!

CountingCrows

Carzone -

2002 1.8 Petrol

Care to narrow the search?

Leonard Hofstadter

Only in Ireland is a 1.8 a "big" engine, it is not anything even close to "big", 3 litres is big and even that is not that big in a world where there are still engines double that size.

I think that all Irish car forums should have restricted access so that those living outside the country can't view them, the rest of the world must be laughing their behinds off when they see the nation of leprechauns moan that a car with only a 1.8 engine is too big ffs:rolleyes:!

Sorry OP for my rant but don't worry, when you go abroad you'll soon realise that 1.8 is far from big, other countries with more interest in cars (like the UK for a start) are far more open minded about "big" engines than this country is:).

Anyway OP, what car is it that you're trying to sell?

If it is something like a Primera then it will never sell even if it were the poverty spec Paddy spec 1.6.

Any hope you could show us the ad?

I'm going to guess and say that what steve06 said is why you're car ain't shifting.

CountingCrows

My guess is this one

itarumaa

I think the future will not favor so called large engined cars in Ireland,

therefore people are not to keen to buy them either. I have a 2liter petrol car and even I do like it, I would not buy another one, because the cost of keeping that car in road are a bit too much, 1.6l petrol in lighter car like Focus etc would be better idea.

Leonard Hofstadter

Well if it's that one then it's still over priced, it is an 8 year old car. I'd also remove the tow bar, makes it look like the car has had a rough life(not saying it has, it looks like a pretty good car tbh but that's the impression a towbar gives to some).

Tea 1000

CountingCrows wrote: »

My guess is this one

I'll give ya €1500 for it.

EPM

Looks tidy, but drop the price to what you will more or less accept. Tht gives people a more realistic idea and a lower price should get some interest going. Then you just stick to your guns when negociating.

Stick it up on done deal too and maybe show a picture of the seats also

KFed

Thanks for the advice. I've dropped the price further based on your replies.

That's the car alright, personally i don't think 1.8 is a large engine whatsoever, it's just that the vast majority of the car buying public seems to disagree, witness all the 1.4 poverty spec Golf, Astra and Focus's sold over the years.

Re: the tow bar, should i really take it off? I've never used it, it was on the car when i bought it, i didn't see it as an issue as the car was squeak proof, rattle free and basically tight as a drum so there didn't seem to be much evidence of a hard life! I left it on as it meant if anyone dinged the bumper in a shopping centre car park they'd get a nice bang of tow bar before they hit my bodywork!

Thanks for the comment re: the seats, thought i'd pretty much covered all angles but missed the interior really. i'll update the ad for that.

Re: the €1,500 offer? it's got 8 months tax, that's over €370, two brand new Bridgetsone tyres, €318, so you're offering me about €800 for an eight year old car with a two year NCT, perfect mechanical order with a full service history from new? timing belt done, so no major services to worry about for the forseeable future. 73k miles, it's a Honda, so it'll go forever. I don't think it's a sub €1,000 bangernomic car just yet.

That said, for €3,500, if someone bought it and kept it for three years doing 12k a year, the cost of ownership would be:

€3,500 purchase price
€1,310 tax, (€560 x 3 years - 8 months paid)
€6,640 petrol (36k miles @32mpg @ €1.30/ltr)
about €800 servicing:
so total cost of €12,250.

That's 34c per mile.

Petrol works out as 19c per mile, if you do 33 miles / day that's €6.27 in petrol, you wouldn't get a bus fare for that!

Personally I think it's a bargain at that price, and if i wasn't emigrating i wouldn't sell, i'd keep it until it dies, but needs must.

Re: foreign shores not seeing large engine capacity's as an issue, I'm looking forward to being in a country where cars like a 05 Mustang GT sells for about $20k and 'gas' is cheap. It'll be a big change from the Honda performance wise!

I Was VB

There last month i bought a 03 1.8 car with 314K miles theres now 316K on it now, its all about price.

MagicMarker

I Was VB wrote: »

There last month i bought a 03 1.8 car with 314K miles theres now 316K on it now, its all about price.

O.....k?

dunsandin

Hi - you might be better off putting it on donedeal - good place to sell a mota, but I think your price may be a little high, there is a huge amount of choice out at the moment, and people who are buying used are after a really good deal, but thats the market you're up against. Try dropping your price till the phone starts to ring. Its quite a bread and butter car as well, and really only the exotics and bargains are shifting quickly. Its not really prestige, and its not a banger, its in that grey(swamped) area.

Tigger

you can get a 1998 beemer 523i for 1700 nowadays in a garage with 2 years test and 3 months warrantee

keep it or swap it then sell the swap
swap it for something sellable

squod

KFed wrote: »

Re: the €1,500 offer? it's got 8 months tax, that's over €370, two brand new Bridgetsone tyres, €318, so you're offering me about €800 for an eight year old car with a two year NCT, perfect mechanical order with a full service history from new? timing belt done, so no major services to worry about for the forseeable future. 73k miles, it's a Honda, so it'll go forever. I don't think it's a sub €1,000 bangernomic car just yet.

You can still pick up '02 petrol mondeos for half what you're asking. Tidy and serviced at that. Good luck with the sale, just pointing out there's more cars out there than yours.