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Advice selling a car

yojitani

yojitani

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Apr 28, 2005
1,858
10
An octopus's garden
I got some great advice here a few months ago on buying a car, but now the second step - selling the old one - is turning out to be a bit of a pain. Here's the situation, the car has some hail damage - not bad, but it's still there (and it's my fault it was never repaired) - so I figured that going by kbb standards "fair condition" estimates seemed about right. With everything there, it comes out to be $4,695. So, I found an interested buyer, we came to a tentative agreement of $4,150, but he wanted to have a mechanic have a look at the car. We took it in over the weekend and the mechanic found a leaky power steering pump. Just got the estimate this morning at nearly $400 for the repair.

Now, I talked to the buyer about the possibility of this being expensive and he's indicated that he wants at least some further reduction in price. I guess I'm not too sure what to do. On the one hand, $4,150 is below the kbb price for a car already with some problems. On the other hand, I need to stop paying on this car. My bottom price was $4,300 initially, but went down to make the sale. The thing is, I'm not sure whether I should go down any further. What do you MR people think?

Just FYI also, this car has had a lot of repairs done in the last 6 months, somewhere in the region of $2,500 - $3,000

YT
 
Sounds like you have three options. One, fix the problem yourself. Two, reduce the price to cover the repair. Or three, sell the car and pretend you don't know about the problem.

What will your conscience let you get away with? Personally, I'd negotiate a lower price with the buyer and get rid of the headache or your older car. You're still getting a better price than any dealer would give you. And the hail damage, while cosmetic, would probably turn off a large portion of buyers.
 
Black&Tan said:
Sounds like you have three options. One, fix the problem yourself. Two, reduce the price to cover the repair. Or three, sell the car and pretend you don't know about the problem.

What will your conscience let you get away with? Personally, I'd negotiate a lower price with the buyer and get rid of the headache or your older car. You're still getting a better price than any dealer would give you. And the hail damage, while cosmetic, would probably turn off a large portion of buyers.
Click to expand...

thanks. I guess I was hoping someone would counter my gut feeling and tell me I've gone low enough... well, the buyer is a nice, reasonable guy and we worked out a deal whereby he will pay for half.

I've hated this car since we got it and I'm going to feel so good when it's out of my life. I'm glad too that it's going to someone who will like it! (I didn't like it because of the circumstances in which it was bought, btw!).

Thanks for the feedback Black&Tan!

YT
 
Make sure you immediately notify the DMV of the sale, check you state/county for the procedure.

Seems those photo radar tickets and parking tickets will continue to be a pain until they are notified.

Heck, I filled one out and still got bills from the state and salvage yard for my old vehicle.

Wasn't liable, but it was still a pain to take care of the threatening letters.
 
I'm glad you're happy with your decision. In the world of cars repairs, $400 is a small sum - anything over 5 gives me pause, and over $1000 is heartburn! But if your buyer is splitting the repair price, even better. You got a good deal.

There's a certain satisfaction to seeing a bad car go away.
 
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