In with the new. Can't shift the old.

[shinycarot]

After 6 months waiting, my A6 Avant SE Ultra finally gets delivered today. Very exciting. On the downside I cant seem to sell my A4 Avant. Not a a single call about it. I wonder if it is due to the emissions scandal? It is one of the cars affected I have discovered today.

[Eshrules]

After 6 months waiting, my A6 Avant SE Ultra finally gets delivered today. Very exciting. On the downside I cant seem to sell my A4 Avant. Not a a single call about it. I wonder if it is due to the emissions scandal? It is one of the cars affected I have discovered today.

Have you checked your price? IE is it overpriced?

[Bar Shaker]

Yep, it won't be the emissions scandal. The market is awash with used cars at the moment, as lots of people just got their 65 reg cars... just like you did.

Why did you not trade it in? I would never have got what my dealer offered me for my 55 plate A6 and even if I did, did I really want the hassle?

[Chesterfield313]

I would never trade a car in if I had the opportunity to sell it privately.

A dealer will always want to make £2-3k on your car. If they offer you a price that is higher and nearer market price, then you are not getting the best price you can on the one you are buying. If there is an extra few thousand pounds discount possible on the car you are buying, they will often move this benefit to the trade in price to try and make you think you're getting a good deal.

It's all smoke and mirrors and they will shuffle the numbers about any way they can to make you think you're getting a cracking deal.

But, you can't beat negotiating an absolute rock bottom price for the car you're buying, using all the tools now available to do so, and then sell your own car privately.

[zollaf]

apart from the ease of driving to a dealer in one car and driving off in another, just sign on the dotted line, goodbye old car hello new. no advertising, no idiots calling you offering to buy it for cash in the middle of the night , but half what you want, no scammers from companies calling up asking for a 70 quid fee to sell it for you, none of that, just ease. sometimes thats worth that extra grand you might get, and of course if the old car has some faults, a private buyer will find them and give you grief, but you don't need to tell a trader, just turn the engine off and roll in so he doesn't hear the rattle, heck, he probably won't even test drive it to know how many warning lights are on or even see the cords poking out of the tyres.. :)

[Bar Shaker]

Totally agree.

My 911 was mint and had 50% of typical mileage. It should have been worth £30k (looking at averages on PH and ignoring the extras/condition). After a year of spending hundreds on advertising, having all the calls that Zollaf lists and turning away all the test pilots that turned up in slammed hot hatches, a mate eventually offered me just above what I had been offered as a trade in. I ripped his arm off.

If you are selling a used car, there will always be a private seller whose car isn't as good as yours but who needs to sell his more than you. That is the bloke whose price you are competing against.

We buy any car offered me £3k, PH indicated £4.5k and my dealer offered me £4.2k.

Oh, and 21% off the new car is what I call rock bottom price. :biglaugh:

[MarkTM]

As temps drop quattro's tend to shift quicker, apart from that most peeps are saving up for Crimbo :)

When selling a car a couple of years back I found that autotrader was a complete waste of time.

[zollaf]

i think ebay is the way to go these days . autotrager and gumtree are far too complicated compared with ebay...

[Chesterfield313]

Dealer offered me £3k, PH indicated £4.5k and my dealer offered me £4.2k.

Oh, and 21% off the new car is what I call rock bottom price. http://www.vwaudiforum.co.uk/forum/images/smilies/biglaugh.gif



I agree if you're trading cars in at that price. I don't let mine get past 3 years old, so their value is between 15 and 18k when I'm ready to swap. That's when the difference of £3k between trade in and private makes up for the hassle. A £30k Porsche requires more patience, as you need them to have cash or sort their own finance.

I've not had too many stupid calls when selling at that price. The occasional trader offering me pretty much the same as the dealer did, but other than that it's easy to sort those out that are serious or not in a two minute call. Yes, you have to be firm and not get drawn into stupid haggling conversations. I don't find that difficult to do though. And 3k this year is paying for 9 nights in New York for Christmas.......I'd rather I was going on holiday than my Audi dealer going with my money!

[belly buster]

A car will always sell at the right price. Sellers tend to have unrealistic expectations on the value of their cars.

I have always sold through autotrader and you just have to keep dropping the price until it finds a market value.

I listed my A4 for £7,500, sold it for £6,300. WBAC offered £5,500.

[Loolis]

Going through the same process selling my A5. Want to sell it this month so just listed it on AutoTrader. Would like to trade it in for convenience but the extra £££ from a private sale will be needed to comfortably purchase the new car!

I take a similar approach to belly buster and price it at what I think (as stated, generally higher than what people will pay, as we all think our own cars are better!) then gradually lower it till you get a bite.

Interesting that people recommend eBay. My instinct was to avoid it as I thought it was 'scammer hell', but might list it there as well now....


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[ukgroucho]

I can only add my personal experience of shifting my old C6 A6 3.0 Tdi quattro SE avant...

The trade in that I was offered by my local audi dealer beat the offer from wewantanycar considerably - and they (Audi dealer) gave me a discount (£1000 if I recall) for trading a prestige marque - AUdi, BMW, Jags, Range Rover etc.

It was a no brainer.. the hassle of having "no way they could afford to buy it" wannabes come to chalk up having test driven a quattro along with the mechanics of actually getting money from people in a timely manner - and the lack of any come back if someone decided they thought the car had a problem after they bought it (and possibly abused it). Well it was just too easy... drove it to the dealer, handed over keys and docs and picked up my new car.

Now, in fairness, I sold my previous A4 1.9 Tdi Avant SE to a neighbour. It had 168K on it (after 8 or 9 years) but I'd treated it very well (as I do with all my cars) and he had seen that for the 2 years that he was my neighbour. We test drove it together - and I knew he was a responsible driver - and settled on a cash price. I also knew he bought it with full transparency and would not hound me if there was some minor issue, I even threw in an Ericcson world phone that the car had a car kit for (it was no use to me) and he was delighted. After he and his wife moved away - they were only renting - we used to get Xmas cards which would include little one liners like "took the A4 for an MOT... it needed a tyre". I don't mind selling a car on like that but the rest of the hassle is just something that life is too short to deal with.

[zollaf]

have they still got it ? sounds like a proper gem of a car...

[Loolis]

I can only add my personal experience of shifting my old C6 A6 3.0 Tdi quattro SE avant...

The trade in that I was offered by my local audi dealer beat the offer from wewantanycar considerably - and they (Audi dealer) gave me a discount (£1000 if I recall) for trading a prestige marque - AUdi, BMW, Jags, Range Rover etc.

It was a no brainer.. the hassle of having "no way they could afford to buy it" wannabes come to chalk up having test driven a quattro along with the mechanics of actually getting money from people in a timely manner - and the lack of any come back if someone decided they thought the car had a problem after they bought it (and possibly abused it). Well it was just too easy... drove it to the dealer, handed over keys and docs and picked up my new car.

Now, in fairness, I sold my previous A4 1.9 Tdi Avant SE to a neighbour. It had 168K on it (after 8 or 9 years) but I'd treated it very well (as I do with all my cars) and he had seen that for the 2 years that he was my neighbour. We test drove it together - and I knew he was a responsible driver - and settled on a cash price. I also knew he bought it with full transparency and would not hound me if there was some minor issue, I even threw in an Ericcson world phone that the car had a car kit for (it was no use to me) and he was delighted. After he and his wife moved away - they were only renting - we used to get Xmas cards which would include little one liners like "took the A4 for an MOT... it needed a tyre". I don't mind selling a car on like that but the rest of the hassle is just something that life is too short to deal with.

Surely the buyer coming back to complain about any issues after purchase is void as its 'Sold as seen'? I make sure to get the buyer and myself to sign a written contract saying so.


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[Eshrules]

Surely the buyer coming back to complain about any issues after purchase is void as its 'Sold as seen'? I make sure to get the buyer and myself to sign a written contract saying so.

It's not quite as clear cut as that any more - the car must be roadworthy and as described.

Mechanical breakdown is a bit more of a grey area, at least in terms of a private purchase.

[Loolis]

It's not quite as clear cut as that any more - the car must be roadworthy and as described.

Mechanical breakdown is a bit more of a grey area, at least in terms of a private purchase.

I see. Well yes then I guess it could pose a problem...! Haven't had a problem on my last two private sales, and hopefully I find a decent honest buyer!

[ukgroucho]

have they still got it ? sounds like a proper gem of a car...

Don't know, it was a P plated 115bhp model - so I sold it 9 or 10 years ago. We still get the Xmas cards but no mention of the car so I guess it's moved on.

It did have the feel of something that would need to be crushed to stop it.

[zollaf]

ahh, an old original bomb proof b5, amongst the best cars ever built...

[wildbore]

...we used to get Xmas cards which would include little one liners like "took the A4 for an MOT... it needed a tyre".

That wasn't a Christmas card, it was an invoice.

[shinycarot]

Thanks for the replies. Finally sold it. Just kept dropping the price until it sold. Time to enjoy my new one now...

[istate75]

I've sold my last 3 Audi's on ebay (and my wife's A2). Putting a fully comprehensive description and lots of photos and setting a reserve a couple of thousand over the price offered by Audi has worked every time. I've sold a 2-1/2 year old A4 1.9TdiSE (75k miles), 3-1/2 year old A6 Avant 1.9TDI Sport (90k miles), 6 year old A6 2.0TDi Avant S-Line (80k miles). Good thing about ebay is it's full of dealers selling PX Cars that Audi won't touch, cars they know nothing about, so a private seller with a one owner car (as all mine were) always gets a lot of interest. In each case, paypal deposit and online bank transfer of balance on collection worked. Word of advice, never delist until you have the deposit in your account. Did it once and the buyer 'found excuses' and I had the hassle of re-listing.

I've tried Autotrader and all I got were calls offering to sell my car for £70 etc. Complete waste of time and would never use them again.

[Olio]

I have not tried ebay, but when I needed to sell my Octavia, I tried many free websites, and did not get a call.

Finally decided to put it on Autotrader, and the phone started ringing. Sad but true. It sold within a week.

[belly buster]

Just to add to the Autotrader discussion. It helps to put No Canvassers or NC on your advert. That means that the "I'll sell your car for £95" clowns shouldn't ring you up.

The search engine in autotrader is very good - much better than ebay. In reality it is probably sensible to advertise on both. The great thing now is that you can adjust the price as often as you like - unlike the "good old days" when autotrader was print only and once your passed the print deadline your stuck until the following week.

[Chesterfield313]

I can only add my personal experience of shifting my old C6 A6 3.0 Tdi quattro SE avant...

The trade in that I was offered by my local audi dealer beat the offer from wewantanycar considerably - and they (Audi dealer) gave me a discount (£1000 if I recall) for trading a prestige marque - AUdi, BMW, Jags, Range Rover etc.

It was a no brainer.. the hassle of having "no way they could afford to buy it" wannabes come to chalk up having test driven a quattro along with the mechanics of actually getting money from people in a timely manner - and the lack of any come back if someone decided they thought the car had a problem after they bought it (and possibly abused it). Well it was just too easy... drove it to the dealer, handed over keys and docs and picked up my new car.

Now, in fairness, I sold my previous A4 1.9 Tdi Avant SE to a neighbour. It had 168K on it (after 8 or 9 years) but I'd treated it very well (as I do with all my cars) and he had seen that for the 2 years that he was my neighbour. We test drove it together - and I knew he was a responsible driver - and settled on a cash price. I also knew he bought it with full transparency and would not hound me if there was some minor issue, I even threw in an Ericcson world phone that the car had a car kit for (it was no use to me) and he was delighted. After he and his wife moved away - they were only renting - we used to get Xmas cards which would include little one liners like "took the A4 for an MOT... it needed a tyre". I don't mind selling a car on like that but the rest of the hassle is just something that life is too short to deal with.

Never had a single call after from someone who's bought a car from me, so I wouldn't be avoiding hassles, as up to now they haven't existed.

As for the extra thousand for trading in a prestige marque, it's just another dealer discount shuffling trick. They do it to make you feel special. However, if you've already got the maximum discount through Dtd or carwow, you try getting another thousand when you turn up to trade in you bmw. No chance, I know, I asked.