Am I asking too much?

[goatboy]

So my Scirocco is up for sale and I've had it in a few places for a while now (pistonheads, autotrader, here etc)
its a 2010 MY60 GT 170 DSG in Salsa. Leather, bluetooth, power mirrors, parking sensors. Full service history and remainder of warranty and service plan 35K miles.

I'm asking £14,600 for it, its not quite the cheapest out there but I thought I had pitched the price about right VW have similar cars on for best part of £17k

But I haven't had much interest...
Do you think I'm asking too much for it?

Edit: link to advert http://www.sciroccocentral.co.uk/forum/ ... 20&t=13719" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

p.s. this isn't just a blatant plug, I'm really after some advice....

[whiteDevil_170]

I wouldn't say your asking to much. I'd say its a sign of the current 2nd hand market being poor for sellers. When I was selling my old car I was asking for £1000 less than it was worth and had no interest. In the end I sold for £1500 less than its worth. Many people are going the dealer route now when buying a car at that price for reassurance if any problems was to occur.

[whiteDevil_170]

Also in your add on pistonheads and auto trader did you mention about panels being resprayed? If so I wouldn't mention that as it might be off putting for some buyers then worrying about if other panels looked different.

[Cuprabob]

Main issue with selling a car of this value is access to finance to purchase. In the past it wasn't an issue as personal loans were easy to get. These days, not so and people don't tend to have that amoumt of cash lying around.

By going the dealer route, finance is easier to get as it's secured on the car even if it costs a few thousand more and that's before even mentioning warranty etc...

[goatboy]

Also in your add on pistonheads and auto trader did you mention about panels being resprayed? If so I wouldn't mention that as it might be off putting for some buyers then worrying about if other panels looked different.

No I didn't mention it (but I will if anyone asks)

Thanks for your thoughts. If I get much cheaper then I might as well just trade it in. See what this week brings I guess.....

[Tallguy]

At this price level, ability to trade-in is also important. Assuming you are replacing the car, the best advice is to push a few dealers hard for the best deal.

[maisbitt]

You should get an easy £14k part ex price for that - for £600 is it really worth the hassle, especially if you're getting another (so you don't have to be car-less whilst the new one is getting built. My 11 reg 170TDI (with nothing more than metallic paint and sensors added) has been given a p/x of £15500 against one of the first MK7 GTDs. For being 6 months older than mine it'll be worth £1500-2000 less, but yours has equipment that should enhance it's value by about £600 (leather and DSG - the dealer won't care about the other stuff).

What are you getting as a replacement? Buying a non-VAG car might mean a non-VAG dealer will offer you less for it (people usually want to buy nearly new VWs at a VW garage).

AS I said, I was offered £15,500 for mine when I placed my GTD order on 29th March. The dealer has assumed that my car will be available at the end of June/start of July at the latest, but current indications from other people that place orders at the same time as me are that I might not see mine until Aug/Sept - all the time my car is depreciating but my p/x price is fixed at point of order. For every month you don't sell yours, it is depreciating at about £250/month. With a £10k+ car, most people will want the reassurance of going to a dealership for warranty/comeback if things are not as they seem/described and for ease of finance.

I definitely wouldn't mention the bumper resprays - most would-be buyers aren't aware of the poor colour match for Salsa red and would be scared off by what you said or put off the colour.

[whiteDevil_170]

You should get an easy £14k part ex price for that - for £600 is it really worth the hassle, especially if you're getting another (so you don't have to be car-less whilst the new one is getting built. My 11 reg 170TDI (with nothing more than metallic paint and sensors added) has been given a p/x of £15500 against one of the first MK7 GTDs. For being 6 months older than mine it'll be worth £1500-2000 less, but yours has equipment that should enhance it's value by about £600 (leather and DSG - the dealer won't care about the other stuff).

What are you getting as a replacement? Buying a non-VAG car might mean a non-VAG dealer will offer you less for it (people usually want to buy nearly new VWs at a VW garage).

AS I said, I was offered £15,500 for mine when I placed my GTD order on 29th March. The dealer has assumed that my car will be available at the end of June/start of July at the latest, but current indications from other people that place orders at the same time as me are that I might not see mine until Aug/Sept - all the time my car is depreciating but my p/x price is fixed at point of order. For every month you don't sell yours, it is depreciating at about £250/month. With a £10k+ car, most people will want the reassurance of going to a dealership for warranty/comeback if things are not as they seem/described and for ease of finance.

I definitely wouldn't mention the bumper resprays - most would-be buyers aren't aware of the poor colour match for Salsa red and would be scared off by what you said or put off the colour.

Good advice.

[goatboy]

You should get an easy £14k part ex price for that - for £600 is it really worth the hassle, especially if you're getting another (so you don't have to be car-less whilst the new one is getting built. My 11 reg 170TDI (with nothing more than metallic paint and sensors added) has been given a p/x of £15500 against one of the first MK7 GTDs. For being 6 months older than mine it'll be worth £1500-2000 less, but yours has equipment that should enhance it's value by about £600 (leather and DSG - the dealer won't care about the other stuff).

That would be nice but its nothing like that close, my local VW dealer offered me £12,400 (you can guess my reaction to that particularly when they had almost exactly the same car on the forecourt for £17k).
I won't be buying another VW as nothing they have fits my current needs.

I have been offered a little more PX by both Toyota and Mitsubishi but certainly nothing near the numbers you are talking about which is why I am selling privately.

[whiteDevil_170]

Good luck with the sale. But as I and others have said many people would look at buying from a dealer at that price. Not many people would have that sort of cash lying around. And even if they did dealers are usually a safer route.

[salsajoe]

Might be worth pricing a warranty to give buyers some reasurance.

[ZephyR]

I was offered £10,600 by VW 6 weeks ago for my 1.4TSi 160 - 3 years 8 months old with 29K on the clock. Since then I've agreed £10,000 against a new Audi.
If I try and sell it privately I'd be looking for £11,000. All of which is in line with the prices given by What Car?
As your's is a year younger and a higher spec diesel I'd say your asking price is very reasonable. Just one thing though - Salsa isn't a very popular colour and that may make it a bit harder to sell. My mate at work had a lot of trouble selling his viper for the same reason.

[maisbitt]

That would be nice but its nothing like that close, my local VW dealer offered me £12,400 (you can guess my reaction to that particularly when they had almost exactly the same car on the forecourt for £17k).

£12,400 for a car they'd be selling for £17k? That's borderline theft! They should be looking to make a healthy £3k tops on your Roc, which means that at £17k retail they should be offering £14k. Not sure what your practicality requirements are these days, but have you considered a 5 door Golf GTD/GTI, via another dealership who will offer you a decent p/x? I'm moving to a GTD soon (June/July/Aug/Sept/as soon as VW get their act together in supplying a proper date - it was ordered 29th March and VW's website says available to order now for sale in June). The GTD has tons of standard new tech, amazing mpg (67 combined), 185PS, £20 tax disc, and 56% guaranteed future value on VW solutions finance (should be good for an actual 60% retained value at 3 years).

[Mark V]

£12,400 for a car they'd be selling for £17k? That's borderline theft! They should be looking to make a healthy £3k tops on your Roc, which means that at £17k retail they should be offering £14k.

They most likely are in theory. But if its screen priced at £17k they will allow for it to sell at £16k. They then have to pay VAT on the difference between the sale price and the buying in price. So if it actually sells for £16k they need to pay out 20% of £3,600 which is £720. This leaves a 'profit' of £2,880. From this they haved all their overheads to fund too of course.

[v4nisher]

And I thought VW's had good depreciation....shocking..............

[maisbitt]

Most medium volume dealerships will get around 20% margin on a full RRP sale for a new car (maybe 25% if they get the VW volume bonuses), and they can afford to cut into their margins with discounts yet yours wants to make 23% on the used value if they discount it to £16k, and 30% if they sell it for full sticker price. Most of the overheads of the dealership will be met by the new car sales. A franchised dealer hoping to make 30% on a p/x from the same marque as they sell new ones looks to be ripping you off unless you are getting 10% off the new one.

They really shouldn't be looking to make more % profit on the p/x if they want your business on the new one, unless you are getting an exceptional discount on a new one. Chopping in a VW for a VW shouldn't result in being offered pretty much "webuyanycar.com" rates, but unfortunately this is the way one of my local dealership groups is going - poor part ex value and next to no discount on the new one.

They've rang me up 3 times asking if i'm interested in the GTD I enquired about. I tell them I ordered 2 from their local competitor (My Dad is getting one too), and when they ask why I tell them that there was alomst £2000 in the cost to change between their deal and the deal I got. Their recent sales tactic is despicable.

They were fleecing an elderly couple on the next sales desk to me for an "UP!". We had been chatting whilst waiting for our respective sales "appointment" and they were p/xing a Yaris that was worth £3k any day of the week, looking for just a basic £10500 "UP!". I told them not to be bullied over their p/x, seeing as "webuyanycar.com" would offer £2350 for it and to be looking for at least 5% discount (after asking for 10%). Their salesperson offered them £1200 on the Yaris, and was lumping on every extra they could, making out that their car would literally look like a skip in 3 years if they didn't take the lifeshine etc. From looking to a £7k price to change, the salesman was strong-arming them into an £11k price to change (£12300 car inc extras and their miserly p/x).

My GTD negotiations had failed at that point when they low-balled my P/x and weren't prepared to offer any discount or freebies against the new GTD. When the very flustered (pensioner) man was alone while the salesman went to get him a drink for signing on the dotted line, I swooped in and told him what a bad deal he was getting and that I was going to Pulman. I told him not to sign anything until he tried Pulman in Sunderland, and that he'd undoubtedly get a better sale there without the hard sell. He told the salesman he would think about their offer and got up and left to follow me to Pulman. When he got there he got £3500 for his Yaris, free 5 year extended warranty, free 3 year service pack and free GAP insurance in lieu of discount on his £10,500 UP!

Some people do get taken advantage of, and like anything of high value it pays to shop around and let the salesman know this is exactly what you are going to do so they offer you their best price and no bull****.

After re-reading the original post, am I reading into it right that you just want the VW garage to buy yours, without any business against a new one? If so then they probably will offer bottom book unfortunately. If you look to change marques then the other garage is probably going to low-ball you too. A Mitsubishi garage is looking to sell Mitsubishis and in the used market not many people are going to be looking for a Roc at a Mitsubishi garage, some might only want to buy a nearly new Roc from a VW garage. If you shop around with other dealerships i'm sure you'd get a better deal, albeit against another VW. What's the Mitsubishi dealership offering for the new car? if it's a great % discount then you have to look at the price to change and nothing else.

[goatboy]

After re-reading the original post, am I reading into it right that you just want the VW garage to buy yours, without any business against a new one? If so then they probably will offer bottom book unfortunately. If you look to change marques then the other garage is probably going to low-ball you too. A Mitsubishi garage is looking to sell Mitsubishis and in the used market not many people are going to be looking for a Roc at a Mitsubishi garage, some might only want to buy a nearly new Roc from a VW garage. If you shop around with other dealerships i'm sure you'd get a better deal, albeit against another VW. What's the Mitsubishi dealership offering for the new car? if it's a great % discount then you have to look at the price to change and nothing else.

Thanks Maisbitt. You are quite right in you assumption. We only had the conversation about them buying the car because I was in the showroom picking it up after the bumper respray, which made such hard work for me I asked them as a sign of goodwill to offer me a good price to buy the car back off me (I knew I needed to change soon). The low price wouldn't have been surprising if I had just walked in off the street but the fact was they had originally supplied the car and had stated they would get me a good price irritated me some what. It doesn't really matter though...

I've done a fair bit of research in the last week or so.

Car valuation sites (which, glass, parkers etc) average out at around around £15,200 for a private sale, £14,000 trade in and £16,500 dealer for a standard car.
I'm not sure how they get their prices but the dealer price looks about right, trade in is about £1k too high and private looks about £500 too high...

[Cuprabob]

One key think you have to remember, valuations are only a guide and the "actual" value is what someone, whether it be a dealer or an individual, is willing to pay for it.

[maisbitt]

One key think you have to remember, valuations are only a guide and the "actual" value is what someone, whether it be a dealer or an individual, is willing to pay for it.

There are regional variations to consider too. Used cars up in the North East generally sell cheaper like-for-like than in the South. More new cars on the roads around here really drive down used prices, there are more aboout to choose from. Down Southampton (where my parents now live) people who buy new or nearly new seem to keep their cars a hell of a lot longer. When My dad used to live up here and travel down to Southampton for a week or 2 before coming back, he used to buy a decent used car, travel down with it, sell it within a week for at least 20% more than he paid for it and get the train back up.

I reckon on OPs car there'd be about a grand between what Coopers in Southampton would give vs Pulman in Sunderland.

[goatboy]

Just traded it in for a Octavia scout. Bit different!!