A youngster with not much money is; 'as we speak', trawling websites like Parker's and Autotrader looking at old Honda's and Toyota's for sale about 2 to 2.5 K pounds.
Most of the cars offered are by Traders rather than private sellars. Is it worth tying to get The Trader to throw in some *extras* like a full tank of petrol? Or what else might they try asking the Car Trader for?
Is it out of the question to go for a discount in price, saying there will be no sale if they don't agree. If so; what percentage *off* their price should one aim for, bearing in mind the car is going for about £2.5K ?
Speaking as a trader, I think you're dreaming a bit. £300 profit on a £2k car is about all there is in them. You might get some fuel, you might get some tax, but if you're expecting £200 off the price you're going to be lucky. Not many traders are going to bother retailing a car if there's only going to be £100 profit at the end of the day. It can cost that just to collect a car, then there's cleaning the thing, MOT costs etc.
As for the thing sbout it being a buyers market, that is true. However, a lot of traders are only going for stuff that is sought after. You don't need to discount on something if there's a queue of buyers. The right car will always have a lot of people interested.
Well this weekend I'm going to look at a Capri 2.8i that a trader is=20 selling. He doesn't sell classics and I think he's either taken this as=20 a speculative dreamer punt or a P/X so I'm going to rip the car to f*ck=20 and he's going to get kicked well and truly in the balls with both=20 feet. By the time I've finished, I'll have "found" =A32k+ of repairs and=20 he'll be glad for me to take it away and probably at a loss.
But then again, I'm practised in this and they're in no doubt that I=20 know what I'm looking for when inspecting these cars.
--=20 Conor
I only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't=20 looking good either. - Scott Adams
And the "trader" doesn't 'add' the MOT, collection, valeting and any pre-sale repair costs to the price of the car - along with a sum to cover the costs of any unforeseen problems that may involve SoGA after the sale, oh, as well as a little extra for profit to allow the punter to "haggle the price down" so punter thinks that they 'got one up' on the trader?
If the trader doesn't, then there lies a rarity - alongside the proverbial hens teeth!
Well if they don't they won't be trading for long, so that £300 on a 2K car sounds quite beleviable. Or you can go to car giant who don't even valet them.
£300 "profit" seems very small, particularly as I have been in the position of attending the local car auctions on a weekly basis (over a number of years) and have seen the same car on a 'traders' forecourt for more than double the price that he paid for it an an auction that I attended (and I'm talking about a four figure sum - and the car was in an extremely good condition at the time of the auction sale).
After I saw that, I did my own little survey of several of the traders, and the 'add-ons' to the auction prices ranged from 50% to 100% - hence my scepticism of the "£300" profit - and I have never bought a car from a 'trader' since.
Perhaps times have changed since I did this (several years ago), and traders have seen a bit of sense - or perhaps they have discovered different ways to make the same (or higher) profits.
Exactly. The *final* price it's advertised may well be £500 more than the car cost the trader. You can't put £1000 profit on a £2000 car unless you're very lucky indeed. There are a lot of people out there who think all motor traders make a grand profit out of everything. They don't. There may well be a grands profit in an eight grand car, but there sure as hell isn't on the average two grand one.
Some of the classic traders have mainly the same stock for six months at a time. So they need to make decent money on the few they do sell. "Bread and butter" traders who move a few cars every week tend to make a couple of hundred on the cheap stuff, it's hard to make money out of cheap stuff because there's so much competition, so many other examples of the same cars, for the same money or less.
What the hell does 'unbeliever' think happens in the used car trade? A load of sheepskins go to the auctions and buy cars for thousands less than the public? Um. No. As a trader at the auctions you pay less in auction fees, but not a huge amount less. On a £1500 'on the hammer' buy a trader might save £30-50 on the price the public pay. So it's not at auction where the trader finds cheap stuff. Another way for traders to get stock is from main dealer trade ins. That's a brave place to buy, ok, cars are cheap but you very often have to buy a few at a time, so you'll get something nice but they'll make you buy a 150k mile, beige, Fiat Brava as well. So there's not going to be any real profit in that for a while. The Brava type sheds often get sent to auction where they normally just about make the cost price back.
Then there are the dealers who buy off ebay. That's quite often an utter ball-ache as it means hiking half way across the country to buy something that's often not as described, or being sold by another trader because there's a weird fault they've had to throw a fortune at...
Don't forget, how many trades are there with as many people dabbling? There are thousands of people in the UK all trying to make a few bob out of cars, part-time traders, huge franchise operations, main dealers, auction houses, home traders, Bob the mechanic from the local garage, all out there.
Not to worry, now I've been informed of the thousands of pounds a week I must be earning I don't care what he says. Just got to convince the bank now.
So double £1000 is £2000, that's a £1000 to cover all the costs. Assuming they can get double the auction price. If you don't want to pay that markup then you can go to ADT or ebay.
Conor gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:
"Well, if it's that bad, then I can't in all honesty sell it to you - the risk of comeback under SOGA is too good, and I've got my reputation to think of. So - thanks for letting me know, and I'm sorry to have wasted your time. I'll ring the scrapman on Monday."
Small, low mileage, immaculate diesel hatchbacks. Small, low mileage, immaculate diesel vans. Vauxhall Combos are popular. Low mileage, immaculate, diesel people carriers. Scenics, Picassos etc. Zafiras seem sought after for some reason.
Some proper cars are still sought after: Jags, Mercs, BMWs, Volvos etc, but they've got to be the right spec - leather, AC, alloys, cruise, in the right colour - no beige, white or 'wheatgrass' and they've got to be FSH with a new MOT. Unfortunately, they've got to be cheap so there aren't many people who're bothering to retail this type of stuff. You also get a lot of timewasting wankers who think they know what they're on about, but are truly unrealistic. "I'm not paying £1500 for your XJ as they go through the auctions for £900" etc.
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