CiderBoy

I am thinking of moving the 111R on.

Bar 2 track days a year and the occasional weekend blat it is mostly being used for commuting.

So I see an evitable path which involves me purchasing a Legacy Spec B (I never said I was original) and may be the fulfillment of an ambition to purchase a bath-tub through the Caterham Academy series.

Question is... I know nothing about selling cars.

My Elise has a few scrapes. One from a piece of motorway debris which has scratched the front clam and one from an unknown car park scrape which has scarred the back.

Is it generally worth fixing these types of things before selling or leaving it to the new owner?

RUSS H

Get it as close to 100%, THEN put it up for sale. Autotrader/Pistonheads
etc. You will only get a few people come and look at it seriously so it
must be good or they wont be coming back. Worth the effort and cost.

Russ.

Ultra_Nexus

Just be honest about any imperfections the car has when speaking to the buyer on the phone. You don't want to waist their time, you don't want your time wasted

You say it has a few scrapes - the car is used so it's bound to not be 'Perfect' and a potential buyer will be under no illusions.

Another thing I hate is:

'...Part X is broken/damaged, but I found a part on ebay for only £60...'

Grrr - that just smacks of can't be arsed-ness. A decent owner would have simply replaced it!

However, what they really hate is for you to say the Car is Mint/Perfect/showroom when it isn't.

Personally, what i'd look for is along the lines of 'Used, but impeccably maintained with receipts/service history etc.

MB

I'm surprised, CB!

Two schools of thought on this, from a regular buyer / seller.

Honesty is the key. If you don't repair it before hand, make sure you get across that the car is mechanically sound (presume it is) with FSH etc, then mention the bad bits, with pics, and mention that the price reflects what is needed to get it 100% Also mention it's x years old and these are day to day nocks.

The other method is repairing, which increases your chances of sale, but you don't always get your pennies back for doing it.

The bonus on a lotus is that bits come off easily for painting

I'd put it on PH and the lotus forums too.

Moggy

Legacy and a Caterham

In terms of selling I'd partially echo the above, however the term "immaculate", "excellent" are subjective.

I often think a lot of the ads on PH where there is a lot of detail, although potentially honest, perhaps are relatively negative to a reader.

There's a fine balance I guess between full disclosure and the ad being relatively attractive.

Just a point i.r.o Pistonheads. The ads are now filtered between those that are free and those that have paid £12 (or whatever the small fee is). I'd advise to pay the fee as the free ads go right back to the end of a search filter.

IMO unless you are very thick skinned and have "backup" shall we say, then I wouldn't use Ebay (auction at least). I did recently sold the Focus using the auction facility and although I got a good price I wouldn't use it foir a car that has relative value.

MarkB

Since I sold the Exige recently, I guess I'm qualified to comment.

Be honest and price it right.

Mine was mechanically sound but had 4 years of gravel rash on the front clam and a small tear in the seat material, no aircon and no supercharger so it was never going to achieve £20k, I priced it just slightly lower than the cheapest comparable car on PH at £17500 (I paid 20k for it from a dealer just over a year earlier).

When my buyer came, he was aware of the problems and was also aware that I'd priced the car accordingly, so we reached agreement on the final price very quickly - there were no extra issues for him to negotiate with, all my cards were on the table and the car was the cheapest in the country.

Mine was only advertised here and on PH - I got 5 emails from France and Belgium, my buyer came from Pau in southern France with a wad of cash - it was the easiest car sale I've ever had - the car was sold in a week.

MB

That's a good point. Euro buyers are becoming quite common as atm!

Rob88

Personally, I’m more interested in a mechanically sound car with a few dents than a shiny car with knackered running gear.
Simply saying that it has the two pieces of damage and offering to send photos to anyone who wants more info might do the job.
You could get a quote about repairs and pass that on too, but I wouldn’t put it in the advert for the same reasons suggested above.
If someone is travelling 15 minutes to see the car then they can see it for themselves.
If someone is travelling for 2 hours then it’s nice to send them as many pictures as you can so they don’t waste their time.

Warning. Stating the obvious alert.
Decide whether you will let someone test drive it and whether you expect to see proof on insurance.
When I viewed a couple of S’s one guy was happy for me to just take it for a spin with nothing but my own 3rd party insurance another refused point blank to let me drive it unless I had proof of fully comp insurance .

MB

I'm confused with the fully comp on someone elses car thing. I see it in a lot of adverts but surely that is a load of hassle to arrange?

Moggy

No, a quick search and you'll find a compaqy that does it for about £30 per day.

I used it to TD the Legacy.