How do people deal with the buying car/selling car money dilemma?

Are you expecting it to sell instantly or something? It's only been 6 days and there isn't 100 frantic buyers for every MX5. Just be patient. It's not excessively priced, somebody will call eventually.
 
Thanks for the comments, guys.

Fox, a large part of my problem is that I have to take medication which seems to have caused me to develop extremely painful hip joints, and it effects my back as well. This medication isn't something I can come off of, so one of the biggest changes I can make in my life to reduce the pain is to change the car. From my experience of my father's BMW, I should be a lot less restricted and have a lot more flexibility wth where I sit, and they have hat pivoted accelerator, so part of the urgency is basically to help reduce my pain.
 
So why not just use the cash you said you already have, and buy the "less painful" car. The MX will sell, and hopefully wont take too long to do so. But you have the means to help yourself here.
 
I'd just rather not open myself up to the risk that I might not sell the car for the money I need. Having said that, I'm seeing a car on Froday and if it's good, I'll probably buy it whether the MX5 has sold or not.
 
dirtychinchilla said:
I'd just rather not open myself up to the risk that I might not sell the car for the money I need. Having said that, I'm seeing a car on Froday and if it's good, I'll probably buy it whether the MX5 has sold or not.
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To be honest if it's that tight that getting a few hundred quid less for it is the difference between changing and not changing why are you buying a 15+ year old BMW that's going to need constant upkeep? This really sounds like it isn't the right move at all.

I gave up running a 15+ year old BMW as my daily car once I realised just how much it costs to keep them going properly and how much newer a car you can run for the same sort of costs!
 
I can afford running costs, it's just the purchasing cost that's the challenge. What kind of running costs are you anticipating though? I'm used to wasting fuel, and I'd service the car myself.

Probably should add, I am very interested in knowing what the running costs are, but I factor them into my monthly spending so as long as I can anticipate them, they're not that much of an issue.
 
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So I'm feeling a bit more patient today. The BMW I was going to look at sold last night, though. Hopefully another comes up soon :D

I was looking at a Mondeo ST on AutoTrader but I think realistically it's just way too big for me. I'm not sure my parking space would allow such a huge car!
 
dirtychinchilla said:
So I'm feeling a bit more patient today. The BMW I was going to look at sold last night, though. Hopefully another comes up soon :D

I was looking at a Mondeo ST on AutoTrader but I think realistically it's just way too big for me. I'm not sure my parking space would allow such a huge car!
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It's about 20cm longer..
 
dirtychinchilla said:
I can afford running costs, it's just the purchasing cost that's the challenge. What kind of running costs are you anticipating though? I'm used to wasting fuel, and I'd service the car myself.

Probably should add, I am very interested in knowing what the running costs are, but I factor them into my monthly spending so as long as I can anticipate them, they're not that much of an issue.
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Just to give you an idea. I bought a 54 plate e46 last July, so far:

Minor service £70 in parts + £30 labour
2 New front tyres and fitting £125
Front bushes £60 parts + £70 labour
Windscreen washer motor went bang, £9 for parts but I did the labour myself
Tracking after bushes £30
+mot +lots of petrol
+ other things like new headunit, new grilles etc

In the next couple of months I need new rear tyres and inspection 2 done, aircon needs gassing but I have a feeling it's more than that and I need to fix my rocker cover gasket leak.
 
I would stick your neck out with the savings given you say you have the cash. If your current car is worth ~£1.5k then even if you have to wait for a sale, it isn't going to depreciate massively sat off road for a few weeks. This is of course on the assumption that you definitely need to buy the new car soon (appreciate this may be the case for medical reasons). Plus I suspect that something like an mx5 is likely to be coming into more demand with the improving weather - if we were in say September I might be more worried as probably less people looking for a convertible with winter approaching.

As for the general question, I think generally most people just acknolwedge the situation and thus either do a part ex (taking a slight financial hit), 'price to sell' (again slight financial hit), use finance (various forms including CC) to bridge the gap, or have enough capital not to worry about it. If people are that hard up that a £1500 cashflow issue is a make or break between being able to change their car, then changing cars may not be top of their priorities anyway. I imagine more of a consideration for people who have a lot more capital tied up in their current motor.
 
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[TW]Fox;29479626 said:
It's about 20cm longer..
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It's more like 40 cm compared to the Ci at least. I mean, I don't have children. When I had 4/5 seats, only 1/2 were ever used. I can't see any reason to even have a 5 door car to be honest, it's just unecessarily larger. I'm pretty much indifferent really, if the car's nice the car's nice, but Mondeos are huge.

Also, going from an MX-5 to that beast will be a shock to the system (as will the BMW). The largest car I've driven in the last 6 months is a Micra hah!

ADT said:
Just to give you an idea. I bought a 54 plate e46 last July, so far:

Minor service £70 in parts + £30 labour
2 New front tyres and fitting £125
Front bushes £60 parts + £70 labour
Windscreen washer motor went bang, £9 for parts but I did the labour myself
Tracking after bushes £30
+mot +lots of petrol
+ other things like new headunit, new grilles etc

In the next couple of months I need new rear tyres and inspection 2 done, aircon needs gassing but I have a feeling it's more than that and I need to fix my rocker cover gasket leak.
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List is very much appreciated, cheers :) none of those expenses look to be as a consequence of it being a BWM - just a consequence of owning a car!

I'm starting to get the feeling that BMWs really aren't that expensive UNLESS you want them serviced and repaired by BMW themselves. Everything else is just a consequence of the fact that most people can't afford a brand new BMW, so they buy and old one and expect it to be perfect.

I wasted a lot of money on a banged out Mondeo I inherited a couple of years ago, and it really wasn't worth it. I'd rather just stick with the stupid issues that arise nowadays, if they're things that don't prevent me getting to work.

HangTime said:
I would stick your neck out with the savings given you say you have the cash. If your current car is worth ~£1.5k then even if you have to wait for a sale, it isn't going to depreciate massively sat off road for a few weeks. This is of course on the assumption that you definitely need to buy the new car soon (appreciate this may be the case for medical reasons). Plus I suspect that something like an mx5 is likely to be coming into more demand with the improving weather - if we were in say September I might be more worried as probably less people looking for a convertible with winter approaching.
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I think you're right - I really thought that with the weather this weekend as it was, someone would be gagging to take it off my hands and get the roof down! Sadly, it wasn't to be.

You might be right about sticking my neck out, but the savings are for an engagement ring so it's slightly concerning for me :p however, I think the Mazda will sell. As Fox says, I need to be a bit more patient. It's had so many bloody views and no calls though!!

HangTime said:
As for the general question, I think generally most people just acknolwedge the situation and thus either do a part ex (taking a slight financial hit), 'price to sell' (again slight financial hit), use finance (various forms including CC) to bridge the gap, or have enough capital not to worry about it. If people are that hard up that a £1500 cashflow issue is a make or break between being able to change their car, then changing cars may not be top of their priorities anyway. I imagine more of a consideration for people who have a lot more capital tied up in their current motor.
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If I wasn't in the situation that I'm in now, I would have just kept the car as I do love it. I'm just not in a position to be investing lots of money buying something more expensive than what I have. As I say, the savings are for a ring so it's not ideal that I want to use them. Hence why I was trying to avoid it.

Your advice is much appreciated :)
 
I had the same issue when selling my last car. Two weeks and only one phone call from a time waster. Then 1 hour before the ad expires a chap called and wanted to view the car. Came, took it out then bought it.

From now on I will only use eBay I reckon as AT is full of dealers now
 
MUCH cheaper selling on ebay though surely? It's about £15 for a month on classified ads or something?

I gave up on AT after the last fiasco. I'm pretty sure the only people who contacted me were dealers and chancers offering about £5k less than trade value. And then constantly phoning back saying I wont get any more.

Ebay would have been a FAR better bet on a car of the value of the MX5 I would have though. Sure, you'll likely get the same number of chancers, but it would likely have been cheaper than AT, and the serious buyers will be looking there as well as AT.

Gumtree is another one. Although I think you only get 2 car ads a year or something for free now. But is another avenue where I have had success.
 
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