Bad time of year to sell? or is the used hot hatch market dead?

Dav4

Dav4

Dav4

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Time to sell on my Focus ST as i only keep cars a year and im bored of it so its not worth keeping with the potential bills it could throw up in the future.
I have had it up for sale for 7 days on ebay, Gumtree and Facebook
Now given that i have sold 1.6 and 1.8 focus's in the past within 24 hours of advertising them i am baffled as to why i have not had a single txt, call or email for my car :confused:
Its listed for a very good price. Around £500-£800 cheaper than traders are charging for the same thing and the same price as other private ad's that are the same age but have got up to 20k more miles on than mine!
Is the hot hatch market dead at the moment considering the Uk's love of mega mpgzzz and low tax? as i have seen some real bargains on certain St's and other similair cars lately.
Or is it a bad time of year to sell a car due to impending Christmas costs? i have always normally sold in early autumn or January which has always been fine.
The only other thing i can think is that the MOT is due at the end of January would that put you off buying the car?
How does it work if i was to try and MOT it now 2 and a half months before its due? as i know it will pass easily! is it worth doing this and altering the expiry date of the pevious MOT?
 
Just before Xmas is a terrible time to sell a sporty car. People have other things to do with their money. You'll probably have much better luck in the spring as the weather starts to warm up.
 
I think it's an ugly car and I wouldn't want to buy it.... maybe some others think the same?
Certainly all the Golfs I've been watching lately have sold, even the junk kevved up ones.

MoT can be a thing - A long one can add up to £250 on the trade-in price, apparently. But 2 months left is pretty offputting, I think.
AFAIK, you can just book in and get a new MoT at any time. It still only lasts 12 months from date of test, though.
 
Most of the time, a car having no interest can be attributed to a poor advert or priced too high.

It is difficult to sell extravagant things like cars in the run up to December, but if you really want to stand a chance - put it on Autotrader. It's audience is 10x what Gumtree/eBay/Facebook is.
 
Without knowing the age and price it's hard to fully comment, but could it be that your car is relatively pricey (not compared to similar cars, but in raw figures), and most people these days would be looking to buy on finance, which with you they can't?
 
you could mot it now but you'd lose those two remaining months. If its keenly priced and has a new mot on it, its much more eye catching I'd say! It tells any potential buyers its just been deemed as road worthy! A lot can happen in ten months!

If it only has one or two silly minors also, well that obviously helps a buyers confidence too I'd say!
 
ttaskmaster said:
I think it's an ugly car and I wouldn't want to buy it.... maybe some others think the same?
Certainly all the Golfs I've been watching lately have sold, even the junk kevved up ones.
MoT can be a thing - A long one can add up to £250 on the trade-in price, apparently. But 2 months left is pretty offputting, I think.
AFAIK, you can just book in and get a new MoT at any time. It still only lasts 12 months from date of test, though.
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Oh yes because the lesser powered and more overpriced GTI from that generation is such a catch isnt it :rolleyes: especially since the majority of car shows and magazines that tested that generation of hot hatches said the ST225 came out as a better all rounder than the GTI,VXR,Megane 225 etc.
Its a popular used car that people often still pay around 5k for 10yr old examples due to the ability to modify it and see very good power gains.
as for the trade in prices i rang 2 dealers and both offered me 1.5k less than what i can get private regardless of the MOT length.
 
Surely a Focus ST is never going to sell anywhere near as quick as a bog standard model anyway?

Your choice of advertising platforms is pretty poor too.

I would say that Mk6 Fiesta ST's that are popping up for sale at the moment on Facebook seem to be on average £500-£1k cheaper than they were 6 months ago when I was looking, could be a similar thing happening.
 
Dav4 said:
as for the trade in prices i rang 2 dealers and both offered me 1.5k less than what i can get private regardless of the MOT length.
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You cant only get £0 privately as it stands, or so it seems :p

Might be best to post the advert for real critique :)
 
Dav4 said:
Oh yes because the lesser powered and more overpriced GTI from that generation is such a catch isnt it :rolleyes:
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Golfs are prettier, IMO... I particularly like the MkIV.

Dav4 said:
especially since the majority of car shows and magazines that tested that generation of hot hatches said the ST225 came out as a better all rounder than the GTI,VXR,Megane 225 etc.
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It can make the tea and slice the bread, for all I care - It still looks ugly to me...

Dav4 said:
Its a popular used car that people often still pay around 5k for 10yr old examples due to the ability to modify it and see very good power gains.
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Have you told this to the people that aren't buying it?

Dav4 said:
as for the trade in prices i rang 2 dealers and both offered me 1.5k less than what i can get private regardless of the MOT length.
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Of course they did. That's what dealers do.

Ours all offered about £210 trade-in, on condition we got it a new MoT. Wouldn't touch it without.
But by going private and putting a full MoT on, we gained £575 on our old Merc, despite it having several worrying advisories and a fan belt screaming like a banshee that just stubbed her toe!!
 
I've struggled to sell my S3 recently (admittedly not very actively as I dislocated my shoulder amongst other things) but have had a surge of interest in the past few days so fingers crossed

In your case though, as a buyer I'd be very weary of any car that's got such a short MOT left - would give me a feeling that you don't expect it to go through the next one without issues

Also, ebay/gumtree tend to be full of timewasters from my experience, I find pistonheads pretty good and AT a bit hit and miss based on when I tried it for a couple of weeks in Sept.
 
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I looked at selling my mk7 Fiesta ST mp215 recently. But then I decided I couldn't find anything nearly as fun for under 20k, while being so cheap to run and reliable. So...4 new PS3s going on in time for the weekend :P

But as with all performance cars. The best examples sell first, people who buy these kind of cars know what they are looking at and want to see a perfect history. So they sell slower. With boggo versions most just look at price and mileage.
 
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The hot hatch market isn't particularly swift at the best of times and you need someone to really want one as the running costs are obviously higher. As said, get it through another MOT and then you'll likely have more interest and 'only' £800 cheaper than a dealer usually means they'll got to a dealer.
 
It's obviously easier to sell 1.6 and 1.8 Focus' than an ST. A week is hardly a long time for such a car. Come back when it's been 6 months, then it'll simply just be over-priced.
 
paradigm said:
Without knowing the age and price it's hard to fully comment, but could it be that your car is relatively pricey (not compared to similar cars, but in raw figures), and most people these days would be looking to buy on finance, which with you they can't?
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kindai said:
Stick the ad up for a ganders...
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i would rather not link to my personal ebay and facebook etc on a public forum. Its a good straight to the point ad with decent pics so i know its nothing to do with that.
It's a 2006 just nearing 84,000, full service history. Car is all standard. Last owner had it from new which given that most other ST's have had 5+ owners and been used and abused then passed onto the next victim while being chavved out with dodgy remap's and bean can exhausts i thought mine would at least be more desireable at 4.5k ono.
I have seen traders constantly listing the same thing for 5k+ over last few month's and selling them quickly. I have also seen private ad's with far more miles than mine go on bidding for 4.5k! Why the hell anyone would want to bid on a car like an ST without even looking at it is beyone me.
 
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