How to sell a car with known faults?

In an advert I would hardly bother mentioning the reversing sensors, air con and rust. The amount of cars I have seen that had faults like this that were never mentioned in the advert is uncountable.

As a buyer the door locking would drive me nuts and the engine fan not working would make me walk away.

If the fan was not an issue and the price competitive I would buy a car with these faults if the price was competitive and the overall condition of the car good.

A real must would be a full MOT, or at least 10 months. Although these are not failures show a potential buyer that these faults are not going to cripple them financially in 12 months.

I do think you are looking at a rather specialist narrow market if you cannot fix the fan.
 
The fan issue is common, the rear parking sensors need a new sensor, the aircon probably needs a regas (at a cost of £0 if you go to Kwik Fit and it still doesn't work) and the locking issue probably isn't that griefy either.

Sounds like an enjoyable Sunday afternoon list of DIY jobs to me
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I've had many enjoyable Sunday afternoons under the bonnet of this car, nothing major, but enough to enjoy the tinkering. I replaced the non-clicking PDC sensor last weekend but the problem persists, I've just not had time to look into it any further, it'll be done before it gets sold I'd say.

As a buyer the door locking would drive me nuts and the engine fan not working would make me walk away.

If the fan was not an issue and the price competitive I would buy a car with these faults if the price was competitive and the overall condition of the car good.
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I think, looking on eBay, a fan wont set me back and certainly will offset the value in sale price. It's MOT is due in a few months, so perhaps I'll wait as I quite agree with you, I'd not buy an old car without a good period before MOT.

So, fix the fan and sell it for what it's worth. It's in good condition, 136,000 mostly motorway miles, plenty of stone chips but aside of the bonnet, the paint is in lovely condition and still really shines. Interior is a bit average, but what can you expect from an old car!

Thanks for the help all, OCUK forum never disappoints!
 
I think you're wrong regarding the GM5. Re-reading your symptoms, that's the opposite of when my 330d's GM5 failed (all doors wouldn't open EXCEPT the drivers door).

It is however identical to my other half-s 316Ti (with the exception of hers being a 3-door), everything unlocked except the drivers door, which either had to be opened from the inside, or manually by turning the key.

Question: Does the lock button on the central console do anything to the drivers door? If no, then I'm going with Actuator (£30) rather than GM5 (£££s).

At which point you have a car with a spot of rust (it's old), and the aircon doesn't work. That's a far better proposition than currently!
 
Sounds as though its a few things that, for the right person, wont be hard or expensive to sort. If you price it accordingly I'm sure you'll easily shift it as someone will get those problems fixed and sell it on for profit.
 
Re the fan issue is it the internal blowers or the engine fan?

If it's the internal one the problem will be with the "hedgehog". It's located under the drivers side dash towards the centre console. Takes about an hour to do but you need to be a contortionist to get at it! They either fail altogether or pulse the blowers, something to do with how the little processor calculates the temperature.
 
Stormster said:
As said, be honest, use eBay (Classified Ad perhaps, cheapest method), Autotrader is rubbish for cars at this price.
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This.

I have just sold my son's year 2000 Peugeot 206 for £300 on Ebay (that's what we wanted for it) buy it now for £300 or nearest offer. Don't bother with an auction as you won't get what you want for it.

I listed absolutely everything that was wrong with it - you name it, it was declared. And there was a hell of lot of issues.

I have been inundated with offers ranging from 150 to the full asking price.

People like honesty - try and hide the issues and people will not trust you from the get go.
 
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