Selling car by putting it on dealer forecourt

Reezer · 26 Nov 2009 at 08:32

Hi,

I've been trying to sell my car for a while and haven't really had much interest though pistonheads, ebay or autotrader.

Yesterday a (fairly) local dealer (mrauto.co.uk) called me up and offered to put my car on their forecourt at no cost - they said the way it works is I'd leave the car with them for ~3 weeks and they would try to sell it for £200-£400 more than my asking price. The £200-£400 and any profit they make on the buyers part-ex or finance deal would be theirs but I'd get my full asking price.

They said the car will be fully insured while they have it and they wouldn't let anyone not serious about making an offer take it for a test drive.

The reason they said ~3 weeks is because that is how long they think it will sell, they said if it doesn't I can leave it there as long as I want or pick it up at any time.

It sounds like a good deal to me - it's a much more attractive deal for a buyer: finance, part ex, 12 month warranty and from a reputable dealer instead of an unknown private person. However I'm still a bit hesitant to hand over my car with no guarantees that it will sell.

I've heard of people doing this via friends of friends but none of them really knew any details. Anyone here done this or heard of it being done?

Any advice much appreciated.

peterattheboro · 26 Nov 2009 at 08:43

They must be a really nice dealership or they don't have any cars in.

Are dealerships normally this nice?

Firestar_3x · 26 Nov 2009 at 08:48

Its a win win situation for the dealer:

- More cars on his lot looks good
- If he doesn't sell it no loss to him
- If he does sell it profit to him

No such thing as a nice dealer just cunning ones.

panthro · 26 Nov 2009 at 08:52

A lot of independent dealers do this. If you get your full asking price then I dont see any problems with it. I nearly did it with one of my old cars, but managed to sell it beforehand. Could be a good idea as this time of year proves to be a bit more difficult to sell cars in my experience.

Reezer · 26 Nov 2009 at 09:33

Yea, they said the main reason they were ringing around was because they had sold a lot recently and the lot was looking a bit bare.

They have quite a lot of "nice" stock in - they don't seem to sell junkers; it's mostly nice audis, bmws, mercs and the like.

I'm not exactly desperate to sell the car, but I'd really like to get shot of it so that I can buy a van and get back into my mountain biking. I *could* wait until a better time of year to sell but I can't imagine the price will be that much better on a car like mine (3.2 A3 s-line gas guzzler.)

I suppose they only factor that is still an unknown is how likely it is to sell - they told me they were "very confident" but they could be lying just to fill their lot. On the other hand, they have a lot of other cars selling for around my asking price with similar age/milage/etc. so they might be telling the truth and it might sell...

I think I'll probably go up there on sunday and have a look around unless someone comes up any reason it's dodgy and I shouldn't do it...

kaiowas · 26 Nov 2009 at 11:14

Only risk I can think of is what happens if the dealer goes under sometime between you parking the car on his forecourt and you getting paid?

If the car is not yet sold then it *should* be a simple matter of convincing the adminstrators that the car is not a company asset (although it may not be that straightforward in practice) and taking it back. If it's sold but he's not yet given you the cash then you'd just be another creditor...

In the current climate it's a risk I probably wouldn't be prepared to take.

Siliconslave · 26 Nov 2009 at 11:19

reezer have a look at the webuyanycar type people - they gave me a very good quote when i put my a3 3.2 through out of interest

[TW]Fox · 26 Nov 2009 at 11:32

webuyanycar will give you next to nothing.

Duke · 26 Nov 2009 at 11:35

I did the same thing when selling my Puma, although we do know the owners of the garage quite well. I said what I wanted for it, and anything extra they could keep. It went up on their forecourt, right next to a busy road and sold within 2 days. They did all the paper work, warranty it themselves etc so got what I wanted. You don't see many Pumas in that good of condition, so think they quite liked it getting some attention.

Siliconslave · 26 Nov 2009 at 11:50

[TW]Fox;15400312 said:
webuyanycar will give you next to nothing.

they quoted me pretty much dead on market rate (actually more than i'd paid) but i never bothered going to see them - i imagine they'd try and cut you down somewhat....

nomad · 26 Nov 2009 at 11:51

[TW]Fox;15400312 said:
webuyanycar will give you next to nothing.

On the whole thats true, but some people have had surprisingly good results. Not something I would do, but then I keep cars either forever or until they are worthless lol

Peerzy · 26 Nov 2009 at 11:57

Siliconslave said:
they quoted me pretty much dead on market rate (actually more than i'd paid) but i never bothered going to see them - i imagine they'd try and cut you down somewhat....

You'll turn up and they'll knock it down for stupid things.

My GF took her old Clio there that should have got £400 according to the website and they offered her £50 on the day.

Housey · 26 Nov 2009 at 12:03

Lots of car dealers do this as it means they can have a full lot with little or no outlay. Porsche dealers do it all the time as do many high value car dealers the cash needed to buy stock in such circumstances is pretty huge. As has been said though the risk to you is if the dealer goes down and I know of this happening a few times and people having to use all sorts of 'techniques' to get their £150K out of a locked dealers pound as the administrator drags his feet.

Siliconslave · 26 Nov 2009 at 12:19

Peerzy said:
You'll turn up and they'll knock it down for stupid things.

My GF took her old Clio there that should have got £400 according to the website and they offered her £50 on the day.

thats pretty much what i expected, but the previous threads on it suggested that they weren't too bad - regardless might be worth a punt...

[TW]Fox · 26 Nov 2009 at 12:20

Why would they give you anything more than trade book at the very best? They are not a charity.

eidolon · 26 Nov 2009 at 13:20

[TW]Fox;15400312 said:
webuyanycar will give you next to nothing.

Dunno what you mean. They just offered me £15,830 for my Boxster.

Hmmm.....let me think about it for a bit and get back to you.

Housey · 26 Nov 2009 at 13:30

eidolon said:
Dunno what you mean. They just offered me £15,830 for my Boxster.

Hmmm.....let me think about it for a bit and get back to you.

They'd want 40K from me for my car I suspect. First weeks fuel consumption....if you don't travel too far.

s-man · 26 Nov 2009 at 13:58

Webuyanycar are obviously only going to offer you rock bottom book and then once you roll up they will usually find something 'wrong' to knock a few more quid off. Depends how much you need to shift your metal I spose. I'd go with webuyanycar over auction but thats not saying much!

Wicksta · 26 Nov 2009 at 14:01

They offered me £3000 for my 2003 325i sport touring.

eidolon · 26 Nov 2009 at 17:01

Housey said:
Lots of car dealers do this as it means they can have a full lot with little or no outlay. Porsche dealers do it all the time as do many high value car dealers the cash needed to buy stock in such circumstances is pretty huge.

Do you mean that Porsche dealers like RSJ do it or OPC themselves do it?