The time came

Be honest, which would you rather have;

A car on 137k miles will be due it's cambelt (£800+ at Renault, don't forget!) at around148k miles, could still have four odd ditchfinders, have sloppy bushes and engine mounts and generally be a little rough around the edges for £3k.

A car on 137k miles that has just had it's cambelt and auxbelt done as well as the de-phaser pulley (a common problem that will unlikely to have been done as preventative maintenance with any cambelt), all good tyres with loads of tread, just about every service item done/replaced as well as some of the most common/useful/desirable modifications already done. All for £500 more.

Personally, I'd always choose the latter - you're buying a car that has all the things you'd want to do when buying an RS Clio, already done. To do all of the bits on mine would probably cost you £1500+ to buy and have done at a "specialist" before you even consider things like the possibility of other examples having ditchfinders etc.


If you look at Pistonheads, my car seems to be priced around the right figure.
 
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Give it 2 weeks at that money then just cash it in for 2500 quid or whatever it owes you.

My dad always told me, son never refuse a profit, however small.
 
If it gets to the point where I really want it gone, then I'll drop the price, but I'm in no rush at the moment, so I'm happy to give it a go at £3500 :)
 
MikeHiow said:
Be honest, which would you rather have;

A car on 137k miles will be due it's cambelt (£800+ at Renault, don't forget!) at around148k miles, could still have four odd ditchfinders, have sloppy bushes and engine mounts and generally be a little rough around the edges for £3k.

A car on 137k miles that has just had it's cambelt and auxbelt done as well as the de-phaser pulley (a common problem that will unlikely to have been done as preventative maintenance with any cambelt), all good tyres with loads of tread, just about every service item done/replaced as well as some of the most common/useful/desirable modifications already done. All for £500 more.
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a) People won't appreciate that when looking at the adverts. They'll see the price, lol at you, and call somebody else up. Its like me trying to sell my 530 for £5k. It's totally mint, had everything done, has the best history of any E39 for sale, top notch parts, etc etc. It would cost thousands of pounds to bring up the average £3-3.5k E39 to the same condition as mine and anyone who actually spent £5k on mine would be very happy.

But thats fantasy world. Nobody is going to give me £5k for mine in a month of Sundays. It'll get compared based on photos, laughed at, and somebody will buy the shed for £3k instead. Thats how it works and as a result makes mine worth barely anything more than the sheds.

It's the same with your Clio.

b) What cars are advertised for and what they sell for are two very different things again.

As per usual, you are on dream island.

Your car is worth about 2.5k, which is why a dealer - there to make a PROFIT on selling cars - let you have it for 2250 because it needed a new pulley.

After so many epic failures with cars and car buying will you one day realise that perhaps you dont know it all? :p
 
[TW]Fox;18969030 said:
a) People won't appreciate that when looking at the adverts. They'll see the price, lol at you, and call somebody else up. Its like me trying to sell my 530 for £5k. It's totally mint, had everything done, has the best history of any E39 for sale, top notch parts, etc etc. It would cost thousands of pounds to bring up the average £3-3.5k E39 to the same condition as mine and anyone who actually spent £5k on mine would be very happy.

But thats fantasy world. Nobody is going to give me £5k for mine in a month of Sundays. It'll get compared based on photos, laughed at, and somebody will buy the shed for £3k instead. Thats how it works and as a result makes mine worth barely anything more than the sheds.

It's the same with your Clio.

b) What cars are advertised for and what they sell for are two very different things again.

As per usual, you are on dream island.

Your car is worth about 2.5k, which is why a dealer - there to make a PROFIT on selling cars - let you have it for 2250 because it needed a new pulley.

After so many epic failures with cars and car buying will you one day realise that perhaps you dont know it all? :p
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Thats all true nearly, except there is a man out there for everything, and if you could be arsed you might just get 5k for your car, except it means waiting, and suffering the "i got 2k right here right now in 20s yo" brigade of ***** that boil my blood in the mean time.

Maybe Mike can be arsed with the wait and the ****ers.
 
High miles + strong money + not on the mainland = good luck to you.


also what is the state of play with the tyres? does "all round" still mean three?
 
Nobody is going to see an advert for a 180k mile E39 for £5k and go 'You know what? I'll give him a call'.

Nobody.

Same principle with Mikes Clio (Well not quite the same, because I doubt the Clio is quite the utopia in Clio ownership he thinks it is - remember, he lied about the tyres at first, so who knows what state its in?).
 
[TW]Fox;18969084 said:
Nobody is going to see an advert for a 180k mile E39 for £5k and go 'You know what? I'll give him a call'.

Nobody.

Same principle with Mikes Clio (Well not quite the same, because I doubt the Clio is quite the utopia in Clio ownership he thinks it is - remember, he lied about the tyres at first, so who knows what state its in?).
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Your wrong, but i aint going to argue with you, there are people out there that do want the best of the best of a certain car.

Im not saying thats mikes falls in this catagory but your car does bar the miles, but that aside your car does.
 
MikeHiow said:
A car on 137k miles will be due it's cambelt (£800+ at Renault, don't forget!) at around148k miles, could still have four odd ditchfinders, have sloppy bushes and engine mounts and generally be a little rough around the edges for £3k.
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Isn't that exactly what you bought, for £2250?

I didn't realise high mileage Clios has appreciated by 50% in 2 months?
 
[TW]Fox;18969110 said:
These people exist.

They also don't buy cars with intergalactic mileage. They'll plump for the 50k miler.
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Ok, you win, cos its a sunny day and i dont give a monkeys :)

No you dont sod it, it aint that warm.

See if i wanted a e39 like yours and i saw an advert worded the right way with your huge list of extensive work and some pictures of that interior id call it over the 70k mile one just coming up to the time when 1500 quid needs spending on it.

When you want shot of that i bet you 100 quid you sell it on here for 4k no problem, maybe not 5k but 4k and its sold.
 
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DM, people who want a 'tidy' one will not even look at one with 140k on it.

People who are in the market for a 140k one will not pay a £1.5k premium for one that's mint.
 
Skeeter said:
DM, people who want a 'tidy' one will not even look at one with 140k on it.

People who are in the market for a 140k one will not pay a £1.5k premium for one that's mint.
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You sold many cars have you? Because i have sold lots and lots.

Bear in mind i aint talking about Mikes here, i dont think hes got an earthly of selling that for 3.5k im talking about Fox's car and its ilk.

Let me explain something to you, mileage on a car as old as Fox's dosent matter, its a worthless car now so condition is all, anyone with half a brain out buying one of those cars knows that, not everyone is a brain dead idiot looking for that elusive 8 year old car with 40k on the clock.

I tell you what Fox in fact here is an offer for you, you bring that car up to my house when you want shot and i will make 4k of that car for you if not a bit more.

Having made 1 phone call i now got 4k cash money right here right now for your car Fox.
 
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Skeeter said:
Isn't that exactly what you bought, for £2250?

I didn't realise high mileage Clios has appreciated by 50% in 2 months?
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I bought a Clio with what sounded like a pretty much terminal top end rattle/knock from a small dealer that is off the beaten track - all of their cars are cheap anyway.

Everyone else would have run a mile from the car, those that would not know what the problem was just hear what sounds like a very ****ed engine and those that do know how expensive a job it is (£680 is what Fred@BTM charges, IIRC - I'm sure it's got to be close to four figures at Renault once you include the de-phaser.). I knew what the problem was and decided to go for it as everything else was pretty much tip top.

I bought a cheap car that needed work doing to it, people do it all the time - in fact, my Dad made a living like this for several years in his younger years.

Loads of people will brush it off completely when they see the mileage, but there will be intelligent people that'll see a good advert, for what seems like a good car with everything done, do the maths and pick up the phone.
 
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In a similar way I could put my dc2 up for £6 as I bought it for 4 and have spent 4k on the arches, Cambelt, mounts, gearbox rebuild, complete suspension/steering rebuild, and updated brake system. Only 75k on the clock but I would be lucky to get 4k back.

Just because it has had a lot of recent work done doesn't gloss over the fact it's 140k french hot hatch that has lived a tough life.

Good luck with the sale but don't expect to get anywhere near 3.5k without major stroke of luck. Also beware that an rx8 isn't all roses. Expensive cars and not cheap to fix, as a mate has found out after selling his ctr.
 
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