7:28 pm, June 27, 2011
It soon became clear that our Citroen wasn’t going anywhere fast, so we traded it on, reports James Baggott
I always knew it to be the case but now, having traded a few, I’ve had a glimpse as to just how hard it must be selling second-hand cars for a living.
The stress of dealing with one is bad enough, but for those of you with 10, 20, or more cars in stock the hassle must be enough to make your head explode. As you can probably tell, our attempt to turn £0 into a Porsche 911 in aid of BEN has taken a slightly more stressful turn.
When we left you last month we were struggling to find a serious buyer for the Citroen C4 Grand Picasso we’d bought direct from the manufacturer. It was a great car – albeit with a slightly dodgy gearbox – but one that stuck to us like chewing gum in hair. We couldn’t shift the 58-plate beast, no matter how hard we tried, and after two timewasters had, well, wasted our time, we realised she was in need of a service.
Not wanting to shell out any more cash I hoped we could pull in a favour with local dealer Michael Nobes who has recently added a Citroen franchise to his extremely successful Hyundai one in Portsmouth.
‘Of course we’ll do the service,’ said Nobes when I rang him up. ‘But that car is very near retail money – have you thought about trading it on?’ What he was saying made a lot of sense. We were asking £10,495 for the 1.6-litre diesel model which was just a monkey shy of what he would ask on his forecourt. If you were a buyer would you go for the one from the private owner with no warranty or the one outside the plate-glass dealership? It’s a no-brainer, so we decided to take Nobes up on his offer of trading it on.
‘I’ll take it off your hands for what you paid for it and you can swap it for some of our part exchanges,’ said Nobes. ‘Cheaper cars will be easier to sell and you’ll turn them around quicker – come over and we’ll sort it out.’
So that’s exactly what I did. Nobes left me in the capable hands of his right hand man Rob Kemp and we searched his part exchange list for some suitable replacements. The Richmond dealership group has had fantastic success under the scrappage scheme and Nobes has continued with the same offer – effectively a minimum £2k part exchange – to keep the customers coming. And it’s worked. He’s doing so well he’s knocking down his old showroom and is building a stunning duel Hyundai and Citroen gin palace. And there’s another flip side to that marketing offer – lots and lots of part exchanges.
The first we decided on was a 2008, 1.0-litre Skoda Fabia in white with just 23k miles. Kemp agreed to add a year’s MOT to it and we settled on £4k. It was up for £7k on the forecourt. ‘Put it up for £5k and get it gone in a week,’ said Kemp.
The second we found hiding behind the Hyundai showroom. An 06-plate Renault Scenic in gold. It had done 50k miles, was in reasonable condition, but needed tax and MOT. We paid £2,800 for it with the hope of getting £3,300 for it on a quick turnaround.
And the last one was found sulking under some trees at the ‘poo corner’ end of the yard. A P-reg, 2.3-litre Volvo 940 saloon with auto box, 100k miles and no tax or MOT. We paid £200 for it and prayed we could get it through a test. That left us with £900-odd in the Bank of Nobes, something which we will go back and spend on another cheapie once these three have been shifted.
THREE-FOR-ONE
With the deal done the first port of call was to take the Volvo to our mechanic Matt Kendell for the once over. After driving it the five miles or so to his garage I had a pretty good feeling it was sound, but a phone call from Kendell later that day confirmed it.
‘She’s a minter,’ he said. ‘It needs a bloody good clean, but I found the service history in the glovebox and she’s had a check-up every year – and the cambelt was done just 10,000 miles ago.’
All sounded good, but what about the MOT? ‘Ah, she failed,’ he said, as my heart sank. ‘On wiper blades! I’ve stuck them on and she’s good to go. You owe me £50.’
Nice one. I spent four hours the following Saturday cleaning the battleship up and after some serious elbow grease, a photo shoot and video later, P631 OCL was on eBay. Next to be thrown to the virtual masses was the Fabia. A visit to the Poles and she looked like new so we made another video, took some snaps and added her to flea bay too.
And so began a week of fending off ridiculous offers and attempts to part exchange motorbikes and boats for our duo. But among the ramblings of people who shouldn’t be allowed access to the internet was one email from what looked like a serious bidder.
‘Can I come and see it?’ she asked. As most of you will know, when a bidder wants to view they’re very serious and there’s a good chance of striking a deal with them there and then.
She popped around with her husband, took the Skoda out for a quick spin and then started talking cash. With just a day left of the auction and no bids on the starting price of £3,495 I didn’t want to let this opportunity pass so said I’d end the auction and let them have it for £4,500. They left, but later that evening I got a call offering £4,300. We settled on £4,400 and the Fabia was collected the next day. One down, two to go.
The Volvo, meanwhile, was attracting a lot of watchers on eBay but only one bidder – they had entered the starting price of £250 within minutes of the auction going live, but nothing since. The night before it was due to end the price hadn’t moved and I was starting to panic. But as the auction entered its final hour the price began to creep up and finished at £375. Not great, but still
This Scenic is one of three cars we swapped our Citroen for a profit nonetheless. The winning bidder was a trader and he collected the next day. We chatted about cars, and the price the Volvo had gone for, and he said it was the big engines that put people off. ‘It’s a 2.3-litre which means tax is expensive and fuel pricey too,’ he explained. ‘I sold a mint 2.5-litre V6 Mondeo the other day for £300. People can’t afford the fuel.’
He already had someone interested in the Volvo and reckoned he’d trade it on in a week. Thinking about it I should have kept it for Bangers4BEN. You live and learn.
So that just leaves us with the Renault. I’m hoping the horror stories everyone I mention the car to are untrue and that we can get it shifted quickly. It’s just passed its MOT with no faults so we’re hoping to get her shifted on eBay for £3,300-ish. Wish me luck.
THE STORY SO FAR…
