Hi all,
I'm in the process of selling my Golf R and last week I had a call from a motor trade outfit who made me a fair offer for my car. I don't begrudge them making some money as they have overheads and as long as I got a fair price I was happy so provisionally agreed to sell the car to them.
However, after further discussion they wanted the car on a sale or return basis and were confident that they could sell it within 28 days. I don't feel comfortable leaving my car with a bunch of strangers for a month, as I have visions of them ragging the life out of it and handing it back after having had it for a month. They weren't honest or upfront from the get go and I'd rather take less for a straightforward sale rather than be waiting for a month for more money that may or may not come. A bird in the hand and all that, or am I missing a trick and this is the new normal?
I would genuinely just cut my losses, save the headaches and sell to WBAC or equivalent. It’s inevitable that a car like yours will attract the attention of buyers who are likely to be a pain in the a*se so I would take the financial hit and make that someone else’s problem
While there are plenty of sale or return sales that go well, there are also many stories of ones that go wrong, cars sold where the owner never gets paid, damage while in the traders possession, unknown prep works found, etc.
Best to go into a contract like that with your eye wide open.
Too many horror stories I'm afraid, i would never do it
Sounds iffy to me
Have you tried WBAC etc? Also carwow and motorway could be worth a try, where dealers offer for your car
Don’t do it
Having been in industry for 30+ years there are many stories of cars sold then vendor vanishes or is using one persons cash to pay the next etc.
Most doing SOR are doing so because they are skint or can’t get stocking loans.. (excl some top end)
If its a nice example sell it yourself or WBAC or similar
Buying the buyer is just as important as buying the seller. If it walks like a duck and sounds like a duck….
Thanks guys, seems like I dodged a bullet there.
Fortunately I'm in the position where I'm not desperate to sell, and can afford to take a hit and I'm sure the right person will come along eventually. I spoke to the guy who is selling the M140i I want, and he's in no great rush to sell either and will happily give me 2-3 weeks to get this sold. I think I'll give it that long before I go down the WBAC route. I could buy the M140i now, but don't want the headache of 3 cars all owned outright and the nagging I'd get from swmbo so hopefully things will work out.
I just turned 50 in April so I'll just chalk this off to a mid life crisis lol.
As always, this forum is a great place to seek advice and I'm glad to be a part of this community.
R
Personally, Id either part ex it, or sell it to the likes of WBAC etc.
In your ad. you said you'd had an offer from the trade for it?..Thats the way Id go. Less hassle/dramas/comebacks etc.
Do you have the original parts? If so, swap as much back to stock as possible, especially the alloys and spoiler, those 2 items alone will be putting off most buyers. The exhaust and stage 1 etc should not cause a huge issue to most of the R buying crowd.
I would not do a sale or return, just WBAC it if you want rid quick, or wait a few weeks and sell it yourself,
+1, in the distant past I always sold cars myself in private deals to get as much as I could, but thesedays I take the path of least resistance even though it costs a little more. You have to put a value on convenience/peace of mind and the older I get the higher that value becomes. I could write a book about the tyrekickers who came to see cars, and the cars and owners I encountered whilst trying to buy privately on folks's doorsteps.
I wouldn't dream of it now, I buy and sell from a dealer and try to get the best deal I can.
I wouldn't entertain any type of sale or return deal to sell a car, it's a bad idea.
The trade offer was the one that turned out to be SOR. I had better offers early on but turned them down as I was trying to recoup as much as possible. The ones I did provisionally accept strung me along for a while and never came when they said they would. I've had a shed load of swap offers, where I never said that I would be willing to part exchange or swap. You live and learn. Either way I've got a nice Golf R to have a blast around in when the mood takes me so have no complaints really.
I've had loads of people on the Golf forums tell me that I'm selling it too cheap, but as someone else pointed out, they are probably the ones who bought on finance when the market was at its peak, and have cars that are worth no where near what they are paying for them.
Some time ago, I was asked iy we would like to buy a Pursche 911, for our stock, so, I offered a fair price and heard no more. A few months later I thought to call the owner , summer was coming and it was a convertible so, maybe able to offer a bit more. However, the car had been given SOR to a dealer in the North and was still unsold, it was still advertised on their web-site, so the owner gave the supposed SORer permission to speak to me , regarding our now purchasing the car. Eventually , after lots of excuses, I discovered the car had been sold a couple of months earlier and the owner never had payment, it was about £45,000 if memory serves. Avoid SOR unless you are 100% sure you can suffer the aggravation..
Sold my Golf R to Cazoo a while back, zero grief, top price way more than WBAC & funds in my account before they took it away.
Rs are highly in demand at present. Won't a vw dealer give you good money for it?
If you do go S0R make sure they are fully insured or you keep the car insured as in the event of somethimng happening to the car whilst in their care they may only be paid the trade price as that will be all their insurance covers them for.
You might be surprised at how much WBAC will offer for desirable, in-demand cars. I sold my X6 to them in all of 5 minutes for £59.5K, the next best offer was £54K.
All very straightforward, money came in exactly when they said it would.
The used car market is crazy right now. I paid £61K for my X6 1.5 years ago, and only lost 1.5K in depreciation during that time.