The grumpy thread

[Bobthebeard]

Car selling seems to be a strange thing right now.  A £60 Metro attracts only insulting offers, a £100 fully functioning, MOT'd Rover attracts barely one interested party on each of the 3 occasions it's been offered and even on here there's a plethora of cheap, sub-£500 practical and roadworthy cars which are not finding homes, either on here or elsewhere.  It's no surprise that anything closer to £1k which promises to need further investment isn't finding a new home quickly.  That's no downer on the GS or 944, they're both good cars which are probably well worth the asking price to the right person, I suspect however that that right person, while still out there, is a harder chap to find than he was before.  Maybe old cars are scaring off the general public who now expect the computerised safety of a relatively modern car.  It can't be that everyone is broke from the recession, that surely would produce the opposite effect given the price of these cars.

Suspect that vanity and 'lifestyle' has had a massive impact on the desirability of older chod. If it's not new or fashionable no one wants it.. If a new movie was released featuring a GS or a 944 etc the values would go up.

Such is the shallowness of today.

[ShiteRider]

Ditto, i need it gone and i need to mitigate my losses.

Sentimentality won't pay my bills.

[Junkman]

If there really was a recession, people at the receiving end would buy cheap cars in droves, and the winners of the crisis would invest in real assets, which classic cars without doubt constitute.

I suspect the problem is slightly different at this time and we are currently facing a kind of market saturation for affordable classics in general.

What I mean by that is that each classic car has a number X people interested in it. If everyone out of X bought one, than the remaining ones will be hard to sell, of course.

So maybe currently everybody who wants a GS or 944 or 900 already has one? Or two? Or three?

 

Apart from this, it has always been tough to sell project cars, when MoT-ed runners can still be had for reasonably little money. People rather spend a bag or two on a runner, than a few hundred quid on a fixer upper.

[Cavcraft]

It's not worth a 5,000 word essay on why things do/don't sell at any given time. It's market forces, time of year, money etc.

[overrun]

Missed out on a 2007 Clio DCi with knackered pump. £600.

[Negative Creep]

Suspect that vanity and 'lifestyle' has had a massive impact on the desirability of older chod. If it's not new or fashionable no one wants it.. If a new movie was released featuring a GS or a 944 etc the values would go up.

Such is the shallowness of today.

 

 

Unless you fancy another one (with less rust) for your previously offered cheeky amount?

[Cavcraft]

Missed out on a 2007 Clio DCi with knackered pump. £600.

 

http://autoshite.com/topic/3563-what-makes-you-grin-antidote-for-grumpy-old-men-please-add/

[inconsistant]

I suspect that in these difficult* times people want certainty more than cheap cars. Even if that certainty is more expensive, at least it's safe and predictable.

 

And once house prices start going back up we can all remortgage and take equity out and spend it on... Etc etc.

[overrun]

http://autoshite.com/topic/3563-what-makes-you-grin-antidote-for-grumpy-old-men-please-add/

Turning a grand profit after repairing it would have had me posting in the other thread.

[panhard65]

Turning a grand profit after repairing it would have had me posting in the other thread.

Pretty unlikely there would be a profit on a 1.5dci with fuel pump trouble. It is never just the pump, usually the tank will be full of crap and all 4 injectors will be shot. You will try about a dozen secondhand ones and still have no luck until you spend about 600 quid on new injectors that will hopefully last long enough to sell the car on. You will then spend the next couple of months wondering when the buyer will come back threatening to bring trading standards and complaining you sold him a pile of crap. Hence I won't sell anything modern without putting one of those hopeless cheap warranties on it. At least the punter feels protected against the certain massive bill he will incur by buying a Renault

[nigel bickle]

I think the market in old chod has collapsed. Supply now exceeds demand, as more of us revert to basic modern chod as everyday runners.

 

The net result is that the market has moved towards ''needing nothing'' stuff that can be used occasionally, and will be reliable despite.

 

It seems (to me) that more now veer away from anything that needs attention. Far fewer know how to wield spanners (or even own any) and the cost of finding a reliable mechanic/ welder/ painter renders (near all) uneconomic. In difficult times- that's a 'no no'.

 

I think we're a fast shrinking breed. I think that makes us very lucky when buying, but up 'poo creek' when selling. I doubt that's going to improve noticeably, in the near future.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

^^ Strongly agree with that, my tip when buying an old motor is dont buy it unless you could just about accept to lose the difference between the purchase price and weighing in price, when you come to sell it finding any buyer at all at any price is an unexpected bonus, specially if it s a project of some sort.

[Mr Livered]

438743 people are viewing this shite per hour

boxes popping up right in front of the picture, every time I try to look at a car on ebay. FUCK OFF out of my screen, all I want to do is look at the fucking car. Stupid pop-ups started with porn websites (so I'm told), they're everywhere now.

[dollywobbler]

Yup. That one bugs me. Can you turn it off?

[TimothyClaypole]

Yahoo Groups, another improvement to something that no one asked for... now I find that mails are hidden inside each other - I DON'T want to read a trail of messages just send then as separate messages because they are from different people, stupid idea.

 

Might explain why I had hardly any takers on some stuff I was trying to get rid of for free because (now deleted) replies from the 3 people who picked stuff up probably had a further 20 messages tucked away at the bottom of them.

 

[Negative Creep]

^^ Strongly agree with that, my tip when buying an old motor is dont buy it unless you could just about accept to lose the difference between the purchase price and weighing in price, when you come to sell it finding any buyer at all at any price is an unexpected bonus, specially if it s a project of some sort.

 

 

In the future I'm wondering if I should just start all auctions at 99p no reserve and take my chances?

[vulgalour]

Thought we'd done with the petty vandalism since the suspect neighbours moved out, things have certainly been quieter.  So imagine my annoyance when I found that the HL has had all the valve caps nicked and someone has been in the HLS and left the passenger window open.  I must have forgotten to lock the door on the HLS as there's no sign of a forced entry.  So the HLS is now soaked inside because of the massive downpour we had last night.  Thankfully nothing has been stolen beyond the valve caps so it's probably 'just kids' but it takes the piss that this happened while both cars were tucked away at the bottom of the drive well out of sight of the street.

[hairnet]

if its council dont ignore it anything else 2 points right there

[Angrydicky]

The shit internet connection in this house (made worse by several people being online at once, including one of my housemates 'Skyping' someone in Cyprus) is preventing me playing Call of Duty online. And just when I was getting good as well. Grr.

[phil_lihp]

In the future I'm wondering if I should just start all auctions at 99p no reserve and take my chances?

 

I tried that when breaking my old CG125, didn't work too well for me!  The seat was immaculate and only got the one 99p bid, the rear shocks also went for 99p, accidentally undercharged by more than that and therefore lost money sending them in the post and then got a snotty feedback claiming they were 'bent'.  It's luck of the draw, might work best for listings ending on late Friday/Saturday night I suppose.

[Cavcraft]

^^ Strongly agree with that, my tip when buying an old motor is dont buy it unless you could just about accept to lose the difference between the purchase price and weighing in price, when you come to sell it finding any buyer at all at any price is an unexpected bonus, specially if it s a project of some sort.

 

Indeed. Never gamble more than you can afford to lose.

[Negative Creep]

Got someone who wants the 944 but not without the V5. I can understand why he'd say that as I'd do the same - I know it's not dodgy but have no way of proving it. Is there anything I can do to get it quickly? (yes I know I could send the slip off but could take weeks to come back)

[Negative Creep]

If I ring the DVLA could they tell me if I'm listed as the registered keeper? I can't get a refund on the tax because I don't know if it's been updated yet

[Cavcraft]

They won't tell you who is the registered keeper, but they will tell you the last time the V5 was changed over. If you do speak to them though please tell them to FOAD from me, cheers.

[Station]

Bought a guitar amp off Gumtree!

Got it home.

It didn't work!

Pah!

[beko1987]

Trying to put the dc25 back together. What was wrong with dysons of old that meant every part is 5mm big and only fits together one way?

 

Fuck It, I'm going to bed

[mercrocker]

Fuck Dyson  - flogs us British enterprise and invention then ships the  whole shebang to shitland

[Alexg]

If I ring the DVLA could they tell me if I'm listed as the registered keeper? I can't get a refund on the tax because I don't know if it's been updated yet

 

Yes, if you ring and say you've applied weeks ago they will confirm you are/are not currently the registered keeper. I've sold cars without a V5, inviting the punter to your house and giving a neat full receipt for purchase and payment should relieve much of their fears.

[hairnet]

They won't tell you who is the registered keeper, but they will tell you the last time the V5 was changed over. If you do speak to them though please tell them to FOAD from me, cheers.

this

 

went in to ask for duplicate and they said no when asked why they said oh the po might cash the remaining tax in - it hadnt and its been a while since the car place have had from the po - so they wouldnt let me have a duplicate :/

 

the cheeky bint on the desk at the vro was snotty too - went in later cos thought we;d found a way round it but the chap that helped us after couldnt be more different - v helpful and explained it fully as she hadnt

 

bonus was while waiting for new disc ( ) there was a notice saying the place was closing - and not just that one ALL of them - thought it was only selected ones when did that change?

[Negative Creep]

this

 

went in to ask for duplicate and they said no when asked why they said oh the po might cash the remaining tax in - it hadnt and its been a while since the car place have had from the po - so they wouldnt let me have a duplicate :/

 

the cheeky bint on the desk at the vro was snotty too - went in later cos thought we;d found a way round it but the chap that helped us after couldnt be more different - v helpful and explained it fully as she hadnt

 

bonus was while waiting for new disc ( ) there was a notice saying the place was closing - and not just that one ALL of them - thought it was only selected ones when did that change?

 

 

They are all closing, but the Exeter one is still open for now

 

http://dvla-offices.co.uk/dvla-local-office-closures/

 

Quite why we don't have a system where you can simply go into a Post Office and change the ownership there and then is beyond me