Am I being realistic?

[Eeef]

Guys, my car is STILL for sale. It's been on Ebay about 5 times, Autotrader for two weeks (useless) and on pistonheads for about three months. Whilst I wasn't in any particular rush to sell it, it's starting to get a bit dull now. Do you think the price is realistic? I've dropped it a grand already.

http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/sales/106272.htm

Whilst I love the colour, I appreciate it's not everyones cup of tea and I think that's waht's slowing the sale down.

 

[Vertigo1]

I think the price is reasonable tbh but I think what's slowing it down is the colour and the mileage.

However daft it might seem, a lot of people will be put off a car that's done 40k in 18 months.

 

[AndyMac]

£16.5k is Audi dealership territory and there's quite a few at Pompey & Poole Audi for that money (not sline admittedly), but similar age and less mileage. There's an 05 TDi sport at Reading Audi for £14.5k with 44k on the clock, so this is what you're up against. Your spec is excellent but will only make it easier to sell at a realistic price rather than adding any significant value to the car. As you know, worst possible time to be selling.

 

[mark88]

Color, interior color and old style grille might be putting people off. But price seems ok to me.

 

[a3guy]

i paid 15k for a 44k miles black sline 54 plate , loaded with options 4 months ago.

i dont think people like red cars i certainly dont. id say 15.5k is about the price you should be hoping for

 

[a3guy]

just noticed you have different rear head rests to me

wanna swap lol

 

[JasonM]

I think its more to do with the time, of year, fast approaching xmas & hence spending that amount of cash is a difficult one.

Nothing wrong with your car, good spec, excellent colour choce & interior.

 

[Vertigo1]

£16.5k is Audi dealership territory and there's quite a few at Pompey & Poole Audi for that money (not sline admittedly), but similar age and less mileage.

So these aren't S-Lines nor do they have all the extras on his? Hardly a fair comparison then, is it?

just noticed you have different rear head rests to me

You probably have the original design of rear headrests that I have in mine.

The new ones were redesigned to sit lower to aid rear visibility. The original ones also had a design flaw whereby the centre one would cast a shadow over the light sensor on the bottom of the rear view mirror, if you have this, causing the dimming not to work a lot of the time when someone was behind you. My centre rear head rest is currently on top of the wardrobe for this very reason

 

[SteveTDCi]

I don't think the price is that bad, and it certainly makes a change to see anything other than Black or lava grey forsale. I've been looking at S Lines and high mileage ones seem to start at 14500 for ones with 50k ones around 30k+ seem to start around 17k. Out of everything on your car the one single thing that would put me off is the colour of the interior, the mileage wouldn't be a problem, in fact i'd rather a 1 year old car with 30k than a 3 year old one with 30 k

 

[dipstic]

Having just purchased an 06 20T fsi Quattro (misano red) I have been looking at various vehicles 04/05/06 3.2/2.0 TDI looked at yours on Pistonheads please dont take offence at this
a) Mileage 40.000 miles not worried about Audi warranty issues more wear/tear items brakes/clutch/tyres etc
b) Worried also about combination of TDI + dsg (performance wise)
c) Colour not an issue for me (just bought a red one)
d) Price . After looking at many dealers/private vehicles the private ones all seem to be too close to dealers prices' now some buyers might be cheeky enough to offer what you might think is a silly price but I would be too embaressed to make an offer that would be thought as silly.
I have looked at various A3,s there has to be more incentive for a private buyer to take a chance with a private sale.
I have also lost a lot of money when selling up to year old cars (Cooper s works total cost £28,000 sold to dealer for £16,500 after 10 months with 11,000 miles on clock not one sniff privately at £17,000)
Also people tend to not spend that sort of money for private buys unless its a dealer who will only give you a trade offer
So I would suggest Trade value (whatever that is) plus a little

 

[AndyMac]

"So these aren't S-Lines nor do they have all the extras on his? Hardly a fair comparison then, is it?"
Thought I stated they weren't s-lnes, oh yes, I did, read the post.
The extra's don't add anything to the value just make it more attractive so easier to sell at a realistic price.
Thought I said that in the post as well, oh yes, I did.
These are Audi dealer forecourt prices for £2k less than the car in question, so for a private sale you'd be looking at at least 10-15% cheaper than Audi forecourt, so that's 3.5-4k difference. Don't really think s-line is worth £4k on a £13k car.

 

[Wolfsburger]

(Cooper s works total cost £28,000 sold to dealer for £16,500 after 10 months with 11,000 miles on clock not one sniff privately at £17,000)

You paid 28,000 for a MINI?

Anyway, back on topic, I sold my 2.0TDI Sport Sportback in the summer and had a real drama shifting it for anything near book price, most dealers offered significantly less than the book price.

In the end I found an independent dealer who gave me book. There are just too many A3s around IMHO.

 

[Vertigo1]

"So these aren't S-Lines nor do they have all the extras on his? Hardly a fair comparison then, is it?"
Thought I stated they weren't s-lnes, oh yes, I did, read the post.
The extra's don't add anything to the value just make it more attractive so easier to sell at a realistic price.
Thought I said that in the post as well, oh yes, I did.
These are Audi dealer forecourt prices for £2k less than the car in question, so for a private sale you'd be looking at at least 10-15% cheaper than Audi forecourt, so that's 3.5-4k difference. Don't really think s-line is worth £4k on a £13k car.

Sorry I wasn't having a go - reading my comment back it did sound a tad beligerant

All I was saying was that it's often hard to extrapolate a price for one vehicle from another which is a different trim level and has different options.

 

[dipstic]

You paid 28,000 for a MINI

Well you have to understand like Audi/BMWcharge you for every option, basic cooper S £15,500 add things like
Aerokit,Hi/fi,auto aircon,sunroof,chilli pack,works engine/suspension/brake upgrades plus aftermarket wheels/bonnet stripes it soon adds up

 

[marriedblonde]

Crap and I thought spending close to £19.5K on my MCS without the works kit was a lot to spend...

 

[Amchlolor]

You paid 28,000 for a MINI

Well you have to understand like Audi/BMWcharge you for every option, basic cooper S £15,500 add things like
Aerokit,Hi/fi,auto aircon,sunroof,chilli pack,works engine/suspension/brake upgrades plus aftermarket wheels/bonnet stripes it soon adds up

Yeah,but £12500 of extras ????!!!!!

Good grief...

You can't hope to recoup that spend,can you ?

 

[dipstic]

Didnt recoup any of it,other half couldnt drive it so we sold it £28,000 new sold for £16500 ten months old with 11,000 miles on clock

Aero kit £1200 fitted
Works kit £3500 fitted (170bhp to 210bhp)
Brake kit £800 fitted
Suspension £850 fitted
Sunroof £600
Chilli pack £1600
Auto air con
Multifunction steering wheel
Hi/fi upgrade etc

She bought a new micra and I bought a ten month old Cooper S with Chilli pack and a few other minor options for £13500 privately both cars for less than the first one
Interestingly John Cooper garages who we sold it to didnt advertise it and sold it for £19500 two days later, no bites privately but someone paid £2500 more than they could have paid to buy it from us.Same car same TLC all upgrades gen BMW(full warranty),guess they had p/ex

 

[Wolfsburger]

I just didn`t know you could spec up a MINI to that price.

You could`ve bought a proper car for that!

 

[dipstic]

I just didn`t know you could spec up a MINI to that price.

You could`ve bought a proper car for that!

lol

Hope I have
06 2.0 TFSI Quattro S line misano red with 20 spoke alloys EXXXX DEMO

 

[Amchlolor]

I feel for you Eeef.
It doesn't matter how little they allegedly depreciate,when you can't get rid of it !
As someone stated above,they are more common than a-holes,which doesn't help.
Our local dealer has 23 3-door A3's for sale and there are another 8 private sales listed on autotrader within 20 miles of the city.
That's 31 late-model A3's in a city of only 250K people,so I would imagine the situation is even worse down your way.

 

[dmaudi]

it is sad to reflect (for our residual values) that most areas have a lot of A3s now and certainly Portmouth Audi is chock full of A3s,

not sure where they all came from but most of them are middle of the road spec and models, nothing as nice as EEEF's, but they do make higher spec private cars look pricey in comparison

I had an interesting discussion with Soton Audi last week,

who tried to tell me both that I paid a good price in April, and Audis perform better than most for residuals. Ok I thought,

yet they then bid me 6K less than I paid in PX (So that's 30% depreciation in 6 months!!!!)

oh and finshed by saying that either an A3 SB or A4 avant would still hold its value well!!!

I just left shaking my head...

not sure who falls for this shafting

(other than me when I bought my 3.2 ) but they keep trying,

I have had much better offers from BMW and Mitsubishi (including discount on other cars, none on the Audis)

The dealers really can't have it both ways yet they keep trying it seems, ultimately they only want to pay auction trade price as there are enough nice cars coming through ex-lease or from audi stocks to keep the PX low and the forecourts full.

Sorry if I missed why its going but If it's not too personal EEEF, why are you selling?, can you not try for a decent PX price? Difficult I know.
.

 

[Wolfsburger]

oh and finshed by saying that either an A3 SB or A4 avant would still hold its value well!!!

Now this is interesting.

I called Southampton Audi when I was selling my A3 SB (They had an advert in the back of Autocar which said they wanted low milage, high spec Audis) to be told by the used car buyer that 3 door A3`s were booking higher than Sportbacks. This was in August this year.

To be honest the price they quoted was one of the best from a franchised Audi dealer, but the independent still bettered it by £250.

 

[dmaudi]

Now this is interesting.

I called Southampton Audi when I was selling my A3 SB (They had an advert in the back of Autocar which said they wanted low milage, high spec Audis) to be told by the used car buyer that 3 door A3`s were booking higher than Sportbacks. This was in August this year.

To be honest the price they quoted was one of the best from a franchised Audi dealer, but the independent still bettered it by £250.

I bet whatever someone has to offer is just not quite right, wrong model, wrong colour, wrong spec etc etc..to make top money IMHO,
.

 

[steve184]

I recently sold my 04 TDI sport and i held out for about 6 weeks i think stickin to my guns with price and i ended up gettign £15650 for it in the end (dealer offered £13200 px) i looked on autotrader when mine was on and it stood out a mile from all the other 'standard' sport spec A3's - and was told this by potential buys on more than one occasion. Was happy with that but i still reckon the guy who bought it got a ****** good car for that money - it was like it was just out the showroom - i reckon my car on an audi forcourt would have been the thick end of £17k poss little bit less - so he saved a grand on buying from audi and it was still under warranty anyway. People used to phone offering silly cheap prices and i just said sorry, no, buyers market, not in rush to sell ill wait until someone offers me my askin price thanks.

 

[benw123]

Eeef, like others have suggested here I think the price is good. The only thing I would do differently is put more detail and pictures into the pistonheads and eBay listings. More pics of the interior, maybe even more of the exterior and really go to town on the description. Put a brief summary at the beginning, just for those just scanning it, and then chapter and verse for the rest.

What this does is shows that the sale is important to you and you care about the car. As a distant example of this (!), a work colleague wanted to sell his 1989 Renault 5 GT Turbo Raider on eBay and he gave me a CD of images from which I put together a very lengthy listing. We started the bidding at £750, hoping for £1000. It sold for £1500, and that's even before we counted all the emails and questions it generated.

Something to think about anyway!

 

[stratos]

Our local dealer has 23 3-door A3's for sale

think id better come look in Aberdeen then. My nearest dealer has none. Only 3 new ones on the forecourt, the next nearest has just one.
I do want a new one but if I decide to go second hand its obviously worth shopping around

 

[Amchlolor]

think id better come look in Aberdeen then. My nearest dealer has none. Only 3 new ones on the forecourt, the next nearest has just one.
I do want a new one but if I decide to go second hand its obviously worth shopping around

I don't think you'd want to pay Aberdeen prices.
It's notoriously expensive for cars (and bikes) up here.
Aberdeen has the most new cars per head of population in the UK !
I invariably travel down South to buy cars and bikes and save a mint in the process.
I can only think of one occasion (my wife's new Clio) where the Aberdeen dealer came close enough to 'down south' prices to do the deal here.

Audi Dundee always beat Audi Aberdeen for prices,for example,and it's only 70 miles South.

Basically,Aberdeen has a lot of very oil-rich people who don't care about doing a deal,or simply cannot be bothered travelling to save money.

I'm not one of them,unfortunately.
Mind you,even if I was,I would still seek out deals rather than make it easy for the local dealer.

 

[Booster]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but taking into account your mileage Glass's Guide has your car (assuming its a 2005 05 plate) at £13,625 trade and £15,625 retail so for a private sale you are going to be looking at around £14,700.

 

[beerglass]

the seats would put me off
Just the light seats would mark.
Love the colour

Good Luck