Private Sales versus Dealers

I'm not sure if I am posting this in the correct place, so forgive me if this should be in the "vans wanted" section.  My question is this, we have been keeping an eye out for a Nuevo and as such we trawl the internet on sites such as Autotrader etc.  When looking at these sites it soon becomes apparent that the vast majority of vans for sale from say 2000 onwards are via dealers as opposed to private sales.  Now if a dealer is trying to sell a van for £28K you can bet your life that he probably only offered the seller in the region of £24K.  I have no problem with this as the guy has to make a living and he has overheads.  What I find odd is why are more sellers not trying to do a private sale for, say, $26K and thus getting themselves a better deal?  Is there something I'm missing here............... 


Tinca

Maybe they dont want any comebacks/hassle? we bought our van privately and have been very happy with it. We also sold our 24yr old vw that we had for over 10yrs never let us down privately and even reduced the price by £500 to find 2 yrs down the line the fella slagging us off because he had cooked the engine? and selling it for a grand more.

Hi there,

I agree on the Dealers trying to make money; especially when they are part-exchanging or buying something in.

After owning "Petal" for a year we were looking for a wind-break and called in at a major dealership near Newark.

Out of curiosity I asked what kind of money I could get for "Petal" and the immediate response was a sucking in of breath over the teeth and the statement "When Duetto's get over ten years old and start to rust, and they all do, they are just about worthless."

The guy was laying the groundwork for making a pathetic offer in part-exchange so I smiled nicely and walked away.

My thoughts definitely aren't printable on this Forum but, suffice to say, we didn't even buy the windbreak from them.     

May I suggest that you keep an eye on the "For Sale" section of this Forum?       

Best regards,
 

Yes it is a big mark up. I found there are some for sale ,but nearly always many many miles away.
And you do need to see before buying believe me.!

regards

Mike

I bought my first MH privately as the ones I had looked at,  it was like new, I had no problems with it what so ever, I sold it to a guy who had seen it on my drive last summer at that time I didn`t want to sell it, a few months later I decided to get a larger one, contacted the guy and he bought no quibble I got £1250, more than I gave for it, I had the same difficulty finding the next one there wasn`t many models about that I wanted, looked at a couple of private ones, not happy, I was on a lot of the dealers lists for this particular model, I was contacted by a dealer that they were going to have one in, I saw it before it went up for  sale and I bought it, very happy with it, a few things that needed doing were done with no hassle, I have a twelve months warranty, and told to take it back before the warranty ends, they would contact me,  and if anything  needs doing they would get it done under the warranty, in that case buying from a dealer was the best thing  for me, if I was going to change again I would go back to that dealer.

HI Daisy, That's maybe the best way . Sell private and buy from a good dealer.
If you have the time and patience  sell private and buy private.
I know some do not like selling private for many reasons, like time wasters etc
Others do not like buying private for the risks of a stolen and/or hidden problems that a dealer would have sorted and covered by warranty.
Yours was a success story  well done.

regards

mike

Agree with above; if you are mechanically adept, know MH's well and have a good damp meter then private works. If you would fall foul of having to pay high labour rates and overpriced parts then go via a dealer  

Jaytee,

I agree with your comments, but I still find it odd that there seems to be so few people even trying to sell their vans privately.  Trade sales seem to me to outnumber private sales by at least 10:1 if you look at vans 12 years old or less.  I understand it to some extent with private cars as you have no idea who will turn up and there are some iffy ones about.  But at least with motor homers you are dealing with folk that have something in common, and lets face it most of us are past our first flush of youth.  I would much rather purchase form a person that I have had a chance to get to know a bit rather than a dealer, who no matter how honest, has an agenda that is based around moving metal

Tinca

If you are selling privately you are looking for a cash sale.  I expect that it might be 10 to 1 need finance for  buying.
Who knows for sure.   The majority of the private ones i saw were rusty etc and not described as such.
regards

mike

I think there are several reasons why people part-ex to a dealer rather than sell privately. If you have a van less than 12 years old (as you are aiming for) the chance is that you are changing to a much newer or even brand new van. If brand new then you are probably going to be waiting several months for delivery. Suddenly you get the call from the dealer that your new van has arrived. What chance have you got to sell yours quickly.
I've sold cars privately before, never a motorhome but most so called private purchasers have been dealers who pick and pull your car to pieces, even to insulting you so I don't waste my time with them any more and part-ex.
We quite recently (October) swopped our 97 Symphony for an 06 Nuevo. We could have tried to sell privately, been without a motorhome while we searched for the replacement and as you have found out, there are not many Nuevos out there. We found the model we wanted at Malvern Show with a dealer who is 120 miles away (not ideal but no-one near had what we wanted. We had paid £15k five years ago for the Symphony from a dealer, so after 5 years I thought we would be lucky to get £9k privately. We had been quoted a part-ex price of £8k a year earlier at one of the shows. We got two offers of £8k at Malvern and one of £8500. Privately Nuevos of 06 were on sale for around £23k.
The dealer who offered us £8500 had the model we wanted, the ES, at £24950 and was prepared to wait 6 weeks for inheritance to come through so we did the deal, still able to use the Symphony in the meantime. Money came through, drove down to dealers and did the swop, no hassle.
I know this dealer then traded out the Symphony for £7500 and the next trader had it advertised at £13995 within a day and sold it within a week (don't know what price he got). He may have made a killing but could we have guaranteed selling the Symphony within the six weeks waiting period, no I doubt it. With a no-quibble warranty (not one of those insurance backed ones with hundreds of exclusions) part-exing was right for us.

I was offered £3000, less from a dealer in part exchange, as it happens I could have sold my previous MH 6 times over, just to folk in the village walking by then knocking on the door, , I  did ask them if they knew the prices that these MH were fetching, they said yes no problem , I let it go to the guy that had come round months earlier as he wanted first refusal, he snapped it up. I realise I was very lucky and didn`t need to advertise it and they were all genuine buyers, some have been back to ask if I was selling the one I have now, no way. There is a market for  MH in excellent condition , as mine was , mine was / is a VW that is in high demand as I found out when I was looking, took me months to find the two I did buy. I had / have them both on agreed value with ins.

Re Auto Trader, Camping Club MH sales, I found that most of the adverts on there the vans were sold ages ago, two I rang up about and they were sold three years previously, so I gave up looking at those adds, if you are looking for a particular model, get your name on dealers mailing lists, I went round the country and was on most of them, in the end I did have to travel  400 round trip, not ideal, but they were the only ones that had the one I wanted and in the condition that I wanted with a 12 month warrantly.

Thank you for all your comments which are all relevant as we all have different requirements when looking for our ideal van.  One thing I would add is a comment on the"get your details logged with the dealers" strategy.  After visiting the Shepton Mallet show we decided that the Nuevo was the one for us and made sure that at least 4 dealers locally had our contact number and the spec of the van we wanted.  Since then we have visited their web sites and seen Nuevo's come and go; has any one of these dealers bothered to call us and let us know they had a van we might be interested in?........no, not one

Tinca

I had my name down with the dealers down your way and they didn`t notify me either, so wouldn`t have bothered with them, I found as others have that if you want a certain model you have to  be prepared to travel, very rarely do you find one on your doorstep, it is inconvenient if you have to go back for warranty work, but what is the alternative.?

In my case there were a few others on the dealers list that wanted the same model that I did, so they were first in line , the one I did buy I was at the top of the list, had been on the list for a while. previously to that I have been hundreds of miles up and down the country.

My advice for whats  it`s worth, contact recommended dealers, even if they are a long way from you, I went to Spinney , couldn`t fault  them. Ask  if  they likely to have the model that you want,  in in the near future, it is far easier for the dealers if they know they have a ready customer, and not have to advertise it.

Good Luck with your search.

Yes I did cancel when I bought, only fair to all concerned.

As others have found out there are dealers and dealers.  Spinneys has come up before as a recommend.
Some are very busy in the season and are busy with those who call. Maybe don't get round to chasing lists.
Not a dealer myself ,but maybe buyers contact lots of dealers and do not cancel when they have bought.
Could have a dealers view if they read this.

regards

mike

We bought our MH just a few weeks ago form a local dealer. 

Like many I would have preferred to save a few grand by buying private but the ones we looked at in the private sector were actually more expensive than those at dealers.

So many private sellers have unrealistic expectations of the value of their vehicles. I suppose they have paid a lot in the first place and expect a lot back despite time will have depreciated the vans. There is also the sentiment attachment to these vehicles which a dealer does not have.

Add to this when buying private all I heard when asking about the habitation service history was " You don't need that and why should I pay £150+ for something I can do myself ?" Fair enough in some respects but as a novice buyer it was a little disconcerting !
Lets face it these vehicles are expensive. Even for the mechanically minded and handy DIY types of which I am one having a comprehensive warranty is surely well worth while !

You pays yer money and takes yer chance but ending up buying a pup from a private individual is not a prospect to be taken lightly !

Hi,
I agree with the comment about dealers and dealers, I certainly would not go back to the clowns I bought from, after considerable delay "preparing" the van I collected it to be told they couldn't fit the gas contents guage I wanted and they had pinched the gas bottle I had supplied plus all the pegs etc. Left by the previous owner. I found later the nearside headlight not connected? And safety peugeot recall not done.
I have had a number of people call after seeing my van in the drive but obviously were unaware of the value. Last, if you buy privately at at least £2,000 to£3,000 less than a dealer you have a decent pot to call on in case of problems,
Chris

I think it depends on the age of van your looking at, we looked at dealers and did see one of the same age but worse condition than the one we got privately. Price difference £6000 on a 20 year old van and in a lot more worn condition. If buying newer then the reason fewer are available privately might be the part exchange schemes. That and many get vans on credit then miss payments and get them taken away and dealers always get first options on those from the credit firms. 
If you have cash and are lucky private vans are often a better result, but you do have to be careful what you buy and that the seller actually has the right to sell it and its not on credit. If buying a newer van private a check might be prudent before you pass over the money, as for any problems with the van, that a guarantee might cover you have to accept you will have to foot that bill, but it is often less than the mark up a dealer charges.

A friend of ours who was recently widowed and no longer wanted her Trident paid Todd's ( a dealer in Preston )  a fee to sell it for her (after the sale).

She got more than the price offered by Todd's and other local dealers and her money and van were secure. This seems a good way of getting a good price without hassle. I don't know if other dealers do this

oldfred wrote:A friend of ours who was recently widowed and no longer wanted her Trident paid Todd's ( a dealer in Preston )  a fee to sell it for her (after the sale).

She got more than the price offered by Todd's and other local dealers and her money and van were secure. This seems a good way of getting a good price without hassle. I don't know if other dealers do this

A dealer will always return more on  a brokerage sale as they don't have to spend any money buying the van. All they have to do is put in on the forecourt and sell it. They will of course deduct preparation costs but in general you will get more from a brokerage sale but you have to wait till the vehicle is sold before you get the coin.
Sell for cash to a dealer and the cash goes down .