If you are thinking of selling, now's the time!

[gez]

I thought it might be useful to share the selling experience of my R231 2017 SL400.

I had not been considering selling it until a few weeks ago when my Son-in-law spec'd a new Jag F-pace and got a rather low trade in price for his BMW M4. He checked prices on line and told me how amazed he was that prices of good used cars are so high and seem to be rising. He eventually and easily got £4k more than the trade-in offer from a dealer local to him who collected 1hr from their call with instant cash transfer and only a cursory look over his car.

That got me thinking about selling my SL - its the end of the summer, a great car but has never given me that smile that my old R129 SL500 always did. Prices are currently high due to supply chain problems with new cars and low stocks of good used, so why not sell high, bide my time and hopefully buy low(ish).

I bought the car as an approved used in Sept 2018 with 10k miles for £42,770 from Merc Croydon. They serviced it before delivery, would not lower the screen price as it was keenly priced anyway, but gave me a gratis free next service, which fortunately for me was the B service in 2019. I SORN'd it for 6 months in lockdown so did not service it in 2020, just reset the indicator, and it's due again now at 16.7k miles, so an expense I now don't have. So apart from fuel, tax and insurance I have not laid out any cash on the car at all in the 3 years of ownership.

I first used Carwow to get an idea of the value, which suggests listing it on their Wizzle site at no cost. I soon had contact from a dealer in Kent offering £40,800 and I nearly took it.

Putting the info on Marshall's Merc of Southampton's site got me an initial call and the promise of a call back the following day to discuss in more detail, but (typically) the call was never received!

I was in the process of listing it with Motorway.co.uk who run trade only on-line auctions but have very strict photo requirements which was a pain as they kept rejecting mine and demanding retakes. They suggested a reserve of £42,768 but with no guarantee and no commitment needed from me to accept any offers I might receive.

I have always been sceptical of Webuyanycar but had nothing to lose and was pleasantly surprised that after an inspection they were prepared to fully honour their £41,800 on-line offer, so I'm now a grand up from the dealer offer and less than a grand from my original purchase price, but still with the possibility of a higher offer via Motorway.

I'd had a mail from wewantanycar.co.uk and again thought, nothing to lose. They come to you and carry out an inspection, which they did today. Very professional and a really nice guy who knew Mercs old and new so we spent time talking about our past Mercs and what I might replace the SL with. They use an ipad to enter details, take many photo's etc., took a very short test drive and then discussed with his office based team. He initially offered £42k which with some pleasant and friendly negotiation we dealt at £42,300 with the £78 admin fee waived.

Maybe I might have got a better offer from Motorway or if I had listed it privately on Autotrader, but the cash was in my account within 30 minutes. The car is still on my drive and they will collect within 7 days (they have the keys) and so 3 years of fun with the SL has cost me £470! Hopefully I don't sound like I'm bragging, it's more to bring the high market to the forum's attention.

Sorry for the long post, but if you get to the end and decide that now is the time to sell I'd suggest you do while the market is so high, assuming you do not need to buy at the same time. If so, I'd be interested to hear how others might have got the best price.

Now all I have to do is decide what to do with the cash, I'm in no hurry, happy to wait until next year when supply of new cars is likely back up to speed which should then see used prices declining rapidly. Maybe an E class W213 petrol cabriolet with the larger of the engines. (I want an open top grand tourer not a sports car). Maybe a GLC to replace my W211 estate plus a "classic" cabriolet, but my 18 year old E320 estate just will not die! Suggestions welcome!

 

[Wearsafoxhat]

Took our V220 back to MB for a check after a service two weeks ago. Got chatting to a guy with a V220 Marco Polo, he had just turned down an offer for his from MB;
9k above what he paid two years ago, such is demand for “staycations” and pre owned vehicles.

Recently sold our B class and still get texts from wbac, increasing each time by a few hundred pounds.. a good time to sell a good car.


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[daveenty]

Agree about the good prices for used cars, I sold a Lexus recently to Motorway and got considerably more than I was expecting. I've also been offered more for the Golf than I paid for it 3 months ago though I've decided I'm keeping it for a while now as it's barely costing anything.

The problem with these good figures though is that if you want to replace the car you're selling, it's going to cost considerably more now as the second hand market has gone through the roof. What was £10 - 12k last year has now increased by around 40%. So much so that the preferred way to get a car at the moment seems to be to buy a new one.

I've not put the Mercedes into a "we buy" type website as yet, I probably won't to be honest as I don't want to sell but may be tempted if I get a daft offer.

 

[malcolm E53 AMG]

Yes it’s obvious the dealers are struggling for stock. I’ve been looking at E43 estates and even 17 plate 60k mile examples are priced £32-35k when they should be £25-27k. A member on here bought a 12 plate S212 350cdi from a MB dealer the other day which is unheard of nowadays, good for him though and a reasonable price paid with rock solid guarantee

 

[Mr Greedy]

The premiums in the market are for people well off enough to be fortunate to be able to drop £40k on a car. Or decent money anyway.

If you want to exit at a good time and 'get back in' when things are cheaper, there are cars now barely affected by the price increases, but these are out of vogue 2nd hand cars 15+ years old. E.g. 56 plate Audi A4 diesel estate, 80k miles two owners FASH for under £2k, but a lot of people are too cool for an older car like that and it is below them (besides, what would the neighbours think!).
(answer, you shouldn't give a hoot but people do)

I mention that example because a couple of months ago despite my brother's dire business situation due to covid, he had the option (need) to exit his £650/month Merc GLE lease/finance deal with £6k in his hand (last year they wanted £15k from him to exit). I found him that Audi, and the look of disgust on his face that I was showing him an older car without all the modern toys. So, with the cash in his hand, he ploughed it all back into a newer lease on a GLC.


Sorry, just a long rambling way of saying look at older cars where good value can still be found.

 

[s5tuart]

Cripes! My initial valuation from WBAC.
I could get more from others I know.
Im contemplating getting into an older S or E class or something a bit bit more exotic (CL, SL)

 

[s5tuart]

Nah! Everything else I want is priced too high too!

 

[bladecrazy]

sold my e350 on motorway and got 1100 pounds more than wbac, collected and payed by transfer.

 

[00slk]

We got just over £400 more than we paid for it 2 years ago for our SLK through Motorway

 

[Timeandleisure]

Just found a note on my car asking if I wanted to sell it
now just worried it’s going to disappear.... he left a number, so hopefully it won’t

 

[welease woger]

2017 e220d cabriolet purchased in February for £24K from MB Portsmouth now had a firm offer from another MB main dealer for £27K but I'm not selling.
Roy

 

[s5tuart]

2017 e220d cabriolet purchased in February for £24K from MB Portsmouth now had a firm offer from another MB main dealer for £27K but I'm not selling.
Roy

The trouble is that if you want to capitalise on the high prices then you also have to be willing to sacrifice moving down to a much less desirable make/model until things catch up again. I've been ruminating on the idea but I don't want to do without the toys I have on my fully loaded car that I searched high and low for last year!
If it was purely a monetary decision then I'd find it easy to get back in a W210 estate but the likelihood of finding another car like mine next year or the year after is very slim.
I think I'll stick with what I have.

 

[Ron240]

The trouble is that if you want to capitalise on the high prices then you also have to be willing to sacrifice moving down to a much less desirable make/model until things catch up again.

I have been thinking about it myself and this would be the only downside for me. I would be looking to buy another new car but there is no end in sight to the shortage and delays so there is no way of knowing how long I would be driving around in a "banger"
WBAC valuation for my car just keeps on going up every time I check it and has risen £4k in the past 3 months. It is now almost £700 more than I paid for my car brand new in June 2020. At this stage I should be looking at a depreciation of around £6k - £8k so it really is bonkers!

 

[Nicklas_Hidegard]

The trouble is that if you want to capitalise on the high prices then you also have to be willing to sacrifice moving down to a much less desirable make/model until things catch up again. I've been ruminating on the idea but I don't want to do without the toys I have on my fully loaded car that I searched high and low for last year!
If it was purely a monetary decision then I'd find it easy to get back in a W210 estate but the likelihood of finding another car like mine next year or the year after is very slim.
I think I'll stick with what I have.

My personal feeling is that these high prices will last a while. The main issue is the lack of new cars so when they become more available you'll have a good years worth of nearly new cars 'missing' (as the 2021/22 models are very few and far in between).

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[welease woger]

And the increasing prices of late used cars will continue for some time.

Lookers reports record half-year profits amid used car market boom

Lookers' boss has said he expects the "exceptional" used car market boom to last into next year amid an ongoing chip shortage.

www.standard.co.uk

 

[janusrolex99]

Vehicle - Mercedes E350 Cabriolet for sale 2016 9g tronic AMG Premium Line

AMG Premium Line I purchased the car in April this year as an approved used car from MB. I have had the super paintwork additive put on by MB. Also the Car care plan to cover any bumps or scratches that occur on the bodywork or kerbing and abrasions of the alloys, lasting 3 years from April. On...

forums.mercedesclub.org.uk

 

[MBDevotee]

I'm guessing (based on a lot of info) prices will "soften" around March, and properly start to drop June onwards, but will be 2 years before its all back to normal.....

Thats a guess, but based on a VERY expensive CAP valuation service that plots 1 year ahead.....

 

[gez]

That's very interesting and might be beneficial for my plan to replace my sold SL around March next year, though of course I would prefer the forecast to be that prices will "plummet" rather than just soften .
Interestingly I do not perceive that new car prices have risen along with used cars, though I'm no expert and have no links into the new car market, so would benefit from any insight others have, but I am presently investigating whether to reinvest the proceeds of my sale into a new car, as the long lead time is of no concern to me as my trusty W211 just keeps on rolling.
As a further aside to that I was also surprised to see the difference between a new C300 cabriolet and an E300 cabriolet with builds as similar as possible (Prem+, Night Ed, Driver Assistance etc.) is less than £1,500, which makes the added quality and residual value of the E-class a no brainer.

 

[Ron240]

As far as I am aware new list prices have not risen more than what be expected of yearly increases.
Sky high used values only seem to be for recent model desirable vehicles because there is potentially a long wait for factory orders.
If you can find an in stock model that you would have considered buying anyway then now is a good time to change.
My car is 15 months old and the current used value means I would have had free motoring if I sold now. At this stage I should be looking at depreciation of £6 - 8k.
Unfortunately nobody has the model I would trade up to in stock so it would mean buying a cheap runabout in the meantime, and I'm not sure I would be prepared to do that.
If used prices rise even further like they are predicted to then I just might.

 

[MBDevotee]

As far as I am aware new list prices have not risen more than what be expected of yearly increases.
Sky high used values only seem to be for recent model desirable vehicles because there is potentially a long wait for factory orders.
If you can find an in stock model that you would have considered buying anyway then now is a good time to change.
My car is 15 months old and the current used value means I would have had free motoring if I sold now. At this stage I should be looking at depreciation of £6 - 8k.
Unfortunately nobody has the model I would trade up to in stock so it would mean buying a cheap runabout in the meantime, and I'm not sure I would be prepared to do that.
If used prices rise even further like they are predicted to then I just might.

Don't be too sure.

We tried to do a deal in April for a customer - they had £1000 negative equity, and the deal didn't work.

We re-ran the figures today and they now have £4,000 equity (partly the used car has gone up and they have made 5 more payments) - we're honoring the PX price in December (cars wont have dropped by then) and their payments are £30 a month less than now......

If the dealer knows what they are doing, they will honour the value of yours now, and it could be a very cheap swap