What prep for selling?

[DevonPaul]

So after me badgering her all summer to sell her MC, my dearly beloved mentioned earlier as we prised our hire car up the steep basement slope onto the narrow cobbled streets of Jerez that we should sell the MC next year for something slightly more suited to long distance touring (basically a bigger boot and softer ride) and drive down here through France once she retires after Xmas.

The car has a few minor things that 'we' have been meaning to get around to, however due to aged parent followed by a 14 week building project started before Xmas and nearly finished now, the car has barely been used this year (again) and I haven't even got around to doing the oil as I missed the bargain when it was on Amazon. I did at least replace the front discs and pads (or rather paid someone else to do it).

So the car has just under 50k on it which is fairly low mileage, but it isn't really a concourse example. There are stone chips reaching the level that touching them up is probably not economic, the passenger headlight washer leaks and empties the reservoir overnight (I just plugged the pipe from the reservoir and disconnected the motor as a temporary measure a year or so ago intending to remove the bumper for a spray over and replace the washer). The tyres will be 5 years old and the wheels could all do with a refurb. And I was going to SORN it next week.

As I have several other projects on the go (including 4 other vehicles to look after) and a pile of sorting and decorating to come over winter, my personal preference would be to get shut now and have the extra garage space, but Ann seems to think spending time and money on the car and selling in April is the way forwards.

Any opinions?

 

[Pondrew]

Do what the wife says and sort it out and wait till Spring.
The car market is shocking at present, so a slightly 'tatty' MC (even with really low miles) could be a hard sell.

OR I will give you £5k tomorrow! oke:

 

[mmm-five]

Do what the wife says and sort it out and wait till Spring.
The car market is shocking at present, so a slightly 'tatty' MC (even with really low miles) could be a hard sell.

OR I will give you £5k tomorrow! oke:

Why not just swap your 320i for the MC?

 

[Ed Doe]

The fact you've been struggling to convince your wife to sell it (until recently at least) makes her very cool in my book

As above, unless you really NEED rid of it, I'd not be in a rush to try to get it advertised at the moment - it'll likely sit around a while as the market is flat as a pancake for these sorts of cars.

I would get a quote for sorting out the stonechips/paint at least.
Washer jet should be an easy fix.
I'd get the servicing sorted out and then hang on for spring at the very least

 

[mmm-five]

No harm putting a quick advert up to see if there's any interest. Can still SORN it and let people view, just won't be able to drive it (legally).

A bit of bodywork TLC is no barrier to entry for me, as I tend to drive the damn thing and not sit there staring it at from afar. But you'd have to weigh up how much the TLC would cost you vs the haircut you'd have to take on the asking price for someone else to take on that task.

 

[Mr Tidy]

I think SORN until next spring might be a good plan.

Somehow I think getting the paint done could cost more than what you'd lose selling as it is, but you need to get an indication from a bodyshop really.

Lastly you could always send me a PM with a few more details as Imola Red would have been my ideal colour choice - and mine has done 93K miles. :lol:

 

[DevonPaul]

The fact you've been struggling to convince your wife to sell it (until recently at least) makes her very cool in my book

Thanks - I didn't even tell her I was selling the Maser and arranged to it to be collected the day she was visiting her sister. Usually "asking for forgiveness" is a term applied to buying a car, not selling one

General consensus seems to be to sort the niggles and service so I'll get the bumper off and sort the washer. I was going to refurb the wheels and replace the tyres when I did the front discs but in the end getting someone around to sort them was the simple option.

For perspective, the re-roofing that is in month 10 of a 16 week job is still taking a lot of energy although nearly done now. In Spring the house looked like this..

 

[plenty]

If you do get paintwork done, be sure to take pictures of 'before' in case prospective buyers suspect you're hiding accident damage.