Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[badhuis]

The other topic is about buying cars as a bargain, this one is about selling cars with a profit maybe above expected or you were lucky to have sold it at all.

In that last department is the Mini 1100 Special my wife had in the late eighties. It had a rotten rear subframe, so I replaced that with a slightly better one but ever since the replacement the car tilted slightly to the left at the rear. I got so fed up with the car, never liked working on Minis, so we decided to try to sell it. In its favour was that it was a good spec (1100 cc engine, black cloth seats) and good colour (black with black vinyl roof) and it did not show too much rust. One of the parking places near our house was on a slight slope, so I waited a few days when that spot came available and parked the Mini so the tilt was not visible. It stayed there for two weeks at least while we advertised the car. Yes very naughty I know but this was a car with an asking price of less than 1000 UKP.
Our luck we had was that the first man looking for at the car was in his forties (so he should know or have some experience), this fact made us feel less guilty... He like the looks of the car, sat in its immaculate interior, did ran the engine, and the best part: did not want to take a test drive! He bought it on the spot and drove away happily.
A year later I checked our local DVLA and saw that the car was not longer known in the system...

As to cars sold with profit, this is about our Subaru Outback.
We bought this car, rare in the Netherlands in its most expensive, fully loaded three litre six-cylinder version, from its first owner who was in its late eighties. Full service history but did have some scratches at the sides where it scraped at the bushes at the owners home. I think I was lucky to buy this for a low price.
But after two years using it, I found it was not really the car I thought it would be. Too smooth perhaps, plus sometimes the automatic gearbox behaved strange. I was not in for expensive repairs so decided to sell it. Asked a high price, in fact more than twice my buying price, hoping that this would give some margin to haggle.
Again, the first person to see was very enthusiastic as it was exactly the same colour combination his father used to have. He did not care much for the scratches and paid a little under the asking price which meant I got twice my buying price. I never thought that would happen.

Surely there must be more stories out there?
_________________
a car stops being fun when it becomes an investment

[Rusty]

I used to drive a VC Holden Commodore SLE V8 (full sized Ausy sedan based on an Opel senator ) for about 10 years. It was "very" high mileage and mechanically quite worn and as it traveled a good percentage of its miles on unsealed roads it was not in real good order, I had replaced it after I hit a Kangaroo and did some panel damage and it was de licenced and put into storage down at the sheds on the family farm where I used to live. I moved down here to the coast and my nephew took up residence in my house and one weekend he sold one of his own station wagons and a pair of young blokes from the city went up to pay for it and take it back down to the city. While they were there they spotted my old Commodore down at the sheds and asked my nephew if he was interested in selling it, he said it was his uncles and would ask if I wanted to keep it so he rang me straight up and told me these chaps had offered $3500 Ausy dollars for it !!!!

The long and short of it is I agreed promptly and told him to sell it which he did. I considered it scrap value and if they had offered $500 for it I would have been quite happy to have parted with it.

[Bitumen Boy]

A few summers ago I had to sell the last of our Triumph Acclaims due to dad's dementia and mobility problems. It had always been a bit of a "Monday morning car", the only unreliable Acclaim we ever had with a cold starting problem that nobody could get to the bottom of. We had previously discussed replacing it, and once I had a replacement modern sorted that had proved itself reliable and the tax on the Acclaim was running out, it was time for it to go. A couple of years previously I'd had to let a smart, low mileage, manual example go for £500 after a long time on the market so I wasn't expecting any success with this scruffy auto and thought I'd probably end up scrapping it. I advertised it for £200 to see if there was any interest - though I would have taken scrap value - and the phone rang and rang. Quickly sold it to a young enthusiast from down Swansea way for the asking price, then a few days later flogged a load of parts and panels for another £80 to a couple who came all the way from Birmingham. Maybe I should have asked more, but I was glad to sell the car to an enthusiast and have my shed cleared out without having to hump a load of stuff to the tip. No profit in it, but an unexpectedly good result all the same.

[lowdrag]

More modern than most cars in this forum, but when I saw the SLK shown at the NEC I went straight to my local dealer and paid a deposit. When it arrived a year or so later, different to the original prototype, I kept it for a month. I hated the damned thing because of the constant supercharger whine which sounded like a sewing machine and the fact that it certainly was no sports car. Also wherever I went I was constantly asked to put the newfangled folding roof up and down. But it seemed to be "the in thing" with a three year waiting list and so was sold with no regrets and a substantial profit. I miss it not.

On classics, I suppose we all could hold our hands up to a profit if we sold in today's market though.

[Ashley]

Back in the seventies I satisfied a life long ambition by buying an S1 Continental Fastback for £2260. It had belonged to Vidal Sassoon and been serviced by Hythe Road, so should have been good, but I still had to change oils and re-line the brakes before I put fourteen gallons in it and drove to Birmingham. By the time I got home the tank was empty, so 10mpg!

I was so disgusted with the fuel consumption because it wasn't very fast and it was horrible to drive so I contacted Lundegaard in Gloucester and offered him the car for £3450 and he paid it!

Once in a lifetime opportunity but they fetch a few hundred thousand now.