[Closed] Selling a performance car - test drives etc.

We all want to know what it is.

Plus pictures.

State in the advert that there are no test drives without insurance, only as passenger with you driving, or take it somewhere they can have a short drive but not thrash it, while you're passenger.

^ agree, depends what it is. I've sold a couple of 993's and an RS4 and been very strict on what is, and is not, acceptable. If you are buying a car like that you will get it. YOu can spot a testpilot miles away.
EDIT: Although i do sometimes, if i have time, go and test pilot nice cars esp. if i'm away from home on work and near car dealers !

My brother recently sold his Evo 8 (which was tuned to within an inch of it life)

He did this ^ stated no test drive without insurance. He didn't have any issues.

Core +1

They have to provide evidence of comprehensive insurance if they want to drive it. I did that selling a diesel Golf! If folk are serious they'll cough up £30 or whatever for a days insurance. Or they can be a passenger.

But yeah... what is it?

OK. No test drives it is then.

As for the car it's not really that exciting. Just an Evo V so an 18 year old Japanese saloon really - just a fairly quick one.

Iz dis yo wheels bruv...?

[img] [/img]

It's a tricky one, if I was buying a car like that I'd want to check the engine pulled cleanly all the way through the rev range, which puts you in a bit of an awkward situation. "No test pilots, tyre kickers" etc. type clauses on adverts put me off - if I'm going to spend good money on a car, I want to give it a good look over and that means walking away if there's something I'm not sure about.

It's not unreasonable to request that they provide proof of insurance if they want to get behind the wheel though. And there's no real need to be pushing the limits of the handling on a test drive for a second hand car.

I would add that depending on value and type of car I would as a buyer want to drive the car, but only from a perspective of checking that the thing behaves itself and operates as it should in 'normal driving' conditions, i.e. gear change and clutch aren't horrendous, brakes are something like, suspension isn't completely knackered etc, but I'd certainly not expect to thrash it around to check performance.

I once went 5 hours to look at a rally car, it was sorted mechanically, but an utter dog cosmetically and not quite the full ticket generally, the seller took me for a test drive, over a moor somewhere near Sheffield I think, nearly shat my pants. Handbrake turns out onto a main road at 40mph aren't for everyone.

The last quick car I had I literally gave it away to we buy any car. I couldn't be bother with the hassle of it all.
Obviously you can't do that with a tuned track car but I think you just need to be clear when people call / email.

Having said that, it goes the other way. I like the owner to take me out as it feel me a lot about how they look after their car.
I remember years ago I went to buy a Honda DC2. The guy selling it took me out and was bouncing it of the 8800k limiter from cold - no thanks, I'll look for another.

I used to do a lot of drag racing with a street legal Mustang, I ended up selling it for a discount to trade as it was so modified, I wasn't convinced it was safe to sell to someone without experience of a hipo RWD car. Just get rid of the damn thing! Motorsport is a £ sponge and you really didnt expect much of a return?

It's a tricky one, if I was buying a car like that I'd want to check the engine pulled cleanly all the way through the rev range

It's a track/race car. If it pulls at all below about 70% of the redline you need bigger cam's (or in the evo's case, turbo's). 🙂

I remember many years ago (12) I bought a Boxster S only to find out the next morning that my wife was pregnant with my eldest. Needless to say a few weeks later it was up for sale. A chap ended up coming up from London to view it and we spent an hour or two hammering around south Liverpool with him doing most of the driving. He was a bit reticent to divulge what he did for a living but he eventually admitted being an armed response officer for the Met ( although he was originally from Bolton). Quite funny really. He bought the car too.

I sold an Impreza and just took prospective buyers out for a drive. They asked for certain things, like hard acceleration in certain gears, hard stop to show brakes are fine and no juddering, warped discs etc.. Someone bought it following that (first person i think).

As above, it's a good chance to show you're not a mechanical numpty by talking through how you wait for it to warm up and don't start pulling handbrake turns in an Asda car park etc.

Some people (including me) like to drive though. Last car i bought i had a good look over one day including being taken out for a drive etc.. then rang that evening and said i'd be happy to take it if i could have a (brief) drive. I went around with cash deposit, he let me have a drive, I transferred the rest of the money that evening.

As for the car it's not really that exciting. Just an Evo V so an 18 year old Japanese saloon really - just a fairly quick one.

A friend has a four (IIRC) which is tuned to within an inch of its life. However he's not driving it now and wants to sell; his plan is to wait until it hits classic-ish status and goes back up in value a little. Not sure how many fives there are around, but worth a thought? Assume it's not a Tommy Mak or similar?

Alas not a Tommi Makkinen - that's basically an Evo 6.5. It's also a GSR not an RS so it has most of the creature comforts. As for expecting a return - no I really didn't - I've just got bored of spending money on it. I spent £7k at Norris Designs in 2015 on the big service with cambelt and tensioner etc., new suspension and replacing the rear subframe mounts which rust as soon as you look at them on evos and I've done under 300 miles since then.

I've put the standard interior back in so it's not especially heavily modified now - aftermarket wheels and a lightly breathed on engine.

Do dealers do sale-or-return on this kind of car ? You pay them a commission of course, but you should get a slightly better price than selling to them outright as they're not tying up their own capital.

I bought my car through such an arrangement at a dealer. The owner was out of the country and dealer was selling on his behalf. I'm inclined to do that when (if) I come to sell it on.

Alas not a Tommi Makkinen - that's basically an Evo 6.5.

I remembered it's a six shortly after typing the above.

😳

Not sure what part of the country you are in, but you could speak to [url= http://odaviscars.com/sor.asp ]O'Davis Cars[/url] who might help you sell your car or buy it off you.
I bought my last car from them and they were pretty good

Sell it via forum only, the buyers seem to have much more respect. I sold my RX7 that way. Ended up going to some chap who came over from Denmark to buy it. He was in absolute awe of the car and probably treated it better than I did.

Conversely, I sold an MR2 Turbo via eBay. It was back on eBay the day after as spares only, as the chav that bought it crashed on the way home.

If you've got a potential buyer round and they want a test drive, just sit them in front of a laptop and five minutes later they can be printing out a 24hr temporary insurance policy. Doesn't cost too much, done it a couple of times when I've wanted to test drive cars.

Have a big pile of the cars documents and paperwork ready in your kitchen, and the kettle just boiled when any potential buyers turn up. If they want to jump straight in the car, then show them the door. Worked when I sold my not quite classic but old 911.

Apologies if this has already been mentioned (didn't see it as I scanned the posts) but make sure you don't get out of the car with the keys in the ignition! Easily done, you know, "we'll just pull over here so you can drive it", you jump out and off they go in it ...

Whilst not a private sale, sort of relevant.
I once arranged a test drive of a Subaru Impreza turbo. From our local main dealer I rolled up as arranged and the salesman said he had to drive to start with. No problem I thought, he's going to get it warm etc. get a feel for me by asking a few sensible questions as I know they must get scared witless by some punters
No
He started it up and within 1/2 mile he was doing 90 down a country lane having red lined it through the first two gears. From stone cold. i was the one scared witless

I didn't buy it

I'd certainly be going down the temporary insurance route for anyone wanting a test drive (they organise their own) or they sit in the passenger seat. Not that I'm thinking of selling my performance car anytime soon!

It may be worth getting an independent report done by a reputable firm that specialises in EVO's and perhaps consider an [url= http://www.millersoils.co.uk/automotive/millercare.asp ]MillerCare oil analysis service[/url] to show any potential buyers that the engine is of sound health.

Had similar experience to jimw. Test drive in new RS4 when it came out, I had bought a previous model, guy pinned it out the dealers from cold then understeered it into a roundabout before understeering it again and barely avoiding the oncoming traffic. I was sweating like it had heated seats.

He was a bit reticent to divulge what he did for a living but he eventually admitted being an armed response officer for the Met

I had 2 pursuit coppers test drive my spec b legacy, both pretty hairy test drives!

I wouldn't buy anything without test driving it, if it was a track car I would want to try in on a track ideally. Have you considered breaking it? I had a 200sx that I crashed while for sale, I ended up selling at parts and got more than I had it for sale for.

Stick it up on the MLR. No insurance, no drive.

That's where I sold mine which was a stripped, caged 6 RS with a lot of extra horsepower.

This was 10+ years ago now, so 650+ HP Evo's were still rare back then, which made it quite easy in many respects. I imagine they are a lot more common now.

The guy who bought mine raced it in the Time Attack series in the end. He came down with a trailer, we did the test drive, mostly me driving it, he had a little spin & bought it. I knew it was realistically going to happen as he was coming from very up north, to very down south.

They are a specialist car, stay away from the usual ebay nobber.

I had a fast JDM import. When I bought it the guy who owned it drove it, and I didn't even ask. Didn't bother me. And when I sold it, did the same. Picked a guy up from nearby and drove him back to my home. He never asked. I was honest about the car and any issues it had. He was quite happy.

Having let people drive my cars before, I know how little respect some people have, and I'd feel pretty uncomfortable letting a stranger into anything with any power. Especially with me sat in it 🙂

Down to judging the characters that come to view, most want a thorough look over of the car cold first. Living out the way probably helps sift out the wasters.
Usually I would drive over the hill to the next village to warm it up before hoofing it back. I understand that I wouldn't buy something without driving it, so they can, but it's not theirs yet. Most just seemed happy to drive out my village and back, they just want to know the clutch is good and there is nothing odd going on in the steering/brakes/suspension.

Which reminds me, when selling an M3 ages ago I just gave the guy the keys and sent him off for a drive.

But he had good history on the BMW forum I used, had asked lots of very detailed (and relevant) questions by email in advance, and had travelled a long way to see it. So I felt I could trust him. Price was agreed in advance so there wasn't even any haggling.

I would be saying to people to pop over, have a chat and you will take them out, and then gauge it from there, maybe even asking them to come back another day.

I also think genuine buyers tend to ask nerdy questions, where as tyre kickers just ring up and say can I come for a test drive.

It is important from a buyers perspective to get a test drive. There's a lot you can discover. An open and accommodating attitude from the seller will put the buyers mind at ease.

I was tossed the keys of a Forester STI and told "do your worst" by a Subaru main dealer, and conversely was babysat by an overzealous salesman when test driving a Legacy SpecB. The SpecB seemed to be misfiring and suffering from some kind of coil/ignition/plug issue. And the brakes were shot. I emailed them as much and got a swift rebutal....followed by an email several months later telling me the car had since been serviced and was I still interested.

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Sunday Times Money section has a letter from a bloke who was selling a car. All it took was for him to leave the key in the ignition, get out of car so potential buyer could drive but subsequently drove off. His insurance company wouldn't cover it, Sunday Times got involved and still no joy, he lost something like £11K. 😯

Im dreading this when I sell the Galaxy.

Cheers folks. Plenty to think about there. I think I'll start by seeing what a specialist dealer will give me for it as to me it's dead money anyway and work from there. But if I do sell privately then I'll definitely go for me driving first then private insurance if I decide I trust the buyer. I'd be more worried about ending up on fire in a ditch with no legs as a result of a test drive than them stealing if TBH.

And for those who asked - here's a couple of pictures

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[URL= http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b241/alanjcross/_MG_6825.jp g" target="_blank">http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b241/alanjcross/_MG_6825.jp g"/> [/IMG][/URL]

my neighbour did this with his lotus 7 alike kit car.

guy stuffed it into a kerb bent the front of the chassis/wishbones.

Promised my neighbour he would buy it and then took off never to be seen again. I say nieve neighbour mind.

lucky my neighbours a handy guy and was able to fix it up for buttons.

Oddly I bought a Evo IV from a bloke importing them from Japan.

I didn't actually test drive it and it actually broke down whilst he drove it with me as a passenger,I did buy it though as it was only one of the the spark packs.

Its hard to explain the Evo driving experience,you really have to drive one if you ever get the chance they really are mind boggling for the price.

I wouldn't want to be a test pilots passenger !!!!

I feel your pain, it's a bloody nightmare. I've sold a number of cars that are desirable to a certain demographic and every time was a total pita. I was very clear about the 'no insurance, no ID, no drive' status but I still had stand offs with a few people.
In fairness I'd never buy a car without test driving, but I wouldn't (and frequently haven't) bothered with that unless the rest of the car checks out first. But it's hard to be accommodating and not come across as an awkward wazzock.

Selling a 172 cup was pretty bad, but the worst was my other half's DC2 integra. There was some serious vetting of the prospective 'buyers', but I still made a poor call and ended up passenger to one of the most terrifying drivers I've ever had the misfortune of sharing a vehicle with.

Its one of the many reasons I'll never sell my RX7 as a whole car, and will go through the ballache of breaking it instead.