General My Old 500 Up For Sale - Are they on Drugs!!

[flashyphotos]

PX/d my 09 Reg 500 1.2 Lounge last month against my new 500c

As per my other post they gave a very reasonable £7500 in PX

Its now up for sale at £9299 (Thats only £1000 less trhan it cost brand new 3 years ago!)

http://www.autoworld.co.uk/used-cars/search/1810/fiat-500

Thats crazy money for a 3 year old 500 Lounge isnt it?.

 

[jrkitching]

PX/d my 09 Reg 500 1.2 Lounge last month against my new 500c

As per my other post they gave a very reasonable £7500 in PX

Its now up for sale at £9299 (Thats only £1000 less trhan it cost brand new 3 years ago!)

http://www.autoworld.co.uk/used-cars/search/1810/fiat-500

Thats crazy money for a 3 year old 500 Lounge isnt it?.

Yep, it's crazy. More than I paid for mine new 2yrs ago on scrappage.

To put it in perspective, I saw an immaculate '10 plate 1.4 Punto Evo parked on the street today with a sign in the window: "For Sale - 11,000 miles - £5500 or best offer".

Anyone buying at that price would be taking a huge hit the minute they drove off the forecourt. Have a look here for a current price guide.

 

[jnoiles]

Can't fault 'em for trying.

 

[jimboy]

Yep as above, they are a business after all. I've never driven the wee car, but there are loads of these things around my neck of the woods. Mostly young females. I can only guess they're a hoot to drive, but in my humble opinion a fashion statement. Tad expensive for what they are, but hey, obviously there is a market out there for them.

 

[RUI]

I guess it needed an mot tyres and a service. They also need to pay for a warranty.

 

[The Littlest Hobo]

Good luck to them i say. Id someone wants to pay it then everyone is happy. Considering the government scrappage money isnt available now the fact you paid less is irellevent.

Anyhow, it does seem over the top but long may it continue. As long as these cars stay fashionable and over priced the longer we keep good residuals. Everyones a winner

 

[frupi]

PX/d my 09 Reg 500 1.2 Lounge last month against my new 500c

As per my other post they gave a very reasonable £7500 in PX

Its now up for sale at £9299 (Thats only £1000 less trhan it cost brand new 3 years ago!)

http://www.autoworld.co.uk/used-cars/search/1810/fiat-500

Thats crazy money for a 3 year old 500 Lounge isnt it?.

Agreed, crazy money, but doesn't surprise me. Back in 1998, I PX'd my 6 year old Volvo 440 for a barely two year old Primera. After I'd handed over my Volvo for what I thought was a disappointing PX deal at the time, I didn't see the Volvo for weeks, assuming it had just gone to auction. It then 'appeared' on the forecourt for a thousand quid more than he had given me for it on PX. I was fuming inside, but like has been said, dealerships are businesses and they are there to make money. I did feel much much better though when after almost two months he still hadn't shifted the Volvo, to find out that he eventually only made about 400 quid on the price he paid me for it.

I certainly wouldn't pay the price Autoworld are asking for your old motor, especially as I know what sort of deals you can get on nearly new cars. I've well documented my own deal (six month old, £7499, 821 miles on the clock) and so the price Autoworld are asking is completely unrealistic in my view. After all, there is hardly any difference between a POP and Lounge, wheels and a bit of trim maybe?

I doubt they will sell it at the advertised price. If it was a choice between your old one and this one:

http://www.britanniamotorco.com/veh...odel=1094&pricerange=Select Budget&ID=2025224

I know which price I'd rather pay and I would travel.

 

[Super Uwe]

It'd be interesting to know how second hand sales of 500s are doing.

I had a nose on the website of the dealer who we bought a 500 from and they have got at least a dozen for sale (mostly white ones as well!).

Prices ranged from reasonable to very steep (there was an 09 plate 1.2 Pop in BNW with no added extras for £7.5k; seems very steep to me even if it had only done 12k miles).

Ours was part exchanged for £6,200 so will be interesting to see what price it goes for in the next few weeks...

 

[frupi]

Ours was part exchanged for £6,200 so will be interesting to see what price it goes for in the next few weeks...

I wouldn't be surprised if they chuck at least £500 or even a grand on the price.

Thing is, the car in the link that I posted, is priced to sell I suspect at £8000. They haven't put the extra 240 quid on the price for nothing. That will be their 'bargaining chip'. If one were to push really hard, it might even be got for £7900, which makes the Autoworld price look even more unrealistic, especially when there is a 14000 mile difference between the two cars!

In this day and age, you have to look nationally for good deals and I've never been afraid to travel from one end of the country to the other to get one.

 

[RobinPJ]

On top of what has already been mentioned, dealers also have to pay to advertise, pay for premises and sales staff and other overheads, tie up cash in stock, and take the risk of not being able to sell cars at a profit. Their prices also will have that haggling margin, and may well be dropped significantly if there is no sale in the first wek or two.

So to see a car up at £9,300 that was traded in at £7,500 does not surprise me. If you want more for your trade in, sell privately.

 

[306maxi]

On top of what has already been mentioned, dealers also have to pay to advertise, pay for premises and sales staff and other overheads, tie up cash in stock, and take the risk of not being able to sell cars at a profit. Their prices also will have that haggling margin, and may well be dropped significantly if there is no sale in the first wek or two.

So to see a car up at £9,300 that was traded in at £7,500 does not surprise me. If you want more for your trade in, sell privately.

Agree, the price in the window is just a price in the window, what they actuall sell it for is a completely different thing.

 

[EJ192]

That's the place I got my 500 from. At first they tried to sell my 500 to me for £9300ish (forgot the actual figure) but in the end bought it for £8950 including extras that we managed to haggle in. I remember the sales guy saying to me that the price of Fiat 500s have gone up since they were released so some used cars they sell are the same if not even more than brand new ones? Maybe that was a load salesman's bull.

Did you have your old 500 serviced at Autoworld flashyphotos? I've read reviews and they're touch and go...

 

[loveshandbags]

So to see a car up at £9,300 that was traded in at £7,500 does not surprise me. If you want more for your trade in, sell privately.

:yeahthat:
Couldn't agree more if your car is in excellent condition, right spec and has a proper history.

After selling my 2 500s privately I got a lot of 'sob' calls from dealers looking to source a 500 for an 'important' client and all they had was X amount of € and it was for the girls 21st or whatever. Fell for it the first time but not the 2nd. Given the demand on 500s if you decide to sell privately you can state that you do not wish to deal with the trade.

It'd be interesting to know how second hand sales of 500s are doing.

Most of the 500s have gone up in price here. The cheapest 'harder to sell' 1.4 at the moment is €10K ! for a 2008 with 42K. This is the ad. The attached photos are of a leather Lounge seat. Salesman said that it was a special edition factory fit. I don't really believe him & reckon that the previous owner got the seats covered in leather.

 

[stu0710]

Hi - I p/x ed our 1.2 Lounge for £7K two weeks ago against a new 1.2 Lounge and it's just gone up for sale for £8495 which is more than we paid for it under scrappage nearly 3 years ago! Still we got a good discount on the new one and they've had to service & valet it etc and provide a 12 months warranty. Plus someone is going to knock the price by £300 - £500 or so. I reckon they make more out of selling a good second hand car than a new one.

Either way I was going to struggle to sell it privately for much over £7K and then I've got all the hassle, ebay fees, timewasters and worry over hooky money or bouncing payments, so good luck to them.

Basically the car cost me £8570 (including the £300 my scrappage car was worth) so the car was traded-in for 81% of the purchase price after 2 years 10 months, certainly pretty good residuals. Even if you work it out on the list price at the time it was purchased (£10270) it was worth nearly 70% of it's list price at nearly 3 years which is a very good figure for a small mass-produced car. Admittedly VAT rises and List price increases over the 3 years have helped strengthen the residuals.

 

[frupi]

Some good looking examples with nearly the same mileage as flashyphoto's old car (admittedly a year older) but bought from an independent or privately, can be had for £1350 less than a franchise and that is before a discount is negotiated:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2008-FIAT...9436747?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item4d006a1fcb

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2008-58-R...6018539?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item3f163cbb6b

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2009-FIAT...2724563?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item337398c7d3

I absolutely agree and understand about franchised dealerships, advertising costs, wages etc. At the end of the day, people have a choice, Franchise, independent, or private, each offering their own pro's and con's.

Interestingly, the place we bought our own 500 from had several car transporters turning up (some did whilst we were choosing our own), full of nearly new 500's for sale (no more than 3000 miles on the odometer). The salesperson let slip, that some franchised dealers were allegedly buying cars from them because they couldn't get hold of second hand cars for the price we were paying for ours. One can only wonder how much was added to the screen price at those dealerships.

 

[frupi]

Did you have your old 500 serviced at Autoworld flashyphotos? I've read reviews and they're touch and go...

I spoke to Autoworld about three times on the 'phone whilst I was dithering about where to have our 500 serviced. They were exceedingly nice, no complaints there, but despite my insistence that we only required a low mileage service, we couldn't agree why they wanted to charge me so much money (in my opinion) for a basic oil and filter change. I went to Fiat Stoneacre at Worksop and got it done for 67 quid less than Autoworld were asking.

 

[ahmett]

I guess its a tribute to the demand of the car and its reliability that keeps those resudials so high. Fiat have a real coup here and if price is so high it really means those cars are selling. With those prices (it has been mentioned here before), its best to get a new one and finance the difference if you are really struggling with the budget.

In greece they offered 8000 euros for my '10 lounge 1.4 but i checked privately and people try to sell it for 12000 euros against a purchase price of 18000 euros. There again Greece isnt the best place to try to sell your car right now so the market very weird right now, best to keep your car till it drops over here to be honest, and if you are looking for a 2nd hand car, there are bargains to be found if you do the right research!

I dont hear any rumors of a new version coming soon either (i dont mean 500L i mean the original style). I guess with such sales they arent bothering?


off topic but i saw an old school original old 500 (it looked in really good condition!) being driven on the road and i gave the guy a wave from my nuova 500. he enjoyed it and waved back!

 

[flashyphotos]

Re Comments on them making profit, yes I do understand, and they would have had to do an MOT and tyres, not sure what warranty they offer on used, so I figured that would add £1k to the trade in so maybe £8.5k, still think £9.3k is steep considering what else is out there, although if you get sucked into a main dealer second hand it costs more.

Pity someone picking that up now at say £9k on 3 years finance, not sure the resdiuals will be so strong at 6 years!

Did you have your old 500 serviced at Autoworld flashyphotos? I've read reviews and they're touch and go...

No, I had it serviced at Coop Derby, although it went in for a couple of warranty bits at Autoworld, also found them Hit&Miss, several times no Courtesy car as promised nad a bit of a dont care attitude, but many service depts are like that.

New one is back in there again today for the ongoing S&S saga, they are changing the battery for a new one now as it does not seem to charge above 86%, It is just such an uphill struggle with them on S&S they just seem to want to put it down to Driver error all the time, only in the end by showing them exactly the same driving style in mine and a demo, that the demo worked and mine did not have they decided to do anything, I think if you were not ultra firm with them they would just continue to fob off!

 

[frupi]

Re Comments on them making profit, yes I do understand, and they would have had to do an MOT and tyres, not sure what warranty they offer on used, so I figured that would add £1k to the trade in so maybe £8.5k, still think £9.3k is steep considering what else is out there, although if you get sucked into a main dealer second hand it costs more.

Pity someone picking that up now at say £9k on 3 years finance, not sure the resdiuals will be so strong at 6 years!

Agreed, and precisely the reason why I would personally never buy a second hand 500 from a Franchised dealer. Far too many better deals to be had from independents in my opinion.

Not sure how long a warranty is offered by Franchised dealers on a car whose original warranty has expired? Is it the usual three months? I suppose if you want a longer one, you would have to buy it from them or sort it out yourself.

Anyway that aside, I doubt one would ever be able to negotiate the same level of discount you could get buying from an independent dealer or privately. I suppose though, some will always be drawn to Franchise because they will assume it is a safer bet or may be offered purchase incentives that might not be available elsewhere.

 

[Venters]

I know Arnold Clark tried to budget a difference between px and forcourt sticker of £1500. Many occasions I saw cars going for the sticker price and still effectively being a lose for the dealer, after mechanical recon, paint and bodywork, salesmans commission, advertising and other things had been added up.
Though don't take that as a sob story for dealers, Sir Arnold Clark is still an extremely wealthy individual.