Over the weekend I saw a lovely 2010 2.0 SportTech which was mint & 34,000 miles so I thought I’d test the waters on a p/x arrangement against it.
Now my car is 2006 Mk3 1.8 with options pack, 74,000 miles, 2 owners, service history, in mint condition with a totally rust free body & some tasteful add ons. Crucially it is a CAT S on the register, I knew that when bought, it had a damaged wing & lower balljoint damage, both repaired by a specialist & bought from them in May 2022.
The car they are selling is £8495, it was £9495 a few weeks ago, 5 owners (!!), MOT till Mar 2024, all in all though it is an absolute minter, 5 owners is alarming though maybe.
They offered me £800.
Made my mind up after that that it is worth me just keeping my own & buying their car outright if I decide to move on it when the price had inevitably dropped over winter when it has not sold.
I am somewhat annoyed/shocked by what I think is a complete mickey take, I’ve had other values of at least £2000 against similar cars. This could have been the one as a keeper till I drop purchase.
Cat S cars will always be worth less than undamaged cars. Cat S cars are writes offs; typically the damage exceeds more than 60% of the cars value. Presumably when you brought it, you thought you snagged a bargain, but probably when the used market was unrealistically high. Now its readjusting. As a dealer, they can’t sell this car on their forecourt; it has a market against it, and is old. And not the best spec… So it will go to auction, and they will take their chances. Probably make a loss. Anyone buying a repaired Cat S at auction is taking a risk. For every one that is a meticulous repair, there will be 10 put together with scrapyard parts and 5 yard paint jobs. You’re trying to trade it in at the start of winter. The Ford dealer won’t want to tuck it at the back and wait until spring. He needs it gone/
In 2018 I traded a 2018 58 plate Ford Focus CC-3 (top of the range, facelift, in a decent colour) against a Jag. It had a full Ford history, but cosmetic issues (scrape on wing, leather boltster starting to go, wheels all kerbed). I was happy to get £900 for it from an indie dealer. I probably could have gotten everything sorted out for £1200, but would to contend with all the faff that involved, or sold it privately as is, and contend with a litany of rightfully picky timewasters. The dealer attended to all the issues, and stuck it up for sale at £2400, and someonvery quickly got themselves a good car.
Cat S cars are 20-40% less than cars without a marker, and yours had both body and mechanical damage. Its a niche market that would take a put on a car that previously had body and steering damage
Parkers will put a 2006 1.8, with the “option pack” at £600-1200 private and £1600-2000 on a forecourt. Without insurance history.
Assuming yours is the best formally wrecked Mk3 1.8 out there, then a dealer might be able to sell it for £1200-1300. £800 trade in looks generous, given a couple of hundred to get it forecourt ready and 20-25% margin.
The £2k offer I don’t think would have been honoured.
Don’t worry about how many owners, I’m driving a car that’s had 3 owners in 3 years near enough.
Good condition especially underneath is everything. You can tell it’s had a previous decent owner if you do your homework.
Buying from Ford dealer isn’t really a big deal, what do they know about MX-5’s. I looked at one once at our local dealership (Ford) the only MX-5. The salesman knew nothing just bull**** it had mismatched tyres, all alloys kerbed and dings and scrapes all over. They wanted top money with a promise all the niggles would be sorted, hmm?
Thanks for the replies and putting a different slant on matters. The £800 was via email contact but what made me think it was a mickey take was the £2000 was a concrete offer from another dealer after I gave them the registration & details, maybe it would not have been offered once I arrived but they did say guaranteed.
I’ll just keep it in a garage for old times sake & if I do go for this other one will wait for the price to drop instead once no one buys it over winter.
Funny how you see Cat S cars being sold for far more than £1200 though on Ebay & Autotrader.
Second hand car market at the mo is crazy, i brought mine 59 - nc3.5 - 2.0 sport PRHT 48k miles and 2 owners for £8,150 little village garage. No corrosion on mots. But now im thinking i should get rid if the prices are still good
Its a buyers market sadly and main dealers wont want your age car as its to much work to auction and admin esp cat s
Car prices in recent years - and MX-5 prices - are weird. A quick look at Autotrader shows equivalents to my NC now selling for more than £1000 more than I paid 4 years ago! I didn’t get a particular bargain, it was in line with the market at the time.
Trade-ins, particularly as ast says above, aren’t really worth a dealer’s time unless it’s a relatively new car. Another example; I replaced the ‘sensible’ car a year or so ago. I was expecting that I wouldn’t get a lot for it as trade (2010 Civic), and it lived down to my expectations. From my dealings with the (Mazda) dealership, it seems that they basically had some mates that deal with low-end used cars, and they sent them the car’s details and got yes/no and prices back from them. That’s what they offered me (I suspect taking a little off the top for their trouble). A week later, it was on Autotrader with a clean and a polish for about double what they gave me, and didn’t last long.
Yes, I probably could have done it myself (and have done in the past), but then there’s the whole chew on about insurance and advertising and tire kickers, so on & etc, and I regarded it as the idiot tax I paid to be able to just walk in, hand them the papers, and drive (a very long way) home again in the new car. YMMV, but the only way to get market price is to do it yourself.
There isn’t any completed listings sold or not sold for a Recaro NC. The above car is listed though, so a future comparison.
They would command an higher price than the Sport Tech equivalent year. It’s difficult to put a realistic price on that one so chancing it for a few weeks I guess at top whack for any bites.
Put my car details into the Mazda website this afternoon, a few calls direct from dealers came back as £1500-£1600, this was on similar cars I looked at the other day.
And those are values for your car as a Category S? I’m surprised the online systems can allow for category cars. Surprising.
As far as the PX experience and whole value conversation goes, I’m surprised they’d take your car at all. Would seem like too much risk to take on from a dealer/independent’s point of view. Especially as we approach the slow part of the year for convertibles.
I just put my car details in on the valuation link, the 2 calls came later on.
You’d think Cat S would make it a back street garage cobble together car, the sellers were upfront about it with photos of the repair, it was a dented wing & seperated balljoint, I bought it without hesitation & they said they could have sold it 10 times over such was the interest. Too many good cars are being written off just because some insurance advisor is not arsed about anything other than costs.
You have to understand, what is emotional to you is just business to a car dealer, just like a tin of beans is to Tesco. It is a box to be bought and sold.
Cars were always based on book value and any additional would be what could be discounted out of the replacement car.
What you also have to understand is that “a few tasteful mods” might be great to you but make it a none standard car which puts into a whole level of more difficulty for a dealer. Also, what would you be expecting to say to a main dealer who was offering a Cat S car, it wouldn’t be “wow that is a bargain, I must offer you your asking price.”
LOL, the Mazda site gives a jokey come hither valuation. Ironically, Mazda doesn’t want to know my MX5, but would offer £1500 for the XJ8, provided it was nice and clean. Its a bit like this one, similar spec and miles (a bit less)
Am I going to get £8k for it. Nope. Neither would I get £1500 when I rock up to the Mazda dealer, because they haven’t seen the standard fit Jag droopy headliner
But what I woud get would depend on if I am looking at a used car or that new Mazda 2 sitting in the corner.
Food for thought on the matter but at the end of the day I have learnt a lesson & that is the car is worth more than £800 to me so it stays a while longer & the next one will involve some discussions as to how much I might get off if they really want a sale.
Will keep you updated on what Mazda actually do offer as I am going on Saturday to view a newer MX5 with their " p/x value " in the background.
So you want to change your car so off you go to a main dealer. They look at your trade in but they don’t want it as it’s to old or high mileage. They then get on the phone to back street dealers to get it underwritten the one who offers the best pricy get’s it. Thats the way it works in the motor trade . In the end they will offer you what they can get for it… That was how it was when i was in the motor trade. Just to add the main dealer where i worked sent me to Hertz great west road London to pick up cars. They where less then six months old . These then went on the forecourt . Sold as one owner cars but they never told the customer that they had more then one driver.
