How hard is it to sell a Skoda?

**aslsw** · 19-07-2013, 06:48 AM

My Octavia has finally been sold. I thought I would give you all an update on the process and the final result...

I initially advertised it back in early May at a starting price of $25,500. It was still under lease, and that was roughly what the lease payout was worth. Here's a summary of how it went:

- standard flood of SMS scams in the initial days,
- one enquiry from Newcastle, found something closer to home,
- one enquiry from Sydney, never heard back,
- price progressively dropped on the theory that's it only worth what someone is willing to pay,
- another enquiry last month, never heard back,
- price dropped to $21,000,
- started negotiating with someone who got us down to $18,800. By this stage, I was always resigned to a loss on the lease but this was a pretty steep loss. Anyway, this potential buyer wanted to go down even further and I said no (good thing),
- this week we had an offer of $20,500. Negotiated down to $20,000 because it's due for a service and seemed to be the best offer,
- SOLD. At $20,000 this is a $1,500 loss on the lease payout. I'm sad but then figure its about 2c per km. Did I get 2c per km of extra driving pleasure out of the car? Definitely,
- and then my wife got another call last night!

So, the car has now gone. As I'm overseas, I had my last drive about 6 weeks ago. I'm pretty sad and already can't wait till I get back to Australia and can buy another one!

**dArK5HaD0w** · 19-07-2013, 08:27 AM

Good to hear mate.
You'll b back just in time to place ur order on the new mk3 vRS

**daft1014** · 19-07-2013, 10:50 AM

Originally Posted by aslsw

My Octavia has finally been sold. I thought I would give you all an update on the process and the final result..

Thanks for the detailed breakdown of the sale. Its really helpful for many of us to read what its actually like selling a car privately. Out of interest which of the websites (Carsales, Allclassifieds and Trading Post) gave the best bang for buck?

**Ocy_RS_TDi_Kombi** · 20-07-2013, 12:14 PM

I sold my Ocy just over a week ago.

I advertised it at $20,900 (2009 Ocy RS Wagon TDi DSG with 82k on clock plus the balance of the extended warranty @ 11 months left). Had a couple of time waster enquiries initially with the 1st serious enquiry after 5 days. He drove/paid a deposit the following day. Sold for $20k. I had it for 4 years so the resale rate was 48% - pretty good!

Sold it via Carsales. I've now sold 4 cars on Carsales and the Ocy was getting plenty of hits % wise compared the other cars and sold very quick (Other cars were Pajero, Falcon XR6 & Citroen C4 Picasso).

Cheers

**BlackOctaviaRS** · 21-07-2013, 01:31 PM

Just put our RS up on carsales.com.au, starting price of $21K.
Going to be an interesting process seeing how long it takes to sell and what price we end up.
(BTW, if anybody's interested in it, PM me

)

**240z** · 21-07-2013, 06:27 PM

Seems like a good selling price but you'd might have a better chance if you add some photos and sell with a rwc, whenever I'm looking for a car I'm always put off if the seller isn't including a rwc.

**aslsw** · 23-07-2013, 07:27 PM

Originally Posted by dArK5HaD0w

Good to hear mate.
You'll b back just in time to place ur order on the new mk3 vRS

I loved that vRS but it will be a toss up between that or a Scout. We like to go camping a lot, and while the vRS would happily tow the trailer and pull away from most other cars there is one spot I go to where I can easily bottom out if I'm not careful. Although now that the FBT concessions for cars are gone, I'll have to think some more about the best way to make it work.

Carsales was definitely the pick, and most of the enquiries came from there. I also advertised on Tradingpost and Allclassifieds, as well as a run in the paper. I think next time I will save my money and go for Carsales first to test the market.

I do think the Skoda is the sort of car that someone wants to buy (like us!). Most people who just want a medium sized family car are unlikely to hit the ad initially. In the end, it went to someone whose father had just bought a new one, they had driven in it and loved so the father helped them to look for a second-hand one.

The only other things I will think about next time is optioning up a bit more (people wanted bluetooth) and also buying the extended warranty (another question everyone kept asking). The small investment upfront would probably work out in terms of final second hand price.