So this past summer I decided it would be nice to own a 'fun' car again - the wife's Honda minivan is a great family hauler, and my little Toyota pickup is a useful daily driver and great for Home Depot runs, but they're both boring-as-heck choremobiles. Mostly I've been looking at '99 and newer Mustangs, because I've always loved those cars, and my first car was a used Mustang (which I promptly wrecked within a week of getting a license, but amazingly, it wasn't my fault). Some of the "special edition" 99-04 Mustangs (Cobras, Mach 1s, Bullitts) have finally depreciated down to reasonable prices these days, and the newer '05+ GTs are now plentiful between $15-20K.
But looking over the 'for sale' ads on various Mustang boards, some sellers just have no clue. It's not uncommon at all to find cars which have been on the market 4-6 months, and the owners are always mystified why they can't find a buyer, or even get a nibble. Maybe it's because KBB lists your car at ~$10K, and you're asking $18K? Sure, Mr. Seller, you sunk $10K worth of "mods" into yours, but I'm not going to reimburse you for that - they don't add much value to me, and they make me wonder how much abuse your car got. One seller's been trying to sell a Cobra since Jan., but can't figure out why someone doesn't want to pay $2K over book for a car with 100K+ miles, which has been raced, and has a leaking head gasket. Another guy was certain his convertible was very reasonably priced but admitted in the very same post that he'd had it on the Mustang board and Autotrader.com for over a month and hadn't gotten even a single inquiry. Sure, great price! :roll:
And it's like an echo chamber on the Mustang "for sale" boards - sellers tell other sellers their cars are great and will certainly sell very soon, so don't drop the price any more. Months later, still for sale . . . Anyone who suggests people are just asking too much gets flamed and called a lowballer. Everyone swears their prices are realistic but when they give up and put their cars on ebay, they rarely get more than 50-60% of what they thought "fair market value" was, if they sell at all. One guy who swore his modified '99 convertible was reasonable priced (started at $16K in August) hasn't even reached $9K on ebay with less than 20 hours to go. And the economy's only going to get worse, so standing by your unrealistic price for 6 more months while your car depreciates further isn't going to help either. Ah, well, I'll just wait for the market to sink some more, and look again in a few months. It's definitely a buyer's market.
But looking over the 'for sale' ads on various Mustang boards, some sellers just have no clue. It's not uncommon at all to find cars which have been on the market 4-6 months, and the owners are always mystified why they can't find a buyer, or even get a nibble. Maybe it's because KBB lists your car at ~$10K, and you're asking $18K? Sure, Mr. Seller, you sunk $10K worth of "mods" into yours, but I'm not going to reimburse you for that - they don't add much value to me, and they make me wonder how much abuse your car got. One seller's been trying to sell a Cobra since Jan., but can't figure out why someone doesn't want to pay $2K over book for a car with 100K+ miles, which has been raced, and has a leaking head gasket. Another guy was certain his convertible was very reasonably priced but admitted in the very same post that he'd had it on the Mustang board and Autotrader.com for over a month and hadn't gotten even a single inquiry. Sure, great price! :roll:
And it's like an echo chamber on the Mustang "for sale" boards - sellers tell other sellers their cars are great and will certainly sell very soon, so don't drop the price any more. Months later, still for sale . . . Anyone who suggests people are just asking too much gets flamed and called a lowballer. Everyone swears their prices are realistic but when they give up and put their cars on ebay, they rarely get more than 50-60% of what they thought "fair market value" was, if they sell at all. One guy who swore his modified '99 convertible was reasonable priced (started at $16K in August) hasn't even reached $9K on ebay with less than 20 hours to go. And the economy's only going to get worse, so standing by your unrealistic price for 6 more months while your car depreciates further isn't going to help either. Ah, well, I'll just wait for the market to sink some more, and look again in a few months. It's definitely a buyer's market.
Facebook
Twitter