So, we've made the decision to sell the Fabia as we no longer need a second car. Lovely, lovely car... will be missed.

 

My question is, do 17" alloys warrant a better price than the 16" ones?

 

Essentially, I need to sell it back to a dealership or carbuying website to ensure I can settle the PCP with them, and with every call or quote I get there is no real mention or differentiation for the wheel size. They just ask if they are alloys, and if they are in good nick... to which I answer absolutely.

 

I paid £350 to upgrade the wheels on the SEL Spec Fabia to the 17" Prestige alloys. They look brilliant... but am I right in thinking I wont get any of that £350 on selling?

 

If that is the case, I was wondering if somebody here (and in the Surrey area) is up for an upgrade... the set of alloys I have are all in fantastic condition save for a light scuff on one wheel (London, night, rain, cobbles, misshapen curb, parallel parking... really really annoying!), and the tyre thread is of course great.

 

Apologies to any moderators here, if I am not allowed to invite trade/sales on this thread, but I guess I'm curious to know if anyone with an SEL spec set of 16" Rock alloys (in great nick) is keen to upgrade their wheels to the Prestige set for a much more favourable price than £350 which we can discuss... and then we do a straight swap. At least that way, I can make some of the upgrade cost back... and allow one of you fellow briskodians to have a nice upgrade!

 

Keen to hear your thoughts on this guys - has anyone ever found that their stock alloys have made a noticeable difference on selling?

When selling a car all the extras you forked out when buying rarely attract a premium, even less so if you are hoping to offload to a Dealer or Trader. Good-luck with trying to do a deal on a swap with another Fabia owner.

 

Regards Bob

They might be worth £100 or so extra.

But you need to promote them, say they are extra look great etc.

?

Can i be nosey and ask what sort of Offers or Quotes you are getting to sell your 1 year old car as a straight sale.

How many miles has it now, and what was the cost of it as it was delivered?

The best I'm getting is £9,600.

Which sucks... Considering the car is a fully loaded SEL Spec Fabia in Race Blue with the manual 1.2 TSI 90HP Engine and the Beige interior.

Extras include:

Panoramic Roof (lovely and will be very sorely missed!)

Electric Windows all round.

Hill Assist.

Sunset Glass.

Cornering Fog Lights.

17" Prestige Alloys

Steel Sports Pedals

Premium Steel Door Sills

Simply Clever Pack (nets untouched)

Heated Seats (were chosen at time of order... But the dealership numpties forgot to add it to my order! So they then paid for a third party company to retrofit some... Which in honesty heat up much better and hotter than the OEM seats!)

Cost in the region of £16,800.

Then I added H7 HID Lights in Crisp White for the dipped beams and have done a decent amount of VCDS coding too.

So as I'm sure you can imagine... The prices I'm being quoted for a Fabia with 6K on the clock which was registered in June 2015 are quite painful!

Edited 7 March, 201610 yr by Dilz

Trouble is, you know well who you are competing with to supply a dealer with a used car - yes, the auctions or a swop from another dealer which will be a trade-in. Horrible but true, that might explain a bit of why I chose to take on my daughter's car while she was abroad!  We buy any car - horrible prices, but they do serve a purpose for some people?

 

Getting it sold within the Skoda community sounds like a good idea - as long as you get offered more than what your previously planned route gave you.

 

I seem to remember trying to sell a car years ago, but the private buyer could not work out why I would not give it to him for slightly less than I was effectively getting as a trade-in - loser!

Edited 7 March, 201610 yr by rum4mo

Its a lovely car, but £16800 is a lot for a Fabia and the offers you are getting reflect that.

I'd keep it for now.

Never sell a new car within the first 2 years, you always lose loads.

You know, I'd love to sell it to a fellow Briskodian. I've checked the WhatCar valuation and would be happy to sell it for £10,500 to a Briskodian... It's just I need to find a buyer who is trustworthy and happy for me to settle the finance with their payment (alongside any surplus on the settlement figure from me) and then hand over the V5. That would be ideal.

Have you looked at voluntary termination of the finance and handing it back.

Apparently it doesn't effect your credit rating.

Call your finance company to discuss.

Be careful if the car is on PCP, they know the spec of the car when it was ordered and you could end up having to payout for returning the car with different wheels.

Be careful if the car is on PCP, they know the spec of the car when it was ordered and you could end up having to payout for returning the car with different wheels.

Ah, good point mannyo. Appreciate the heads up!

Better wheels and other extras won't be worth much as money but will help to sell the car in a private sale.

 

It's a losing game turning the car over so quickly.

Try looking at a voluntary termination of the finance agreement, you are probably too early if car is only year old. However it might work out better to keep the car and pay your monthly for few months and wait until the VT is available. In other words if the cost of the extra payments is less than the difference between value now and the VT figure.

A curved ball idea might be to see if any extended family members want it, or advertise it at work, even do something wacky like park it with big For Sale signs in window with your phone number where it is highly visible with lots of passing potential customers. There is probably £1700-2300 difference between what you can sell it for and what a dealer would sell it for, so a direct sale would benefit you both. Good luck

Not everybody are excited over low profile alu-rims, guess dealers have to take that into consideration, regardless what money put into extras.

Have you looked at voluntary termination of the finance and handing it back.

Apparently it doesn't effect your credit rating.

Call your finance company to discuss.

Try looking at a voluntary termination of the finance agreement, you are probably too early if car is only year old. However it might work out better to keep the car and pay your monthly for few months and wait until the VT is available. In other words if the cost of the extra payments is less than the difference between value now and the VT figure.

Could I ask if either of you have actual experience doing the VT?

I'm only asking because I thought about it for my parents as their situation might have suited using it.

When I looked into it for them although it didn't affect credit ratings, finance companies can see you have reneged on an agreement and therefore won't touch you when applying for credit in future. Myth or fact?

Sorry to the OP for going slightly off topic.

Edited 8 March, 201610 yr by Gripper

My brother has used the VT 3 times now and has never had an issue even from the same finance company. I am sure its going to be listed in the terms and conditions of the finance agreement.

 

I am sure it will have a number that you need to have paid back before using it, If you are short of that number you will need to pay the difference. 

Edited 8 March, 201610 yr by RS939

Getting back on topic...

Apart from style...a personal thing...I am at at loss to see what 17" wheels bring in the way of benefits to a 90bhp Fabia. Lower profile, and probably more expensive, tyres and possibly more crashy ride don't seem like benefits to me, but I'm just an old fuddy duddy.

Would one need to inform the Insurance company of such a "modification"?

Getting back on topic...

Apart from style...a personal thing...I am at at loss to see what 17" wheels bring in the way of benefits to a 90bhp Fabia. Lower profile, and probably more expensive, tyres and possibly more crashy ride don't seem like benefits to me, but I'm just an old fuddy duddy.

Would one need to inform the Insurance company of such a "modification"?

 

The OP had the wheels fitted from new, so no he would not need to inform his insurance co.

 

It is a styling thing, but maybe also gives a bit more grip, but maybe as you say, compromises the ride a bit.

The OP had the wheels fitted from new, so no he would not need to inform his insurance co.

 

It is a styling thing, but maybe also gives a bit more grip, but maybe as you say, compromises the ride a bit.

 

For me, I would expect a discount if the ride is compromised even a little. So if the owner thought they were worth extra it would be their job to replace them with new wheels and sell them separately.

Edited 8 March, 201610 yr by D4V3

The OP had the wheels fitted from new, so no he would not need to inform his insurance co.

 

It is a styling thing, but maybe also gives a bit more grip, but maybe as you say, compromises the ride a bit.

The OP had the wheels fitted from new, so no he would not need to inform his insurance co.

 

It is a styling thing, but maybe also gives a bit more grip, but maybe as you say, compromises the ride a bit.

Apologies...didn't make myself clear. I was thinking about someone buying the OP's 17" wheels and replacing their original wheels with them...and the OP replacing his original 17"s with something else. I'm not suggesting it compromises either car but there are Insurance companies who love to find loopholes in the event of a claim.

The OP had the wheels fitted from new, so no he would not need to inform his insurance co.

 

It is a styling thing, but maybe also gives a bit more grip, but maybe as you say, compromises the ride a bit.

 

Not needing to inform his insurance company if the car has factory fitted options - hum, I would not rely on that way of thinking, insurance companies don't, it is just that some of us accidentally don't point out what extras the car has, though proper insurance companies do tend to give us the chance to disclose them.

 

Now with car manufacturers "own" insurance companies, well when I bought my secondhand S4 it came with short term cover from Audi's insurance, it already had a Milltek exhaust on it described by dealer as "sports exhaust", when I was sizing up insurance quotes, I asked Audi for a quote, the minute I mentioned the Milltek exhaust they declined to offer cover - though they had already issued short term cover - stupid main dealer!

I'm sure there's a site where you can basically 'sell' your PCP to someone else with the financier's agreement, but I can't for the life of me find it on Google! Of course, it does all depend on whether VW Financial Services would be happy to do this.