Thread: Flip a car for profit?

i dont know if its the best times for car sales, but if one think is for sure, is that the rich guys will alwyas have money, so if you do this, go for high prices and aim for the rich guys (dunno what prices are high or low in your country). I Wouldend suggest it, in Europe standars though..( again i dont know anything about US)

The thing you have to remember, is that for 90% of people, mods (including a carputer) detract from the value of a car. (Cost of car MINUS price of removing mods and returning to stock == value, go ask any car dealer they'll tell you this) So you're going to have to find one of the 10% of people who are looking to buy the mods that you are doing.

You're MUCH better off buying a clunker for 2-3k, fixing it up, and selling it for 5-6k. A buddy of mine does that and make a decent profit out of it. I think you're going to wind up sitting on a couple of cars for months being unable to sell them.

Remember, if you bought the car for 5K, you can pretty it up all you want but the miles and overall mechanical condition don't change. Most people are aware of this when they go to buy. 15K would be a pretty steep price point for a car that has age/mileage and mechanical condition from the 5K range. Find the right <25 male and you might pull it off but too risky if your only purpose is to make money IMO.

Fyi, there was a pimped out older 325 at an auction near here last month. It has an awesome paint job, rims, tint, aftermarket taillights, someone spent some money on it. It went for $1200. Know why? It had a super clean engine bay, nice interior, but guess what the odometer said? Over 250k miles on it. Perfect example of what you are likely to run into. Like phil said, most people aren't going to assume the car is in good mechanical condition just because of the looks. They will be practical about it, especially with the economy how it is.

As a collector of certain old vehicles and their engine, I prefer STANDARD and not freshly painted (old an rusty is better), and I won't touch a reconditioned or modified engine, but I'll happily buy a worn out engine (at a higher price).

Originally Posted by OldSpark

As a collector of certain old vehicles and their engine, I prefer STANDARD and not freshly painted (old an rusty is better), and I won't touch a reconditioned or modified engine, but I'll happily buy a worn out engine (at a higher price).

You're quite easily not in the 90 percentile of average car buyers :P

Sounds a bit like this

http://www.wheelerdealer.com/

Originally Posted by malcom2073

You're quite easily not in the 90 percentile of average car buyers :P

Sorry - my bad. My very bad.

I totally misconstrued the vehicle. (I must've just registered the "mini" )


Apart from the general "golden" rule that expensive customization rarely (or never) recoups costs let alone effort, the astute buyer - cum- doer-upperer can turn quite a profit for a few days work & little expense. Or at least here they can.


Sorry for my stupid misread and contribution.
Not that my quick misreads are anything new.
At least this time I only went off half-cocked.



BTW Malcom - a very astute and relevant observation.
I should delete my earlier reply but I love my own suffering.

Well I would never buy a used car with over 70k Miles.

I got the idea because I was on Ebay looking around and I see these 2012 Camaro's (Retail cost about 23k) sell for 30k with 18 bids because of its appearance mods. I the main idea is that people are lazy now days. People cant work on cars so they take it to the shop to get some BASIC mods done. If people were smart you could get a 23k 2012 Camaro Coupe and spend 2k for a Paint job + Rims.