Can't sell the old car

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I am going to assume it is a 4.0 SOHC V6. We won't even do the chains on those, we quote a reman longblock. Not worth wasting a customer's money at 25 or so hours labor only to patch it back together.
 
Originally Posted by bdcardinal
I am going to assume it is a 4.0 SOHC V6. We won't even do the chains on those, we quote a reman longblock. Not worth wasting a customer's money at 25 or so hours labor only to patch it back together.


but the OP mentions turbos and the 4.0 isnt.
 
Originally Posted by umungus1122
Just avoid vehicles that are expensive to repair and have known issues. Always remember the KISS principle.


Pfft, where's the fun in that?
Nothing better than seeing someone struggle to sell something overpriced and ask yourself:
"Whisky Tango Foxtrot is that dude smoking?!?! Do they not know how much it costs to fix XY and Z?!"

I've seen several internet threads that are on that subject alone.
Makes for hours of internet fun and education on why someone shouldn't purchase a vehicle with ___ mechanical feature(s).
 
Originally Posted by Rand
Originally Posted by bdcardinal
I am going to assume it is a 4.0 SOHC V6. We won't even do the chains on those, we quote a reman longblock. Not worth wasting a customer's money at 25 or so hours labor only to patch it back together.


but the OP mentions turbos and the 4.0 isnt.


yeah, he also said "fast" which pretty much eliminates the 4.0L
lol.gif
 
Originally Posted by Rand
Originally Posted by bdcardinal
I am going to assume it is a 4.0 SOHC V6. We won't even do the chains on those, we quote a reman longblock. Not worth wasting a customer's money at 25 or so hours labor only to patch it back together.


but the OP mentions turbos and the 4.0 isnt.

Missed the turbo part, sorry. Either way it sounds like the vehicle in question is priced too high.
 
This is a common problem in Wisconsin,

Doesn't matter what you try to sell you get the $500 offers on Craig's

Better offers at the wrecker or Carmax as strange as that sounds.
 
Originally Posted by dlundblad
5w20 is probably what killed the poor thing.


LOL.

Those 4.0's were never supposed to use the 'devil's elixir' anyway and those timing chain failures were still all too common. I specifically avoided those engines when shopping for a third gen explorer.
 
Originally Posted by umungus1122
Just avoid vehicles that are expensive to repair and have known issues. Always remember the KISS principle.

Do cars like that exist anymore?
 
I sense the OP and reality are miles apart. You are selling a rust belt Ford SUV. You used other private party asking pricing and dealer asking pricing as a basis for your pricing. Craiglist and the like are full of people (curbers) trying to find a sucker to overpay for their POS vehicle.

To price the vehicle go to Edmunds and get dealer trade in price appraise. That is likely where you might expect to price your SUV to get some attention. You also are not listing the issues with the SUV- I find that troubling. That you will tell them when they call is in my view not honorable. Your ad should be full disclosure, your SUV could end up in some single Mom trying to make it- the last thing she needs is to unknowingly inherit someone else's problems,

You don't list the Year, prior history,mileage nothing in this thread, no do you list the price or show us the ad. I sense you know why it is not selling- trying to get high dollar for a vehicle with a major issue. Anytime a used car is price right and listed accurately- they sell. I sense you are not doing either.

I did a quick check on Edmunds. a 2014 Explorer with 100k miles in need of a major mechanical repair shows dealer trade in of $5463, average private party selling private part of $6841. With the though of major engine work- I think those prices are even high.


I did a craigslist search and this is the closest I can find to what you are selling in western michigan, but can't be yours as it is listed in excellent condition. This Seller does not list the mileage- which is a huge flag in my eyes of a seller not wanting to tell the truth- if they won't even disclose the mileage what else are they not disclosing:

https://grandrapids.craigslist.org/cto/d/2014-ford-explorer-sport-4wd-turbo/6776534059.html
 
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I have a home in rust free Florida. I also have a temporary place in PA. Quite simply, I'm shocked at how awful (and how physically noisy) the road salt/sand/brine thing is up North. My rust free Jaguar has been up in PA for 3 months and all of the underside components are rusting. Just like that, the emergency brake seized up, the caliper bolts are rusting in place and so on. 3 months!!

Living up North comes at a price. That price includes spending money (and/or effort) on heating your homes and businesses, followed closely by additional automotive expenses in the form of winter crashes, winter tires, lower fuel economy and shorter vehicle life/higher maintenance due to rust.

With that in mind, your vehicle is worth market value, which unfortunately is much less than you'd like. (again, due to the above)
If you can't trade it in, sell it for what ever the market will bear.

However, in this case, since it's starting to have a mechanical issue, a trade in is a way avoid future trouble.



I don't know what oil you chose and what your OCI's were. But one thing is clear, despite the long OCI push here at BITOG and the related good UOA results. Timing and balancer chains, along with low tension piston rings, wear and fail rather quickly with uber thin, micro particulate contaminated oil. Oil changes are the only way to remove those particulates. Choose a quality synthetic of sufficient viscosity and change it frequently. Your engine is known to reach 300,000 miles with proper treatment.

My 3.5 Ecoboost gets a diet of 10W-30 M1 EP. WIth 5000 mile OCI's. AND in my case, 5000 miles is 1000 miles TOO LONG. The oil is contaminated with fuel by 4000 miles. Remember, that fuel evaporates, leaving behind fuel residue that IS NOT OIL. But my method is to change oil at the 5's. So 75,000 miles, 80,000 miles, 85,000 miles and so on. Easy and works on nearly any vehicle.
 
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Its priced too high. I have eventually sold every car I have wanted to see (never traded in) but some I had to drop the price and others took many months. But if it needs repair because of a CEL that will be a big issue when someone someone comes to look. Most people including me will wonder why you did not get it repaired if it was only a "minor repair".

I almost always use CraigsList.
 
It seems odd that you did not even get a low ball offer or a few lookey loos...
Good luck; perhaps a trade in is the easy way out.
 
Yeah, this just sounds a bit futile.


If you are not getting any interest at all, then your price is too high. And when you're withholding fairly involved engine repair that is needed, your price and it's market value aren't even in the same zip code.

If you're stuck on selling it privately, fix the car or disclose the issue and price it accordingly. You are not doing anyone any favors by withholding this information. I also wouldn't even consider dealer prices when trying to figure out where to price my car. There's a reason people buy privately- you can get a better deal all around when you're not dealing with a dealership that has to account for a large amount of overhead to sell their cars. Get on Craigslist and search for Explorers in similar condition to yours. Use that as your baseline. If you don't want to fix the car, which I understand, get a quote from a reputable shop and include the issue and the quote in your ad and adjust your price accordingly. Now, if it's a $750 repair, do you just take $750 off the price? Well, no, round up to $1000 or so. You need to provide incentive for people to buy your car and no one is really jonesing to buy a car knowing that they are going to be without it for a day or so as it's in the shop getting repaired.

If you're not getting interest, lower your price. As it was said previously in this thread, it's more difficult to see a car privately once you go beyond $8-10k or so as you, as a private party, won't provide financing and so the buyer will have to go somewhere else to secure their financing. It's just an added step and more hassle that someone won't necessarily need to deal with by going to the dealer. By the time you do get it sold and have dealt with all the late night phone calls, tire kickers, failed financing attempts, etc, you may have saved time and money by just trading it in (depending on how much you value your time).

The path of least resistance might just be to trade it in. You do take a loss, but consider the following: You don't have to deal with the tire kickers, etc., a trade-in can often help you negotiate a better deal on the new vehicle, and you don't need to fix it before off-loading it. Just take it in warm and let them discover it after the fact. Trust me, they will and they will fix it. All in all, you can be done with everything in less than a day rather than dragging this out over days/weeks/months and paying for repairs in order to potentially save some money.
 
Unfortunately you won't get any bites on a car with engine problems unless the price is very low. Anyone who is interested in it just has to take you on your word that the timing chain is the problem, which is already a costly repair in the first place, and willing to risk that something else might be wrong.

It's a gamble not many people are willing to take on a complex modern turbo charged vehicle.
 
Generally late fall and winter are the toughest times in the year to sell cars. That is why new car incentives are usually a lot higher during this time of the year. I would suggest removing the ads and the For Sale sign and put it up for sale early Spring or at least after the tax return season.
 
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