So my beloved 2012 Ford Mondeo Ecoboost is sadly at death’s door. He has a drinking problem (excessive oil consumption), flatulence (smoke from said oil) and low energy (struggles to reach 110km/h). Needless to say the engine is cooked with only 146,000 on the clock.
Any advice on how best to sell the car? I’ve no interest in concealing its condition to some unsuspecting person - what would you do?
Can’t trade in either as I’ve now got a company car.
It’s not quite scrap yet hopefully but certainly an idea.
I got $50 for the last car I gave to a wrecker.
Depending on your garage situation, disruption to your daily routine for inspections and cost of a tow truck that the buyer may wish to factor it can be more attractive than initial appearances.
It's hard - the car is likely worth $5 - $6k with a working engine.. Will likely cost $5k to fix…
So selling the car is going to get you about $1 - $500..
Parting the car out and selling the parts yourself you're likely to make $2k or so (maybe more, maybe less)..
Trade the car, sell the car you trade it for?
Why would you do that?
Parts are worth a shitload of money these days, wreckers charge $200+ just for a side mirror.
NEVER give away a car away for free.
Stick it on your preferred social media shithole for $2k and accept $1k from some hero that thinks they’ll fix it.
Or call a few wreckers and see what they’ll give you.
Could happen for sure.
accept $1k from some hero that thinks they’ll fix it
LOL
I've seen people on FB trying to sell total write-off wrecks for $10k saying "the good parts are worth $12k, so it's a bargain!"
Not sure if anybody buys that bullshit though…
Personally OP, i'd call around a few wreckers and see if any want it for $4-500, and if not, i'd put it up on gumtree for $1k ONO (so long as it's otherwise presentable), and take as low as $4-500. Any less and i'd go to the trouble to part it out myself.
Why would you sell it for $500?
Side mirrors for these cars alone are $150-$200.
This is why every wrecker I know owns a freakin Ferrari!
This is why every wrecker I know owns a freakin Ferrari!
So they can sell their side mirrors to other Ferrari owners?
Depends on how much effort it is to part out, advertise & sell, how long you want to keep a bunch of parts sitting in your shed, and what OPs time is worth.
jahahahahaahhha some hero!
You will get some desperado who needs it and will drive it until stops by the road forever.
That’s the dream! These cars are selling for $12,000 which is a bit ridiculous- I’d sell well below that and hopefully someone more mechanically minded than I could make it work.
Sounds like the entire engine is shot. For the amount of time, effort and the cost of a replacement engine you'd have to get someone pretty desperate.
Might be worth taking to a mechanic though and get their opinion, if it's repairable for under a few grand then you might get more for it. But likely it's near scrap, especially if you've been driving it while in this state.
Mechanic advised to sell so that’s not a good sign its repairable. Would be nice to do an engine swap but not economical for this sort of car sadly.
For the amount of time, effort and the cost of a replacement engine you'd have to get someone pretty desperate.
It's not that hard to do. Anyone mechanically minded is capable of doing it over a couple of weekends.
@trapper: Depends how much you value your weekend, although to be fair it is a fun project.
I did it back in the day with my dad, couldn't get the electrical hooked up right though so it still took a trip to the mechanic to get that right. No such thing as youtube videos at the time but the actual engine swap was done in a day, the fiddly bits is what was a pain. I really enjoyed it, not so sure my old man did though (particularly because it was me who blew up the engine).
It's worth mentioning that even replacing the whole engine isn't a permanent fix as the engine was a heap of shit to begin with as Ford cut every corner possible with these cars (and many others).
Who's going to get the roadworthy to submit for the transfer of ownership?
Who says they will even do the transfer of ownership….
That's a great idea. Let the new owner rack up speeding fines in your name.
Not the sellers problem. Sell it as is, let the new owner sort their own RWC and reg
In Victoria it's the sellers responsibility (at least on paper).
@fillit: Yep that's the way to do it, cancel the rego then you don't have to worry about it (and you recoup rego costs). But sounds like Op wants a few $Ks which won't happen…
probably need to sell it unregistered to get around that one
How do you kill an engine at 146,000Km?
Ecoboost
Doesn't sound very economical to me. :)
Nope! Was good whilst it lasted but I agree it should have gone further.
It's a Euro
.
My guess, he's run out of oil and damaged the bearings. That's why it's blowing so much smoke. The pistons, rings, bore, valves and compression are probably nearly as good as new.
I doubt that very much.
Why the neg? It’s probably had bearing material right through it. Do you think a bearing slap would work?
1) driving style
2) lack of maintenance/care
3) item 1 has a lot more influence than item 2
Send it to auction. Gone, don't have to deal with people asking "how much to fix it" or "can I drive it for 4 years like this before I can get my cousin to fix it?".
Any recommendations for a good auction house in Melbourne?
Pickles or Manheim. Grays if there is one there as a last resort.
Cheers!
Good advice if you are selling as OP is.
Terrible advice if you are buying (unless ex-fleet) as you cannot inspect-properly or test drive.
That's why people who have no idea what they are doing shouldn't buy from auctions.
100% this advice. Auction house provide the terms and you just deliver it and see what happens.
Do check if the particular auction house has any arrangements with any dealers where they allow them to 'return' the vehicle after inspection. Where I live two major places have such arrangements, but don't socialise it much.
146,000 is not a lot , I would personally get a couple of mechanics to check it out maybe do a compression test . What about valve stem seals ? Unless you've belted the shit out of it it doesn't add up !
I really haven’t - its not exactly a street racer!
Honestly I agree with Murkymerv. What checks has the mechanic actually done? Compression test will tell you if it's something serious with pistons/rings/cylinders/head gasket/cracked head. If the compression test is good then it could be valve stem seals, or could be the turbocharger seals.
It being down on power isn't a good sign, but again that could be due to the ECU going into limp mode to avoid further damage.
Post it for sale with a list of issue, after a while if no one buys sell it to scrapyard.
Sounds like a plan.
I knew a guy who had the same issue with a Mondeo. Ended up trading it in on a newer one. The dealer didn't even test drive the old one. They would have been pissed when they moved it in the yard and heard the horrible rattling from the engine. He never heard from them again. Maybe you could sell yours to a dealer.
I’ll give it a try, I don't have the same leverage though as I’m not buying another car at this time.
Did you not read the post? He said he doesn't want to give it to someone in it's current state without being honest.
I read the post to the end, right where it said.
Can’t trade in either as I’ve now got a company car
He has no moral problems offloading it onto a dealer.
He didn't say he wouldn't tell them it has problems.
My friend car dealers & real estate agents are not considered 'people' fyi.
Also lawyers and pollies
These cars are basically worthless, especially if it has the powershift transmission
Definitely a powershift, no issues with it in all the time I had drove it. Not sure if its the same type that caused Focus owners so much grief.
I have a 2010 focus TDCI diesel with 200k on it, Not sure the history on the transmission but its still going. I certainly don't trust it though, its gone into limp mode a couple of times but stopped after changing trans oil
The diesels have a different transmission iirc.
Focus = dry clutch powershift = WORST EVER
Mondeo = wet clutch powershift = bad but not as bad
Except for the Focus Diesel - it has the same 6DCT450 as the Mondeo (needed because of the higher torque).
Mondeo ones seem generally OK - but some failures. If you get a faulty one, it's basically a $10k replacement.
But yeah, those LW Focus (and Fiesta) Powershifts (6DCT250) …. well, I suppose it sounded like a good idea to some beancounter at the time.
Buy an insurance wreck with low kms, and rebirth it (swap engines) for another 10 years, but this time don't do whatever you did that destroyed it.
Any idea what it would cost to do an engine swap like that roughly?
Engine swap is only worthwhile if you diy or plan to keep the car for many more years.
There is a market for $1000 to $1500 cars. Someone will buy it as long as it drives. They won't care how much it smokes and will keep topping up the oil. Advertise for $1999, expect people to offer $1500 and have only $1250 in cash when they show up.
I agree, there definitely is a market. I had listed mine with full disclosure of the problem, photos of the OBD2 error codes, mechanic's assessment, etc. and sure enough someone turned up who wanted a modern car that drives and can go for a few months until his son had learnt and practiced enough to buy a better car. He paid twice than what grays, pickles, etc. had to offer.
If someone brings less cash than agreed I'd give it to a wrecker for free on principle.
You'd think so, but generally you sigh and end up saying 'just get it out of my sight'.
Nah I quite literally have done it before haha
Plus the type of people that I deal with are in struggle street. Selling them a cheap 2nd hand item can make their day.
In this case, the wrecker is not going to appreciate it as much as the struggling person.
Ford 😂
Holden Captiva.LOL
(In this case I think both rebadged imports anyway)
3 reasons you should sell to an off-shore oil rig worker:
1. They pay top dollar for your car.
2. They pay for the shipping.
3. They work on an oil rig so they get cheap oil to top up the car.
Plus they’ve got some random friend to collect it so that’ll be handy.
I still think it's worth a second opinion , maybe mycar ? Hell , take it to a couple of branches…
Underrated gag
You can literally list it for $1 starting bid on ebay.
Take lots of pics, detailed description. Somebody will buy it, likely who think they can fix it.
List on Marketplace for free and honestly state all significant facts about the mechanical condition. Be prepared to negotiate.
If you sell it unregistered you don't need to do any paperwork….ie: roadworthy cert. Just surrender the plates to Main Roads.
Definitely send it to Gray's in Dandenong South
No reserve
Starts and runs and drives
Someone will buy it and it's buyer beware at an auction house
Yep. Grays is the home to shitboxes with undisclosed mechanical problems
Have you spoken to a Ford dealer considering the engine failure at such low klms?
Especially if your the first owner, they may do something…
On an 11 year old car? 0 chance
hahaha… they'd try to find an owner-caused fault to avoid doing anything if the thing had 10k on the clock and in warranty.
8 years later: "Sounds like you need a new 70k Ranger, mate"
Drop it off at Graysonline
If the problems are super obvious in test drives best to go through auction houses. Call a few wreckers to see what they will pay but it'll be pennies on the dollar. Autoflip and various car brokers do offer decent prices too, Ive had a car with minor engine issues and they took it no problem. Definitely not worth keeping and fixing since the transmission is also plagued with reliability issues.
Be very open about the issues and price it accordingly.
put the exact problems in the listing, take cash only, dont worry about it again, use a burner number because some idiot will be complaining they couldnt get a dirt cheap 100% good car.
Engine might be fine, turbo could be shot, damaged seals letting oil in and burning it up…. Also the sign of not be able to get up to 110km is pointing to turbo.
When cars in our extended family value reaches under $5,000 we usually fix it up and give it to someone in the family that can use it.
hey it's me, your long lost cousin :^)
Take it to the Summernats in a burnout competition and smoke it up.
Just try to beat an AU Falcon.
Bonus points if it catches on fire.
A true Viking funeral
Done!
I'm just glad you didn't say "My pride and joy".
Edit: 2JZ swap it :D
RB30 for the lols, Nissan engine from a Holden in a Ford 🤣
Sell it to some Lebo as is
Call a few wrecking yards.
They will send a tow truck.
Some will pay cash(not much) at pickup