What do you think your car is really worth?

[accordlx]

I was just curious to see what people here think their car is worth if they put it in the newspaper to sell it. Im not talking about Ebay or trading it in. Please take into consideration the condition of your car's paint, mileage, modifications, level of rust, etc. Also, put down a price that you think is realistic that someone would pay, not what you have invested in it. Remember, no one is going to pay $20,000 for a 15 year old accord unless it's real special. I made this a poll so no one has to identify themselves but comments are welcome.

[pimp86LX]

mine was so rusted out, i wouldn't have givin it away...i wouldn't have gotten it if the engine didn'thave such low km on it (186,000)

after the rust has been fixed....i'm not sure what an 86 with 180,000km could go for

[markmdz89hatch]

See the difficult part about this can be found in simply asking people why they joined this forum. And actually, if I were to ask you directly (accordlx), how would you answer that.

Let's look at this realisticly. Here's a little scenario...
Accordlx --> Looking at your car, there's a few things that stand out. You've obviously got aftermarket wheels (15's ?), spoiler, custom taillights, bra, double front chin spoiler, rear bumper spoiler, rain guards, fogs, prelude seats, performance suspension and exhaust. Just to name the obvious. Oh yeah, and painted moldings. Now all that will increase or even decrease the value of this car (with the exception of the paint) in the buyers world.

Now here's the way a car like yours needs to be looked at. Yes, all of the above mods have been done. HOWEVER, the chin spoilers; you have your own time and hard work invested in custom making and fitting those. Those fogs have been carefully chosen to fit in that particular place on the car. The suspension setup has been chosen by you for your own reasons. Now if my hunch is right, you made/fitted, and installed all of these mods yourself. Noone can put a price tag on hard work, and genious ideas that have been brought to reality through with your car.

Personally, I would pay over 5K for that (as long as it's also mechanicly sound) b/c I appreciate all that's been done to it. But the average Joe Shmoe looking to buy a nice looking first ride, or commuter car might offer 1500 or less for it.

Within the realm of 3geez, these cars are worth way way more then what the general public estimates.

***Just my little analittical 2¢***:D

Sorry for the book.

[pimp86LX]

your totally right man. Most people will offer about $1500 for a nice clean running 3g. They wont really look at all the custom work and effort that has gone into some of these sweet ass pimpin luv machin's

it all depends on who bought it and for what purpose

heres my analogy: A very important CEO of a major software firm is travelling when his laptop is lost in the hustle. The man is furious and ranting about how much money is lost. The airport clerk says "well you said it is inssured for the retail value of the notebook" and the man replies "its not the notebook i'm worried about, its the million dollar data that was on it"

think of all your effort and mod's and the data and the car as just the laptop

btw "i just recently talked to a guy who inssured his HD content of his notebook for 500,000 coverage, thats why it came to mind" :-D

no one can appreciate a nice modified, custom taliored car as much as the one who modified it

[markmdz89hatch]

pimp ---> very well put.

:super:

[3_GENCYCO]

DITTO...

[doug]

find a buyer that wants the car as it is set up and also understands the time and costs involved in getting the car
as it is. I think it's important to not "personalize" the mods
to much, for example finding someone that likes bright yellow
interior accents in a baby blue exterior car might be more difficult than if everything was alittle toned down. The various ground effect, body moulding styles, same thing. Some of the rear bumper body work I've seen looks good, but weighed against the fact that it turns the bumper into a moulded drag parachute, it has less appeal. The cars that this board is about, the ones already there, and the ones on the way, IMO, have great resale value to someone who wants to buy in. You just need to find someone who is more into buying something "done" than a project, and in particular wants to buy the one you've "done"

[pimp86LX]

ihear what your sayin, but modifications are all about being personal and different. Would you rather have a civic or 'rex or 'lude that all looks the same? or would you have a nice older 3g that not too many people personalize. Hell you could even put some Nate-Made stickers on there :D Its all about origniality

It comes down to the ricer appeal. Something looks 'cool' so everyone does it. If you talk to the elder generation that customized car's you'd be hard pressed to find a guy who copied everyone else (performance parts omitted, i'm talkin looks/cosmetics)

i think if you resell something like that, you have to find someone who can appreciate it

[tk89acc]

That a hard question. One time at a red light a guy said he would give me 5 grand for the car.

[doug]

pimp, I don't disagree with much you say, but modifications go down many paths. I'm saying that you run the risk of narrowing the appeal for your particular car the more you body style it to
your specs. What's under the body, if of quality and proper setup will appeal to most all, it's the "looks" of the car that's gonna cap it. For instance, take 2 hatchbacks that have the same identical killer physical setup, i.e engine, headers, wheels, tires, exhaust, and so forth, one is body styled to the owners personal tastes, while the other one looks remarkablely "quiet stock" IMO the quiet stock look will appeal to a bigger audience. You'll have to find people that want a damn nice hatch, and also like your tastes in body style to sell the body styled one, whereas you only have to find people that want a damn nice hatch with the tame one. The styled one should get more money, but then again that depends on if there is someone that likes the look. In any event the third generation Accords, as popular as they are today, will increase in popularity and value, so if you own a good copy, treat it with respect.

[pimp86LX]

lol thats what i was tryin to say, i was just sayin mod's are personal

no worries


:super:

[YK86]

I totally agree with all the points made here. Realistically, I would put my 86 in the paper for $5000 CAD obo to start (about $3700 US) which is roughly the price for a stock 89 EX-i around here which I think is pretty reasonable (after getting the paint fixed). I would hope to get between $4000-$4750. But I look at my car and think "Is my car worth more than $5000 to me??" and the answer is yes. That's why I never sold it when I bought my new car. Everytime I drive it, I think about how I made it to fit me and most people probably won't appriciate all the small things I did. They'll be more busy pointing out all the points they don't like to bring the price down. And I pretty much knew I would never get my money back when I did the body kit and stuff back in 98 (which is also why I chose Maaco LOL) so in my head, I knew I would keep this car for a while.

[phatazzDX]

I would ask $2500 for mine and settle for $2000, $200 more than I paid 3 months ago. The paint and body is great but the pass wheel well is rusted out. :burn: Hey, it's worth it! How many 14 yr old 4 cylinder cars that can still do 115 MPH with 141,000 miles on them? Do that with a Cavilier! :321:

[SteveDX89]

I totally agree with the posts about mods being personal. Modifying a car is a personal experience. You're own ideas go into modding a car. It's one of the things that make the car yours and no one elses. If you try to sell it, you will never recoup the cost and effort to any single mod unless it's a free and easy one such as our clear bumper lenses. I feel that buying a car that's been hooked up by someone else is dumb. There is a complete lack of originality in that. If you want to sell your car, strip all your custom stuff, restore the car to stock, sell the car, and then sell all your custom stuff to people who have the same car. If one custom part goes here and one goes there, you won't find a car just like yours. A car that's modded has no real significance over stock ones in the used car marketplace. If you trade one in, you get nothing on the mods. I've even seen some that were cheaper than stock were being sold.

Bottom line: Don't sell your modded car with the mods still on it. It will be a loss, no matter how you slice it.

[87accordlxi]

i agree. mods will lower the selling price for at least two reasons.. 1) they suggest that the car was driven hard, and 2) they dont have the same reputation for reliability that OEM parts have.

unless you find a private buyer who has the same tastes as you and is willing to pay a premium for your mods. which is inconceivable to me because theres no originality in that and it still doesnt make up for the fact that the car was most likely driven hard

[guaynabo89]

Realisticly I could probably get about 4500-5000 for my car. I would only sell it if someone gave me around 15,000.;)

[sanjay]

You guys have all made valid points, but another major point is the fact that, there are lots of younger guys out there who want to "do up" their own accord in their own way. Why would they buy an existing accord that's already done up? and most probably driven to the max?
Price. - Its because we put in the 10's of 1000's... and they pay 1/20th of what we pay. But in the end. Its the learning experience that matters. They didn't spend 3 hours trying to get out the stock head unit only to find that there was 1 screw still screwed in the back. They didn't spend 2 hours; washing, polishing and admiring the car proudly out the front of their houses. They never experienced the feeling when you get a new part for your car and you feel what affect it has on it. They never heard the first new tunes out of the new sound system and sat there listening to the music for so long until the battery ran out of life! - We've all enjoyed the learning experience. I think Mike is right.
The reward is in the journey!

[A20A1]

Originally posted by tk89acc
That a hard question. One time at a red light a guy said he would give me 5 grand for the car.


I would too... if I had the money

[TeKKnoTeKK]

That is halfway true sanjay....sure there are those that want to mod their own car, but there are those that want a car that is already tricked out. I could see just as many people buying a car thats already modded compared to one that is not. Think about it, when someone sees a car that they like they are usually willing to pay more for it than something that is kind of what they want.

[dXsquared]

hey Tekno Tekk... wheres my 311 sticker???

Travis

[Sabz5150]

More than you can afford pal, 3g Accord!

Seriously, I put her price at about 2000. But it'll take more than that to get it out of my hands :D

-5150

[Y3G]

i had my car apprazed not to long ago(changed insurance companys)they said for the work,condition,age of the car the estimated value of my car is $4700.00.i neerly s*** my pants i thought it would be a little higher than normal($1200-3000 in this area)but not that much

[Elijah]

I put atleast 10 in it so I would say I should beable to get 65 or 7 for it I would hope.Rims NX lots of little and big mods.The list goes on it would take awhile just to think of everything.

[Shifty]

my car is only worth about $10 hehe... it came damaged and still is damaged.. reckon some teenagers had it before me coz they strapped the hell out of it... my engine is about to fall apart !

[blazin3gen]

damn can i see some pics lol

[DBMaster]

My philosophy on the car's "worth" is more esoteric. How much would it cost you to have another car that is in similar condition and is as reliable as yours? I have see three year old cars that were worse on both counts than my 89 LXi. If my car were totaled today age and mileage dictates that it's worth $2,000-3,000. I doubt I would have much luck duplicating my car for that money.

With my income level I would probably end up going out and getting either something new, or no more than 2-3 years old and most likely it would be another Accord or other Honda model. Then, I would have at least four years worth of $350-400 monthly payments. Since I rarely have to spend anything on my car you can see that it is worth A LOT more to me than what I could sell it for.

[DBMaster]

I should have mentioned that since I no longer carry collision on my car any more for the reason I mentioned above. It's not worth the amount of money it costs to fight to collect $2,500 if the car is totaled due to my fault.

[88LXI]

i would sell for 4000 and not look back

http://images.cardomain.com/member_img_b/268000-268999/268775_1_full.jpg

http://images.cardomain.com/member_img_b/268000-268999/268775_25_full.jpg

[Blue Impact]

More than $4500 cuz money can't buy love, my friends. I love my car, period.

[Mike89Accordcom]

It all depends on condition of car, mileage, interior, etc. My car I'm selling for around $6K. But you always take a huge loss when hooking up a car like crazy, and then trying to sell years later. You just have to sometimes eat some $$$ and think that hey, I did enjoy the car and that's what matters.

[zero.counter]

It's staying with me as long as I can keep it. Sentimental value is priceless, IMO.

[zero.counter]

Originally posted by 88LXI
i would sell for 4000 and not look back

http://images.cardomain.com/member_img_b/268000-268999/268775_1_full.jpg

http://images.cardomain.com/member_img_b/268000-268999/268775_25_full.jpg
Now that is an especially nice automobile you have there. Very clean, I must add.