Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General General do you think i am asking to much.......

I am trying to sell my car to buy a truck for work and trying to sell it on ebay for 12,500 and i was wondering if that is too much to ask for. I just put in 2500 for rims and tires about 2-3 months ago and i also just repainted it right as i got my wheels. I have not been getting alot of emails or anything. One person asked questions but then i told him the reserve and he never emailed me back. I am just curious what you think????

my car on ebay

New paint and wheels won't matter to a normal person as the car is still only going to be worth x amount of dollars. Might make a difference to an enthusiast but that is about it.

Its like my VW... book value is only 1400 but with what i've done to it i wouldn't ask a penny less than 4000 for it as it sits and its not even done yet. Once i'm done with the motor swap i wouldn't ask less than 8000. A normal person isn't going to care that it will have a 1.8T swap with SDS and a 6 speed. They will see it as a 85 Golf and think the price is rediculous.

At the same time, a lot of enthusiasts want to make their car their own, not just a continuation of what somebody else has done. Additionally, a modified car gives the impression that the car has been driven hard and may be selling for mechanical reasons.

At any rate, $12,000 is way too much considering you can get a '99 SVT for as low as $7000 nowadays.

The unfortunate bottom line is that it's only worth what someone will pay for it.
Your car is verrrry nice to many, especially on these boards, but not everyone sees it that way.
My car is worth more to me than the $1000 I was offered by the dealer where I bought it. I know that if I were to trade it anywhere it'll be headed for the auction block. Sure, it's basically stock, and hasn't even turned 100K yet (200 more miles to go!), but I wouldn't part with it for peanuts.

You'll be lucky to get 8-9k for it. (it does have new paint, but is a truly a good paint job?)

It's fairly low miles for a 98, but that's still 6-7 years old for a car that never sold for face value off the showroom floor.

Also the rims & tires do nothing for 99.999% of the people interested in a car like this. Matter of fact they would actually lower it's value IMO. No lie...

You are significantly better off putting the stock rims back on it and keeping or selling those (no comment) rims.

I have to agree with everyone else. The price is high. If you were to sell things seperate, wheels and tires, car, stereo, etc. you would most likely get more money then selling it all together. Speaking from my own perspective, I look for cars that are mostly, if not completely stock. I know that it was driven on factor settings with factory equipment. I then do things myself, cause then I have the satisfaction of knowing that the work done was done by me, and done my way. It's an ownership thing. People like for things to be "theirs" especially those who customize cars as you have done. Custom to oneself, that's the goal IMO.

Everybody here pretty much answered the question. There's something else - don't forget that you are selling your car, not buying - meaning that you are almost always getting a price that's lower than if you were out there to buy. Also, all the stuff you put in is not really gonna raise its value. I would say 7 grand is the top price u can hope for. Sorry to disappoint though...

I agree with everyone here. It is an extremely rare occasion that you will get any of the money you spend on mods back when you sell a car. A good general rule is this: total up all the money you spend on modifications and multiply the sum by zero. That's what you normally get back.

The car is very nice indeed, but you might wanna take off the rims and sell them outright and re-install the original ones, if you have them Alot of people who are lookin' for these kind of cars want something pretty close to stock, this way they can make it their own ride. The only way someone would want your car the way it is if they were buying it from out of state, this way, nobody knows it at all. The most unfortunate part of the story is this, when they discontinued the Contour it really killed the resale value, this is why I'm holding on to my car for awhile and making it as nice as possible BTW, I don't know if you wrote it up that way, but it says the car was repainted the original color but with metalflakes in the paint. That color is NOT the original color, even w/o the metalflakes. Like I said earlier, it does appear to be tastefully done, but expect to be talked down a bit, probably in the area of $10,000 or so. Not tryin' to put your ride down, but its just the harsh reality of owning a Contour and then trying to sell it