I'm going to sell my car, but it needs some engine work.. Should I try to sell it privately or to a dealer?
I have a 2003 Ford Focus SE sedan with about 150k miles on it, and I'm about to inherit a family car that is quite a bit nicer so I'm looking to sell the Ford.
The problem is that the Focus has been shaking a little while idling--I took it to two repair places and they both said the compression was bad in one of the cylinders. This will be an expensive fix for whoever would buy the car as I'm told it involves rebuilding the engine.
For our purposes here, I'm not interested really in whether the repair diagnosis is right; I just want to know, assuming there really is a major issue with the car, what my chances are of selling it for anything decent on autotrader/ebay (I've seen similar cars without engine issues sell for around $3500). Or should I just take it to a local dealer (where I expect to get maybe $1500 for it)?
Obviously, I want as much as I can get for it, but I don't want to list it without mentioning the engine problems. Thanks!
You will get more money from a private sale. Its just going to take longer to sell. If the time isn't an issue go for the private sale.
