[Bigjohnson97]

I am looking to sell my 08 335i to upgrade to something new but it is in need of a new water pump and I don’t have the time to take care of it right now. Other then the water pump everything is in great shape car is really clean and pulls strong it has 124k miles. Similar 335’s in my area are going for 8-10k on marketplace I want to sell it for a fair price not try to screw the next owner. Any advice to a good sell price?

[Mosaud1998]

Originally Posted by Bigjohnson97

I am looking to sell my 08 335i to upgrade to something new but it is in need of a new water pump and I don’t have the time to take care of it right now. Other then the water pump everything is in great shape car is really clean and pulls strong it has 124k miles. Similar 335’s in my area are going for 8-10k on marketplace I want to sell it for a fair price not try to screw the next owner. Any advice to a good sell price?

I'd take off $1k because that roughly how much it would cost to get a water pump put in. So, $7k?

[Tunafish]

Its hard to sell a car with issues.. Best to do the repair work first.. You might see the those prices but doesnt mean they are selling.

I view a car that needs work the same as a salvage car. Who ever buying it is going to take a gamble that 1. Issue is only water pump 2. Water pump failure did do other damages.. I take 25% off of retail for salvage/needs work cars.. I also value car assuming a coupe at $7000 with those miles and no issues(less for sedan, more for hardtop) .. With that a fair asking price would be $5000 to $5500 and again that is an expensive gamble..

[Bimmer_Engineer]

I agree with tuna...you’re better off fixing the water pump before you sell...

[E92William]

If I was buying a used car that supposedly "just needs a water pump" I'm going to want to be into the car cheap enough to pay for a Headgasket job if necessary. Because well most of the time the supposedly little issues that are supposedly cheap fixes didn't get done by the previous owner because they weren't so little or cheap.. this is not the case for you but from an outside view that's what it looks like. Fix it and then you can brag about it having a new water pump in the listing and leverage yourself when haggling.

[rick100]

agree, you gotta fix the water pump in order to get market value. Otherwise take out 2k off the price. Very few people would want to buy a car that is not driveable , unless they can get some crazy deal. So if the average value is 8k in your area, you are probably looking at 6k or less. It will also be a hard sell.

You have to put urself in the buyers position, the car can not be driven , so they can not even test drive the car, so they have to assumed a 1k minimum to get the car running , best case scenario, but its a used car, so they ll probably think worst case scenario.

Lastly , what you see in market value may be what people around your area want for the car, it doesnt mean what the car is actually going for. Most of these private sales people online want unrealistic numbers for their cars and they end up selling for a lot less. I tend to go with a used dealer price for a similar car minus 500$.

[marvinstockman]

Whatever price you come up with, assume the buyer is going to want to bargain with you. I'd post a price that was, say, 10% above your selling price. If you get no offers at that price, come down in price.

That said, has the car ever actually overheated?

[Bigjohnson97]

Originally Posted by marvinstockman

Whatever price you come up with, assume the buyer is going to want to bargain with you. I'd post a price that was, say, 10% above your selling price. If you get no offers at that price, come down in price.

That said, has the car ever actually overheated?

No never overheated I took it in to the shop because the water pump was making a rattle noise they told me it was on its last leg I already have a Daily and iv already put enough into maintenance etc I’m just not invested in it enough to drop 1k into it just to sell it right after

[Bigjohnson97]

Originally Posted by rick100

agree, you gotta fix the water pump in order to get market value. Otherwise take out 2k off the price. Very few people would want to buy a car that is not driveable , unless they can get some crazy deal. So if the average value is 8k in your area, you are probably looking at 6k or less. It will also be a hard sell.

You have to put urself in the buyers position, the car can not be driven , so they can not even test drive the car, so they have to assumed a 1k minimum to get the car running , best case scenario, but its a used car, so they ll probably think worst case scenario.

Lastly , what you see in market value may be what people around your area want for the car, it doesnt mean what the car is actually going for. Most of these private sales people online want unrealistic numbers for their cars and they end up selling for a lot less. I tend to go with a used dealer price for a similar car minus 500$.

Yeah that’s why I asked on here I don’t want to put any more into it I don’t really need the car but I want to be fair to who ever buys it from me. It’s not about not making full value for the car I just don’t need it but don’t want to still make a fair price for it

[rick100]

Originally Posted by Bigjohnson97

Yeah that’s why I asked on here I don’t want to put any more into it I don’t really need the car but I want to be fair to who ever buys it from me. It’s not about not making full value for the car I just don’t need it but don’t want to still make a fair price for it

Someone willing to buy a car with a broken part ( 1000$ part) that makes it not drivable is looking to get a steal of a deal , usually a mechanic/ DIY or someone that knows these cars enough to know that its not really a big deal but he is going to make it sound like a big deal to get a really good price

You are going to deal with people bargaining hard to get it for some unrealistic price, they are going to make it sound like the car is a salvage car and they are doing you a favor. Personally , I much rather spend the 800-1000 bucks and at least get the car running , you ll have much less of a headache trying to sell the car.


I had to sell my mazda 3 in 2010 , the car had 2 accidents, in reality they were just rear bumper replacements , each one under 2500$ . The car was driving mint , no issues at all. I just didnt need the car . Some people were trying to tell me my car lost 50% of market value because of the accident, some were even treating it was a salvage car. Bad , bad experience. That's the main reason I do not want to sell my BMW , I really do not want to deal with those type of people anymore , I ll rather drive it until it falls apart and then sell it for 1000$, at that price range people dont ask too many questions. At the end my mazda 3 sold for 4k asking price, it was a good price , it took a while , but it was such a relief when it sold. I was about to keep the car forever if I had to deal with that nonsense for another week

My mazda was 4000$ and people were even bitching about little scratches FFS, like they expecting a brand new car for 4000k

[Bimmer_Engineer]

I hate dealing with people buying used cars...but when I’m buying I’m the same way...

Everybody likes a good deal...

[stewbets]

Originally Posted by Bigjohnson97

I want to sell it for a fair price not try to screw the next owner.

I don't really think there's a fair or unfair price. There is only honesty and dishonesty. At the end of the day, you can ask whatever you want and people can offer whatever they want. And if you both agree and neither of you knowingly deceived the other, it's a good transaction. If I were you, I'd list it now, share all the pertinent details, and shoot for the moon with my asking price. And if this proves to be too annoying of a process, then I'd consider getting it fixed and trying again.

[Bigjohnson97]

Originally Posted by stewbets

I don't really think there's a fair or unfair price. There is only honesty and dishonesty. At the end of the day, you can ask whatever you want and people can offer whatever they want. And if you both agree and neither of you knowingly deceived the other, it's a good transaction. If I were you, I'd list it now, share all the pertinent details, and shoot for the moon with my asking price. And if this proves to be too annoying of a process, then I'd consider getting it fixed and trying again.

Absolutely agree

[Smgs1992]

Originally Posted by rick100

Someone willing to buy a car with a broken part ( 1000$ part) that makes it not drivable is looking to get a steal of a deal , usually a mechanic/ DIY or someone that knows these cars enough to know that its not really a big deal but he is going to make it sound like a big deal to get a really good price

You are going to deal with people bargaining hard to get it for some unrealistic price, they are going to make it sound like the car is a salvage car and they are doing you a favor. Personally , I much rather spend the 800-1000 bucks and at least get the car running , you ll have much less of a headache trying to sell the car.


I had to sell my mazda 3 in 2010 , the car had 2 accidents, in reality they were just rear bumper replacements , each one under 2500$ . The car was driving mint , no issues at all. I just didnt need the car . Some people were trying to tell me my car lost 50% of market value because of the accident, some were even treating it was a salvage car. Bad , bad experience. That's the main reason I do not want to sell my BMW , I really do not want to deal with those type of people anymore , I ll rather drive it until it falls apart and then sell it for 1000$, at that price range people dont ask too many questions. At the end my mazda 3 sold for 4k asking price, it was a good price , it took a while , but it was such a relief when it sold. I was about to keep the car forever if I had to deal with that nonsense for another week

My mazda was 4000$ and people were even bitching about little scratches FFS, like they expecting a brand new car for 4000k

I dealt with people like that when i was trying to sell my dirtbike. You got people offering you next to nothing or wanting to trade their junk. I had to block a couple people who really wanted it but wouldnt/couldnt pay my asking price of $1000
Had to stand my ground and wait it out till i finally found the right buyer. Took a couple months but i got what i wanted out of it and he seemed happy.
He also happened to have a E36 M3 i told him if he ever wants to sell i’d be interested in buying it.

[tlow98]

Either put the $1k in it or be prepared to lose $4k in the selling process.

Non running cars = mechanic’s special.

[Buug959]

I bought my '08 335xi in July 2020 with 100k miles on the clock. It is in fantastic condition except... the seller was selling it "as is" with a leaking VCG and leaking rear shocks. I paid $4k CDN. It was worth $8900CDN in KBB at the time. Neither of the problems with my car are nearly as expensive or as much of a PITA as a water pump replacement. Perhaps my experience will help with your decision to replace the water pump and t-stat and get a decent price for your car. A $2k return on a $1k investment is pretty good money in my mind.

[tcphoto]

You can spend $1K now and sell it quicker for market value or do nothing, wait longer for the brave buyer and potentially lose twice that.

[clegg]

What does the car look like? Any pics? Where in CA are you located?

[matamua]

Originally Posted by Bigjohnson97

I am looking to sell my 08 335i to upgrade to something new but it is in need of a new water pump and I don’t have the time to take care of it right now. Other then the water pump everything is in great shape car is really clean and pulls strong it has 124k miles. Similar 335’s in my area are going for 8-10k on marketplace I want to sell it for a fair price not try to screw the next owner. Any advice to a good sell price?

Would need to know more about how the car is optioned. E92 with coral interior and a 6spd? Maybe you'll fetch that.

I bought my 2007 e93 335i with literally half the miles (62k), a ton of maintenance items already out of the way (turbos done 30k ago, index 12s, hpfp, etc) and I only spent $8500 in June of 2019.

If I knew your car needed a water pump, I definitely wouldn't be paying $8k.

[Gamb1t]

Why do you want to set yourself up for failure. Just fix everything that needs to be addressed. Ask yourself would you buy your car if you saw it as-is for the price you are asking? Present the car well and sell at a good price. I just sold one of my 330i and made $2000 profit after a few years of driving.
Why? Because I made sure the car is in good condition and presented it well. Buyer came saw it, drove it and paid full asking price all in a span of 2hrs from "Hello" -> $$ in pocket. My listing was highest of all the e90s for that year too.

[e90yyc]

Not much to add here, but while I can appreciate not wanting to spend money on a car you're trying to sell, the idea of not doing $1000 worth of work only to lose more than that doesn't make sense to me. I could understand that position if you were looking for a quick sale and were okay with (substantially) less than market value, but the whole premise of this post was to determine a fair price.

So, no matter how you look at it, you can get what it's worth—it just so happens that "it's worth" a helluva lot less when the prospective buyer can't test drive it.

GLWS for sure either way. And I can totally sympathize with people who've had terrible experiences selling cars to completely unrealistic buyers, so I hope your experience is better!

[Bigjohnson97]

Originally Posted by Gamb1t

Why do you want to set yourself up for failure. Just fix everything that needs to be addressed. Ask yourself would you buy your car if you saw it as-is for the price you are asking? Present the car well and sell at a good price. I just sold one of my 330i and made $2000 profit after a few years of driving.
Why? Because I made sure the car is in good condition and presented it well. Buyer came saw it, drove it and paid full asking price all in a span of 2hrs from "Hello" -> $$ in pocket. My listing was highest of all the e90s for that year too.

I’m not really worried about the profit just wanted to see opinions on what people thought a good selling price would be with the circumstances