Strategies for selling a low value modified car

So, I've been trying to sell my 2.4 swapped Neon for a little bit now, and haven't had any serious bites.  I went with the idea of trying to stick with forums/pages where there is more likely to be interest (here, neon and rallycross related FB pages), rather than blasting it to all of craigslist and FB marketplace in order to stick to enthusiasts who'd be more interested in it.  I know mods don't always add value, unless they are something someone is specifically looking for, so I tried to price it reasonably, but maybe it's still too high, or I'm too impatient.

The problem is, I really want to get this thing gone soon, preferably by mid-October, but I'm not really willing to drop the price anymore, as I think I'd rather keep it versus selling it for less than I currently have it listed for.  I know I could make a decent amount on a full part out, but the car is in too good of shape to do that, and I really don't want to go through that much effort, as I don't have a ton of time.   Any suggestions?

One idea I've had is to partially de-mod the car.  Maybe over a weekend, I could pull the Corbeau seat, pull the skidplate, hack the support braces on the stock hood, and reinstall it so the car presents better.  I suspect I could sell the seat, the skidplate, the rallycross tires, and some of the spares for at least $500.  Then maybe I could try to sell the car for $1500?  Does that sound viable?  Should I just be patient and hope for the right buyer to come along?  Is my ad on the board not a good one?  The ones I put up on the enthusiast FB pages are similar.

Part it out. 

I've bought and sold cars regularly for the last 15 years, only one solid lead generated from enthusiast forums in that time. 

Post it on teh Champcar forum?

Weird stuff takes a long time to sell- I think there might be a buyer somewhere at that price, but you may have to wait months for them.  I've had a number of vehicles sit for sale for months and eventually go for asking price when the right person finally sees them at the right time.

Agree, this is a rally car so it could take forever to sell. Also, fixing the problem which is making the CEL throw might help it sell as well?

You need to listen to Joshua.  The only winning move is not to play. 

This is why I don't sell cars.

How about a nice game of chess?

I would piece it out, put it back to as stock as you can, and list it as a beater with a heater (hope the heat still works) with no mention of the mods.  Sell the good parts out separate.

Let me know if you want to sell the Scangauge separate, hit me up with price shipped to 53110

If someone wanted a starter kit for SMF, this might not be a terrible choice for cheap fun.  I have too many cars as it is however so you'd have to take an iffy RX-8 in trade for me to take it.

I need to dig into the CEL, but it may just be an artifact of the cobbled together parts.  I've checked, and AFAIK, the CEL shouldn't be triggering, based on the status of the cams.

I'd forgotten about the scangauge, that'd be easy to remove and sell.

I'm not sure if the champcar guys would like it (price may be too high), but I may take a look into it.

I no longer have the original engine, so there is a limit to how stock it can go.  If I really wanted to put a ton of effort into it, I could pull the Quaiffe, but that seems fairly extreme.  And since I haven't been able to fix the off idle surge, I'm not sure how much demand there would be for a non-enthusiast to deal with it.

Doing a full part out just won't happen in the timeframe I have. 

Hmm, an iffy RX-8 could be tempting, if it weren't for the fact I'm trying to reduce the car count.  I have one vehicle parked on the street, and want to eliminate that ahead of winter.

If I could find a place to stash it for a while where it wouldn't rapidly deteriorate from sitting (or cost much), it'd be tempting to do something like switch back to the stock suspension, and use it to try out a trackday, or go the opposite, lift it, put on A/T tires, drive it to the Arctic Circle, then trick it out for Wasteland Weekend or something.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

Weird stuff takes a long time to sell

Amen to that. 

You are onto something with the partial partout.  If you can get it near-stock, but still driveable, and sell off the rest, you will probably get someone interested.  Not everyone has the same dream.  At the very least, it will look much better with a stock-appearing hood.

I read this and chuckled. 

I really want to get this thing gone soon, preferably by mid-October, but I'm not really willing to drop the price

At some point you will have to make a choice. 

dean1484 said:

I read this and chuckled. 

I really want to get this thing gone soon, preferably by mid-October, but I'm not really willing to drop the price

 

At some point you will have to make a choice. 

I know.  I think the issue is that the price I've got it at is the "might was well hold onto it rather than sell it cheaper" price. 

Part out or wait it out with cheap cars. 

Maybe start by putting it in the $2018 classifieds? I check them daily. I forget the  open classifieds are there.

That said, I feel your pain. Apparently I LITERALLY can’t GIVE my integra away.

In reply to poopshovel again :

Asked the moderators to move the thread to the $2018 Classifieds. 

I really shouldn't ask, but what year Integra?  I have a bit of a soft spot for 1st gens.

eastsideTim said:

If I could find a place to stash it for a while where it wouldn't rapidly deteriorate from sitting (or cost much), it'd be tempting to do ...

 

I know a nice driveway about an hour north of you. And someone that could drive it to work a few days a week :)

I'm a bit tempted to buy it just to have some extra parts for my ITA car. If it were caged I would say it would be a perfect start for a Champcar team. It would take time/effort but you will get the most money back out of it by parting it out. Honestly I think you could get near your asking price for the car in just selling off all the rally bits, diff, Mopar ECU, Scangauge, seat, etc. 

It is a fairly small market segment that you're addressing.  There isn't the traffic that used to be there, but neons.org would be another place to post it unless you did and I just didn't see it.  You might get some interest on craigslist, but I'd price it a little bit higher than your bottom dollar and offer it without the rally tires - those you should be able to sell fairly easily on their own, I'd think.  

What about taking it to Nationals?  You might have some luck as a Rallycross "easy button" if you could say that it finished 5th out of 25 MF entries or something along those lines.

If you do decide on a part-out, I might have interest in some bits that you've got, although I'm spending a chunk of my racecar budget on the daily driver and the motorhome right now.  If I wasn't doing that, I'd actually strongly consider buying the whole thing to re-body my motor and suspension.

Bring it to Carlisle for the Fall show.  There aren't tons of folks at the Fall show looking for a Neon, but probably plenty.  The real time to sell a swapped FWD car would be the Sports and Imports show in May, but at least the car will be surrounded by 60,000 hotrodders and car people.

No need to pay for a spot in the show.  Just park it somewhere in town near a gate with a for sale sign and your number and go walk around the fairgrounds, or get a bite to eat.

eastsideTim said:

In reply to poopshovel again :

Asked the moderators to move the thread to the $2018 Classifieds. 

I really shouldn't ask, but what year Integra?  I have a bit of a soft spot for 1st gens.

It’s a 91. (DA)

In reply to cghstang :

I don't think you'd like my rules for usage of it.  It hasn't seen salted roads since I bought it, and I want to keep it that way

In reply to enginenerd :

I went ahead and updated the post to offer selling off some parts as long as the car stays intact.

In reply to poopshovel again :

Thank goodness, I was never really a huge fan of that generation.

In reply to wae :

If I still have it in late October, maybe we should try to work something out.

One thing that has worked for me is trading the car off for a similarly valued (or slightly lesser valued) vehicle that has a high desirability. I did this for the Miata, ended up keeping the Miata though!

Ive sold a bunch of weird old musical gear and i can tell you.....at a certain point you just need to trade it for something more sellable or keep it and sell it later.

I mean....i have some of the rarest Peavey amps in the world and they would be a super hard sell because not many have heard of the Vulcan in all its awesomeness (although there has been a few for sale for $1800. Wheni bought mine 8 were known to exist)

Oddball cars are hard to move along, it took me 6 months to sell an RX 7 I no longer wanted. It needed a little work and was priced appropriately. I had dozens of texts from people supposedly interested in it, but only one person actually came to see it and he bought it on the spot. Maybe try and fix the things that don't cost too much or jack the price up and fix it so it can just drive away. I tend to try not to spend anything on a car I am getting rid of, even spending too much time on it makes me feel like I am losing more money on it. Choose a price point you are happy with, list it for a little more so you can drop the price and hang tough.