I found a seemingly nice 2000 323iT wagon w/Sport Premium. 64K miles on the odo. It is very well kept. Body and interior is very very nice. It appears to run fine. All electrical is working.

Bad points: curb rash around outer edge of rims. That might cost a bit to fix. A couple of door dings. No biggie. And, the most troubling to me is that they apparently only got oil changes and service at 15K intervals. Is that the normal interval? Plus, they say there has been no service reminder for the 60K "Inspection II" service yet, so they haven't gotten it. But, the car is at 64K. Is that possible?

The owner is asking almost $17K, too high I know. Edmunds suggests $14,700 for private party. I was thinking of offering $14.7, as Edmunds suggests. But, I will undoubtedly get stuck with the Inpection II service shortly, plus the cost to repair the wheels and dings. (It could also use a good detail, even though it is in excellent shape.)

What do you guys think is a fair price? I'd appreciate your advice. (FYI, this is in the Silicon Valley area, if that helps.)

I would also suggest checking Kbb.com for the private value. I know that for some makes the value can differ a few grand from edmunds on a $6000 car. I would think fair for both sides would be the average between the two (or you could always just quote him the lower price and say "this is what edmunds/kbb says" and show him the printout. I would also say it's fair to knock the price of the 60k service off because it should have been done, and you will have to do it. These are reasonable requests if you look at it from both sides, if he doesn't want to knock off the 60k service price that's just plain rude and I would not want to to business with someone like that.

Thanks. Sounds like good advice. I was thinking of something similar myself.
Edmunds $14.7k
KBB $16.1k
Diff $1.4k
Split $15.4k

I was thinking of offering $15.4 on the condition that he has the 60K service and full int/ext detailing done. That way, I can incorporate those costs into my loan.

BMW suggests 15,000 miles for oil change, 30,000 miles for service. They use synthetic oil, so you can do that. When you do the service, the computer is reset to count down another 15,000 for oil, and another 15,000 for service. Going a little late a couple times will add on a few thousand miles to this. I wouldn't be too concerned. The oil is still brown at 15,000 miles.

Edmunds and KBB only do so much. On rare cars, they simply aren't right. E30 M3s, M Coupes, 318tis, all have book value thousands less than they are actually worth. Wagons aren't common, so there is a good chance it is the same way. I wouldn't trust the numbers you see online. However, it would be for your own good to use them if they are that much lower. Print out the report, show it to the owner, and use it to try and talk them down.

Thanks. I sent him my offer of $15.4k with him paying for 60K. I also told him the shop would apply the money I pay for the pre-purchase inspection towards his 60K fee. But, I haven't heard back. I guess he didn't like the offer, not even enough to comment on it.

Gary,

Sounds like you're doing all of the right stuff in terms of trying to do a private-party deal. If you want to go the dealer route, I would suggest that you contact Steve Hill (see below) at Stevens Creek BMW. He could probably find you a nice CPO wagon.

I'm not a shill for this dealership - these guys are actually clients of mine and treated me very well on my car.

Best of luck,

Bill


Steve "Papa" Hill
Sales Department Manager
Stevens Creek BMW
4343 Stevens Creek Blvd.
Santa Clara, Ca. 95051
(408) 961-3142 direct
(408) 985-4563 fax
steve.hill@scbmw.com
Website: www.bmwbypapa.com