Just past a year with my Focus and starting to get wandering eyes… Bigger estate, people carrier or possibly a Bongo all beckoning. But just trying to get a handle on what this one’s worth at private sale, anyone got any idea? I’m figuring somewhere within £500 of £1200 but that’s as close as I dare guess…

It’s a pepper red 52 plate estate with roofbars, 1.8 TDDI LX (Mk 1.5). 115000 miles. Still on original clutch and DMF but no mechanical issues. Clean MOT today with no advisories, 3 months tax. Has roofbars, CD player (with multichanger facility but no changer), cloth interior- all standard LX stuff I think. Some service history but not much.

Interior is very tidy for its age, no rips or damage other than slight wear around the driver door. Exterior is reasonable- has a few scratches and bits of paint damage, a couple of small cracks in the rear bumper, chips in the front bumper, and a dent in the tailgate which doesn’t effect operation. Fair bit of kerbing on the original 15 inch alloys. Wing mirrors are mismatched! one is body coloured but scratched, one is pattern and black. Might sort that first!

Only real faults- air con doesn’t work (undiagnosed) and the rear boot key doesn’t work (has to be opened with the remote or the electric opener on the dash, the lock barrel is jammed). It’s just had new disks, pads, and front brake pipes. Also just tidied it up underneath for cosmetic rust and did a load of rustproofing but nothing structural or threatening to become structural. And has both keys.

Oh and it’s had 5 owners from new.

Any ideas?

look on autotrader site. you can find similar cars to yours and that will give you a good idea of what to aim for.

If mint, I’d reckon pushing £2k probably…

With the faults you’ve listed, you’re not likely to find many private buyers willing to fix things themselves, so probably think around £800-£1k I’d say.

I’d get the faults fixed for a hundred quid or so though, and stick it on the trader for bit less than £2k and you’ll probably sell it very quickly…

The faults aren’t fixable for a sensible price (basically all the minor/economic stuff is already done)… Well, aircon might be but it’s a £50 gamble to find out. Getting a new lock matched to the keys is too expensive to be worthwhile for the small benefit (and as a buyer I’d consider mismatched keys a real turnoff). Think I’ll sort the mirrors though, easy enough (I don’t like spraying but it’ll be worth it I reckon)

Autotrader and Ebay are where I get my wild average from, really does seem to be all over the place… Plus it’s hard to tell what money really changed hands. I paid £1200 for it a year ago which turned out to come with some free wiring faults and iffy brakes (on an iffy brand new MOT, grr). But I’ve put 15000 miles on it and some more scratches so I’d be happy enough with a grand I reckon…

Cheers folks, it’s helpful