What is the best way to sell a Z4 Alpina

B

Benj1

Member
Hi there All.
I've tried to sell my 2006 Z4 Alpina, in silver with black leather, many times over the past year. I've used auctions on all occasions and have had no luck. Admittedly the car has done 154k miles but is in lovely condition with a great history. Even with a reserve of £9k it has failed to sell. I'm offering it again via Mathewsons online selling but please tell me - what am I doing wrong ?
Thanks.
Ben
 
Well, posting in the wrong part of the forum for starters :P

I am afraid it is simply a case of price. I would not spend £9k for an Alpina with that mileage.
 
Thanks to the British market's obsession with mileage, you are unfortunately restricted to a tiny audience even if condition is perfect.

But at £9k you will find a buyer. Put a classified advert up on here, Pistonheads, eBay, AT and carandclassic.
 
FWIW, if I were ever in that market it would be an Alpina over an M every day.
Why drive a Ferrari when you can be classy and drive a Maserati.
 
Hello Ben, it is a rare car with a mileage that although not high in terms of the age of the vehicle is enough to worry a UK buyer, our American and European cousins do not bother so much. A 103000-mile Alpina on Autotrader is £14000 so your price is not unreasonable. The car is not well presented, the worn-out BMW badge, the rusty numberplate bolts, and the Halford battery, as pointed out by Mathewsons, do nothing for the car and you could fix this quite cheaply. Although she has no insurance category, the passenger wing-to-door line does not look right and the rear passenger wing is going to need rectification. I would budget around £1000. Get her back and place a long-term ad in Autotrader or auction her on Ebay would be my advice. Good luck, it is a good-looking rare car so be patient.
 
Having seen the car on matthewsons id say 9k is a bargain. Get it listed on here and it should go. Super rare car and very cheap. Mileage is not the enemy of a car as long as it’s maintained!
 
Having owned a few Alpina's, the market for them is very small indeed and that's before you even consider the higher mileage examples. In no particular order provenance, condition, mileage and price are key factors for buyers. If you have struggled to sell this particular example, then I can only imagine there is an alignment issue when it comes to those factors.

I would love to be wrong but at £9k, I think you might struggle to sell. The collecting cars hammer price of a year ago will probably act as a good indicator of where the price needs to be get it sold. That price may also need to be adjusted to consider market conditions over the last 12 months. Whichever way you go, I wish you all the best with the sale. They are great cars.
 
enuff_zed said:
FWIW, if I were ever in that market it would be an Alpina over an M every day.
Why drive a Ferrari when you can be classy and drive a Maserati.
Click to expand...

I have only know one Maserati owner... I would argue that he was far from "classy", and more of wolf in sheeps clothing (wolf being Del Boy, and sheeps clothing being the air of public school arrogance).

Besides which, sports cars are designed to go fast, not be classy. The idea of a classy sports car being the pinnacle is lie suggesting that the pinnacle of sofa technology involves a supportive ergonomic design which was created to protect your back whilst you work.
 
Fred Smith said:
enuff_zed said:
FWIW, if I were ever in that market it would be an Alpina over an M every day.
Why drive a Ferrari when you can be classy and drive a Maserati.
Click to expand...

I have only know one Maserati owner... I would argue that he was far from "classy", and more of wolf in sheeps clothing (wolf being Del Boy, and sheeps clothing being the air of public school arrogance).

Besides which, sports cars are designed to go fast, not be classy. The idea of a classy sports car being the pinnacle is lie suggesting that the pinnacle of sofa technology involves a supportive ergonomic design which was created to protect your back whilst you work.
Click to expand...
Did AI do your second paragraph? 🤣
 
raymond.harper said:
Hello Ben, it is a rare car with a mileage that although not high in terms of the age of the vehicle is enough to worry a UK buyer, our American and European cousins do not bother so much. A 103000-mile Alpina on Autotrader is £14000 so your price is not unreasonable. The car is not well presented, the worn-out BMW badge, the rusty numberplate bolts, and the Halford battery, as pointed out by Mathewsons, do nothing for the car and you could fix this quite cheaply. Although she has no insurance category, the passenger wing-to-door line does not look right and the rear passenger wing is going to need rectification. I would budget around £1000. Get her back and place a long-term ad in Autotrader or auction her on Ebay would be my advice. Good luck, it is a good-looking rare car so be patient.
Click to expand...

Is there not an element of "a 100k car has decades of life left in at if you do low annual mileage, but 150k is just too much... not interested, full stop"? I am not saying that "the market" is rational to perceive mileage that way, but I believe that's how a lot of people think.

The other way of looking at is that the normal market for cars like this is based on an assumption that there's less than around 120k or 125k on the clock, and the way to sell one for 150k is to price it so that the people who were looking for a Z4 but not an Alpina start thinking "hang, for not much more money I can get an Alpina, so long as I'm willing to put up with high miles".
 
enuff_zed said:
Fred Smith said:
enuff_zed said:
FWIW, if I were ever in that market it would be an Alpina over an M every day.
Why drive a Ferrari when you can be classy and drive a Maserati.
Click to expand...

I have only know one Maserati owner... I would argue that he was far from "classy", and more of wolf in sheeps clothing (wolf being Del Boy, and sheeps clothing being the air of public school arrogance).

Besides which, sports cars are designed to go fast, not be classy. The idea of a classy sports car being the pinnacle is lie suggesting that the pinnacle of sofa technology involves a supportive ergonomic design which was created to protect your back whilst you work.
Click to expand...
Did AI do your second paragraph? 🤣
Click to expand...

I'm not sure intelligence did my second paragraph. Artificial intelligence definitely didn't.
 
Thank you for all of your comments. Very thoughtful and well informed, and without malice. I say the last part because I used to have an Aston Martin. When I posted about some mods I’d had done to the car and how they made such a difference, I was quite shocked at the vile comments I received. And I used to work in a senior ‘hairy arsed’ manufacturing job, but even I was surprised at how people seemed to primarily wish to question you and your motives, and not the car. Anyway, here are my thoughts:-
1) Alpinas are a very small market. I used to think of them as ‘soft’. Not any more !
2) it is true however well maintained that mileage can’t just be ignored. Rather like an insurance claim you have to consider wear or tear already incurred. If an engine is likely to need replacing or rebuilding at, say 200k miles, then a 100k mileage car is twice as good (from an engine perspective anyway), as one that has done 150k miles. And so it goes on, cost and number of major components need to be considered.
3) As for what I do next l think I will keep it :) It’s sort of lost its gloss in the market (not easy to hide an Alpina !) and I do love driving it - smooth, easy, but so responsive when you need it :)
I’ll keep you posted folks.
Many Thanks,
Ben
 
The market generally has tanked so the combo of mileage and competition plus no buyers not really surprising..if you love it best keep it if you can afford it…that engine should be good for 250k+ :thumbsup:
 
Another point of note is that now BMW own Alpina, there will be no new models, just BM using the Alpina badges as a trim (ala Merc and AMG).

So Alpinas will become rarer and rarer over time, which should help residuals in the future. But yes, the market is tiny and in general shite at present.

Having owned an 'Alp' (not an E85), I can honestly say they are much more than the sum of their parts and are very special cars.

Have you tried advertising it on www.thealpinaregister.com? It's worth a last shot if not.
 
Hi again. Hope you are all well and not living in too much fear of this Autumn's budget statement. Rumours abound, but let's see what happens. Anyway, thought I'd let you all know that I plan to have one last try at selling the Z4 Alpina. I am going to enter it into Hampson's November sale with an estimate of £6-8k to reflect the current market. I haven't done so yet, but will do in the next couple of days. So if you do fancy (another ?) one, you know where to go :) Thanks. Ben
 
Again, good luck with the sale. Perhaps a continental buyer is an option, prices in Europe are high, and it is not impossible to convert a Z4 to LHD or leave it as it is. Many years ago I sold Corvette to France via eBay
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom