Sully,
I'm glad that you've taken my comments as being constructive, because that is the spirit in which I have written.
The valuation of any of our possessions is only relevant at the time when we must sell, so if you don't need to sell your Z4 MC, you simply keep it and enjoy it, irrespective of present valuation and market conditions. However, if you want or need to move you car on in the present climate, then you must suffer the depressed market conditions that are prevailing. Unless you are lucky and find a buyer quickly at, or near, your first advertised price, then you will suffer the problem of having to reduce your price in the weeks/months ahead in an attempt to find a buyer. Once an advertised car shows that the price has been reduced, a prospective buyer thinks that the owner definitely wants/needs to sell, and that there is a possibility that other prospective buyers have already viewed the car and found faults with the car and rejected it. Of course, none of these supposition may be true, but that is how I am viewing the Z4 MC market I'm following. Once a private seller gets onto the "slope" of having to keep reducing the advertised asking price in order to attract buyers, unless there's a private buyer who sees your car as representing a "bargain", then you'll ultimately end up having to trade your car as a part exchange with a dealer, who will then give you "book" price based on Glass's or other low trade values, and these prices are LOW!
Owners try to sell their cars privately in order to avoid having to take dealer trade-in prices as the last resort, therefore, if they want to sell their cars for more than trade-in valuations then they MUST be realistic in their asking prices. Therefore private sellers must offer their cars at less than dealer prices, which is more than the seller will receive as a trade-in price if you eventually discover you can't sell privately. Therefore, I see little point in advertising at, say £16k, a car worth only £10k at maximum as a trade-in, when some dealers are presently selling similar vehicles for less than £15k. Why would I, and other prospective buyers, want to pay more than dealer prices? Surely, it's better at the outset to accept the fact that you're not going to get as much for your car as you'd like to get but you'd be happier to get more than a trade-in value? If this is so, then IMO it's better to advertise your car at the outset at, say £13.5k, knowing full well that it represents a real "bargain" for the next owner, so that your car will act like a magnet for enquiries, and from then on, it's up to you to sell your car on its USP (unique selling point) that you are offering a very straight car at a bargain price because you really want to sell it and don't want to end up having to trade it in at a dealer price. At the end of the day, if you are going to replace the car for sale with another car, then you are also a buyer, like me, looking for a bargain.
Bearing in mind what
dgm said, that most Z4 MC were originally sold at massive discounts from the £44k RRP, Z4 MC owners are selling cars with a REAL original selling price of, say £36k, so look up the depreciation tables for cars of that original value over the age of your car and you will see that any unsentimental valuation will agree with valuations of Glass's and the Inland revenue. We all love our cars but the market is simply cold and heartless.
I have a friend who is an Insolvency Practitioner, who always says: "Your first loss is your best loss." In other words, grab what you can whilst you can, because if you don't you'll suffer a lot more. In his job he sees it all the time and distressed sales always yield very little for the seller.
I'm not trying to talk you into selling me your car, because I will not buy a blue car, no matter how cheap it is. Sorry for the length of this and I sincerely hope that you find a buyer soon because it is lovely!
