New Engine Fitted - Impact on Valuation

[CCC 31]

A friend mentioned he's going into a company car soon, so will be selling his 78K mile, 11 plate 528i Saloon (annoyingly a 2.0 Twin turbo in reality, not the silky smooth 6 cylinder 2.8 engine). Mostly motorway miles.

Seems perfect for our new stock profile, and I bumped into him on Saturday so asked if he's ordered the new car yet. 

Turns out the 5 series engine blew up on him (no technical details) so BMW have fitted a brand new engine, I can only assume this is because it's got full BMW service history and it's a known weakness?

Anyway, the question is, how will the affect value? I'm wary it will scare off some buyers, though personally I'd think this is a good thing.

As it's a friend I don't want to bid him in the balls, neither do I want to lose profit because I've overestimated the public's ability to see an opportunity.

My gut feel is just to bid at standard book and see what happens? What would you do?

[Mark101 536]

Funny things new engines and peoples interpretation of a new engine:

New short engine, new head, complete - what about ancilliaries?

I don't see much added value as the rest of the car and its running gear is 78K.

Also, people worry that it must be a weak engine and consider they might end up needing a replacement themselves.

I would rather a straight 78k mile car with original engine and FSH personally speaking.

[CCC 31]

New ancillaries from what I understand. 

I agree the suspension, etc. has done 78K so you'll still get the bills from a 78k. 

I guess the only person who'd really win is a high mileage driver who'll be able to stick 150k onto the car without much in the way of engine worries.

I've not done any research on whether it's a known engine weakness, but as a rule of thumb I'd take a big unstressed engine over anything with 1 or 2 turbo's any day. I ran an old 328i which got to 200k miles and was only just run in emissions wise at that point.

[Dave2302 387]

/\ /\ /\ Exactly this ...............

OK I hear that it's a BMW Engine, otherwise I'd have said there is new Engines and there's new Engines, and there is Engine Fitters and there is Engine Fitters.

You have also broken the golden rule .............

Never do business with friends and family, you are already thinking of giving him more than you would ordinarily pay

I'm not taking the piss here BTW,

HTH

[MarkTVS 209]

I tend not to like stuff that has had engines changed, I feel it puts customers off, I would only mention it if a customer asked, the added bonus though is that it has been done by BMW main dealer.

[Dave2302 387]

29 minutes ago, MarkTVS said:

the added bonus though is that it has been done by BMW main dealer.

Hmmmmm yeah, I can see that impressing a billy , but us in the motor trade are hardly likely to pay more for it, we all know why they are called main stealers

When I had the Trans firm, if I was fitting a transmission to one of my sales cars I'd never paint the box, other traders used to ask me to do the same

On the other hand Billy Bunters who'd paid for a Transmission job would be most impressed with bright shiny silver casings and satin black tin pans / cover plates and external bolts that had been "wire wheeled" to look like new 

Edited March 18, 2019 by Dave2302

[CCC 31]

1 hour ago, tradex said:

Out of interest did the engine number get changed on the V5?......wouldn't be the first time.... 

I like a factory new crate engine, seen quite a few on 1.9 dci's. 

PS blown oil pressure sensor on a Jag I had, ran ti destruction but factory engine fitted, fucks know how that got paid for?

Another were two Focus, bith ingested water, insurance jobs. 

Good point on V5..I suspect it might not have been changed.

It's a factory crate engine from what I know. 

Wasn't planning on paying above book, but wasn't sure if I should reduce it a bit as harder to shift? Don't seem to be many of 528i about.

[BHM 994]

Say fuck all & bin any invoice/paperwork.

[Rory RSC 596]

1 hour ago, twerp said:

I remember these making 6/7k over Cap Clean when nearly new for export 

Same engine still does fortunes at the block on any car it’s in mate.

 

i wouldn’t mention an engine swap ever to a customer. 

[It's me 615]

2 hours ago, BHM said:

Say fuck all & bin any invoice/paperwork.

+ 100,00,00,00 and 1

[Dealer 54]

On 18/03/2019 at 0:52 PM, BHM said:

Say fuck all & bin any invoice/paperwork.

I do exactly this 

[Dave2302 387]

Potential Billy ............ "why has it had a new Engine"

Salesman .......... "Because they are shit" ............... Billy, "I didn't know that" and he walks 

Or they just think it's obviously been thrashed / not serviced / sunk / stolen recovered etc etc etc ...................

Not worth mentioning it IMHO

Edited March 20, 2019 by Dave2302

[Contracts 68]

It is a real grey area, over the years I have seen loads of warranty claims for engines, gearboxes etc and we have paid a fair few but then we only use main dealers.  I doubt many of the future buyers will know but for me it’s a plus point.  

Last year we sold an Evoque that had just had an engine under warranty and the customer saw it as a bonus, on the other hand we had a F430 with a bill for £46k (was not warranty!) that nobody would touch despite all the paperwork relating to why it was replaced.