What to do with my Cali

[Bepto]

Hi, I find myself in a bit of a quandary with regards my California Beach. I purchased it about 14 months ago & unfortunately since then my life & circumstances have changed a huge amount.

Not long after the purchase my wife passed away quiet suddenly, she had been ill for a number of years but we thought she had the ilness in a manageable state. I was of course devastated by this, she was only 58 years old. I suffered deppresion & then in December I was taken ill & diagnosed with heart failure.

As a result of this my HGV licence has been revoked by the DVLA and I now find myself redundant with little chance of finding alternative employment.

With medication I am now managing my illness but I have to massively re-thing my finances. One of my biggest outlays is the finance on my California & though I love it given that I havent even spent a night in it yet it probably isnt nessasary for me to keep it. It is on a SORN at the moment as I have been shielding since March.

So the question is what to do with it? There is finance outstanding so I guess my options are thus..

1. Trade it in ( this puts me at the mercy of the dealers)
2. Borrow the money to settle the finance (if I can) then sell privately
3. Are there any other options?

It is a 2018 Beach DSG with some good options on it 6k miles , I have done around 600 miles in it

 

[The Merle]

I bought a t5 privately a few years ago which had finance on it.
I had to pay the finance off with finance company and then the outstanding amount was given to the owner. Finance was around £10k and and owner had about £3k. So I’m guessing you should be able to do that, I’m sure someone on here will know.

Have you looked at webuyanycar or what Rob at camper sales would give you too, tend to offer more than vw.

 

[Rich20]

Sorry to hear of your loss and the turmoil you now find yourself in. Beaches appear to be like hens teeth at the moment so I think settling the finance and selling it privately would be the best option financially. Trade in is the easiest option but it is unlikely to be in your favour. I don’t think you have any other options tbh. Hope it all works out for you.

 

[Wembley]

So sorry to hear of your loss, and the difficult circumstances you find yourself in. I tend to agree that settling the finance and selling the vehicle may be the best option, provided that the means you get to repay the finance is not excessively costly i.e. high interest or penalties. This would at least avoid you surrendering any advantage you have with your (comparatively rare) vehicle, that a dealer may try to ignore when proposing the trade-in deal. I wonder if you might be able to find a buyer on here?

Above all, I want to say once again how sorry I am for your loss, and your current health situation. I hope you will be able to get yourself on the road to recovery, and find a good home for your lovely van. Take care and keep well - you are in a nice community here (and I say that as a new member who loves this forum)

 

[BeagleMum]

Hi, I find myself in a bit of a quandary with regards my California Beach. I purchased it about 14 months ago & unfortunately since then my life & circumstances have changed a huge amount.

Not long after the purchase my wife passed away quiet suddenly, she had been ill for a number of years but we thought she had the ilness in a manageable state. I was of course devastated by this, she was only 58 years old. I suffered deppresion & then in December I was taken ill & diagnosed with heart failure.

As a result of this my HGV licence has been revoked by the DVLA and I now find myself redundant with little chance of finding alternative employment.

With medication I am now managing my illness but I have to massively re-thing my finances. One of my biggest outlays is the finance on my California & though I love it given that I havent even spent a night in it yet it probably isnt nessasary for me to keep it. It is on a SORN at the moment as I have been shielding since March.

So the question is what to do with it? There is finance outstanding so I guess my options are thus..

1. Trade it in ( this puts me at the mercy of the dealers)
2. Borrow the money to settle the finance (if I can) then sell privately
3. Are there any other options?

It is a 2018 Beach DSG with some good options on it 6k miles , I have done around 600 miles in it

I am very sorry to hear of the awful time you are going through. The terrible loss of your wife is heartbreaking then the loss of your livelihood is awful, sadly life can be brutally cruel at times.
My opinion is that you would have no problem in selling your Beach privately for a good price.
I believe if you can find a way to settle the finance in order to facilitate a private sale that would be your best option. I hope you can resolve this quickly and easily. Best wishes.

 

[Bepto]

Thanks for the kind words & advice, Settling the finance is a good option but its an amount that I dont have & am unlikely to be able to borrow given that I will be out of work from next week. Is it possible to get a prospective buyer to settle the finance as part of the purchase? How would that work?

 

[Jontymo]

Yep, get it on sale and inform any potential buyers that they will have to settle your finance and give you the rest.

Looking at sale prices you should be in as good a place as can be given your circumstances.

Aside from that I hope your coping and have support.
Jon

 

[SimonK]

If you want less hassle, and with the huge demand for campervans at the moment, why don't you see what you can get selling directly to a VW Dealer looking for stock, or even a website such as We Buy Any Car?

I remember some posters previously have had very good prices off WBAC

 

[Legin]

Thanks for the kind words & advice, Settling the finance is a good option but its an amount that I dont have & am unlikely to be able to borrow given that I will be out of work from next week. Is it possible to get a prospective buyer to settle the finance as part of the purchase? How would that work?

Yes you can do exactly this. At the point of sale the buyer pays the outstanding finance and the balance to you. They would pay VWFS after you call them to get a settlement figure.

 

[HB19]

Good luck Bepto, I am sure you will be able to make a good sale with such a well specked Cali. In case it helps .... I bought a car a few years ago from a private seller and paid in two parts. I paid the finance people direct and paid the seller the outstanding amount .. all within an hour of each other. The seller gave me a letter/ contract of sale which outlined the amounts to be paid and to whom. I was a bit nervous paying the finance company so I did it at the bank and got them to check the details on their system to make sure it all looked ok. i called the seller to say it was done and he contacted the finance company to check they could see the money on their system .. apparently they can see it within minutes of the bank transfer. I suspect there will be a recommended process for buying cars under these circumstances, and the appropriate wording for the contract of sale. A bit of googling might help. Good luck.

 

[westfalia]

Whatever you do, don't panic.
Its not a fire sale, it sounds like you have an almost new Beach.

They are hard to come by right now, so you hold the cards, don't
go to a dealer.
Life has dealt you some sh1t cards there.
i sympathise,

Keep on keeping on.

 

[BeagleMum]

That sounds too cheap in the current market....

Agree, I would be thinking £45K it’s a sellers market. If I didn’t have a Beach I’d buy it in a heartbeat.

 

[westfalia]

I see your in Donny, maybe @flying banana could give
you some tips. He doesn't beat about the bush and im sure
he could advise you.
I would but im too far away

 

[flying banana]

I see your in Donny, maybe @flying banana could give
you some tips. He doesn't beat about the bush and im sure
he could advise you.
I would but im too far away

Send em my way. No problem

 

[Aidy P]

I met an 86 year old widow at a Camping & Caravaning Club site at the weekend. Her husband died 17 years ago. She still camps in the van she has had since the 1980’s and meets up with others in her situation frequently at club sites. She had a twinkle in her eye and I hope that whatever happens in my life, I still keep camping.

I’m sorry to hear your sad news and I hope you find a solution. Camping is good for you and I hope you find a way to do so in the future. Be it with or without your California. Good luck.

 

[soulstyledevon]

Might be worth putting an add on the site here. I’m sure there are plenty of people searching for a Beach, especially as it’s now discontinued.

Explain the situation to any potential buyer and work through a resolution to keep all parties happy.

Good luck

 

[Big Ron]

I think your chances of getting a good price for a Cali of any sort right now are high.
I have a 2014 180 SE with DSG, 55k miles. I regularly check prices for fun(?)and Webuyanycar valued mine at £32,500 in Feb and £35,370 yesterday. ...so I’m guessing proper Retail would be £2/3k higher?
WelshGas is pretty knowledgeable (as are others on here) so maybe DM him?
Take care.

 

[Matc]

I own a car dealership and we sold a Beach on behalf of a customer yesterday - we could have sold it 5 time’s in the space of 24 hours!

we settled the customers finance so he doesn’t need to worry about finding the money himself; we are also able to take a part exchange and offer finance so this opens us up to different buyers.

happy to talk to you about it as an option if it helps? We returned the customer significantly more than he was offered at WBAC and in PX.