Why is selling my 200 proving so difficult.

Yeah cos the recaro's are uncomfortable and fall apart. They look nice but that's about it, they don't 'make' a clio sport sellable.

So I say 'Fail' to that comment.

Your talking to a bloke that sells clios for a living, majority of people looking for 197/200s look for recaros period. With the market full of 197/200s it does make the clio more sellable. And as for uncomfortable, they arent, and they dont fall apart they wear in certain places, saying they fall apart is abit extreme.
 
Recaros will make the car more saleable but that doesn't mean people won't buy without. Myself and several others on here (from what I've read) tried both and decided against the recaros.

Without recaros you need to distinguish the car in other ways though probably - price being the number one factor.
 
I find Autotrader provides more buyers than Pistonheads as well.

I had a clio diesel for sale on there (autotrader) for a month and never got one call.

If there were two near identical 197's for sale at £8000 and one had recaros and 4k more mileage i bet that one would sell first.
 
I think I have written this post on here CS many many times-

On the subject of recaros - & car saleability.

There is a market for EVERY type specced or non specced Renaultsport clio-
Right back to the cup packed 182 V the non cup packed 182 or 182 cup-

The same through the 197 range- FF V Non Cupped V Cup-

& guess what the same goes for the 200 with spec & non spec.

The recaros arent the best seats ever, they do wear however incidentally they are a damn site better than the 197 seats in terms of wear.-

With the 200 people will have a budget ( whether finance or outright) of between ~9 & 13k for a used car. anything more & they will be sniffing out a new car deal.

I have sold probably 50 odd 197/200 s & the market is full of the same people- ( generally)-
low 20 somethings to guys in the early 30's- who have worked & saved up the money to have a sporty car as their pride & joy.
Motives for buying these apart from the thrill of driving are usually something to show off & enjoy the image/appearence of the car -

If I went & asked 50 potential owners where recaros sit in the order of importance I would say you would get 35-40 saying 100% definate, 5 not fussed & 5 N/Required.

So you have I would say around a 10% of the market not needing recaros-

With the market being 'thin' for buyers as it is 10% of a tiny market is a VERY tiny market.

Pricing will have to be WELL below average market value as there will be people with recaroed vehicles placing their cars below market value to push their sale.

I never come on here to knock the price of a car- however if you want to generate interest & sell it within say a month then you have to be competative-
Ive just reduced my 200 cup because the price wasnt competative enough.

It looks as though the advert is removed now so I can comment on the ad- or price - but it hasnt sold- its to expensive. full stop.( & OR the advert was rubbish)

S
 
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I wanted Recaros, I also wanted a 197 Cup, it had to have standard wheels, no spoilers and aircon. Mainly it had to be cheap.

As the 197 Cup is so rare (more so with all of the above) there had to be a compromise! In mine it's the seats unfortunately.. but as the car is otherwise 100% perfect I'm not too bothered. I can add them later. The car was VERY cheap.

It's a bit of a shame that some people would buy a sub-standard car just because it has Recaros.
 
Well I'm one of those 10% of people then, cos I wouldn't be fussed about the recaro's, yes they are nice but not on my importance list at all, I'd much rather have other things like the digital climate (purely because it looks a whole lot better to me than twisty horrible looking knobs) and xenons etc, but that's just me.
 
Your talking to a bloke that sells clios for a living, majority of people looking for 197/200s look for recaros period. With the market full of 197/200s it does make the clio more sellable. And as for uncomfortable, they arent, and they dont fall apart they wear in certain places, saying they fall apart is abit extreme.

I wouldn't say its extreme at all, from the majority of the recaro's I've seen they are actually falling apart from where the fabric and cushioning comes away from the structure of the seat itself around both the base bolsters and back rest bolsters, that to me is falling apart, not wear.

Don't get me wrong, I love all recaro seats, I've had my fair share of recaro's in many previous cars, but I don't think the recaro's in the clio's are worth the hype at all, they are probably the poorest built recaro's I know of. Even recaro's that are in 16 year old 1996 dc2 Integra type r's are better built and not falling apart compared with some of the clio recaro's, yes they may suffer with collapsed bolsters but they don't come away from the structure of the seat and they are far cheaper to replace the bolsters on them than repair the Clio recaros. at the end of the day it all comes down to personal preference, and if the vast majority of people looking to buy a clio wants nothing else other than recaro's then 'more fool them'. :wink:

Anyway, going way off topic here but just thought I'd air my opinion.