VS BT1 V8 - Whats it worth - how much to sell it for?

[crumpledoor#1]

Hi all

Sadly its time to move on my 1997 VS BT1 V8. Just wondering how much they sell for, as I cant find any for sale to compare.

It's a V8 dual fuel (just had tank recertified), Auto with stage 2 shift kit, Extractors, Sport Exhaust, SS Seats, SS Rims, replaced roof lining, new radiator, new thermo fan, serviced every 10,000kms. Just did the latest service, with new plugs, leads, dizzy cap, rotor, oil, oil filter. Car has 240,000kms. It also has a 10 stacker CD player, amp and 6 speaker system. For some reason only 2 of the 6 speakers are working but I will fix this before selling. Central locking works but not by the button due to dead battery. ($140 for a new key)

The engine isnt the fastest but it sure has tonnes of torque! Doesnt blow any smoke. Its only a stock engine, so its perfect for a rebuild and beefing up. Thats what I planned doing but due to a young family and needing to travel lots of kms for work I will be looking for a more economic vehicle. In saying that it does get close to 400kms on a tank of LPG. Being the BT1 it does have the long range fuel tank, so with LPG and a tank of fuel you can get around 800kms before a servo stop. I dont run fuel much, mostly LPG. LPG does need a tune as it idles a bit low on occasions but for a $70 LPG service thats only a minor isssue.

One last couple of points, is the front end does need new ball joints, tie rod ends and strut rubbers. I could fix all this for under $200 but may not as I would prefer not to spend any more money due to selling. The power steering high pressure hose does leak, but again probably wont replace this ($80) before selling.

Car is in overall good condition, few scratches on the bumpers and a couple of small 10 cent coin dents but this can only be expected for an ex-cop car and its age.

So with all of that I was thinking that $4000 would be a fair price. Am I on the money asking for that? Would love to hear peoples honest opinion.

I have attached a couple of pictures.

Cheers

[Alf Stewart]

i would say closer to $6000

[walesy]

its only worth what somebody is willing to pay, $4000 seems ok to me... if you cant find something similer to compare it to, just have a look at other cars, like a vx ss for example, you can pick up a vx ss ls1 auto for between 8-10k now... so i think you would struggle to get 6k for it, maybe if it was a really clean car (no dents/marks etc) with lower kms...

just my opinion though, as i said its only worth what someone is willing to pay for it, so if somone is willing to pay 6k for it then thats great for you i spose

[djvass]

Hey bud,
There are a couple for sale and I also own one. I have sent them sell between $5500 and $8000. This would include reg and rwc. It is what the other user said it also depends on how desperate you are and how much someone is willing to pay. With the stuff that needs to be fixed on yours you would be looking around the $6k mark. Good luck with sale and remember if you want good money for the car stay away from feebay(eBay) and only put it on carsales.

[crumpledoor#1]

Wow! I didnt think they would be as much as $6K. Definately would never sell a car on ebay! Car Sales all the way, tried and proven way of selling cars.

I think I will offer it up for $5000.

[Adds_05]

your lucky to see genuine vr/vs ss's go for $5000/6000,id say for a ex bt1 maybe about $3000 tops,not having a dig,just giving my honest opinion like you asked...

[Brendo169]

if your on the east coast id say 3k would be a fair price

If your in WA like me youd be looking at nearer to 5k

[Sabbath']

I say about $3k.


Due to it being a VS on gas.

[VR38]

If it is a good sound straight rust free car but just needs some mechanical work like bushes, b/j shocks and the usual wear and tear then 4k is about right, thats what I paid for mine and needed those things, calais and berlina is closer to the 6-8k mark.
3k or less would be cheap for a registered average condition VS IMO.

FWIW insurance has the market value between 3600 and 4800 i think.

[Rusty]

Ask 5k and accept any offers over 3.5k. Thats my opinion. I personally wouldn't let a reliable v8 go for less than that

[crumpledoor#1]

Thanks everyone, much appriciated.

I would think that $4k is a fair price. Its straight with no rust (what car newer than 1990 does have rust????) and clean overall. If I got $4k I would be happy with that. $3k is just too low, maybe if it was a VN or VP.

[monkeys437]

I think given its on gas $3k would be more around the mark. If it wasn't on gas maybe $5k plus.

[crumpledoor#1]

Why would it be less for gas? I would have thought it would be the other way around concidering you have the option of gas or fuel.

[monkeys437]

The majority of people wont buy a car a on gas so your restricting your market quite a bit.

I was looking for a 5L about 2-3 years ago and I could have brought 10 different VS-VT's for the price I wanted but they were all on gas. Any ones that were on petrol were a few grand more expensive and the few that came up for a decent price seemed to all have all sold very quickly and were gone by the time I called. I didnt want to settle for one on gas so I gave up and brought something else.

[elmaso]

Why would it be less for gas? I would have thought it would be the other way around concidering you have the option of gas or fuel.

maybe i because people think you lose mass amounts of power from it? i know you dont really lose any, or much at all.

[Rusty]

maybe i because people think you lose mass amounts of power from it? i know you dont really lose any, or much at all.

That plus your carrying more weight, lose half your boot and have a big ugly hole in the side of the car for gas. The old systems used to be sluggish as hell, sounded funny and non responsive as opposed to usual fuel. In saying that, the systems have probably improved these days.

[tezza]

I think $4k would be a reasonable price for it. If you want more then the work would have to be done to the car as then again it might not add any value.

I would say in this climate LPG would make the car more attractive than one not on LPG.

[crumpledoor#1]

So it comes down to personally choice and the myth of loosing power when running LPG. I dont notice any difference in the power between petrol or LPG, to be honest the car runs better on LPG. There is no ugly hole in the panel, its filler is inside the petrol flap. Sure I understand the boot loosing space concept, but in saying that I have two kids under 3 and have no problems fitting a pram and $300 of shopping every week. The big draw back with tank is that you can utilise the flip down middle seat, but for me, there is already a baby seat in the way anyways.

I would think that the way petrol prices are going LPG would be the go for sure, especially for V8. I guess it depends on what you want from you V8. If you want a street machine then I guess the LPG would be a turn off, but if you are like me and just had to have a V8 for the extra power, low down grunt and sound, then the LPG option was not an issue.

WOW! What a rant I just did LOL

[Rusty]

Nice, I've only had a few of the older cars on Gas and the installs back then were pretty ordinary. Sounds like gas is the way to go for your needs.

[HamaTime™]

maybe i because people think you lose mass amounts of power from it? i know you dont really lose any, or much at all.

Depends on the gas system. If your talking about the old gas mixer/carby styled system, then yes you lose power from it. Lots, and also you lose throttle response and the engine revs slower, as it is being burnt as a 'gas' not a 'liquid'.

Vapour Injection is better, as you free up your air intake pipe and the gas gets delivered to the cylinders alot quicker (hence direct injection) however, you still lose power/response (albeit very marginally) due to the nature of the gas burning.

Liquid Injection makes more power than standard pump petrol, as it is real EFI LPG.

However, you still lose marginal amounts of power/economy on a Dual Fuel set up as the car is not optimised to run on one single fuel.

I lose 30rwkw on the dyno just for having the gas mixer strapped onto my air intake.

[DAKSTER]

My VS Berlina was immaculate when I bought it a few months ago on ebay for $2700. It has factory fitted dual fuel, and all options except for leather and wood.
Its a v6, not a v8, but I cant see you getting 6 grand for yours on the basis that it has a v8, if all other things are equal. I would ask $4500 for it and settle for $4000 very happily.

Gas is not going to lower the value of the car, in fact in my opinion it improves it... especially with the logarithmic rise in ULP prices these days. Just make sure you say clearly in the ad that it wasn't a taxi, many assume that it must have been if its on gas.

Mine has an mixer and there is bugger all real difference in power between fuel and gas. The engine maybe revs a little harder on ULP, that's about it. Its my belief that 90% of the 'lpg is for bbq's' crowd have never actually used it.

The power is similar, maybe down just a little. The economy is lower, I use about 2l/100km more on gas. Gas costs less than half the price of petrol though, you do the math. I will be keeping and continuing to love LPG.

[crumpledoor#1]

Mines a mixer system and as I said I don't notice much difference. Have to laugh about the taxi comment, I havent seen a v8 taxi since early 90s and that was a one off VL 5 litre taxi cruising around Adelaide. So no need to mention that in my add.
Truely appreciate everyone's comments and opinions, it's definately given me food for thought and I think I will hope for the $4k mark. I wouldn't want to accept less.

[monkeys437]

My VS Berlina was immaculate when I bought it a few months ago on ebay for $2700. It has factory fitted dual fuel, and all options except for leather and wood.
Its a v6, not a v8, but I cant see you getting 6 grand for yours on the basis that it has a v8, if all other things are equal. I would ask $4500 for it and settle for $4000 very happily.

Gas is not going to lower the value of the car, in fact in my opinion it improves it... especially with the logarithmic rise in ULP prices these days. Just make sure you say clearly in the ad that it wasn't a taxi, many assume that it must have been if its on gas.

Mine has an mixer and there is bugger all real difference in power between fuel and gas. The engine maybe revs a little harder on ULP, that's about it. Its my belief that 90% of the 'lpg is for bbq's' crowd have never actually used it.

The power is similar, maybe down just a little. The economy is lower, I use about 2l/100km more on gas. Gas costs less than half the price of petrol though, you do the math. I will be keeping and continuing to love LPG.

For a V6 I can sort of see where your coming from (but I still think they're less valuable since most people would avoid them like the plague). But for people wanting to buy a V8 its a completely different market. A bit of a power loss and decrease in throttle response completely defeats the purpose of buying a V8. And thats why (from my own observations) 5L's with an old mixer system is harder to sell and go for a lower price than the same car not on gas.

Having said that it looks like a nice straight car so hopefully crumpledoor#1 finds the right buyer and gets the price he's after

[DAKSTER]

lol yeah ok wasnt thinking v8 and taxi in the same train of thought , fair cop.

[DAKSTER]

For a V6 I can sort of see where your coming from (but I still think they're less valuable since most people would avoid them like the plague). But for people wanting to buy a V8 its a completely different market. A bit of a power loss and decrease in throttle response completely defeats the purpose of buying a V8. And thats why (from my own observations) 5L's with an old mixer system is harder to sell and go for a lower price than the same car not on gas.

Having said that it looks like a nice straight car so hopefully crumpledoor#1 finds the right buyer and gets the price he's after

Its a tiny power loss, a couple of percent at most, and not even noticeable. The same applies to a V8. The purpose of a V8 varies hugely between those who buy them for their torque and towing capacity, those who buy them coz they sound great, or P platers who want more power than they can handle so they can hit a pole or someone else even harder than they would have otherwise. If I had found a V8 Berlina on gas at that price I probably would have bought it, just for the exhaust note. I don't believe LPG reduces the value of any car in any way, unless it means it used to be a taxi.