Kerb rash and park marks are not the whole Dolphin.
A Dolphin tends to live outside, on a street or a level of somebody's building, and it picks up the marks that go with that.
The inspector comes to wherever it parks and prices what is genuinely there.
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Where it lives
A car that parks in public wears it in public
Almost everything that makes a Dolphin owner put off selling is cosmetic, and cosmetic damage photographs badly and describes even worse.
If yours has spent its life on a street or under a building, you already know the wheels and the bumpers have a history. A trolley, a pillar, somebody flinging their door open, the kerb on a tight reverse park. None of it was really avoidable, all of it is visible from outside the car, and it is the reason a lot of these go unvalued far longer than they should.
Marks like that are assessed rather than reacted to. What genuinely helps is telling us about them first, because then the inspector spends the visit confirming what you already said instead of turning up things you never mentioned. That is a calmer half hour for everybody, and it is the version where nobody is quietly wondering what else is going to appear.
The other half of living without a garage is how the car has been kept charged. There is no wall box on level three of an apartment block, so the arrangement is usually a cable that lives in the boot and somewhere to plug it in, or a charger on the way home from work. That is an ordinary way to own one of these and it is not a mark against the car. The cable is part of what you are selling, so it should be counted rather than left in the boot as an afterthought.
In the carpark
What we ask about a Dolphin
Five questions, and the first two are the ones people least want to answer, which is exactly why they are worth getting out early.
- How are the wheels?
- Kerb rash on one corner or on every corner, either way it is better said than found. Wheels are the one thing a seller and an inspector almost always agree about on sight, so there is nothing at all to be gained by saving it for the day.
- Where are the marks on the body?
- Bumpers, doors, the corners, the tailgate. Walk around it once before you ring us and tell us what you can see. None of it ends the conversation, and it means the range you are quoted on the phone is built on the real car instead of being revised in your driveway.
- How has it been charged, and where?
- A public charger near work, a plug in a shared garage, a lead run out to the car. There is no wrong answer to this. We ask because it helps us understand how the car has been used, not because one arrangement is worth more than another.
- Which cable is with the car?
- Where there is no wall box the cable tends to be the entire charging setup, so it matters more here than it does on a car that sleeps in a garage. If it normally travels in the boot, have it in the boot on the day and it is priced as part of what you are handing over.
- Has it ever done delivery work?
- Plenty of small cars have and there is nothing wrong with having done it. It changes where the inspector spends their time, mainly the driver's side of the cabin, and hearing it from you beats us working it out ourselves.
Whatever it looks like
Three things a few marks do not change
- A car that lives outside still sells. Scraped wheels and park marks move the figure. They are not a reason for anybody to walk away from the car, and we are not going to treat them as one.
- The inspector comes to the carpark. Home or work, whichever level it happens to be parked on. You do not have to drive it across town or leave it somewhere for a day while a stranger decides about it.
- The paperwork happens on your phone. Nothing to print and no office to sit in. Everything you sign is signed on the phone in your hand, standing next to the car if that is where you happen to be.
Before you call
Three questions Dolphin owners put to us
The wheels are scraped. Does that kill the offer?
No. It is one of the things an inspection accounts for, and mentioning it on the call means the range you are given already has it in there. Nothing on a set of wheels has ever been the interesting part of a car like this.
Can you inspect it in an apartment carpark?
Usually. Tell us on the call where it sits and what the access is like, whether there is a gate, a fob, a visitor bay or a low ceiling, and we sort that out beforehand rather than standing at a boom gate on the day.
I have never had a wall box. Is that a problem?
Not in the slightest. Plenty of these cars have never had one. Tell us what you have been using instead and make sure it is in the boot on the day, because whatever you have been charging it with is part of what we are buying.
Sell it from wherever it happens to be parked.
Or call us on 03 9000 0075 and talk it through first.