Super low mileage 2002 Protege, what’s it worth?

I have a 2002 automatic with 75,000km (~46,000 miles) on it, and it works fine, (CE light but it's the cat converter which where I'm from doesn't matter - no emissions testing). I know if I just craigslist it I won't get anywhere near what it's actually worth - out of curiousity, what is it worth? What would someone pay just to have an engine that good of condition?
 
Because it is automatic the "performance" people who would generally pay decent money for a decent manual rust free and accident free protege are not really interested.

Since it's a 21 year old car with a check engine light on the casual consumer may have some doubts especially if there is any rust and the tires are not relatively new. I'd say 2-3k CDN max real world value to most people maybe a bit more if you are lucky considering a newer and arguably better in every way Mazda3 hatch is the same ballpark of price. But hey if you find the right buyer that does their own work and isnt scared of swapping the cat out themselves you might get lucky. If you needed it gone asap I'd put it 2k OBO if you have time on your side you could always ask for more and who knows what could happen
 
Things that may help:

Receipts showing you changed the oil 40+ times (every 6 months)
Receipts showing you regularly changed the transmission fluid at recommended interval
Receipts showing you recently changed the timing belt and waterpump
Receipts showing the coolant and brake fluid was replaced according to mazdas schedule

If you don't have that then the new owner is basically buying a car that has not been maintained and at the minimum has to do all that work plus knows that the car sat around unmaintained which will indicate to them they should expect problems. Everything from seized brake calipers to gunked up ABS unit to transmission issues to engine sludge. They could easily be spending more than the cost of the car in the first year just to make it safe.

21 years old without a stack of paperwork is a hard sell to an educated buyer.
 
Things that may help:

Receipts showing you changed the oil 40+ times (every 6 months)
Receipts showing you regularly changed the transmission fluid at recommended interval
Receipts showing you recently changed the timing belt and waterpump
Receipts showing the coolant and brake fluid was replaced according to mazdas schedule

If you don't have that then the new owner is basically buying a car that has not been maintained and at the minimum has to do all that work plus knows that the car sat around unmaintained which will indicate to them they should expect problems. Everything from seized brake calipers to gunked up ABS unit to transmission issues to engine sludge. They could easily be spending more than the cost of the car in the first year just to make it safe.

21 years old without a stack of paperwork is a hard sell to an educated buyer.
Hey, sorry I don’t check this email often. Thank you for all your advice: astonishingly, I HAVE all that paperwork. It was my grandma’s car and the old gal was fastidious af. It needs a little work which I’m gonna do then take it to 100k and then sell it. Honestly the amounts you said in the other post is sort of what I expected for the exact reasons you said: a mazda3 that’s a lot newer and has way better features etc isn’t much more though the mileage would be near double.
 
I sold my daughter's 2002 Protege ES (with AT) in 2017 for $1700. It had all the paper work from my maintenance schedule and everything worked except the moonroof. The paint's clearcoat was gone on places but the interior was in great shape. It took me less than 2 weeks to sell it. This car had a bit over 110,000 miles on it and was running perfectly

Rule of thumb: Never try to sell a car with a check engine light or any other warning light for that matter.
 
Back