What is the best way to sell a car online?

[uzzy87]

I want to sell my car but it seems to me this board is more like a trade site.. Everyone wants to buy at rock bottom price...

Is autotrader still thr best way to get the most..

Thanks

[Rich]

Everyone everywhere wants to buy at rock bottom. That's the way buying has always worked. I wouldn't have bought my Landrover for a grand when I knew it could cost £400.

What is it you are selling? That dictates mainly where you ideally want to aim your advert for.

[ChasR]

What Rich said. That said it's good to know what the market is. I wanted to buy my M3 at rock bottom. That said there was plenty of dross for sale.

But what car are you selling? To keep it simple:

-Daily runner worth less than £3k = eBay on 99p no reserve. But the advert has to be right.
-Classic car? = Car & Classic, Classic & Sports Car, Pistonheads
-Sports car? = Pistonheads.

Autotrader can be good ; I actually bought my last car from here but it's mostly traders now.

I personally would avoid Gumtree. I've rarely seen a good car for sale on there and it seems people will only offer breaker money for cars on there.

As an example I was trying to sell my 106 GTi for £1k. IMO that was a reasonable sum back then. Minters were going for £2k+ but IMO mine was not that even if it was a desirable spec (Diablo Red, the fancy wheels and Alcantara interior).

I had a bloke turn up:
-He picked on a couple off issues I mentioned in the advert
-He offered me £500 ; bear in mind I had a mate offer me £600 no questions asked for the car "as a punt".

I could have broken the car for not far off my asking price... The front bumper alone goes for around £100+ even back then : I know as I hunted around for one for months for less than that!

A week later a bloke came down from Pistonheads and gave me my asking price after a quick drive. It's not like £1k is a massive amount to drop on a car!

retrorides.proboards.com/thread/118735/1998-peugeot-106-sold-warwick

I do wonder if I should have sold that on eBay in hindsight...

Example of a good ebay advert but IMO it wanted a better ad ; eBay was playing up when I listed it. I do not get an offer close to that anywhere else:

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/302094254648?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Oh and don't say "No timewasters etc." in the advert. You'll just get more of them and put off genuine people ; I won't buy a car on the spot if I don't think it's good and people definition of "good" is interesting. Does that make me a timewaster ; I saw 5 M3s before I bought mine as a bad one can soak £1k in parts alone without scratching the surface.

Saying that, if flaws are present above I'm happy to be corrected . After all this is what the forum is about.

[bluebirdpremium]

Agree with the above, no matter what type of car it is, avoid Gumtree if possible. yes its free which is a bonus, but if you're trying to sell any item over the value of 20 quid, you'll get nothing but timewasters , especially annoying individuals who just ask if its still for sale or why you're selling it, only to never hear from them again.

Of course, you'll get this no matter where you advertise, but a lot of people I know agree that Gumtree is especially bad for this type of thing.

If its something classic/retro, classic car weekly is another one worth a look, I put an advert in there for a car I was selling, had to wait about 2-3 weeks before they put my ad in an issue, but had about 7-10 genuine enquiries, and sold the car to the second one.

[BT]

ChasR has it right I think.

If it is eligible for this board I always advertise on here, likewise with other specific forums. If it is eligible it goes up.

Sub £1,500 run abouts or hacks I advertise on gumtree. The more expensive the car is the more users of gumtree think they can knock you down for some reason.

£1,500+ I go eBay.

Out of the 40+ cars I've sold over the last 8 years I have never used auto trader. That said I have never sold premium vehicles that I suspect auto trader would help sell.

Pricing the vehicle correctly I think is vital. I always price my vehicles with room for negotiation. If I want £3,500 I advertise at £3,750 as people always like to haggle.

Edit.

Having read the above post it is very much correct. There are an incredible amount of time wasters on gumtree who will arrange a viewing and never turn up, however some things I've sold through gumtree have been sold to the first viewer with no haste at all. You will also get a lot of ridiculous offers but the best method with these o find is just to ignore or block the buyer/time waster.

[Paul Y]

Depends on the car.

Sold a number on Autorader.

Best results have always been on Pistonheads.

Tend to avoid 'make specific' sites as everybody is an expert and wants to knock you heavily.

Tell us what it is and we might be able to provide more detailed advice.

P.

[uzzy87]

Thanks guys

Its a 1997 Mazda MX5 1.8 MK1
107k miles
Got history and original book pack
2 keys
Interior is grey and black leather
Momo steering wheel
15inch original alloys
Arches seem alright..
It has had a repair on the rear sill
Getting a new roof fitted next week.. As current one has rips..

Just had pads n discs done and service..

Thanks

[ChasR]

Thanks for the comments folks. As said it is just my experience of selling the motors that I have which in turn have come from people on this forum .

This car IMHO will be dead easy to sell with the right steps.

Without getting overboard you are welcome to use my Mondeo advert as a base. With that in mind I'd use the following:

1) eBay on 99p no reserve but like the Mondeo with plenty of shots. - FWIW another forum member bought one like mine for the same money with 200k less! That's the difference the shots can make.
2) Pistonheads ; I actually bought my own MX-5 from Pistonheads
3) MX-5 Nutz but you will be faced with 'experts' and silly offers.

IMHO eBay will see the car very quickly and for a reasonable price but Pistonheads may see you more cash but waiting longer. IMHO a good advert weeds out alot of questions and the timewasters won't bother to call you most of the time.

Remember something else. If you think the car is a nail and that you basically want shot of it the buyer will also be able to tell. I've almost always been able to tell this. I wouldn't say it is a sixth sense but just things mentioned about the car, and questions answered etc.

Put it this way. When my Porker was done I really didn't want to sell it and I still am annoyed to some extent. But it got me the sale.

[uzzy87]

Thanks.. I will post it on ebay and pistonheads

What about anglia car auctions?

[uzzy87]

Thanks.. I will post it on ebay and pistonheads

What about anglia car auctions?

[BT]

Jan 3, 2017 15:55:24 GMT ChasR said:

IMHO a good advert weeds out alot of questions and the timewasters won't bother to call you most of the time

This I think make or breaks the sale.

Highlight all of the flaws, as many as you can. This will prevent people saying "due to X I want Y knocked off of the price" in turn you can respond with "that is highlighted in the advert and already reflected in the price".

A decent description, decent photos in decent light and clean will also help.

But as said, a proper description will weed out the plonkers.

[sarkie83]

Jan 3, 2017 17:35:33 GMT BT said:

This I think make or breaks the sale.

Highlight all of the flaws, as many as you can.

I always get conflicted about this... As when I've tried to sell decent stuff it seems to put people off. Most cars I sell end up being for spares or repair anyway and they just get chucked on eBay/just ignore all the 'how much will you take for it messages'

Sticking for sale signs in your window seems pointless - never had any luck that way (although depends where the car is I guess)

Most cars I go and see have things that weren't originally mentioned - part of the reason if it's too far away I wouldn't bother nowadays. (Got burnt several times with rust buckets full of holes when I turned up. Worst was a cortina in Bristol...looooong way and when I got there there was a gaping hole in the door!)

[BT]

Jan 3, 2017 18:09:25 GMT sarkie83 said:

Jan 3, 2017 17:35:33 GMT BT said:

This I think make or breaks the sale.

Highlight all of the flaws, as many as you can.

I always get conflicted about this... As when I've tried to sell decent stuff it seems to put people off. Most cars I sell end up being for spares or repair anyway and they just get chucked on eBay/just ignore all the 'how much will you take for it messages'

I can see your point.

The last thing I sold the chap said that I had undersold it and that he expected a right crock when he came to view it. However my view on the sale at the time was, the buyer has ended up with something better than he expected, which in turn meant he was happy with the advertised price and pleased with what he had bought.

If I hadn't disclosed these faults as meticulously then I probably would have got more viewings but perhaps I would have got a negative response about the vehicle and I would have perhaps questioned my selling method.

I will concur though with what you're saying. It's always a bit of a tricky one because you don't want to downsell your vehicle.

[sarkie83]

Jan 3, 2017 18:24:57 GMT BT said:

The last thing I sold the chap said that I had undersold it and that he expected a right crock when he came to view it

Same things happened to me twice!
Once with an e30..guy turned up before the auction ended (I know..really!) and said it was better than he thought and he was going to go put his maximum bid up, haha. He won it as well.
Other was with a v70 I was selling as spares - the guys who towed it away were commenting on how nice it looks/was a shame they were just gonna rip the engine out

[ontheedge]

I have had more luck buying and selling using ebay than any of the others, no matter what price, just try to say as much as you can about the vehicle, good and bad.

[slater]

Facebook if you know what it's worth (or any other free trading site for that matter) No point in paying for eBay until you have tried the free options first.

eBay is good for passing off curse word mind. Plenty of people have done it to me. Unfortunately you will get more by glossing over the bad points!

[ChasR]

With MX-5s and Facebook I would tread carefully. Ask dickdasterdley ; A certain MX-5 Facebook group all want an MX-5 for around £300 with no rust and 12 months ticket (and no I am not joking ; we all want that but we don't go slating fellow owners to get it!).

At the RetroWarwicK event, I had a clean sale within a day much to my surprise for my MX-5. Normally I associate classic car shows to be a place where people will find every little detail wrong and break your balls for the lowest price ; it was the exact opposite of Richard's experience ; I had people falling over me to buy the car and it's not like I had up for a low price either (around £2.5k).

I won't even mention him trying to sell coilovers on the same MX-5 based Facebook group.

[retromadness123]

I know people say gumtree is not good I even had my mates tell me that but the first site I use usually is gumtree and really haven't had a issue, I do ofcourse use the car and classic site for the classics, but gumtree isn't all bad, I have bought cars on there, they ain't bad I think I just depends who crosses your path,