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Hi all hope someone can help me.
I've been driving since 2003, wife has been driving about the same length of time, but neither of us have ever sold a car before (only ever traded in with dealers or to people we know), we are now looking to go from 2 daily drivers to 1, with the 1 being new to us, we will be buying the car from savings, then restoring the money by selling the existing ones.
We have never sold cars to random people before, we don't know how to price them, deal with viewings etc, how do we avoid timewasters/scammers? I would love to be able to sell on here but one is a 2001 model, the other is a 2006. Is it worth asking people to wait till weekend to be able to view in the light?
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Unfortunately you will probably get a few time wasters , you get it selling anything . If they are cheap cars i suggest your local facebook group as people see them immediately .
As a guide to price look through autotrader and ebay and price according to similar models .
List Mot length , body condition , interior , tyres service history etc .
Be honest without sounding curse word .
Have a firm figure in mind , the least you will accept for a car . Most people with put something up for say £750 but expect for people to point out the odd thing and get knocked down to £650 .
You will get idiots , people asking to see it immediately then not turning up , cancelling etc . People offering a third of the price and being rude saying thats all it worth . You just have to stand firm on your price you will take [ not what you advertised for ]
don't get drawn in by sob stories either , there is always some one who things they can get stuff cheaper by doing that .
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Give it a bloody good clean inside and out , everything out hoover , dust , clean wheels , top up the fluids etc . Consider getting a oil change done if it needs it , people are really put off by black oil .
Even just a goof jetwash will do .
If the earlier car is worth it consider getting it valeted if its within reasonable price against what you expect to earn
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Decide a price and stick to it.
Some people will kick tyres and haggle hard, I set a price in my head and have the car reflecting that as I buy my cars based on price but then I buy curse word and normally factor in worst case.
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Some days you just need to take a grinder to an inanimate object, just to make your day a tiny bit better!!
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thanks guys, the cars are a 2006 grande punto (50k) looking for a scratch over 1100 as it has a few scratches (wife's car) and mine is a 2001 focus on 103k, couple of bends on the front bumper (car park when i had an allocated space was a joke) and a funny fault where turning the headlights off takes a few goes, will be hoping for 650 for it. i worry i wll be casting pearls before swine as for their tiny faults they have had small fortunes spent on them, expensive tyres, no scrimping on quality of parts used etc
are my prices reasonable?
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Last Edit: Jan 1, 2016 20:17:46 GMT by flatapex
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Yes , i would expect them to go quick at that , perhaps take a grand at a push for the punto .
Make sure you state they have been looked after , the bills, service history and decent tyres etc , as i find a lot of cheap cars have been a round one or a few people with no money then still passed of as relatively good [ hence overpriced as they have not been looked after in the recent year or two ]
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Keep to the facts in adverts - ie don't list something unneccessary that the buyer is going to ask about, like 'xxx is broken, but I'll fix this before sale'. Don't make promises you might not keep. List all the faults, but don't be OCD and list things like 'there's a scratch around the handle'. Demand if anyone is interested, to contact you and then come round on a certain day, such as the weekend. I've took days off work for these non-appearances. If he turns up with 50% less cash and then says 'well, I'm walking away with the money', say goodbye and walk back inside. Usually if someone has travelled a fair bit, they're going to drive away in the car.
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brachunky
Scotland
Posts: 1,329
Club RR Member Number: 72
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Having just sold a 52 reg Focus with only 67000 miles on it, they seem to fare not to well in getting a fair price. You may have to lower your expectations to around £400 to stand a chance of moving it. Not being a pessimist but thats where they are at the moment!
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avoid texts, avoid emails, avoid dealing with price unless its in person.
in my experience, if someones willing to ring you up, ask questions and make the trip, if the cars honest, theyl be interested.
texts, emails are to easy for people to just ask for askings sake, and the current market seems to be everyone first question is whats the least you will take. i refuse to barter on price until they're there in person, just state the add says ono.
as for the prices sadly as brachunky says, focus's seem to command a very low price at the moment, they're the cortina of 2015.2016 and are readily available so people have alot of choice.
good luck and don't let the bas-tard-s grind you down! stick to your guns.
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peewee
Part of things
Posts: 103
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i have sold a lot of cars i always list every little fault that way they cant use something against you to get price you will get people who will say x amount tonight thats before they have viewed it what sort of idiot says that i don't know unless its a complete heap that you want for parts i refuse to listen to offers until the car has been viewed as you have never sold a car before i would advise having someone to be with you who has
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ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,258
Club RR Member Number: 170
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I have read through the above and there is some good advice there. However, with both of the cars I would put them on eBay on a 99p no Reserve listing. Take plenty of photos of the cars, inside, outside, the side of the car, engine bay, faults with it and even Service History of the car! Both of your cars are cars are cheap cars many people are looking for. Remember these rules if you do the above and think it is not crazy: -Most people think they need a car ; If the advert is right, it will not go cheaply, quite the opposite compared to a classified/reserve auction for a multitude of reasons -Take good photos of the car of everthing pretty much. Hopefully the links below should give you an idea of what to go for. Write up a good description : My descriptions are probably wordy but it does make the transactions simple in most cases and it seems to work for me anyway -If you cannot be bothered to make the effort be prepared to take a hit in the price. I once bought a very tidy Mini albeit in an iffy colour for £1200 with 12 month's MOT a couple of years ago ; Not a bad price at all. It was very straight. The issues? The photos of the Mini could have been better, and it would have flown out the door for more. Indeed, when I had it, I sold it probably too cheaply in the end ; £1500 (I did however fix a few issues and throw a few upgrades in the buying price : retrorides.proboards.com/thread/143980Remember that you are competing against people who sell cars day in day out for a living ; this ties in to all of the above ; If you make the effort it can work greatly in your favour compared to other private adverts -Embed the photos using the HTML editor and encoder on ebay with Photobucket images ; It really makes the advert stand out over the rest With the above I sold cars for the following: 1997 Peugeot 306 Meridian DT Phase 1 (last of line) : £590 ; It had 147k on the clock but also a new clutch and a comprehensive service history 2003 Ford Mondeo Ghia X LPG : £1200 in 2012 ; Not bad for a car with 211,000 miles on it! 2002 VW Lupo 1.4 Sport for £1.5k at the end of 2012 ; It had a semi patchy history but it was a 1 owner car from new with 77k on the clock. - I sold this outside of eBay but the car had plenty of interest on ebay, especially when I removed it. 2003 Renault Clio 1.4 Expression. £680 at the end of 2012 ; This car did look tired from the outside IMO (it had lived a hard life before I got it to the extent that I ended up changing the interior), but it was semi presentable at the end. It also had 135k on the clock 2001 Ford Mondeo 2.0 Zetec with a gash down the rear door and arch with 110k : £400. That was last year. OK, I may have got more by waiting but within putting the cars up for sale they were all gone within 2 weeks. I did twice get bitten but the car was always going to be a lottery to sell to anyone IMHO: 2002 Alfa Romeo 2.0 TS Lusso ; £360. It did have 110k and it had zero compression on cylinder no. 2 ; From what I could see similar cars were going for £600-1200 in working order, so maybe that was not a bad deal. Escort XR3i Cabrio ; I sold this for £250 in 2008 ; Back then decent cars were around £1k, and this car wanted a new roof and a respray, and probably a new interior at the same time. It had seen some action over the years. Oh and the fuel pump needed a switch to make the car run ; we were far too tight to buy a new relay but it probably would have helped the sale price! The car however did owe us £550-600 all in over 3 years including the purchase price. Below are links to the kind of photos I took of the cars. Some were not great but the sale price reflected this. Alfa TS with the knackered engine: s9.photobucket.com/user/randhawac/Cars/Alfa/storyAlfa JTD ; I put this up privately as I was too greedy ; I got my share of timewasters with it to boot and it did take quite a while to sell. I put it up initially for £2k, and took £1.3k in the end ; many were going for around £1-1.5k at that time: s9.photobucket.com/user/randhawac/Cars/Alfa%20JTD/storyThe Clio: s9.photobucket.com/user/randhawac/Cars/Clio/storyPhotos a mate took after taking a leaf out of my book (and I took it from akku ! He got rid of that very quickly and for more money than expected : s9.photobucket.com/user/randhawac/Cars/Clio%20Expression/storyThe Lupo: s9.photobucket.com/user/randhawac/Cars/Lupo%20Sport/story211k Mondeo : Ignore the first lot of videos on this : I put them there after an issue I had with the car (Flexi pipe problems) s9.photobucket.com/user/randhawac/Cars/Mondeo%20MC/storyPug Meridian: s9.photobucket.com/user/randhawac/Cars/Peugeot%20306%20Meridian/storyEscort Cabriolet: s9.photobucket.com/user/randhawac/Cars/Escort%20XR3i/storyHere's one of my adverts ; Maybe I sold it too cheap, but it had no interest on here, but it sold within a week of putting it up on Pistonheads. retrorides.proboards.com/thread/175852/1997-323i-coupe-1200ono-warwickWhile my advice may be sound I am always happy to have a little C&C .
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Last Edit: Jan 1, 2016 22:28:54 GMT by ChasR
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GT4ME
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,729
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Good advice here, quick point most dealers would take 2 cars in part/x against there own stock.
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Lot of good advice above.. Only things I would add:
1/ Don't hang around waiting for for people to turn up as you just end up wasting your day. Get them to tell you when they are 30 mins away/setting off.
2/ Don't be overly critical with every little thing. It doesn't seem to do you any favours. How any cars that dealers flog little every little scratch/flaw?! I've sold a couple on eBay and had people surprised that it was better than expected! Just be honest.
3/ don't feel pressured by any offer they make. I once had two guys looking at a car I was selling for over an hour...tried to convince me to swap it it for a knackered a4, then offered me 1/2 my asking price plus me to throw in my other car! Told them where to go...
4/ I've found eBay auctions (not buy it now) soooo much easier to sell without hassle compared to ads elsewhere! Most people bid without viewing, turn up and drive it away...done. Of course that isn't always the way, but generally that's my experience.
6/ emailer/texters that want more pictures, more details, start making offers - are not really interested. One, followed by arrangements to come and see it - fair enough... They'll want to come see it if they are interested.
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The very important bits...make sure the new keepers part of the V5 is completed correctly it is YOUR responsibility to send off the V5 do not let the buyer use the traders section unless they have prove they are a trader its a well know trick for people register a car 'in trade' then use it for theft/ drive off ect, cancel the insurance as soon as it's sold and only except cash signing the receipt sold as seen, no warranty and before letting anyone test drive it ask them to see their insurance and go with them.
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Gumtree is great as it's free to put adverts on.
eBay auctions can be terrible. I sold one of my celicas on eBay. After it ended the winner email saying "this is car is diesel yes? I only want a diesel" caused a ton of hassle. He refused to pay saying it was not clear that my car was petrol. It said twice very clearly that my car was a 5 speed petrol manual. eBay do nothing to help you if you have a non paying buyer.
I have had great success with eBay classified adverts. I list it using this method with lots of pics and a clear description, I'm very honest about the condition as it helps eliminate time wasters and people who pick at minor faults. What I tend to do is advertise it at 10-15% over the price I want. Say if I want £850 I will put it up at £1000, I will remove the option to make an offer on the car. Then I write the main text that I am open to close offers, but only after someone has viewed the car. I say, I have removed the make an offer button as although I open to offers, I don't want anyone making an offer without seeing the car. I have found this way has gave me the best success selling.
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I always keep it simple and list the essentials, Mileage, petrol/diesel, MOT, service history/receipts, no. Of doors etc. If it's a retro with maybe no stamped history then you go onto detail but only certain people fo for retros anyway. I'll then state if I'm open to very near offers or no offers.
Autotrader is pricey but you do get interest (just sold my Wife's Hyundai Getz)
Ebay is different. Put it on as a classified and you WILL receive stupid questions and offers. I end up putting things like "NO TIMEWASTERS" and "WILL NOT SHIP CAR TO AFRICA"
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1993 Mercedes-Benz 190e LE in Azzuro Blue.
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Interesting seeing different peoples experiences as I've had nothing but time wasters with gumtree and eBay classified ads... Not tired autotrader in years
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Don't be alone when the buyer shows up. Have at least your wife around. Better would be a huge grim-looking friend with camouflage pants...
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Before everything else it's worth putting it out around friends, family, work colleagues etc that you're selling. There's always someone wanting a cheap car and they'll know you've had the car years and it's always been looked after, reliable etc. Works for both buyer and seller, bought and sold loads of cars this way. If that fails eBay, and go the 99p no reserve route and only ever give a firm price to someone in person at a viewing, never give someone a price via eBay message. If they're genuine they'll come and view the car.
Finally don't be afraid to say no. You're the seller, know what you want and stay in control. You will always get some joker trying to knock you down, sob stories, car's not worth that much etc. Don't hesitate in telling them to Foxtrot Oscar. Don't let the jokers put you off, I really enjoy both buying and selling cars, but it helps to be pre-armed in the unlikely case you get some clowns show up.
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ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,258
Club RR Member Number: 170
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Sarkie makes a few good points. My experience of selling on sites goes as follows: 1) eBay - Following alistairK's rules goes a long way IMHO. It makes the transactions pretty hassle free. Indeed, I have only once had a deal go sour on ebay over the deals I've had with people. Most people have been very satisfied with the purchase. If done via their classified system refer to Pistonheads 2) Pistonheads - This can work both ways. I've had a few timewasters by it but I also wanted the cash for the cars. On a few instances the car flew out of the window. 3) Gumtree - I rarely bother with it. About 3 years ago I sold an iffy looking Pug 106 GTi ; This very car. I had around 3 people come to look at it. One of them tried to bid me down over the phone, saying there were others out there cheaper than mine (some were to be fair, but I thought mine had a decent spec interior and taken care of recently to go for it). He offered me £500 for the car which I was simply not prepared to do. Eventually I sold it for £900 with a bloke who turned up, drove it and liked what he saw. I always keep it simple and list the essentials, Mileage, petrol/diesel, MOT, service history/receipts, no. Of doors etc. If it's a retro with maybe no stamped history then you go onto detail but only certain people fo for retros anyway. I'll then state if I'm open to very near offers or no offers. Autotrader is pricey but you do get interest (just sold my Wife's Hyundai Getz) Ebay is different. Put it on as a classified and you WILL receive stupid questions and offers. I end up putting things like "NO TIMEWASTERS" and "WILL NOT SHIP CAR TO AFRICA" Simple adverts are good but you can keep guessing. OTOH maybe that's a good thing. I know that it would have saved me some time viewing cars when I was looking for a daily replacement for the BMW ; half the cars I saw would have been good for most people but I really did not want to be pouring cash into cars if I could help it (I'm talking about adverts missing facts like all 4 corners of the car where knocking (iffy drop links), switches and dashboard issues (Audi TT ; very common issues), in addition to things like trim missing and general neglect. OTOH I have seen some real bargains this way too. The timewasters thing IMHO is a double edged sword. You may put away the wasters but also genuine punters who want to see that the car is any good ; I myself have been bitten badly on some cars which were fine on a quick glance intially (read head gasket issues, leaking wheels (flat in a day), and a neverending issue of cooling problems). Everyone is different but I like to look at it another way. If car dealers/traders said the same do you think they would sell the cars? You as a seller (all of us) are in the same boat as them . This is probably why many people simply give the car to a dealer. Alistair created a superb selling guide which I shall now list up. Yes you can get more money potentially but you will come across more 'timewasters' etc.. Some cars do get more of them than others but these cars IMO also tend to come with a reputation of issues (My Stag was one, and so was my 106 GTi, although even that sold in a month or so . retrorides.proboards.com/thread/102246/sell-car-ebay-fun-profit
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