Sold my car

digitaldr

Just thought I'd share my recent experience of selling my 2003 Honda Accord Executive 44,000 miles on the clock. I bought it from a Honda dealer in Scotland 2 years ago and it came with full Honda dealer service history, HPI and mileage checks plus all service receipts. Since I've had it it's been well looked after - dealer serviced, just passed NCT etc. Anyway we're expecting twins :eek: so needed something a bit bigger (2005 CRV Exec) so I stuck it up on Carzone, Carbuyers guide and adverts.ie in about at the beginning of July (I know - bad timing!)

Anyway despite weekly price reductions I got very few offers apart from the usual scammers. One guy seemed very interested (price was down to €12,500) at this stage but came back a few days later with an offer of €9,500 - needless to say I didn't accept. In the end I sold it for €11,000 about 3 weeks ago - asking was €12,000. Interestingly it was the ad on adverts.ie that swung it - the buyer liked the fact that he could post his offer on the forum. He also said that the fact that I mentioned that I was a non-smoker in the ad was a huge plus point.

Now obviously I hoped to get a lot more but in the present economic climate I was happy enough with the 11 grand. I still have a look at carzone from time to time - lots of people still looking for way way too much. If you're selling a car my advice is to reduce the price pretty fast - after all a car is only worth what people are willing to pay and unfortunately that's not very much these days. Also bear in mind that the potential pool of buyers is going to shrink even more as loans become more difficult to get.

In retrospect I probably should have advertised in more newspapers/magazines (I only went with The Car Buyers Guide & Sunday Times).

S.I.R

advertise in your market... these are junior business men cars so sell it to them....


also be as steep as you need to be, dont be in a rush - everything comes in good time ( mainly money )

colm_mcm

er... the car is sold

Berty

I got screwed selling my car as well late last year.

2004 laguna which had to be let go at €8000. Nobody wants a laguna, not privately, not dealers.

What was a guy to do? It was top spec but it could have been made of gold and made no difference. Having the Renault Laguna badge crossed everything out!!!

L-M

digitaldr wrote: »

Interestingly it was the ad on adverts.ie that swung it - the buyer liked the fact that he could post his offer on the forum.

On carzone and the likes, you have the chance to email etc. if you want to offer a price. I don't think we'll see this "forum" like comment adding to cars any time soon, can lead to all sorts of comments, bad offers, time wasters etc. etc.

Fair play though for selling the car OP. It's a tough market out there.

11k is good money, although depending on the condition of the car.
http://www.carzone.ie/used-cars/Honda/Accord/1.8i-SE/1144325/

BillyGoatGruff

Limerick-man wrote: »

11k is good money, although depending on the condition of the car.
http://www.carzone.ie/used-cars/Honda/Accord/1.8i-SE/1144325/

I would imagine that it was the newer version the OP had rather than this example.

digitaldr

S.I.R wrote: »

also be as steep as you need to be, dont be in a rush - everything comes in good time ( mainly money )

Holding out for a good price is not really an option these days - car values only ever go one way!
It was a new shape Accord.

Realtine

Well done!
I've added mine if anyone's interested!!

Fuzzballs

Well done. Glad you got rid of it.

Im having a nightmare getting rid of my 2003 Golf TDi.
Im back in college full time now after loosing my job in May and dont need it. Average list price online for a 2003 TDi model is €11,500. Ive dropped mine to €8000 and still nothing, not one phone call.. I cant drop it any lower. Wasted money advertising it on Carzone and CBG. Have it on Carlist and Adverts. I was told when buying a Golf TDi they hold their price and easy to get rid of. Thats a laugh now in the present climate. Even if i sold for €8000, ive still lost €6500 on it in a year. . . . Listed here if anyone is interested.

http://www.adverts.ie/showproduct.php?product=73095&cat=2

http://www.carlist.ie/vehicles/view/97407-volkswagen-golf-dublin?r=/seller

rocky

Someone I know sold a 2004 Accord SR for under 10k recently, in excellent condition.

reb73

Trying to sell my car on Adverts.. Any tips lads?

http://www.adverts.ie/showproduct.php?product=75393&cat=2

Bandara

I sold the wifes car in 3 days, priced it for 25% below what it was 'worth' (ie what people were getting for them a year ago)

Thats about the level you need to be pitching at imo, thats the value of your car in this market.

Bandara

reb73 wrote: »

Trying to sell my car on Adverts.. Any tips lads?

http://www.adverts.ie/showproduct.php?product=75393&cat=2

reb your pictures are rubbish you can't really get any sense of the car in them, the car should be immaculately clean and shining, put up loads of pics, pics of the open boot, the rear view of the car, the front view, side view, back seats, the NCT cert, the more the better, its in good nick by the looks of it, show it off to anyone who looks at the ad !!!!

reb73

Thanks, Hammer..

Will get better pictures sorted within the next day or two.. Cheers!

Alanstrainor

Hammertime wrote: »

reb your pictures are rubbish you can't really get any sense of the car in them, the car should be immaculately clean and shining, put up loads of pics, pics of the open boot, the rear view of the car, the front view, side view, back seats, the NCT cert, the more the better, its in good nick by the looks of it, show it off to anyone who looks at the ad !!!!

+1,
It's all about first impressions, and the first impression of the car is what the potential buyer sees on the ad. If the owner didn't bother washing the car for the ad pictures, it makes you wonder how well it was looked after through the years. Dont mean to be harsh, it's just that i'm just looking for a motor myself so have noticed a few things.
Here's hoping you get a quick sale.

Dave147

Same, have a 98 A4 1.9TDi Quattro for sale and would sell for 5k, she's absolute top spec with all extras, sickened!

Bandara

Dave your not going to get more than 3750 for it mate, only the cheapest car will sell and they are going for less than that on carzone

Why not keep it and enjoy it, they're a lovely motor. It'll only piss you off giving it away for half nothing.

razorblunt

Have my car up at the moment, only have two English calls so far. Here's the ad anyway any feedback welcome.

http://www.carzone.ie/used-cars/BMW/3-Series/318i/1227422/

Esel

Razor: Did the 'English' calls sound scammy?

L-M

razorblunt wrote: »

Have my car up at the moment, only have two English calls so far. Here's the ad anyway any feedback welcome.

http://www.carzone.ie/used-cars/BMW/3-Series/318i/1227422/

IMHO, colour wouldn't be the best seller (IMO!!) and i don't think people will pay 2k for leather in an older car.
http://www.carzone.ie/used-cars/BMW/3-Series/318/467576/

Bandara

razorblunt wrote: »

Have my car up at the moment, only have two English calls so far. Here's the ad anyway any feedback welcome.

http://www.carzone.ie/used-cars/BMW/3-Series/318i/1227422/

Razor your between 3 and 4 grand dearer than these mate, yes your car may be cleaner etc but no one if going to buy it with that price difference.

http://www.carzone.ie/used-cars/BMW/3-Series/318-i/1099928/

http://www.carzone.ie/used-cars/BMW/3-Series/318/1206152/

You'll need to almost match them to get it sold.

Just seen this for 9,300 and it has the straight 6 engine in it !

http://www.carzone.ie/used-cars/BMW/3-Series/320-D/1151388/

razorblunt

esel wrote: »

Razor: Did the 'English' calls sound scammy?

Ya I was well aware of the scams from reading the threads here, so cheers for the heads up. They were calling from Motorsomething didnt catch the last part but it was exactly the same as the posts I read here.

razorblunt

Cheers for that lads, I'lll have a sleep on it and plan my next step tomorrow.

digitaldr

Alanstrainor wrote: »

+1,
It's all about first impressions, and the first impression of the car is what the potential buyer sees on the ad. If the owner didn't bother washing the car for the ad pictures, it makes you wonder how well it was looked after through the years. Dont mean to be harsh, it's just that i'm just looking for a motor myself so have noticed a few things.
Here's hoping you get a quick sale.

Couldn't agree more - you should spend a day thoroughly cleaning/polishing inside and out. It's worth spending a few bob on car care products too. Personally I have a strong aversion to son-of-a-gun etc - makes dashes look cheap and nasty and kinda Arthur Dalyish. As well as having it looking good you want it smelling good too - nothing worse than stale cigarette smell. Probably best to rely on good old fashioned ventilation/airing out rather than air fresheners.

If/when you get someone viewing it be sure to do a quick top up clean before they arrive and have all the paperwork in order.

It's natural not to want to spend any money preparing a car for sale but if you have any minor dents/scratches you should probably consider getting them fixed - there's lots of reasonable body work places around.

I'd go as far as to say all callers from UK numbers are scammers:) Apparently a lot of then aren't even really in the UK at all - they're just using some kind off VOIP trickery or so I've heard.

Dave147

Hammertime wrote: »

Dave your not going to get more than 3750 for it mate, only the cheapest car will sell and they are going for less than that on carzone

Why not keep it and enjoy it, they're a lovely motor. It'll only piss you off giving it away for half nothing.

Theyre not going for 3750 because she's the only quattro of that model for sale. Reason she's more expensive is because she's a far better car, someone who knows audi's will appreciate that. I'm buying a 1.8T Quattro Sport 180bhp as soon as its sold and I've saved sufficient extra funds.. Thanks for advice all the same