Why is my car not selling?

acier

Evenin all, I've got my car for sale at the moment and in nearly 3 weeks I haven't even had a phone call about it. It's on Donedeal, Carzone, Adverts and Buy and Sell, quite a few people looking at it but no calls.
It's an '04 BMW 320d in good nick, priced fairly low with a bit of room for bargaining, good pics in the ad and a decent description of it.
Is there just no market for it now? wrong time of year? wrong phase of the moon or what?
Anyone got any tips to help me get rid of it as I've a few bills I need to clear up soon?

Atlantic Dawn

Is it a mainstream colour and unmodified? Do you want to post a link to your ad to see what people think?

djimi

Define "priced fairly low". There was one genius in the dreamers thread who was of the impression he was going to get €6k for an 11 year old 318i...

Mena

I assume it's this one?

acier

It's a met blue/grey colour and totally standard,
Mods am I allowed to put up a link to the ad?

djimi

Mena wrote: »

I assume it's this one?

http://www.adverts.ie/311019/cars/bmw-320d/

No its not. You can see it if you click "adverts" on the OPs name on their post.

acier

Thanks djimi, didn't think of that

rabbitinlights

If it's the adverts one, then someone has offered you 6k as of about 1hr ago....

daltonj7

that car in the add is 02 but the op's car is 04

Eric Cartman

to be fair its a bmw with cloth seats , manual air conditioning and no other extras , there are plenty other 320d's out there with leather, climate and possibly satnav, xenons etc.... http://www.carzone.ie/search/BMW/3-Series/320-E46-/201041199841187/advert?channel=CARS like there, 1700 euro extra (1100 extra after haggling) to get leather, M kit, parking sensors, steering wheel controls, climate control etc...

this might not seem worth it to you but to a lot of people in ireland bmw=luxury=leather seats & toys like parking sensors that is if the ad linked is yours...

acier

rabbitinlights, I don't think thats my ad you're looking at

acier

The link posted by Mena is not my ad, like djimi said mine can be seen if you click adverts under my name

acier

Eric Cartman the link you posted is to my ad on carzone, and you're right about the haggling

johnos1984

TBH I'd say the car not selling has more to do with the current climate of fear with the upcoming budget.

I've started to notice very few people willing to put their hand in the pockets in the past couple of weeks in the retail sector in general

Eric Cartman

acier wrote: »

Eric Cartman the link you posted is to my ad on carzone, and you're right about the haggling

well considering ive linked to your ad id just say its recession , thats a fair price and a decent spec, id hold out until we hear the budget , i think people are worried about tax changes to diesel (i know I am ) but thats a fair car for the money

acier

I'd like to be able to wait until then but I don't think I can, but I'm not going to let it go for nothing either.

Mc Love

Think its quite expensive

acier

Mc love if you can show me some with the same spec for cheaper, on Irish plates, I'll agree. Theres one cheaper on Donedeal and one on Carzone and thats in Jap cars Dublin, search their name on boards to find out more about them.

Mc Love

I know what its like selling a car in these times! Fecking hard - all i can say is try reducing the price, thats how I sold mine, and I even got a very good price for mine in this market

Bigus

Take new pics without the cranes in the back ground and without the just been valeted look, and remove the plastic seat cover.

The adverts pics smack of part time dealer selling it( so maybe state how long you have it)

Why blank out reg number what are you hiding

if you have two keys and service history take apic of theses too

Reduce to 7999 and good luck.

-Corkie-

Bigus wrote: »

Take new pics without the cranes in the back ground and without the just been valeted look, and remove the plastic seat cover.

The adverts pics smack of part time dealer selling it( so maybe state how long you have it)

Why blank out reg number what are you hiding

if you have two keys and service history take apic of theses too

Reduce to 7999 and good luck.

Agree pictures are crap.. Sorry op. Also straighten the steering wheel. It dont look good at the way its turned.

And!!. Go to www.autoquake.co.uk or cargiant and look and learn at there pics..

acier

Thanks for the advice lads, I'll try some new pics tomorrow, it had just been valeted. I thought having it all bright and shiny would look better but looking at it now I can see how it looks like a part time dealer's car.

matt-dublin

I can tell you why its not selling, you're trying to sell it for the same price as an msport coupe with the same mileage

I would suggest dropping by at least a grand, then give it a go.

Don't forget we're nearing year end, which becomes a buyers market, also people are waiting to buy because we're about to get screwed by the government.

Oh and don't forget there's a new 3 series saloon out next year.

spockety

If something doesn't sell, it's because it is priced too high for the market of people that would like to buy it.

How can you be sure of this logic? Because if you advertised it for €2K it would sell within an hour.

Drop your price, and improve your ad with better pictures.

Gumbo

OP, this is how i advertise all my cars - http://cars.donedeal.ie/for-sale/cars/1624847

this is my sisters Polo and it sold tonight.
i advertised an Audi S3 last month and it sole within 4 days!
An Mg ZR 4 months before that and i could of sold 5 of the bloody things
my older 320d from last year, again, sold withing 3 weeks - http://www.adverts.ie/153670/cars/2005-bmw-e90-320d-saloon-for-sale-new-shape/

good clear description, state the service history and as much photos as the site allows.
and as always, if your getting no calls, its too expensive.

Might be worth waiting a while too to be honest, most cars I sold took a month or so for the right buyer to come along. If you want a rapid sale though, price drop is the only way.

daltonj7

OP why have a blocked out the number plate? whenever i look at buying cars if the plate is blocked i just move onto the next car straight away, it definately puts ppl off

johndaman66

daltonj7 wrote: »

OP why have a blocked out the number plate? whenever i look at buying cars if the plate is blocked i just move onto the next car straight away, it definately puts ppl off

I too fail to see any logical reason for blocking out the number plate when advertising a car for sale.

daltonj7

johndaman66 wrote: »

I too fail to see any logical reason for blocking out the number plate when advertising a car for sale.

it istantly raises suspicion, if anyone has advertised cars and blocked the number plate could they post their reasons here. it would also be nice to know if you managed to sell your cars and if so how long did it take?

cheers

vibe666

its a harsh lesson i learnt when selling my last car unfortunately.

when you go to sell a car, you have a figure in your head of how much its worth to you, but the problem is that it's highly unlikely that a buyer is going to see the same value in it as you do.

as people have already said, its only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. most of the time, no calls = too expensive. it's sad, but its true i'm afraid.

drop the price a bit and take kceire's advice on spicing up the advert should help too.

mickdw

As said above, it does come across as a dodgy dealer ad with the seat over, the tyre shine, the yard with the large shed that might just be the dodgy bodyshop.

acier

I had the number plate blocked so no-one could use the pics on a scam ad, I figured if anyone wanted it they could call me, if someone else used them then they couldn't give out the reg and you would know it was a scam, also a mate of mine got in sh1t after someone copied his plate presumably after seeing it when he was trying to sell it. It's never made me suspicious seeing plates blanked, takes about 30 seconds call credit to get the number.

vibe666

if someone wants to steal your number plate, they only have to stand out on a public road and note it down.

if you want to stop people using it in scam adverts, then use ms paint or something similar to add your own phone number to each picture somewhere where it can't easily be cropped out.

acier

Thanks vibe I'll try that with putting the number in the pic. It's much easier for those scumbags to just go through the ads and just copy the whole ad and use it for themselves.
The missing number is 9156 if anyone's interested.

acier

Where's a good place to take pics? would an empty shopping centre car park be ok?
I had priced it by searching for others the same and putting it close to the bottom but not the lowest in case that looked dodgy, also left about 1k bargaining room.

vibe666

i'd go for somewhere well lit (to show it off) that looks like it might be it's home. taking pictures of a motor in a car park would also make it look a little dodgy imho.

Tragedy

OP, I think it's priced quite highly. Try €6,995 and see what you get.

daltonj7

try taking photos on grass because that always looks well especially if its sunny, but it is unlikely you will get many sunny days to take any photos but you never know. keep praying

Gone West

You present 1k as bargaining room, but wouldn´t it be better to call a spade a spade?
1k overpriced?

matt-dublin

At least 1k overpricedd

lukester

When picking a price to sell the car at, if you're basing that on what others are selling for, how do you know if their prices are realistic? (I guess if no-one calls you'll figure that out sooner or later )

Gone West

lukester wrote: »

When picking a price to sell the car at, if you're basing that on what others are selling for, how do you know if their prices are realistic? (I guess if no-one calls you'll figure that out sooner or later )

The price that others are buying and selling the same things for is the market price, and is therefore the only realistic price.

Asking price doesn´t mean squat. Look at those shoeboxes for sale for 250k, but nobody is buying them. The same idea applies to anything, the price people are paying for the product is the realistic price.

acier

SOLD, gone tonight for 8k and a tank of diesel, had it out on the road outside for 4 days and someone passing bought it.
My advice to anyone selling if you live on a busy road stick it outside, if you don't, find someone who'll let you put it outside theirs. I got way more calls having it on the road than on the net. Now to get pissed and celebrate

Mc Love

Sold mine the exact same way!! Much better than Carzone or any others!

but43r

Is it not illegal to sell cars on the side of the road nowadays??? Might be wrong but I think a law was passed out after girl and her mother where knocked down while the driver was looking at a car for sale. I might be wrong and I couldn't be bothered searching for the law on the net...

Del2005

but43r wrote: »

Is it not illegal to sell cars on the side of the road nowadays??? Might be wrong but I think a law was passed out after girl and her mother where knocked down while the driver was looking at a car for sale. I might be wrong and I couldn't be bothered searching for the law on the net...

AFAIK it's illegal but it's only enforced if you park it in a dangerous place or have loads out. There's no way they can enforce it if it's legally parked outside a house.

acier

but43r wrote: »

Is it not illegal to sell cars on the side of the road nowadays??? Might be wrong but I think a law was passed out after girl and her mother where knocked down while the driver was looking at a car for sale. I might be wrong and I couldn't be bothered searching for the law on the net...

It was on private property, taxed and insured, just like any other car parked up but with a " For Sale " sign in the window.