Selling a car on donedeal

mikefrommeath

Does anyone have an opinion on donedeal to sell a car?
I advertised my car a few times and did not get 1 call back. (its very well priced)

It seems donedeal has such an amount of cars been advertised on a daily base it just gets swallowed up

have anyone found the same?

Moneymaker

Depends on a few factors. What kind of car is it?

How good the ad is presented. Take 10 clear photos, show the entire car, interior, boot. Give it a wash and clean before.

Information is key. Milege, previous owners, service history, nct/tax and any information a potential buyer should know.

Huawei Gallagher

I had a set of Alloys on there a few years ago, phone rang constantly. I have a set of alloys on there today, just one inquiry in a week (from someone with the wrong car):mad:.

I think its a very good site to sell on, but I think people are just broke these days.

P.S. I personally ignore any car ad that does not state the price and the mileage.

Sadderday

i'm looking for a car!!! wheres the link !?

mikefrommeath

don't think I am allowed post links...

djimi

If its well priced then it should get some interest. If you want a quick sale then you need to price it accordingly.

DoctorEdgeWild

If you put effort into your ad, price and picture it well, you'll get plenty of attention. It can be easy to get lost in the mix if your ad is lazily put together or priced badly.

Sadderday

mikefrommeath wrote: »

don't think I am allowed post links...

PM me and knock a few quid off

mikefrommeath

its the best priced car in its class with 7 picture of a very clean car

djimi

What car is it?

mikefrommeath

ford focus estate 2008

Spike Witwicky

Is this it?

http://cars.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/2008-ford-focus-1-6-diesel-swap/6604920

mikefrommeath

no, that car has been there a long time

Kaiser D

OP, you are allowed to post a link to your ad as long as you state that its your ad.

mikefrommeath

http://cars.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/ford-focus-estate/6586071

brembo26

Must be due an NCT now as well... Has it been done?

mikefrommeath

no yet

Spike Witwicky

No mention of NCT in ad.
No mention of trim level or what gadgets are in the car
Also you state tax is €614 in ad
Motortax.ie says €200 annually

timmy4u2

You have to present your car as best you can. You can put up 10 photos. Put up 10.

Show the boot area and a shot of the clocks with engine running and warm to show it does not have management light issues and to show the mileage.
Show the tyres or at least mention them. Refer to the different parts of the cars mechanics, paint work etc.
You have a car that has the PSA 1.6 diesel engine. This engine when not serviced regularly and with low saps oil gave huge problems.
So not good enough to just say full service, you need to state the intervals and that proper oil was used etc.
I frankly would think it overpriced but that is just my opinion.

Put two similar ads in. One beginning mid week and one for the weekend
I had a car on there two weeks ago that was priced over a few of its peers and I got 38 calls, 6 viewers and 3 buyers. It was sold to the 1st viewer within four days.
It was well presented and well described.
....oh, and you are on a looser if it is not NCT'd

ironclaw

mikefrommeath wrote: »

http://cars.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/ford-focus-estate/6586071

Just my impression, but I personally hate the line "First to see will buy" and 'motorway miles' is meaningless.

Btw, your actually very cheap as the average price of a 1.6 2008 Diesel Ford Focus (All models, not just the Estate) is €8205. And thats from a data set of 93 cars. Your mileage is however higher than average (89,949 miles)

shanec1928

more info and better pictures of the interior. the one thats there at the moment is tiny and then the other one is of the cd player.

131spanner

Not meaning to be pedantic and pulling the ad apart because the photos show the car well and as ads go it's not a bad one, but seeing "Contact John on 087..." is a lot nicer than "seller". Just my own opinion good luck selling.

Moneymaker

Be patient, there's isn't a big demand for a Focus Estate but when someone does call they are likely to be genuinely interested.

You only have 6 photos out of a possible ten, use them all. Take a photo of the boot, back seats, service history book. Put your name on it too. An honest seller has nothing to hide.

Good luck with the sale, it looks a nice clean, well minded car. Be patient

mikefrommeath

timmy4u2 wrote: »

You have to present your car as best you can. You can put up 10 photos. Put up 10.

Show the boot area and a shot of the clocks with engine running and warm to show it does not have management light issues and to show the mileage.
Show the tyres or at least mention them. Refer to the different parts of the cars mechanics, paint work etc.
You have a car that has the PSA 1.6 diesel engine. This engine when not serviced regularly and with low saps oil gave huge problems.
So not good enough to just say full service, you need to state the intervals and that proper oil was used etc.
I frankly would think it overpriced but that is just my opinion.

Put two similar ads in. One beginning mid week and one for the weekend
I had a car on there two weeks ago that was priced over a few of its peers and I got 38 calls, 6 viewers and 3 buyers. It was sold to the 1st viewer within four days.
It was well presented and well described.
....oh, and you are on a looser if it is not NCT'd

thanks for the reply, you got 38 call? what type of car and what price range?

CiniO

ironclaw wrote: »

Just my impression, but I personally hate the line "First to see will buy" and 'motorway miles' is meaningless.

"Motorway miles" might mean a lot, assuming it can be proven. But hardly I can imagine how this could be proven

Outlaw Pete

I have bought and sold a few trailers on Donedeal with no real issues.
At times you can bombarded with 'what is your last offer' texts.
Have you feedback on Adverts? If so then it could be worth throwing it up there also.

ironclaw

CiniO wrote: »

"Motorway miles" might mean a lot, assuming it can be proven. But hardly I can imagine how this could be proven

Thats fair enough, but in my opinion a mile is a mile. You could be the best cruiser in the world on the motorway and dog the thing around the city / country roads. My car would do most of its miles on motorway but spend a higher proportion of its time in stop / start traffic and on country backroads. Which is better? Miles on a motorway or time spent in harsher conditions?

CiniO

ironclaw wrote: »

Thats fair enough, but in my opinion a mile is a mile. You could be the best cruiser in the world on the motorway and dog the thing around the city / country roads. My car would do most of its miles on motorway but spend a higher proportion of its time in stop / start traffic and on country backroads. Which is better? Miles on a motorway or time spent in harsher conditions?

Definitely motorway miles.
Suspension get very little wear and tear on motorway which are mostly very good surface.
Gearbox - you barely change gears on motorway - just cruise on 5th or 6th.
Clutch and flywheel - again same - very little wear on motorway.
Driving on motorway also usually means longer distances, so less driving on cold engine. Less opening/closing doors, getting in/out. Less turning - so effectively - less wear to car upholstry, steering wheel, door locks, etc, etc...

Also 200km on motorway might mean 2h usage of vehicle, while the same mileage in the city might mean 6 hours driving.

I'd prefer car with 100k on the clock driven only on motorways, to the same car with 40k driven only in the city.

Gazzmonkey

I used DoneDeal to sell my last car, the first add was pretty basic with 6 photos, I got 3 texts about the car and that was it. A few months later I made a new add from scratch and left out no detail, used the max amount of photos, disclosed all its flaws and even had some of my personal details on the add.

The phone rang off the hook for days and the first person to ring about it ended up buying it a few days later without a test drive. You need to take an hour out of your day to sit down, pull together all the info about your car (including ten good photos) and make an add that stands out more.

skintiam

I bought a car from donedeal and when I was looking I disregarded any that had no nct, if you were to put it through you would have a lot more interest.

bazz26

Absolutely no mention of NCT. This gives me the impression that the owner, is not confident it will pass or is too lazy to NCT it which could indicate the same attitude towards it's maintenance. Very few buyers will drop €6k or above for a car with no NCT or one about to expire, too many unknowns. Also 123k miles is more than your average Irish buyer will handle so may have to be patient.

Imo your biggest problem is the way you are selling the car rather than where you are advertising it. The first thing I would do is sort out the NCT.

Notch000

any car i had on donedeal sold in a couple of days, if it priced and pitch right it'l sell. DD gets serious amounts of traffic

timmy4u2

CiniO wrote: »

"Motorway miles" might mean a lot, assuming it can be proven. But hardly I can imagine how this could be proven

In this instance I would be thrilled with the fact that most of its miles were motorway miles as this engines problems were compounded by short, traffic laden miles.

Also a car that has mainly motorway miles will have the benefit of excellent roads, less wear and tear on steering components, clutch etc and a much cleaner burning engine

djimi

The biggest thing stands out for me with that ad is that the pictures are fairly awful and give you no real information about the car. Use all ten pictures, take some decent interior shots, show the dash, show the boot, show some closeups of the bodywork etc. Sell the car; dont just show it.

You have also got a lot of text space; make better use of it. Give as much relevant information as you can. And in bullet points.

And leave out nonsense like "first to see will buy"; it ads nothing to the ad and just wastes text that could be used for something relevant.

timmy4u2

mikefrommeath wrote: »

thanks for the reply, you got 38 call? what type of car and what price range?

In fact I had two cars on DD.
The one with the most phonecalls etc was a mercedes 220CDI €4850. 10 mths NCT And the other was a Fiat Stilo €1700 just NCT'd a few days.
The Stilo had less response than the other but was sold a day sooner.
I described everything in detail and if anything I underestimated its condition.
If you over estimate the condition of a car a potential customer may be disappointed when they call to see it.

FrontDoor

ironclaw wrote: »

Just my impression, but I personally hate the line "First to see will buy" and 'motorway miles' is meaningless.

Btw, your actually very cheap as the average price of a 1.6 2008 Diesel Ford Focus (All models, not just the Estate) is €8205. And thats from a data set of 93 cars. Your mileage is however higher than average (89,949 miles)

In my opinion, this data is not relevant.

Cars don't sell at the average price.

You also need to take account of the sellers who are dealers and offer warranty, etc.

If that engine was so ****e, then the 1.8s would show a clear premium over it. That doesn't seem to be the case.

I think the car is overpriced.

naughtysmurf

Agree with a lot of what has been said already especially about the NCT & better pictures & text required, the only other thing I'd say & it may sound stupid or I may be odd but with a private sale I hate to see other cars, houses etc in the near background, it's distracting, park it across the road with the green area behind it for the photos

dougie-lampkin

Some things would put me off.

• Why are you selling another, very very similar car at the same time? Which is written in a completely different format and looks like it was lifted off a car dealers site, even mentioning MOT. You bought the Mazda two weeks ago also? Why are the photos taken in a completely different place?
• No mention of NCT, has it even gone for its first test?
• You only bought the car a week ago? What's wrong with it? Alarm bells straight away.
• No name on the ad. Am I going to ring up and ask "Hi, can I speak to...seller?"
• Not enough photos, all I can tell from these is that the outside of the car is silver and it doesn't have extensive panel damage.

To me, these facts make it look like you're a small time dealer, and at this price range that's quite off putting. I assume you imported the Focus and Mazda from the UK yourself a couple of weeks ago and taxed them for 3 months? If so, you don't really need to ask boards how to sell a car, now do you?

Kaiser D

dougie-lampkin wrote: »

Some things would put me off.

• Why are you selling another, very very similar car at the same time? Which is written in a completely different format and looks like it was lifted off a car dealers site, even mentioning MOT. You bought the Mazda two weeks ago also? Why are the photos taken in a completely different place?
• No mention of NCT, has it even gone for its first test?
• You only bought the car a week ago? What's wrong with it? Alarm bells straight away.
• No name on the ad. Am I going to ring up and ask "Hi, can I speak to...seller?"
• Not enough photos, all I can tell from these is that the outside of the car is silver and it doesn't have extensive panel damage.

To me, these facts make it look like you're a small time dealer, and at this price range that's quite off putting. I assume you imported the Focus and Mazda from the UK yourself a couple of weeks ago and taxed them for 3 months? If so, you don't really need to ask boards how to sell a car, now do you?

Thats actually a new "feature" added in by Donedeal. If you look under the contact details it will say "ad placed by Tony..."

Anyway OP, first off your photos need to be better. You are allowed 10 photos so make use of them all. I'd recommend:

1) Front
2) Front, left
3) Front, right
4) Side, left
5) Side, right
6) Rear
7) Rear, left
8) Rear, right
9) Interior shot looking in from the driver's door
10) Shot of the service history, documents etc
Also, remove the UK tax disc from the windscreen.

And for the ad:

2008 Ford Focus 1.6 TDCI Style

2008 Ford Focus Estate 1.6 TDCI Style
Tax until June, no NCT (though you really should put it through)
Tax only €200 per year
128,000 Miles with full service history

The car comes with the following spec
<list spec/options here>

UK import, imported <state when the car was imported, did you import it?>

Price €6500, open to negotiation (etc)

-

Not perfect, but something along those lines.

It looks tidy and generally untidy ads would put me off a car.

ProudDUB

Needs more pix of the interior. There are two in the ad, but the first one is just of the CD player and gear stick. The second is a tiny thumbnail pic, that is so small you can't see anything in it. You need to show the seats, front and back.

Take pictures of the car with the front and back doors open, so that people can see what the cars interior looks like, as they would be getting into it. It is easy to get caught up in the specs of the car, but people really care what the interior of the car looks like. If it looks good, show it. I'd look at your ad and presume that you were trying to hide something (stained seats for example) due to their being so few shots of the interior.

Have a look at some other ads and see how well people photograph their cars interior. You'll get a good idea of the best angles to use, distance to stand back etc etc

ironclaw

FrontDoor wrote: »

In my opinion, this data is not relevant.

Cars don't sell at the average price.

You also need to take account of the sellers who are dealers and offer warranty, etc.

If that engine was so ****e, then the 1.8s would show a clear premium over it. That doesn't seem to be the case.

I think the car is overpriced.

Of course they don't sell at the average price. I thought that would have been obvious. That average asking price €8205 is from both the private and dealer markets. If you want to split that, its €8750 (About 58% of the overall market) in the dealer market and €7450 (The remaining 42% of the market) in the private sector.

Clearly you would negotiate high and low around that to match the exact car. Its ball park, not bible. Not many people could point to a car in this country and tell you the average price of it. With that data set, you can.

You may think the car is overpriced, but 93 other cars say different. As you rightly said, condition, NCT, tax etc will all affect that. But speaking purely in averages, it sits on the far low side. (Data is from January this year to present)

biko

ironclaw wrote: »

Just my impression, but I personally hate the line "First to see will buy"

Tbh, that phrase is just daft, as are many other sales phrases "no nct but will fly through".

OP - maybe you should change it to "first to see must buy" because that is what it sounds like
Also, more interior pics of back bench and front seats. And read the sticky "A Guide on Selling a used car in Ireland", it's there to explain the most common things you should think about.

timmy4u2

ironclaw wrote: »

Of course they don't sell at the average price. I thought that would have been obvious. That average asking price €8205 is from both the private and dealer markets. If you want to split that, its €8750 (About 58% of the overall market) in the dealer market and €7450 (The remaining 42% of the market) in the private sector.

Clearly you would negotiate high and low around that to match the exact car. Its ball park, not bible. Not many people could point to a car in this country and tell you the average price of it. With that data set, you can.

You may think the car is overpriced, but 93 other cars say different. As you rightly said, condition, NCT, tax etc will all affect that. But speaking purely in averages, it sits on the far low side. (Data is from January this year to present)

In the end of the day a car is worth what a buyer will pay.
In this instance it does not have an NCT has high miles, we do not know the service intervals.
Its all very fine to quote an average but that is not how car sales work

To be honest it I were a dealer with a 08 car with that engine in it with that mileageand from that era beforecthey really copped on to the service problems I would be asking €3500 over its value just in case it came back to me with engine trouble, and at that it would hardly cover replacement costs in the event of engine failure.