Advice on best sites for selling a car and best pricing strategy

MuffinsDa

I'm selling a car and I've put it on the market since last week. I've advertised in on carzone, cbg, carsireland, adverts and done deal. I have also priced it somewhere in the middle of the range of the prices for the same year car but my car has lowest mileage and highest spec of what's on the market right now. I still haven't got a single call. What am I doing wrong? Do I need to be usually the lowest advertised to attract buyers, or should is there a garage that would sell cars for commission?

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Not giving the details of the car here obviously as don't want this to turn into an ad for the car, I genuinely just need advice and tips on how to advertise

Alanstrainor

Too expensive is probably the issue, it's almost always the reason. You can post up the ad if you like. Generally an ad should have good pictures of the car, after washing it and in good light. Info about it's service history and things like tires and NCT. Then it's all price imo.

No calls means it's too expensive.

Toyotafanboi

as above, the bottom line is mostly, if the price is right, it'l go.

that said, there is far more to take into consideration.

for example, if you are selling a 3 year old VW golf for €15,000 you will struggle in a private sale, generally speaking as the likelyhood of someone having €15k in cash to give to you is slim and out of those people an even slimmer amount will be silly enough to part with in in a private deal with no warranty etc. whereas a 3 year old Golf in a dealer would be a much easier sale as they will arrange finance, offer a warranty etc.

if you have a 1999 Ford Focus and it isn't selling, it's simply probably too dear.

again, the site you chose is crucial, looks like you've covered plenty of ground in that regard, but generally speaking donedeal probably gets the most traffic for <€20k stuff, adverts is 75% timewasters and 25% people looking for swaps and 100% people with no money, carzone is good for higher end, more exclusive/ exotic stuff and imo carsireland is a bit obscure to be bothered with, despite offering some good services.

then again, you're add could be poo and you could have made some novice errors. there's usually no hassle on this forum with people posting adverts looking for help, so feel free to link the car if you want, we could probably give more specific advice from there.

Toyotafanboi

just clicked your adverts :P

http://www.adverts.ie/car/renault/megane/2010-renault-megane-estate-diesel-impeccable-low-mileage-one-owner-full-service-history/9175038

you ad looks well generally speaking, good photos, detailed spec and history etc.

my criticisms would be to:

remove "- Impeccable, Low Mileage, One Owner, Full Service History" from the title, i know you are only trying to get a point across, but it's usually a chancer tactic in my experience which makes you look a bit less trustworthy.

this is a year newer and exactly the same car, from a dealer with a lower asking price that you, admittedly higher mileage, but most people will favour a year newer dealer purchase to a lower mileage private deal at this price point.
http://cars.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/renault-megane-1-5-dci-tom-tom-mint-cond/10724749

this one is a slightly lower spec, but same asking price, a year newer and from a dealer. worth noting that most Irish people don't care about spec once it has fogs and alloys, so this would also be a front runner to your car for a lot of people.
http://cars.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/renault-megane-1-5-dci-dynamique-nct-03/10314406

another one, same kind of story
http://cars.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/renault-megane-1-5-dci-dynamique/10595409

these are all reasonably local to you too (all Co. Dublin). i could be wrong as the only pricing i've ever done on those Meganes has been over the last 5 minutes on Donedeal, but you need to come down at least €1k to stand any chance, the more popular (i'd imagine) 5 door hatchabacks seem to be going for <€7k.

Alanstrainor

I agree with Toyotafanboi, I put a search into donedeal and saw plenty 2011 for less than you're asking OP. Higher spec in that type of car doesn't necessarily equal a higher selling price, it will more often than not just mean that it's easier to sell.

1k too expensive, probably more if you're competing with dealers.

MuffinsDa

Thanks a lot for the advice guys.

Would people not take mileage into account? When I'm buying a car, mileage and relevant service history is one of my main criteria. The ones advertised above all have 2.5-3 times the mileage, which will necessitate all sort of expenses.

Also, are hatchbacks more desirable that estates? I thought estates are generally a bit more expensive as they are more practical especially for a family car.

Anyway, I'll start dropping the price as advised and see how it goes then. I'll probably end up keeping the car at the end, after having it valeted it looked so good and new that I am tempted to forget about selling altogether!

Thanks again!

Toyotafanboi

MuffinsDa wrote: »

Would people not take mileage into account? When I'm buying a car, mileage and relevant service history is one of my main criteria. The ones advertised above all have 2.5-3 times the mileage, which will necessitate all sort of expenses.

it's not that you're wrong in your thinking, but most Irish car buyers don't do maintenance, so maintenance costs don't really come onto their radar. mileage is a good logical call too, but most people would see a 2011 more reliable than a 2010 because the 2011 is newer, regardless of mileage. seems crazy, but it actually goes in the minds of most.

draiochtanois

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MuffinsDa

draiochtanois wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Not sure about the point you are trying to make wrt mileage, and not sure if a 5 year old family diesel is a niche market either, but thanks for your comments anyway!

Alanstrainor

OP your ad is good, stick with donedeal for that type of car, and reduce the price every few days until you start receiving calls. That's about it. If the price is right it will sell.

draiochtanois

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MuffinsDa

draiochtanois wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Yes I would expect anyone looking at a Diesel would know how to maintain a DPF and I would be passing advice on it. But to say that it is worth less because it's low mileage is frankly absurd and pointless. How many posts do you want me to link to in reference to Problems with High Mileage diesels then?! Do you see the lack of logic in your argument now?
Also not sure how J&D survey makes it a niche where Renault is sitting there right at the industry average, above a lot of better known brands such as Honda, Audi. Anyone going to spend 8-9K on a car would be stupid not to check some reviews and if they do they would have made their mind.

If you don't have any reasonable advice to give on my original question, it would be appreciated if you don't drag this thread off topic with pointless, subjective, anecdotal and ultimately irrelevant comments.

Mods, I've got my answer, feel free to lock this topic to avoid further nonsense.

MuffinsDa

Just to give an update in case someone looks it up in future:

I did eventually sell the car at the price suggested here. Thanks for sound advice guys.
Also, it ended up being sold to a nice chap from adverts.ie, despite being advertised on cbg, calzone, done deal, carsireland. They generated F All interest!! Most of the interest came from adverts.ie and from newspaper ads that ran as part of a deal on carsireland.

Toyotafanboi

Result what's next?

MuffinsDa

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

Result what's next?

Sticking with one car (1995 W124 Estate!) for the time being as we really don't need 2. Great car and a seven seater too.

Probably think about getting a newer car (than the above) in the new year depending of whether we need 2 cars or not. Wife wants a X-Type estate (which are great value at present) and I'd like a SAAB 9-5 estate or a post-06 E-Class but I don't think I can afford the latter. Half thinking about Alfa estates too!

Toyotafanboi

Sounds like some interesting choices! Do keep us updated. And post pics of the Merc :pac: