Why Do Most Sell Their Car on Donedeal?

RoscommonHero

Looking to sell my car and it seems like the only option really is donedeal. I know it's popular but there have been scams and security issues associated with it in the past. Plus it can attract its fair share of messers and time-wasters. And finally it's not the cheapest.

Why do most people use donedeal to sell their cars online?

Is it simply because of a lack of alternatives or something else?

Atlantic Dawn

Back in the day the main website used was Carzone, it was €30 to advertise a car which was a complete ripoff, then came along Donedeal which initially charged nothing and then later charged less than €5. Cost and simplicity was the main move on to Donedeal, it has about 70k cars onsale at any one time. Plenty of time wasters too, you just have to take that as part of the sales process.

I've sold 4 cars and bought 2 on it, no issues with the transactions on either but did encounter scammers saying they wanted to buy my run of the mill right hand drive car unseen if I would give it to their courier so they could ship it to north western Zaire, a touch of general sense when selling is needed. When buying if a car is priced too good to be true then it is or if the seller wants to meet you on a sliproad to the N6 at 6am with you bringing cash that would also say scam.

RoscommonHero

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119646952#Comment_119646952

so you sold on donedeal because it was good value? is that it? It's €15 now I think, adverts is cheaper and so is CarsIreland i think. Then Facebook I believe is an option too. Don't know if Carzone is still going for private sales or just for dealers and don't know what the price is. But I still find it odd that most people just go to one place

Pissy Missy

You'll got scammers and time wasters off most sites, done deal is just a popular choice, if i was going to buy or sell a car, I would only think of doing it on donedeal

Flinty997

I think most people just know done deal.

They are all pretty bad for searching.

NIMAN

People use whatever site gets viewed the most for best price.

DD fits the bill.

bazz26

Donedeal gets the most footfall hence why people use it to sell stuff. Yes that footfall includes, scammers, conartists, time wasters, etc but that is the nature of the beast when dealing with Joe Public rather than the fault of donedeal. At the end of the day, donedeal is just a platform used to buy and sell stuff. The scammers and time wasters will go where the footfall is whether it's donedeal or alternatives. Donedeal's popular predessor - Buy n Sell, used to be the same. Facebook Marketplace is another that is a head wrecking minefield because guess what, it's used and viewed by the masses.

User1998

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119647205#Comment_119647205

Nobody uses Cars Ireland or Carzone. Adverts is crap too. Again nobody really uses it for selling cars.

Facebook Marketplace is good for cheaper cars but there are a lot of time wasters, because of how easy it is to send a message. Donedeal is good too. If you turn off the Donedeal messenger and only take phone calls/texts there are actually very few time wasters that will bother to ring or text your phone. The recent price increase is a bit much tho. But Autotrader in the UK is something like £35 to post an add

As above, more footfall equals more time wasters and scammers texting you. The reason there are none of these people on the other sites is because nobody uses them.

Atlantic Dawn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119647205#Comment_119647205

No it was the number of users that moved me across, I did sell my first car on Carzone before that took hold. The majority of the main dealers are putting cars up on Donedeal too. I'd never put anything up or buy from Facebook, it's for degenerates and full of crooked and corrupt adverts that the organisation happily take money for.

I suppose in Ireland Buy & Sell magazine was the best classifieds up to when the internet came along, they made a mess of not moving online early and then Donedeal basically took that space over too.

Flinty997

I realized when Buy & Sell was around that most people buying cars used the paper and the phone. Not the internet. Struggled to sell a car online. Then switched to buy and sell and sold it in 48 hrs.

Be curious whats the best way these days.

colm_mcm

Buy and sell went out of business in 2014 because of the shift to online adverts.

Montage of Feck

I kind of miss buy and sell and Autotrader, browsing through them as a kid required your imagination as the pics were so tiny with limited description, lol.

I just won’t buy a pig in a poke. I want a warranty. A car is a serious machine that can kill if it’s been assembled from crashed bits. My general level of trust for these kinds of things is modest at best though. I go to well established dealers and drive with peace of mind. A car is serious kit. That’s just me though.

lawrencesummers

Anytime i put something up on donedeal a guy from ballincollig in Cork rings me and always haggles it down about 30% and then promises he will take it, that he will be over shortly and will buzz me later.

iphones, bikes, furniture, cars, electrical stuff, baby items hes promised to take, delighted with the price and never did

I saved his number a while back and he must be refreshing donedeal every few hours looking for new ads to haggle over.

NIMAN

Block him

lawrencesummers

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119648099#Comment_119648099

Naw, poor lad just wants a chat.

RoscommonHero

I wonder do some people think donedeal is the only place to sell your car online. They have such market domination when it comes to private car sales that no other brand has made its mark.

hello2020

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119646952#Comment_119646952

"if the seller wants to meet you on a sliproad to the N6 at 6am with you bringing cash that would also say scam."

OMG ..this happened with me recently.. Mercedes 2016/17 automatic sports listed on done deal for 15k when others with same specs priced around 20k!

went to see it and he asked to meet near a slip road to N7 ! it was a UK import and seller had a foreign ascent !!

when he learnt that i did not bring money to pay him and want to first show the car to a garage for inspection, he got angry and started behaving rudely, we left him quickly and came home feeling what's wrong with this guy.

now i realize it was a potential scam...have to be very care full next time..

monkeybutter

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119649182#Comment_119649182

how many different options do you think ireland needs to sell cars?

all basically doing the same thing for a low price

RoscommonHero

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119650515#Comment_119650515

Two or three viable options would be good.

Let say someone had a bad experience on donedeal (and i take the point that as the most popular site they have to deal with a lot of scammers), then surely they should have somewhere else to go.

monkeybutter

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119650776#Comment_119650776

they do have options

one owned by the same crowd

others less popular for reasons

Danzy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119648956#Comment_119648956

I know the fellow, made a deal with him for something one time and no show for connection.

Think he is a special needs person.

bazz26

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119650776#Comment_119650776

That's not donedeal's fault though. Scammers will always target areas of high footfall. Carzone used to have a large share of the advertising market when it came to cars, until they raised their prices. Their site was riddled with scammers too with lots of fake ads offering expensive cars for next to nothing.

It does sounds like you want to sell your car on an online platform where scammers or fraudsters don't exist. I don't think such a place exists unless there are no buyers using it either. If it did then scammers would find it too and it would become like donedeal.

If your that concerned then maybe your best just trading/selling the car to a dealer or pay a dealer comission to sell it on your behalf. Let them deal with the scammers and time wasters.

As someone said there, disabling the done deal messenger option is definitely a good shout. It cuts out a good percentage of the best/ last price/ stupid offers followed up with a ??? message if you don't reply within 5 minutes.

With patience the right buyer will show up.

User1998

I’ve been selling cars on Donedeal and other sites for years and I’ve probably came across one scammer contacting me. You’d swear the site is riddled with them.

djan

Strange that Adverts hasn't taken off for car sales. Given the public feedback rating system and comment history it at least gives you some insight into the potential buyer/seller.

bazz26

Adverts is worst than dondeal. Full of time wasters making low ball offers or wanting to swap for stuff they want rid of. Even at that many don't follow up their offers and just disappear. It probably works fine for low value items but wouldn't advise trying to sell a car on there unless your absolutely desperate.

djan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119679742#Comment_119679742

People do that on all sites really, at least you have some way of getting an idea who you're dealing with. Donedeal should really implement a feedback for each profile and history of sales perhaps.

zg3409

Done deal is most popular so it will get most interest.

Other good options are specialised car groups, such as for your make, model or type of car. Often these are Facebook based.

For German cars there is a specialist Facebook group. These tend to be gti or modified cars, but also bog standard. Quite big and popular

https://www.facebook.com/groups/Autostadtclassifieds/?ref=share

Sometimes you can have luck on non done deal sites as some buyers don't use done deal and so you have less competition and price competition.

In the past I put car up on a few sites and then ask callers how they heard of the car.

Same from a buyer point of view. Don't just look at done deal but all sites even gumtree or Facebook marketplace and you might find a good car at good value. As always buyer beware, if they won't meet you at their house that's a red flag, if owners address on paperwork is not the same as house you are at it's a red flag, and if they have not owned car that long it's a red flag.

I also search my local town say on done deal for any car as the hassle to travel versus looking at a few local cars has a big upside for the buyer.

You can also judge a lot from the ad, no mileage, no inside photos, etc. That said sometimes badly advertised cars can end up being bargains as they struggle to sell them.

Some people recommend second phone/phone number for selling and you can then dump SIM when card sold. Otherwise you may get calls for days later or buyer getting back on to you.

jimbobmalones

I notice that a lot of Cars seem to be left up (not selling) yet the sellers don't seem

to be dropping price. ie Cars still there after 60days etc...

You'd think they'd either take the ad down or drop the price.

ba_barabus

I've avoided Dungdeal for buying and selling my last few cars.

It's also gone pricey to advertise on and as things are getting tight fir people I think they're in danger of pricing themselves out just like carzone did.

gary550

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119687580#Comment_119687580

Cause most sellers or dealers are looking mad prices for crap. The whole of the market is filled with absolute crap cars, cars that would have been impossible to flog 2-3 years ago.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119706574#Comment_119706574

I went to list a van last week & it was 40 quid for a priority ad 😳 40 fecking quid for an ad

User1998

I just list all my adds on Adverts for €4 and get a free Donedeal add included