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Leanne- the main reason anything second-hand won't sell is price. Most sellers are wildly optomistic about the price they can acheive. I did a search for Micras on Autotrader and there are hundreds. I saw a 2001 silver one for £2600, so why should anyone pay hundreds more for yours? I'm afraid you have to bite the bullet and lower your price.
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The name of the game with second hand cars is if someone offers a few hundred less than you think it is worth and the phone has not been hot then take the money! I have two experiences of this...
1) 6 months ago my girlfriend was selling a genuinely immaculate 206 1.4 lx with aircon and slightly above average mileage, we asked £200 above Parkers corrected mileage 'Good' price, after 6 weeks of trying to sell this car which was 'best used supermini' in several magazines we incrementally lowered the price and spent a fortune on advertising and eventually sold it for £600 less than guide price. The photo was good, the advert was well worded, it had manufacturers warranty left, new tyres etc....a mystery really.
2) Selling a Ford Escort Ghia many years ago, low mileage and excellent one, advertised for £3750, after 4 days guy rolls up with £3300 cash in a Tesco bag, I turn his offer down... 5 weeks later having spent £250 on advertising and insurance sold it for £3250!
So price realistically and take a genuine offer even if a few hundred below your aim..
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Make up a couple of A4 advertisements and keep them in the car. Park it where people are passing by and stick the adverts on the window. People look at the advert and they see the car. If they have a friend looking for a car then they may tell them. Be patient. Selling a car this way can take weeks but it often does work. Just make sure that the phone number is that of the man in your life and that he is there when the caller comes round. You don't want to take a chance with some low life turning up at your door.
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Parker's price guide is based on national average. People often forget about that. For example - in West London, in districts around busy underground lines you can sell old N reg Xantia without any history for about £1200 pounds. In East London you should consider yourself lucky to sell identical model for £1000. And this is only because it takes hours to travel to East London on slow trains and your potential buyer would need to waste entire afternoon to see one car. The car must be priced very attractively otherwise buyers won't bother. If you are unlucky enough to live far from the city, and, even worse, your car is the only vehicle of the type within 20 mile radius you would be lucky to see identical Xantia go anything more than Parker's "bad condition" price. Again, it's because buyer will have to waste entire day just to see your car, so for him to pick your advert price would have to be a straight knockout and feature at least full service history.
For every three cars sold in busy urban area, in suburbs you will receive one "oh this is too far from me" phone call, one "I can buy it from you for half that in cash" joke and "we have buyers looking for cars like yours" £75 scam from the infamous national canvassieurs as featured in watchdog.
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Thanks for the responses. I am chuffed so many people have taken the time to help.
I've got to confess I had an offer of £3200 back when it was only on the market for a week or so. At the time I had it advertised for a fair bit over book, trying to get a top price. I can relate to Ian D completely!
The price seems to be competitive with other private sellers, however at one point I was the only private advertiser within 100 miles!
The feedback from barney100 rings true as well. To be honest I would rather pay a couple of hundred more to get the dealer backup. Then again I'm sure most dealers want more than a couple of hundred more!
It seems odd to me that people are more interested in the price than the car itself. Kind of makes me question the reason why I looked after it and had it maintained so carefully!
Speaking of canvassers, the only people who seem to have responded in any number to my adverts are these people. I added no canvassers to the end of my advert recently. Now I get them calling, starting their sales bumf and then suddenly slamming the phone down when they have read my advert fully!
I've let the tax run out and now store the car in the garage. So putting a sign in the car is a non starter unfortunately.
I tried advertising the car in the local newspaper for a while, can you believe I got people who thought a 15 min drive was too far to come and see the car!
I think I'll wait until March now before wasting another £45 for a fortnights advert. I think once I still had the car in November it was going to be tough to sell. I did have a flurry of calls just before Christmas, but they were mainly silly offers as mentioned before.
Anyway, it's all good learning for next time I try to sell a car!
Any bets on what I'll finally get for it?
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Did you remember to SORN the car when the tax ran out? If you didn't you will fall victim to a stealth tax er.. I mean automatic penalty.
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Certainly did Godfrey, but thanks for the tip.
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Another point Leanne is that this time of year is very quiet for selling cars privately, and anyone looking to buy will expect to be able to buy more cheaply than they would in spring or summer. The market will start to pick up from February onwards, and if you keep an eye on the prices in Autotrader, you will notice that they actually go up for the same car during the year.
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Perhaps you could ask someone from family to advertise it in their local loot. And if there is enough feedback you could just drive there (Saturday or Sunday) to sell it?
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Leanne,
A lot of it's just luck. You might want to try www.adtrader.co.uk (a freeads site). I've just sold my car, a Ford Focus ST170, using this site. It only took 3 days to find a buyer!
Good luck
Raj
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Also, have you thought any more about E bay?
Hugo
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Leanne, the amount you have spent on advertising scares me. My local paper has a day when all the car ads are in, both private and trade. The point about people not wanting to travel is well made. That said I sold my late mum's car in similar price bracket to your car by putting a post card ad on the exchange and mart board where I used to work. I have also found ads in newsagents windows also work for me but you need to price realistically. Please heed the advice about having someone with you when a buyer comes round.
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L - the worst factor is that most cars, even a few years old, drop about £1000 each year. So try 400 less than the price you should have tried at the beginning in order to be successful. Aaargghh!
Don't forget to allow for forecourt prices being inflated to allow for trade-ins and warranties (which you can't do).
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A couple of years ago, I was trying to sell my old Mazda 626, noone was interested, despite the giveaway price, I put it in AuroExpress, and the local Admag over and over again, eventually, the MOT and tax went from a few months to a few days, it was months since I'd had my new car, it was sat on the drive uninsured etc.... anyway, someone suggested the local newspaper, and I was reluctant as it looked rubbish and didn't have mand advets, but they also put them on www.fish4cars.co.uk
well, it was quite expensive, but quite a few people rang from quite a large area and the first to come took it away, abeit for even less money, but I was glad to see tha back of it!
Try
www.fish4cars.co.uk
even though I think it looks rubbish, it brought the most interest.
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Thanks for the tip about ad trader - advert now placed.
E-Bay is a good idea, but I'm not willing to spend another penny on advertising until early March.
I'm only too aware that it is depreciating at the moment :( However the book price hasn't moved significantly since November for some reason?
I suppose the main suggestions are the time of year and location. Therefore my price needs to suit this.
The cost of advertising certainly took me by surprise. Last time I used Auto Trader I think it was £14 for two weeks with a discount for subsequent weeks because they didn't have to come out and take a photo. All the money I have spent with them and they will still only let me advertise for full price!
Next time I'll try to sell my old car in the summer before buying a new one in September for a hefty discount. This time most of the dealers were telling me they had 8-9% in the car and I could have it, they just wanted a registration on their books. (Although I'm sure they must get a good rebate from the manufacturer if they hit their targets.)
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I'm not willing to spendanother penny on advertising until early March.
Try putting it on boxer.ebid.co.uk - registration, auction, even successful sale is free!
It may not get quite the attention it would on eBay but it is a highly used site.
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