Selling car

[Kemik]

Hi guys,

Is there a general consensus for where to sell your car? I have a 2015 plate Golf GTD with ~67k miles. The local dealer ignored my email and the WeBuyAnyCar quote is unsurprisingly low.

Is eBay/Autotrader worth the fee and faff of people messing you about? Any other decent places to look to sell it?

Thanks

 

[grudas]

always sold mine on ebay with a classified ad.

you will get some silly questions but as long as your ad is alright you'll find a buyer too.

sold my z4 coupe, mk1 mx5 and a daihatsu copen.

all different cars and all have genuine buyers.

z4 probably had the most when it came to silly questions, aka "would you swap from a 320D"

 

[iaind]

From experience of trying to sell a similar car (a 2014 Mazda3 diesel) - I think its pretty hard for 2 reasons. First is that people spending 8-10k+ tend to wand a warranty and finance etc. Second, diesel is really not the flavor of the month at the moment.

Valuation puts mine privately at £8k with dealers having similar cars advertised for £8500-£10k. I was getting offers of anywhere between £5k and £6500 part ex (although thats always tricky to assess because most dealers bump up PX values by taking some off the top line). I priced mine at £7500 on AT with good quality photos, thinking it was a bit cheaper than the guide price and a grand less than dealers were asking it should be appealing as a private sale.

Not had a single call in 3 weeks. Put it on ebay too, had a "best offer" of £6500 but nothing else.

I think the VW scene thing will make yours a bit more saleable but either I've done something drastically wrong or it'll be fairly tricky. I think the only way to shift something like that quickly is to price it way under, close to trade price so someone who wants a bargain jumps on it...

 

[grudas]

From experience of trying to sell a similar car (a 2014 Mazda3 diesel) - I think its pretty hard for 2 reasons. First is that people spending 8-10k+ tend to wand a warranty and finance etc. Second, diesel is really not the flavor of the month at the moment.

Valuation puts mine privately at £8k with dealers having similar cars advertised for £8500-£10k. I was getting offers of anywhere between £5k and £6500 part ex (although thats always tricky to assess because most dealers bump up PX values by taking some off the top line). I priced mine at £7500 on AT with good quality photos, thinking it was a bit cheaper than the guide price and a grand less than dealers were asking it should be appealing as a private sale.

Not had a single call in 3 weeks. Put it on ebay too, had a "best offer" of £6500 but nothing else.

I think the VW scene thing will make yours a bit more saleable but either I've done something drastically wrong or it'll be fairly tricky. I think the only way to shift something like that quickly is to price it way under, close to trade price so someone who wants a bargain jumps on it...

it's also the fact that "diesel" is now seen as the devils fuel lol.

 

[iaind]

it's also the fact that "diesel" is now seen as the devils fuel lol.

Second, diesel is really not the flavor of the month at the moment.

It's only really seen as the "devils fuel" by petrolheads but the doubt and uncertain future are making other buyers wary. It's also been reflected in used car prices though, petrol versions of mine - despite being significantly slower and more expensive when new, are advertised at about a grand more than the diesel ones. You'd have thought someone would feel that saving a grand on the purchase price, getting a faster car for it, saving a reasonable amount on fuel with a car thats still ULEZ compliant would be appealing but evidently not!

 

[grudas]

It's only really seen as the "devils fuel" by petrolheads but the doubt and uncertain future are making other buyers wary. It's also been reflected in used car prices though, petrol versions of mine - despite being significantly slower and more expensive when new, are advertised at about a grand more than the diesel ones. You'd have thought someone would feel that saving a grand on the purchase price, getting a faster car for it, saving a reasonable amount on fuel with a car thats still ULEZ compliant would be appealing but evidently not!

not petrolheads.

goverment/news have been hating on diesel lately and that puts your average joe off.

 

[rhysduck]

I've always sold on AutoTrader. Paid for the middle advert package I think it was and priced accordingly and never had an issue selling within a week or so.

Garaunteed it s not been for price around 10k, but I gave the car a damn good polish and clean before taking pictures and took lots of pictures. Seemed to work.

 

[sovietspybob]

Yeah that might be a hard sell, i'm guessing that's worth over 10 grand?

At anything like that money most people will want to finance it as not many 2nd hand car buyers have that much money in cash. Because it's just a Golf and nothing interesting like a performance car for example it might be hard work hence the low WBAC value as they know you'll struggle to sell it yourself as you'll be looking for the 1 in 100 buyer for that kind of car.

I'd try phoning a few more dealers just in case one gives you a better offer.

 

[Gaygle]

Autotrader.

I've tried everywhere else to sell cars before and tried to avoid paying the Autotrader fee.... And got absolutely nowhere. Without fail, as soon as it goes up on Autotrader I've got phone calls and sold the car within a week.

It is a steep fee but it is definitely worth it if you actually want to sell your car.

 

[iaind]

I must be doing something really wrong then

I'm probably going to let mine run its course and just keep it if it doesnt within the 6 weeks I paid for

 

[Cookeh]

Always sold mine same day for what I wanted on Gumtree.

 

[Skillmister]

Autotrader.

I've tried everywhere else to sell cars before and tried to avoid paying the Autotrader fee.... And got absolutely nowhere. Without fail, as soon as it goes up on Autotrader I've got phone calls and sold the car within a week.

It is a steep fee but it is definitely worth it if you actually want to sell your car.

My experience was exactly the opposite when I sold my Fiesta ST despite it being at the bottom end of the private price range for the age/mileage given I needed a quick sale. Didn't get a single sensible call in weeks.

 

[HangTime]

From experience of trying to sell a similar car (a 2014 Mazda3 diesel) - I think its pretty hard for 2 reasons. First is that people spending 8-10k+ tend to wand a warranty and finance etc. Second, diesel is really not the flavor of the month at the moment.

Valuation puts mine privately at £8k with dealers having similar cars advertised for £8500-£10k. I was getting offers of anywhere between £5k and £6500 part ex (although thats always tricky to assess because most dealers bump up PX values by taking some off the top line). I priced mine at £7500 on AT with good quality photos, thinking it was a bit cheaper than the guide price and a grand less than dealers were asking it should be appealing as a private sale.

Not had a single call in 3 weeks. Put it on ebay too, had a "best offer" of £6500 but nothing else.

I think the VW scene thing will make yours a bit more saleable but either I've done something drastically wrong or it'll be fairly tricky. I think the only way to shift something like that quickly is to price it way under, close to trade price so someone who wants a bargain jumps on it...

Just looked on AT and there are newer equivalents with fewer miles for less money (appreciating I haven't checked all the options etc). You've got a 14 plate on for £7.5k whereas others have 64 and 15 plates in the same trim on for around £7k. Not saying they are better buys than your car as it could be better condition/options/colour/etc but the average person searching based on price won't even get as far as looking into that or see yours on the first 1-2 pages if looking for Diesel Mazda3 from 2014 onwards with no other filters.

Your car: https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201907069803972?sort=price-asc&year-from=2014&radius=1500&onesearchad=Used&onesearchad=Nearly New&onesearchad=New&make=MAZDA&fuel-type=Diesel&advertising-location=at_cars&model=MAZDA3&postcode=sp12ph&page=3

64 plates for £7k with less miles: https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201907150098415?year-from=2014&aggregatedTrim=Sport Nav&sort=price-asc&make=MAZDA&fuel-type=Diesel&radius=1500&postcode=sp12ph&model=MAZDA3&advertising-location=at_cars&onesearchad=Used&onesearchad=Nearly New&onesearchad=New&page=1
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201904287412635?year-from=2014&aggregatedTrim=Sport Nav&sort=price-asc&make=MAZDA&fuel-type=Diesel&radius=1500&postcode=sp12ph&model=MAZDA3&advertising-location=at_cars&onesearchad=Used&onesearchad=Nearly New&onesearchad=New&page=1

Just to reiterate I haven't gone over these with a fine tooth comb and they may have obvious flaws but to the untrained eye at first glance I wouldn't be expecting to pay £8.5-10k for this sort of car given what I can see on AT.

 

[Cleisthenes]

Always sold mine same day for what I wanted on Gumtree.

Sounds like you're pricing them cheap!

 

[200sols]

Always sold mine same day for what I wanted on Gumtree.

Sold what? Your £100 scrap cars?

 

[iaind]

Just to reiterate I haven't gone over these with a fine tooth comb and they may have obvious flaws but to the untrained eye at first glance I wouldn't be expecting to pay £8.5-10k for this sort of car given what I can see on AT.

No, quite - they're clearly not worth 8-10k

I dont think either of those others were there when I was looking at comparatives, chances are they've seen mine and pitched it a bit cheaper. If I was in the market for something I'd be calling all of them as its not a huge gap in price. There are plenty of 14-15 cars on with dealers at more than £10k, albeit with much lower mileage. I'm not saying my pricing is really low and should sell straight away, I'm just surprised I've not had any calls at all since listing it. The very cheapest ones are 7k so a well looked after one in a desirable colour for 7500 doesnt sound like it should be so far from the mark that it doesnt attract a single call.

 

[HangTime]

To be fair on closer inspection I think the second one I posted (blue) has some sort of weird line running down the rear panel, perhaps it is liquid but either way bit weird to include in a photo selling a car

 

[iaind]

To be fair on closer inspection I think the second one I posted (blue) has some sort of weird line running down the rear panel, perhaps it is liquid but either way bit weird to include in a photo selling a car

Cars at the very bottom of the barrel are there for a reason

It's only 500 quid more than the cheapest comparatives and a grand cheaper than similar cars at dealers, it's been maintained meticulously, has quality tyres on it, no damage and in a desirable colour....... doesn't sound like a bad deal to me!

 

[peige]

A car is only worth what people will pay. If you've not had a single call i'd suggest dropping the price below the next price filter point.

 

[Cookeh]

Sold what? Your £100 scrap cars?

Pahah, you struggle to sell a car on a platform that someone else has success on, therefore that someone must be selling scrap. That is some truly infallible logic.

Sounds like you're pricing them cheap!

First one went for 15% over Glasses private sale estimate, second for 10% over Autotraders guide price.