Autotrader Vs. Pistonheads

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Semi-pointless thread, but.... Pistonheads cost me 1/5th of the price of Autotrader. To date I have had 5 enquiries though Pistonheads and 1 through Autotrader.

Despite the irony of this tale alone, I think Autotrader need to re-evaluate their prices before Pistonheads becomes a mainstream contender. They're already trialling a new beta used car search.

Granted, this is a performance car I'm selling so Pistonheads does have a strong bias.

I wasn't particularly arsed about an advert in the magazine, mainly their website, I mean these days who buys the mag rather than search via their site on a PC or smart-phone app. Pistonehads really should launch their own app.

Interesting though, no?
 
Depends on what you're selling. Autotrader is the busiest motoring site in the UK so you're more likely to see your Focus through it.

If you're selling a Skyline R32, however....
 
Had my E92 M3 on PH for months and didnt sell it (it was free for me as I've been registered on there for a long time). I put my car on Autotrader and it sold within a week.
I have sold cars on PH in the past successfully, but I'll always continue to use AT as much as I use PH.
 
I'm running both together don't get me wrong. Theres also something to be said about timewasters versus serious between the two.
 
I'm running both together don't get me wrong. Theres also something to be said about timewasters versus serious between the two.

Much more timewasters on PH thanks to the "email the seller" button. The amount of idiots I got emailing me was ridiculous.
My favourite one was someone wanting to p/x a 200k mile Cat D E39 M5 and a 230k mile E39 530d for my M3.
Even when you put under Part Exchange: No Thanks, you still get people emailing you offers:

"Hi mate, I know its not what you're probably after, but I have a Nova GSI Turbo I'd like to p/x for your M3".
 
Never been able to sell a car on PH.

Autotrader/Ebay on other hand has always given results!

I hardly look on ebay or autotrader and always on pistonheads...go figure!
 
Recently I got a lot more 'enthusiasts' coming from PH adverts, but in many cases they were more hassle - 100s of questions and asking me to take pictures of every inch of the car. I felt many were just kicking the tyres. The Autotrader punters while perhaps less 'car enthusiats' seemed to be keener to actually see the car first and then make their mind up.
 
Recently I got a lot more 'enthusiasts' coming from PH adverts, but in many cases they were more hassle - 100s of questions and asking me to take pictures of every inch of the car. I felt many were just kicking the tyres. The Autotrader punters while perhaps less 'car enthusiats' seemed to be keener to actually see the car first and then make their mind up.

Definitely this.

Before I sold my ST220 I put it up on PH for a week. Got someone from the Mondeo owners club turn up and spend literally an hour looking at the car and was very unhappy with the peeling lacquer on my wheels (a common trait on all ST220's). I got told:
"this is not how an ST220 deserves to be treated".
I just laughed and told him if he didnt like it to look elsewhere.
 
PH is also impossible to search. You can not filter anything there. Their search page is just legendary bad. So you will get loads of teenagers with too much time on their hands camping in sections and emailing everyone new instead of proper buyers, who usually just don't have time to go through thousands of unfiltered ads and will go autotrader instead.

I am still amazed none of the big companies tried to open proper car ads site to wipe the floor with autotrader. Something like google cars, bang, job done.
 
I have always used pistonheads to buy and sell my cars. No problems, bought and sold well on there so far.

Spotting a good buy is easy as you can tell by how the advert is written to whether the car has been looked after by an enthusiast OR SOMEBODY WHO LISTS EVERYTHING IN CAPS AND TALKS ABOUT BIG ZAUSTS AND BHPS
 
Sold the 335i on PH as it was a PH sort of car. Parents E60 went through AT as it wasn't a PH sort of car. Depends what you are selling really.
 
Bought and sold my last 3 cars on pistonheads, had nothing but timewasters on Autotrader, or people just low balling you.

Ebay and Pistonheads must be making some decent inroads into AT's market!
 
I didn't even entertain Autotrader when i recently sold my brothers van, far to expensive.

Put it on eBay,(£10) Trade-it (£5.99,paper ad as well) and Gumtree (free) , it sold in less than 24 hours through Gumtree!!
 
PH is also impossible to search. You can not filter anything there. Their search page is just legendary bad. So you will get loads of teenagers with too much time on their hands camping in sections and emailing everyone new instead of proper buyers, who usually just don't have time to go through thousands of unfiltered ads and will go autotrader instead.

I am still amazed none of the big companies tried to open proper car ads site to wipe the floor with autotrader. Something like google cars, bang, job done.


You can to a point with the advanced search, i.e, proximity to a postcode, but you can't choose fuel, no.of doors, under certain mileage etc, but you can choose keywords.
 
Sold 8 cars through my pistonheads account.

Though im not having much luck at all with my VXR, just drongo's emailing/texting me stupid cash and PX offers. Was going to put it on AT but the £40odd was a massive put off.

The amount of times i have nearly wrote back 'Just **** off".....
 
Pistonheads = Interesting cars
Autotrader = Boring cars

Pistonheads search/filtering is naff though.


Listed a Westfield for sale on both Pistonheads and the Westfield Club, sold via the Westfield club in a couple of days.
 
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