Help with car advertisement, too honest?! Modified Fiesta ST

Simplicity Stormster. As most have said:

Title.

Brief description, age, miles, your term of ownership, an overview of how much of its history you have.

List any mods on the car.

Then go to pistonheads and list it on there.
I have always had success with PH.
No bites for two weeks on auto trader when I had my ep3. Put it on PH and my phone never stooped ringing AMD I got top dollar for the car and importantly to me, the car went to an enthusiast.
 
Terrible advert I got bored and thought I'd have to write the important bits down and digest them.

If you're picky (which you mention quite a bit) why does so much need doing?

Sounds like a long waffle advert to cover something up
 
Some rude assumptions and comments.

Thank you to those however who've been more helpful. I updated my adverts after Lopez' advice the other day but will have a round up of new replies and bear in mind the suggestions.

Not putting the car back to standard.

What's wrong with stating my location also?! I live in Stoke, so what.

Thanks though to those who've been helpful, much appreciated :)
 
Stormster said:
Some rude assumptions
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I agree but it's still helpful because if people in here are making rude assumptions then its fair to predict that its very likely some potential buyers will, as well.

By removing the scope for rude assumptions you increase the attractiveness of your advert.

What you've managed to get here is an insight into how your car, currently as advertised, is viewed by a cross-section of motoring enthusiasts. Now you can say 'these comments are nasty' or you can think 'how do I ensure the wrong impression isn't picked up by others, too'.

I'd suggest the latter.
 
On the advert I'd go with the "less is more" approach, but for the full detail you could stick in a link to a project thread on the relevant owners forums.
 
Of course Fox, I see your point. People making assumptions about the car due to it being modified and it's looks, sure. People making assumptions about me though? lol.

I'm gonna do a little more work on the advert now, I'm sure I can cut it down some more and re-word it to better effect, thanks :)

I've dropped the "asking price" by £100 but obviously will take less. I've stated in the ad I'd re-MOT it, but if I do it NOW it'd get 12 months, if I do it in 2 weeks it'll get 13 months. If it doesn't sell within 2 weeks it'd be brill to obviously provide it with 13 months MOT.

Pistonheads... I'll consider it but every car I've had never sold via there. As soon as I put it on as a classified ad on an auction site, they've all sold within 2 days to a week.

The Fiesta has been on just a week today but no questions etc yet.
 
I assume you don't have the original wheels that came with it?
Just that they were specific to that model and would make the overall look much more standard to a potential buyer when comparing it to others around that price.

If you don't have them ignore or poss look into getting a swap with a club forum member or something?

I know you said not putting back to standard but wheels make or break a cars look so people looking at STs might want the specific wheels it came with etc (just a thought)
 
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Thing is my wheels are mint and tyres are brand new up front and 5mm at the rear, all matched, decent brand.

To get the same quality of wheels and tyres in second hand ST rims would be a good 450+ quid...

Truth be told with 17's on they catch as well. I do have the standard suspension but I've sold all other standard parts.

They do actually drive better on 16's as well. I will see how I go on from here now, I've done an advert I'm happy with so we shall see :)
 
From past experiences modifications don't add value to your or attract more buyers. Most people I know including me steer away from a modified car. I would put back to standard and put the usual generic description of fsh etc. being too honest gets you no where with most people
 
Stormster, I don't thing anyone is getting at you really man. As Fox says, its better for people to be honest on a forum you are a regular poster on. The guys on here are never gonna hold back but you will have a realist understanding of the way that people see your ad.
 
Firstly, in 99% of cases, £500 coilovers are cheap tat. When I was about to buy some for my S2000, not much under £1500 was worth considering. That's KWv3 and Bilstein PSS9's. I'm not even going to mention how much ohlins or nitron kit was.

If your existing ones are height adjustable, it get it raised. It looks far too low and will be putting people off.

Your advert, as everyone has said, is far too wordy, and I wouldn't mention a single one of your bad points. It's a 6 year old 50,000 mile ford fiesta, not a 3000 mile heated garage stored 575 marenello.

Get 12 months tax, 12 months mot, air con regassed, suspension up to sensible height, and drop the price to 4750 Ono. That's still top money for a modified car.

Performance parts are worth hardly anything compared to their real value when sold with a car. I know, my s2k had a grands worth of cusco parts, that forgets all the mugen, tein, and other bits I'd done.
 
Stormster said:
I've done an advert I'm happy with so we shall see :)
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I hope you haven't edited it yet, because it's still a crap ad with a lot of rubbish in it. I think you're making the mistake of thinking people who are looking at your car care as much about Ford Fiesta's as you do.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ford-Fies...2681473?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item1e8bb17401

OMG it has DMB carbon badge overlays on the front, rear AND steering wheel?!?! I MUST HAVE IT!

Problems still with your ad:
- "No major issues with the car" - that makes you think "right, so it has plenty of minor ones does it?".
- Photos still from an industrial estate hardly convince you to pay nearly 5g's for a 6 year old Fiesta.
- Why does anyone care the exact type of every oil or lubricant you've used in the car? Answer: They don't.
- If you're not going to remove the coilovers, you need to talk them up a bit. They're AP Racing coilovers!
- Remove the guff about "leather gear stick gaiters and alloy pedals". Again, nobody cares.
- Just advertise the car has having 12 months MOT right now and get it done in the next few days.
- Advertise it has just having been serviced and get that done. And don't say "oil and filter change", say "Fully serviced".
- Does the car have FSH or not? I'm guessing no from the way you keep carefully writing "it has all history present" and "many receipts" and "service book present".
- People don't care you've painted your calipers.
- I note you've still left the bit in about the type of wheel nuts the car has. WHEEL NUTS?! SERIOUSLY?! All anyone cares about is if they hold the wheel on. Nobody cares that they were forged in the fires of Mount Doom or whatever.
- Don't write aircon needs a regas because I, like everyone else, think "oh well if it only needed a regas the owner would have got it done, bet it needs a new compressor at £600 a go or something".
- Have a look at the advert i wrote for you.
 
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Conanius said:
Firstly, in 99% of cases, £500 coilovers are cheap tat. When I was about to buy some for my S2000, not much under £1500 was worth considering.
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Agreed. When I was looking at changing the suspension on my Clio 182, the only decent stuff was ASTs that start at £1500. Anything else looks cool for the lows, but handles **** when you stick it on a track.
In the end I couldn't be bothered to spend £1500 and didn't want to compromise handling compared with standard, so I just got a complete new set of OEM suspension (dampers, bushes, etc) and a set of springs made to a custom rate from one of the Clio race teams.
 
no way would i part with 5k for a fezzy, especially one with hardly any MOT or tax and no air con and noisy clutch and looks like a typical boy racers car that's been ragged everywhere.
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agree on this as the black wheels give it away.
 
That to me is way overpriced.

1) Most people want to buy a fully standard mint example with decent warranty or fall back position if paying top money. This is a fiesta, not some jap fest cult turbo monster where standard ones are virging on being less desirable.
2) The sort of buyers who may be interested in the mods are unlikely to have that sort of money or be looking to pay top money for one. If you can't get that money on the owners clubs (assuming you have tried these) then you are very unlikely via other adverstising mediums.
3) Just because there are other modded ones in the £4-5k price bracket doesn't mean they are selling.

If you want to know what its really worth, take it to an independent dealer or call up one of the hot-hatch specialist traders and ask them for a trade in/buy price. At best add £500-£1k to that for a private sale. If you find yourself much worse off, put it all back to standard to sell it and sell mods separately.

You are essentially looking for another you to buy this car based on your add, mods and price so have a potentially very limited market.
 
Agree with the above, whilst the modifications are obviously what you like and feel fit with the car it unfortunately makes it stand out from the numerous standard, clean looking examples in a not very favorable way.

Probably best reassess your price based on the fact that if anything the mods will reduce its value (yes I know they could be stripped and sold but by having them on their you've reduced your market) unless you find that one guy looking to do the exact same as you have.

The revised ad still has a bit much info in it too, consider making it more basic. You're missing some basics, like the detail of the history which is the first thing I'd want to know about.

You would be really, really helping yourself by raising it a bit too - in terms of externals it's the only thing that would really put me off if I liked the sound of the rest of the car. Black wheels can either be redone for £250 or just sold on so I wouldn't be too fussed about that, but the thing being that low on cheap coilovers would make me think it'd be bone crushingly hard - plus I wouldn't even be able to get it home without destroying the lip at the front.
 
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