Help with my car advert

[mccarf]

Trying to sell my civic at the moment and was wondering if anybody could help improve it ? I've had over 400 views but not any calls so something must be putting people off. I haven't bothered mentioning service history because the book has been lost and I've bought a new one, so it has 1 service stamped.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201806167557085?atmobcid=soc3

 

[Mark1989]

Answered your own question no service history

 

[smilertoo]

does it come with air conditioning, that will be important around now.

 

[rodenal]

Far too wordy before it gets to the important bits

State number of owners, MOT and history (even if none) up front. Do you have anything that reflects mileage and or how it's been looked after before you? How have you price checked it, as it seems a strong asking for a potentially clocked / un serviced car (this is how it will be viewed regardless of reality)?

 

[jpaul]

Pictures are taken at weird angles, and cannot see tyre brand/state.

Classifying a new clutch as an improvement is rather liberal use of language.

Say how long you have had it, quality of service (oils/tyres), what you have spent, and have receipts for.

 

[Dav4]

Wow good luck selling a hot hatch with no service history. The one and only time I bought a car without full service history was my first ST220 about 4 years ago it had no service history at all the book had been lost but I purchased it on the fact that it was a 1 owner and it was absolutely immaculate but when it come to trying to sell it nobody wanted to know once they found it it didn’t have any service history despite the fact I got a new book and had it serviced the second i bought it and 12 months later when I was selling it.
When i had it for sale mine was probably the best example at one of the cheapest prices and yet it took 2 months to shift.
Every other car I have owned that have had full service history have all sold from within 24Hrs to 7 days maximum.
So you have your work cut out. Also imo June, July and August are the worst months for selling a car private as everyone is too busy with kids on school holidays or spending all there money going on holiday.

 

[mccarf]

Sorry for the long reply! Been a very busy week for me. Thanks for all the replies first of all.

Far too wordy before it gets to the important bits

State number of owners, MOT and history (even if none) up front. Do you have anything that reflects mileage and or how it's been looked after before you? How have you price checked it, as it seems a strong asking for a potentially clocked / un serviced car (this is how it will be viewed regardless of reality)?

I have now tried to put that info at the very start of the description. Auto trader automatically puts in number of owners so I have left that out so its not in twice. I do have some old MOT receipts in the documents folder so I can prove the mileage is genuine to an extent but they can also check online for that too. I've reduced the price by £200 now. Its the second cheapest fn2 within 100 miles of my postcode which seems reasonable to me. The only cheaper one has 50k more miles.

Pictures are taken at weird angles, and cannot see tyre brand/state.

Classifying a new clutch as an improvement is rather liberal use of language.

Say how long you have had it, quality of service (oils/tyres), what you have spent, and have receipts for.

Altered the wording and added a picture showing the documents where you can see prices if you zoom in.


Thanks for your help guys!

 

[LiE]

Was it serviced by Honda? You may be able to get them to re-stamp the new book.

 

[mccarf]

Was it serviced by Honda? You may be able to get them to re-stamp the new book.

If I recall only the first few were with Honda so I'm not sure it's worth the bother because there would still be about 70-80k of unstamped stuff

 

[SC0TTRS]

It must be the lack of service history or just the time of the year (like others have mentioned).

MOT history is just wear and tear stuff (pads/tyres) so nothing that would really put people off.

Mileage coming up to 100k, maybe...(doubt it tbh with it being Jap)

2015-2016 only done just over 1600miles?

Missus had one of these (09) from new and there bullet proof!, racked up over 150k and never let us down before we traded in for a new Civic last year.

 

[Iron-man]

It may be worth getting history from the dealer for the first few stamps, most recent mots online will give an indications of its life etc.

I think the piece around the new alloy due to being buckled coupled with a damaged bumper due to hitting a kerb will give potential buyers the impression of not being a careful owner (I am not saying this is the case) so maybe that is putting people off, Just an opinion

 

[GhostWKD]

Very obscure description about damaged plastics with 'repaired myself as best I could' would put me off massively to be honest, just sounds bodged back together. I also wouldn't mention the new alloy to replace a buckled one personally, it's not really a selling point that it had a buckled wheel which was replaced.

You could contact Honda and see if they can print off a record of services the car has had, they did this for me and an S2000 I bought with patchy service history and it was enough to cover the gaps Won't help if it wasn't serviced at a Honda dealer but I got lucky on mine...

 

[jpaul]

Maybe take down the advert whilst you are refining it, if local people are reading the advert, they may well remember the car and any reservations they have., so you loose a potential sale/viewing

A picture of the damaged plastic, would avoid them having to ask when they contact you, too.

 

[~Divine~Wind~]

you mention best price within 100 miles?

Sorry but for me this wouldn't come into it, if there's this one with no history and potential bodges or one with history further away then Id be going for the one wiht history more than likely.

the photos are all funny angles and I'd also look at adding an up close picture of the plastics repaired as best you could

 

[kindai]

Remove the bit about the alloy, youre not selling it with a knackered one so take it out.

Trim down details on the damaged part, get better pictures of it.

Your pricing seems quite a bit off as well given the damage and lack of service history. There are lower mileage, not damaged, with FSH cars available for less money.

 

[wigster]

I would do the pictures again, as they look like boyracer kind of pictures.

 

[mccarf]

Removed the alloy thing, added a photo of the damage and lowered the price by £400. Hopefully this is enough to get some interest! Really gutted that between the damage and losing the service history I'm losing £1600 on it in 7 months since I've bought it. Been an expensive year as far as cars go between this and my old 350z. Wish I'd never got rid of my micra!

 

[Dav4]

Wow that’s a lot of money to lose in 7 months did you buy from a trader and pay top price for it did you?
Why don’t you just keep it if you know it’s a good car? It’s slightly annoying if it’s a good example and your having to let it go for cheap when there’s far worse examples selling for more just because of a stamped book.

 

[mccarf]

Wow that’s a lot of money to lose in 7 months did you buy from a trader and pay top price for it did you?
Why don’t you just keep it if you know it’s a good car? It’s slightly annoying if it’s a good example and your having to let it go for cheap when there’s far worse examples selling for more just because of a stamped book.

Yeah the sticker price was 5k. I traded my 350z for it and gave 1500 cash. It is really annoying to sell it because I still enjoy it. Issue is I'm moving to Finland and already taking my other civic with me. I can't afford to take both of them on this trip but if all else fails i might store it somewhere and take it over when I can afford to pay the import tax on it. Out of the 3 performance cars I've owned its been by far the most reliable and definitely had the most fun engine. Think it also works against me that I'm all the way at the west end of the country because there's only really Swansea and Cardiff near here and everywhere else has a fairly low population or is over an hour away.

 

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