If you want to sell it…….put it on ebay on a nine day sale starting at £1. (putting a reserve on ruins this method)

If you think I’m being silly….I’m not! This is how it works. People see it and think, Wow, I can pick up a right bargain here and start watching it, so put in some silly bids and it starts from there.

Over the course of the nine days people get really interested in it and start to think about owning it and by the time the auction finishes they are literally fighting over it.

Ive sold two cars like this….my Missus thought I was mad when I put our XC90 on, but got £500 more than I reckoned was the going price. Same with the other car, getting £1k more than had been offered.

You gotta have bollocks though! 🙂

4- The damage, get it fixed

No I wouldn’t.

Why? Private sales- its an unspoken (benefit) and rule that the advertised price is only the advertised price. You turn up and find something to knock the seller down on OR simply say ‘look I’ve only got this in the budget, or would you take, I would offer’..

The items simply give a name to the reason to knock down the price and they are only superficial.

If the OP fixed them. Someone would still turn up and offer hundreds less ontop of the cost of repair/loss to the OP.

Its a 4-5yr old car. The sort of person who buys privately has the mindset that it wont be concours at upto 5yrs old.

A bloody good professional valet is a must though.

Interesting point Tinsy, was actually thinking that I would be unlikely to buy an £8k car privately myself, so would many others feel the same?

Dealers offer finance. You don’t.

I’ve sold the majority of the cars that I’ve owned privately. I’ve found that no matter what price you put up you’ll always get people calling/texting chancing their arm on price. I found what really did pull was a good service history – detailed. As most ‘FSH’ are lies when advertised and/or the car hasn’t been serviced for two years etc etc…its the key facts on the ad not mpg etc etc.

Don’t mention the ‘damage’. It’d put anyone off viewing, but probably wouldn’t put everyone off buying once they’re there.

No I wouldn’t.

I wasn’t going to anyway 😉 The ‘damage’ on the bonnet is so bad that I didn’t even notice until weeks after buying it and the light was shining in a certain way, and the wheels are so lightly marked that it’s just not worth it.

Re the price: doing a search fairly local to where it is the price seems on the mark (colour allowing of course), older ones for a bit less and never for a bit more (looking at private ads only, dealers are consistently higher). That £7.5k one is an odd ball, definitely an SE interior or an ES with enough options ticked that it would cost more than an SE – must be stolen 😉

As exciting as that eBay route would be, I do actually need to see the cash at the end of it so a bit too risky for this one. Should at least get it on there as a classified though

Yep ‘damage’ can be a worrier. People think you mention it as its an issue- i.e. ‘is he downplaying a problem’- i.e. damage is repair/damaged bonnet/bigger/gouge etc?

Being paranoid but if its mentioned on an ad its normal an issue more than cosmetic…

Yeah just tweaked the ad again (takes a few hours to update the live version). Need to get into the mindset that this sort of ad is just to get people looking at the car rather than buying it off the strength of the advert.

Well worth the money for a classified add on eBay I rekon, lots cheaper than Autotrader (last I tried it was anyhow). Its just finding the buyer with his finances in place, it does happen but its still hard in this price range.

FWIW, I really like the red, it looks a nice car to me.

use Pistonheads..

as for price – it is worth what someone is willing to pay…

Red is a bad colour for a BMW though

Put simply its expensive that will shift with a 7 at the front of it
Average mileage on a 58 is 40k (parkers guide)
To shift a car you need to be in the top 4 – 6 cars in the listing for the age
Finally on pics put up a nice back ground when taking pictures ie Grass banks etc etc it all helps.
Good luck selling it 🙂

Always price.

The car is in very good condition with no significant blemishes including all 4 wheels.

Does that mean I get all 4 wheels with the car or all four wheels don’t have significant blemishes 🙂

As others have said, price, background, some of the pictures and tell me the key information.

Ad updated to simple say that 4 wheels are included in the price 😉

*slips on a brown overcoat and pulls on his roll-up.

This would attract me: (providing this is true!)

BMW 118d ES – Facelift model. 40,000 genuine miles. HPI clear. Up to date service record; BMWSH & 1 Independent. 12 Month’s MOT, X months tax and plenty of old receipts. Excellent condition inside & out. Great drive, engine pulls strong, gearbox/steering tight and true. Very economical; X MPG on a motorway run. Recent set of rear tyres & plenty of life in front. Equipped with number of factory fitted refinements including air con, cd player, Auto Start-Stop, Regenerative Braking, Air Vent Control. Top clunge magnet. (optional) £8,750

Whats BMSH? 2 or 3 stamps? Does 1 of those inc. the inspection stamp?

My last expensive car had full Subaru history; 5 main dealer stamps in 5 years with itemised printout receipts of the services carried out. This was detailed in the sellers ad and a real draw for me as a calmer that the car had no expense spared.

“Up to date service record” is meant to infer it’s had manufacturer services. Still, feel free to suggest alternative wording!

Aye and did it not fall apart on you as well hora …… Your the fussiest man ive ever seen when it comes to cars viewing everything with suspision and you still end up buying shit heaps.

feel free to suggest alternative wording!

want to look like a **** and also stand out from the other **** in a BMW then buy mine as it is red and makes you more visibly a ****.

Do that on EBAY

HTH

Only one of the Subarus and a Focus did! The rest were through abuse 😆

upto date says to me serviced recently.

“4yrs old 40k, serviced at 1k BMW Manchester, 14k BMW Manchester, 28k BMW Manchester and 40k BMW specialist” gives a buyer great info in a one sentance snapshot.

If its had 2 services intotal in 40k youd waste alot of calls or visits when they ask.Best to be upfront/transparent on the info that counts IMO.

If the stamp isnt a BMW Indie specialist on such a young car…..be prepared to take a price hit IMO

I’d get some larger photos uploaded they are really tiny so hard to really see much detail.

The ad’ reads fine now, if there’s still no response it’s down to price and where you are advertising.

Orange Lad – Member
I’d get some larger photos uploaded they are really tiny so hard to really see much detail.

That’s an Autotrader issue (thought it was just me) sometimes they open large (as they should I used my SLR) but sometimes just stay thumbnail sized 👿

Thanks Edukator, we’ll see how it goes

My tuppence (from east Scotland) is that autotrader has had its day and is no longer useful for a private seller with poor potential buyer uptake compared to cost. I’ve had much better results via ebay then sticking up free ads on pistonheads, gumtree etc.

My last truck sold via ebay to someone from london for a grand more than id been offered in scotland (£9k sale)

It’s about £1500 too expensive.

A newer (58 plate), better car (118d SE), with less owners (only 1), in a nicer colour (Black), in a more convenient location for most, is £1000 LESS than yours.

Yours in an ES = bottom of the range, not a great colour, and isn’t the engine of choice (that being the 120d)

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201237485116883/sort/default/usedcars/price-from/7000/price-to/9000/fuel-type/diesel/maximum-mileage/up_to_40000_miles/model/1_series/make/bmw/onesearchad/used/onesearchad/nearlynew/onesearchad/new/page/1/radius/1500/postcode/sn148ha?logcode=p

A newer (58 plate), better car (118d SE), with less owners (only 1), in a nicer colour (Black), in a more convenient location for most, is £1000 LESS than yours.

Just read that ad, & it looks like that owner is struggling to sell it too. ‘Re-advertised due to timewasters’…

I don’t think he wants to hear that its too expensice 😀

price is obvious/easy, but if I didn’t at least try and sort out the details in the ad I’d just be throwing money away!

Now on eBay and PH, so if it still doesn’t get interest then the price will of course be dropped.

Out of interst, how many views per week have people been getting on AutoTrader when they’ve been selling?

doubler…….. buy my car!

Re-advertised due to timewasters

NEVER put that line on an ad- a negative and also can make people think there was a reason why someone saw the car and didn’t buy..