Mrs Gti is selling her Ibiza diesel. She’s not in a hurry to sell so has pitched the price high, being ready to negotiate down.

But Autotrader doesn’t work like that; buyers aren’t impressed that it’s had one careful lady owner and has been serviced regularly and is in great shape with low mileage; they just look at the price and move on to the next same car, on sale for £300 less.

Any pearls of wisdom on selling a car in nice condition? We haven’t even thought about how to sell the winter tyres yet.

Try advertising on pistonheads or an enthusiast forum where they know their stuff, or just keep it until it isn’t in good condition??

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Market_for_Lemons

Drop it by £300?

Stop assuming a lady owner is a positive?

Why would that impress me?

your stuck in 1999.

to get footfall you need to start competitive and hold your ground these days.

how ever last time i sold i had fannys trying to make me offers without seeing the car…. i just respond come see it before making offers.

ebay and facebook. We had loads of responses via them. The guy who bought it said he found it on ebay but hadn’t seen it autotrader despite looking at both.

How much is it advertised for? If it’s <£5,000 advertise it locally. I’ve had good success with Gumtree.

The interweb has the ability to overwhelm us with info.

So what tends to happen is stuff is dumb down to the lowest price / easy of access / click bait picture.

Before this we would read the ads in the back of the local paper, or wonder round the local 2nd hand car lots.

Gumtree and e-bay are where it’s at for car sales nowadays. Especially if it’s priced differently. There will be tyre kickers though and those that think they’re Wheeler Dealers.

Is she pricing it against what dealers are asking?

IME they tend to be overpriced, depending on people getting finance instead of paying outright.

Price it against other private sales and it should sell quick, simply because there are so many overpriced dealer cars about.

Yes its price driven now and autotrader format fuels it. If its a good honest car i would put an ad in sainsburys or your local post office, or your local facebook group.

Around here the price of diesels has fallen following diesel gate and the introduction of pollution stickers.

makecoldplayhistory – Member
Stop assuming a lady owner is a positive?

Why would that impress me?

It’s just a warning to say the clutch is on its way out isn’t it?

I also think she’d do better advertising locally, somebody will see it and think it’s perfect for their grandchild/niece/nephew etc.

You could always try a sneaky advert on STW

thought you said she wasn’t in a hurry to sell? if that’s the case….
pictures, lots of ’em. gets people looking. add in superfluous detail, like ‘good tyres’, ‘good bodywork’, ‘new battery’ or ‘recent wiper blades’, assuming it’s had that stuff, obviously. and drop the ‘lady owner’ bit.

There’s nowt wrong with Autotrader. I’ve sold my last three cars with them within the week. Realistic pricing and lots of pictures are the key. There’s a helluva lot of used cars around a the moment.
I don’t think I would be impressed with a low mileage diesel any more than a high mileage diesel.

As a state emploe I’m hopless on all financial matters but

Mrs Gti is selling her Ibiza diesel. She’s not in a hurry to sell so has pitched the price high

Really!!

I know I was selective but you see my point

Car ads on Gumtree make me despair at our education system.

“Bort nu car, need 2 sell” and others that tell you nothing much, along with pictures taken in a dark car park in the rain.

A lady owner? Have you seen the way my wife treats her car. I’ve never seen her change the oil either, I have to do all that.

I’ve just sold my van on Gumtree. Put it on there at gone 11pm yesterday, the new owner drove it away at teatime today.

buyers aren’t impressed that it’s had one careful lady owner and has been serviced regularly and is in great shape with low mileage

Nope they’re not, Most people buy used cars looking for possible pitfalls down the line, and ignore the seller’s rose tinted specs…

Rightly or wrongly people are going to “read between the lines” and interpret a careful lady owner, low mileage and diesel engine as indicating, school run and shopping short runs, with lots of gear changes and stop/start town driving from cold, therefore possibly requiring clutch/gearbox attention in the not too distant future plus being a diesel, maybe a clogged DPF?…

Why not knock £300 off the asking price and see what offers you get, or even try ebay/Gumtree?

Your locality can have a big impact on sales success. Travel distance is short for most peoke, unless its a bargain or a rare vehicle. If you are somewhere like Stockport Sutton Coalfield or Croydon surrounded by millions of people you have loads of opportunity for both buyers and competition. I live in Lancaster and it’s a bit remote and so the market is limited.

Post a link to your ad and then we can all be back seat drivers

“One careful/lady owner” would put me off.

One careful lady owner makes me think it’s going to be sold to me by someone like this.

one careful lady owner

Good body?

Also worth remebering that when valuing your own car to sell then the price of similar cars still advertised on Autotrader is the price of the cars which haven’t sold and are therefore possible priced too high.

‘One Lady Owner’

Might as well say “Still got the original oil in it”

Autotrader is now completely driven by price. You need to be the cheapest in your area and have to be on the top of the searches to even get a proper enquiry nowadays. Try and pitch the price around £50 cheaper than others within 100 mile radius of your address. Take lots of photos and good quality ones. Take the car to a nice, well lit location. I always took photos of cars I sold next to either a neutral background or in the local park. Just try and present the car in the best possible way.

Just remember the cheapest comparative car with the best photos, is he car that gets the most clicks. Sad, but true.

I found eBay to be really good when we sold my other half’s 330 last summer.

I thought Pistonheads would be a good place to sell it given that it was a large)ish) engined petrol car etc. Not a sniff.

Chucked it up on ebay Friday lunchtime and it was sold by Saturday evening unseen. The guy paid a deposit for me to end the listing and collected it Monday morning. I took loads of photo’s and took my time with the description.