Thought that I'd try to sell my Passat via Autotrader on line so I took a few photos of it on Sunday and posted it for two weeks at £16.
The phone has gone every night this week with firms contacting me claiming that they have buyers waiting etc etc. Now I have received this: -
Hello mate,
I want you to supply me the following infos regarding the above item you have forsale on the internet.Let me know the least price you would let it go for,it's present pictures,its condition and it's total mileage.Payment will be made to you by certified banker's draft drawn on a British bank.
Thanks and hope to hear from you soon.
Oh to go back to the good old days when you simply advertised it in the local paper.
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Don't go good old days ,go Ebay - I once mocked it here but tried it and would never use Autotrader again for exactly the reason you describe.
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Ebay is the way to go, unless you are in West Cornwall or the Hebrides.
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Autotrader for me sells 1 on 20 cars or vans
People will travel hundreds of mile on ebay to get what they want
All my vans sell on ebay 1st or second go
Why hasnt someone made another auction site for just cars and vans ?
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Not true, A mate of mine just bought a Range Rover on eBay and has headed up to Shetland from London to go and get it (true! seriously). I'm sure the Hebrides would work also.
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It is not high tech but an A4 advert stuck on the back window of the car has worked well for me. You have to give it a while to work - it might take a month or six weeks but it does lead to sales. Costs nothing, involves no effort and results in genuine interest not scams. Anyone who follows it up is someone who has already seen the car so that filters out a lot of false leads.
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It is not high tech but an A4 advert stuck on the back window of the car has worked well for me. You have to give it a while to work - it might take a month or six weeks but it does lead to sales. Costs nothing, involves no effort and results in genuine interest not scams. Anyone who follows it up is someone who has already seen the car so that filters out a lot of false leads.
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Agree with this - give the car a good clean, write 3 clear large signs with price,details,contact phone, stick one in each side + rear window........then choose a large busy supermarket or similar(free)carpark and park it up early on saturday morning somewhere prominant where most people will walk past on their way into the store. Leave the car there all day.
This has worked twice for me and costs nothing - but clearly best for family type cars.
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side + rear window........then choose a large busy supermarket or similar(free)carpark and park it up early on saturday morning somewhere prominant where most people will walk past on their way into the store. Leave the car there all day.
My local Tesco now has ANPR cameras - park there for more than a few hours and your likely to be charged somewhere in the region of £75 (IIRC) - that could be a big chunk of your 'profit'
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Go on, get out of the car...
www.mikes-walks.co.uk
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In February I sold my wife's Clio on Autotrader and nearly 2 years ago my old Micra. Although the website is good to see what is available and to price a car, it does not sell cars. Both were sold to people who bought the magazine. So if you did not include the magazine I feel you might have wasted your money for the web advert.
The responses received for the Clio were very poor, 2 on the first day of the magazine followed by another 5 over the next 7 days. The first person who saw it bought it, and I probably could have sold it to 4 or 5 of those interested. Only had one firm contact claiming had buyers waiting.
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Roger
I read frequently, but only post when I have something useful to say.
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My experience is quite opposite - I don't know of anyone who ever bought autotrader magazine unless they were after car above 10k mark. Presentiation in magazine in my feeling is extremely poor, with badly printed pictures on B grade paper and crazy pricetag for doing so. The website on the other hand is what everyone is my age group uses, although it still generates more canvasseur calls than genuine interest simply because filtering options for generic, unsubscribed user are too poor and autotrader allows too many tradesmen to exploit the rules (such as 2 to 5 first pages full of £100-£250 leasing offers instead of genuine car prices or "Wanted for cash" spam adverts. I also know for a fact autotrader releases personal seller data used for credit card payments to watchdog labeled scam companies like Car Data, simply because I had Car Data agent contact me on phone number I used only for credit card payment and not the one in the advert.
As much as I feel autotrader is absolutely neccessary for the private market I feel the gap is still wide open and well organized company could very quickly fill that gap and autotrader would drive themselves out of business in no time just like Loot missed out on 21st century and didn't even know what hit them.
Although I always make sure my advert is also in autotrader all the cars I sold in recent years were effectively sold via ebay...
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[Nissan dCi are NOT Renault engines. Grrr...]
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Depends if your buying or selling. Have recent experience of both having bought two cars off ebay, one an old Fiesta for £110, selling it a month later on autotrader for £400 after cleaning it up. The second Polo for a grand, similar models on autotrader were being advertised about £1800 or more. Listed a 4 year old scenic on ebay (spent time getting good description and pics) and did not get any serious bids only lots of people asking the reserve and making silly offers. I had my phone no listed in the ad (bit silly) and also had lots of east europeans making silly offers. Listed same car on autotrader and it sold for over £500 what my reserve was on ebay after a couple of days.
Selling basic stuff expect private sale price as listed in many price guides. Sell on ebay and you`ll be lucky to get trade price and that`s if the bid is genuine!
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