Thanks to the respondents to my earlier message Re: Dilemma a little while ago I have decided to go along the route of disposing the Volvo privately (results of MOT permitting!)
My new dilemma is where and how to place an ad. Remember the car is a 94L Volvo 850 T5 saloon with 82k miles on the clock.
Should I go the conventional route ie. local paper or use one of the regional trader magazines (eg. Auto Trader/Exchange and Mart)?
Or should I go on-line and bung my ad on, for example, Auto Trader on-line only. I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has used this service. What was the take-up like?
Any advice would be welcomed.
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Phil,
If you advertise in Auto Trader (about £24 a week, I think), your ad goes on their website at no extra charge. I recently sold a car this way, and had about a dozen calls, 2 or 3 of them from canvassers, but the rest from genuine punters. The latter were split roughly half and half between those who'd seen my ad in the mag and those who'd seen it on the website. So I'd say it's worth doing both, rather than online only.
I've never tried any local papers, on the basis that they have less coverage, and only a small minority of their readers will actually be looking to buy a car.
Hope that helps, and good luck!
Ian.
PS If anyone from Auto Trader is reading this, can I have some commission? :-)
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The only callers you'll get from the local paper will be the Auto Trader sales reps. I lost my rag a few years ago when I had 5 call in 48 hours all from the same magazine. I spoke to the supervisor after the last one and threatened to contact the police for harrassment. No more calls after that!
You could try the V*lv* owners club (sorry, as member of Saab Owners Club, I'm not allowed to use the V-word), they might have an online sales area?
Could also try one of the auction sites like QXL? They have a few cars, but not many. No idea whether it's worthwhile.
Best of luck.
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A few years ago, after failing miserably to offload quite a good 16v Jetta using everything else I put it on www.autotrader.co.uk The ad was uploaded on Tuesday. The car was sold on Thursday and for twice what I was faced with trading it out at. Ads on www.autotrader.co.uk are still only a fiver a fortnight.
But, as with everything, you have to get your asking price right.
HJ
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I had more calls from the Autotrader web-site in 2 weeks for £7.50 than 3 weeks in the mag itself. The mag drew 2 potentials and the web-site about 8 of which one eventually bought the mota.
However, some dodgy canvasser from London continues to call me even though the car was sold 2 months ago and is no longer on the web. They were even ringing at 9pm on Good Friday.
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Guy Lacey wrote:
>
> They were even ringing at 9pm on Good Friday.
Did it make you
cross?
Dave.
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Boom Boom. Bring on Les Dennis...........
Yes, Les DENNIS. Les Dawson was *funny*.
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Guy, this is a motoring column
Please behave
No irelevant comments please.....
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Guy Lacey wrote:
> Yes, Les DENNIS. Les Dawson was *funny*.
I saw Les Dennis in Chicago (at the Appolo IIRC).
If you don't think Les Dennis is funny you haven't seen him sing!
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Guy Lacey wrote:
> Yes, Les DENNIS. Les Dawson was *funny*.
I saw Les Dennis in Chicago (at the Appolo IIRC).
If you don't think Les Dennis is funny you haven't seen him sing!
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OK OK OK.
I believe you - calm down and stop repeating yourself.
Maybe Les Dennis is funny but funny=wierd not funny=ha ha.
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I recently sold an 89G 205 with 78K miles via a £5 ad on the web AutoTrader. Ad went in on Wed. evening and the car drove away on Sat. morning. I had one other phone call. Maybe I priced the car low - but I don't think so (I bought it for £1070 last Aug and sold it last month for £900. Good value, and no hassle. It will have helped that the mileage was moderate and the car looked good.
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What about loot? motors.loot.com is free and I find it much easier to use than autotrader.
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With Loot you have to price your motor very cheaply because that's what the readers of Loot expect.
HJ
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I've only ever sold 2 cars and 1 motorbike by advertising. Both cars were sold via the local paper, only advertising on the day of the car section. The motorbike was sold via diamond free ads, as the local paper has virtually no bike ads. Whether you go regional / national or web really depends on the value of the car, not many people will travel far for a car worth a few grand unless its unusual.
Personally I'd not advertise with Autotrader paper version as whenever I've been looking they have very limited number of interesting vehicles within a range I'm prepared to travel. On-line site much better as free and with a local paper, even if there is nothing of interest at least there is something else to it.
2p
Jon
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Thankyou for all your help, gentlemen!!
In the end I ended up bottling it and doing a part-ex with the Volvo and Punto for a 00W Fiesta Zetec (8k miles on the clock).
On a car originally advertised at £7k I got it for £6250 (paying the £1200 difference).
Time was against me (MOT, insurance and tax due on the Volvo) and I bottled it!!!
I know - HJ will be spitting but I felt as though I got a relatively good deal. No doubt you'll tell me otherwise!!
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