Best place to sell?

[eribaMotters]

It's a while since I last sold a car privately and I'm wondering where the best place is to sell my Yeti. I've got some time as I'm looking to collect new car in early March so would let the Yeti go mid to end of Feb.  I know there is a for sale section on the forum and this should attract interested parties, but is it best to cast my net wider and try elsewhere?

 

Colin

[Ootohere]

Maybe try http://wizzle.co.uk

http://evanshalshaw.com/sell-your-car

 

[eribaMotters]

Thanks Skoffski. It looks like they offer a quick service so I'll leave it a while before I try them.

 

Colin

[33q]

I used Tootle. 

 

I got an excellent price...better than I thought I’d get privately. No hassle either. 

Edited 27 December, 2018 by 33q

[Beena]

I can’t help, sorry,  but wondering what you’ve bought instead. 

[eribaMotters]

1 hour ago, 33q said:

I used Tootle. 

 

I got an excellent price...better than I thought I’d get privately. No hassle either. 

 

I'll look Tootle up, not heard of it before

15 minutes ago, Beena said:

I can’t help, sorry,  but wondering what you’ve bought instead. 

 

I've gone for an Audi A3 Sportback. Look here and you'll see why:-

 

[Stubod]

Thinking of changing my current 1.4tsi Yeti for a 1.0 A3 as well. Originally purchased it to tow a larger caravan but have now decided against this so I don't really need it. I had a 1.0 Rapid fastback on loan after I had taken the Yeti in for some minor warranty work and I was really impressed with the engine but was looking for something with a few more creature comforts and the A3 would seem to fit the bill. Would be interested to see how you get on with the "exchange"...

[silver1011]

To get the highest exposure, you really need to use the big boys...

 

Autotrader

eBay Motors

Gumtree

 

Sure, the first two can be pricey, but you can't beat their reach in terms of prospective buyers.

 

I've always used eBay to sell my old cars, never had any issues, or time wasters. They're easy to spot so just get ignored.

[CWARD]

I  see Tootle too last year when we sold my wife’s car. I advertised on eBay too and didn’t get a bite but Tootle first week just the partner bids, which are low. Then the following week plenty of good offers and the car was sold with no hassle or tyre kicking.  Best of all no fees. 

Edited 27 December, 2018 by CWARD

[oldstan]

18 hours ago, silver1011 said:

To get the highest exposure, you really need to use the big boys...

 

Autotrader

eBay Motors

Gumtree

 

Sure, the first two can be pricey, but you can't beat their reach in terms of prospective buyers.

 

I've always used eBay to sell my old cars, never had any issues, or time wasters. They're easy to spot so just get ignored.

 

Just a word of caution. I recently used Gumtree to advertise a humble single bed for £30!  Hardly the sale of the century - but in no time at all I had a response saying they would arrange a courier as the seller was on death's doorstep and couldn't get out - plus they would pay via PayPal.  I copied and pasted their message into Google and, of course, the body of the text appeared about a million times ... all warning of a scam. And within a further short time I was subject to a separate attempted scam via alternative means, suggesting they pass the details around if they don't succeed first time.

 

All I'm saying is - if they will try their luck over a £30 bed just imagine how a car worth a few grand will attract the scum.

 

We've all sold cars privately and usually successfully. But I did once lose a 12 month old Yaris diesel at the hands of a car-jacker who clearly targeted the car (which I advertised privately) and was determined to have it no matter what physical injury he inflicted (and he did!)

[kenfowler3966]

I noticed on eBay some time ago loads of cars seeming very cheap, often around two thirds of their real value. All had the same text style just different pictures and heading.

Surely a scam. Presumably you pay a deposit or something as they insist on bringing car to you and never turn up?

 

I will trade in these days even though I could lose on the deal, as not worth the risk of selling a valuable car privately.

[silver1011]

You've all noticed the scams, go in with your eyes open and you can make hundreds, sometimes thousands more pounds by selling privately.

 

Prep the car to within an inch of its life, take lots and lots of pictures, and spend a decent amount of time on the description.

 

Oh, and if someone asks you to send them some money in Nigeria, politely decline 

[SummersetBoy]

When we decided to sell two of our cars earlier this month I looked at all the options from part exchanging the higher value one to privately and all the "Buy your car" sites.

 

Now, one was also a convertible and the other a Citroen C1 (the higher value one.....circa £4800).

 

The convertible was never going to sell due to being winter and having numerous issues, the Citroen, unlikely due to the value and imminent Xmas (from past experience).

 

WeBuyAnyCar valued the Citroen online @ £5000 and the BMW @ £2300 (I would've been overjoyed with £2000, but by the time we got there, would've taken anything just to be shot of it!).

 

They did their usual viewing, tried to knock the price down (on both) by quite a lot (£500 on Citroen, £800 on the BMW), but in the end walked away with £4800 after fees for the Citroen and £1800 on the BMW.

 

Now, the Citroen was more representative as we had been offered between £4400 and £4800 at various dealers as a part ex, but obviously would've been paying their mark up on the new car to the tune of £2000 (or more).

 

We were therefore very happy with both prices and the ease of the transactions, so would recommend this route.

 

As a note, whilst researching the other car buying sites, Evans Halshaw came up. They valued the Citroen online at exactly the same as WBAC, and the BMW at £1800. They would then also deduct money in the same way as WBAC at the appointment, meaning we would've actually got less certainly for the BM. They were also quite a bit further away for us.

 

However, what I also found quite easily online was that Evans Halshaw apparently use WBAC for their own valuations.

 

If your Yeti is already part of the deal for your new car, I would suggest just going that route as you will only ever get trade value from any route in the trade whether on part ex or a car buying site.

 

If your car is not part of the deal, then try selling privately, and we've had consistently good results from AutoTrader over the years, but as we live ever more in a lease/finance generation, most people would seemingly rather walk into a garage and pay monthly than privately for less, particularly once you get beyond £5,000, even more so after £10,000, and once you get towards £20k and beyond (we've done all these price points over the years), unless you have something rare and/or desirable, it's virtually impossible.

 

Incidentally, we were looking to replace the Citroen with either a 4wd Yeti or Ford Kuga, and the Yeti market seems very stagnant at the moment, as within our search criteria, i would say more than a quarter of the cars that were for sale 6+ weeks ago when we started looking are still for sale now.

[Gizmo]

All of my previous 5 Skodas have sold on here, strangely all to lurkers rather than regular posters, so do not underestimate the audience you get on here.

 

Apart from the second one, they were all top of the range trim levels (this maybe the reason why?) though.

 

[eribaMotters]

Thank you all for the suggestions, I have lots of options.

I think the best thing is about a month short of new car collection I'll try all/most of the suggestions, and if I've not sold by a few days before collection I'll take the trade in.

If I can get somebody to look I think I should sell. I'll be sensible with the price and pitch it between trade in and forecourt. It's a low mileage car with extras and unmarked so hopefully will be a good buy for somebody.

 

Colin 

[valep]

On ‎27‎/‎12‎/‎2018 at 10:35, Skoffski said:

Maybe try http://wizzle.co.uk

http://evanshalshaw.com/sell-your-car

 

Just google all reviews on this site

[Ootohere]

@valep  Is there some problem with them other than people trying to buy your car for as little as they need to pay?

http://uk.trustpilot.com/review/wizzle.co.uk

 

[kenfowler3966]

What you can do, and I did some years ago is negotiate the deal for the new car with an agreed part exchange price on yours. But have as part of that  agreement that you can just pay the value agreed for your car instead when you collect it if you want. In any event your old car is just part of the payment, and you should have the option of just paying the cash anyway. It can't be unknown for cars to be damaged, or even written off between doing the deal and handing it over when you collect your new car, leaving you to make up the difference with cash, hopefully from the insurance payout.

 

The last high value car I sold privately I did this. A 1 year old Ford XR2, possibly 30 years ago!

 

I had agreed a part exchange value but then advertised and sold the car privately, but at the end of the day only saved myself about £300. (Ok that would be at least £1500 now). But the hassle of advertising, getting the car viewed and then the worry would the cheque clear before I was due to hand the car to the dealer just wasn't worth it.

 

I do agree with SummersetBoy that trying to sell high value cars these days privately is a losing battle as instead of borrowing the money at high interest rates, you can probably get a new one for a good monthly rate instead and just hand the car back at the end. Thats why for some years the value of one and two year old cars drops so quickly. Why would I buy a secondhand car, with a loan, when I can lease the same car new and perhaps pay out less per month; forgetting of course that I will probably then never own a car again as I can't afford the final payment to keep it, or indeed have one of the lease deals were you can't buy the car at the end.

 

Plus all the deals seem to push you to a lease deal. I could probably have paid mainly cash for my new Yeti 18 months ago, with only a small loan for the difference, but all the discounts were aimed at lease deals, so I put the money in premium bonds instead, paid the minimum deposit, and pay a monthly lease; happy in the knowledge that I have the money there to put towards another car at the end of the lease, or pay the final payment and keep it a bit longer.

Edited 29 December, 2018 by kenfowler3966