Do people not sell cars privately anymore?

[SidewaysSi]

I don't buy many cars but I prefer to buy privately to usually get a better deal and a feel for the type of owner.

I am now after something relatively boring in the £5-7k range and the vast majority for sale are from one man band traders, who I would rather not deal with.

Is it ease of P/X or selling to the likes of WBAC? Not so long ago I would easily be able to get what I wanted from a private seller.

[ferrariF50lover]

674 cars priced between £5000 and £7000 for private sale on Autotrader alone within 50 miles of a south Manchester postcode.
However, that is a small percentage of the 14.5k adverts across both private and trade.
Maybe you're on to something?

[Phunk]

I don't think anyone buys them either.

Took me two months to sell a mint 2010 MINI Cooper with full MOT, great description and pictures. I steadily dropped the price till it was £1,500 cheaper than any other in the U.K.

It seems that everyone just wants to go to a garage and pay X amount a month.

[hora]

Alot of people don't earn fantastic salaries and if you said to them 'would you like to earn two grand for a couple of days work'? Theyd be gobsmacked...yet they go and trade in their car.

[Vitorio]

hora said:

Alot of people don't earn fantastic salaries and if you said to them 'would you like to earn two grand for a couple of days work'? Theyd be gobsmacked...yet they go and trade in their car.

The difference often wont be 2 grand though, and given the "sold my car privately, buyer now wants money for faults" threads we see popping up here time to time, i can see why some people would leave a few hundred quid on the table to avoid any potential headaches with test pilots, tire kickers and other time wasters.

[Dave Hedgehog]

Vitorio said:

hora said:

Alot of people don't earn fantastic salaries and if you said to them 'would you like to earn two grand for a couple of days work'? Theyd be gobsmacked...yet they go and trade in their car.

The difference often wont be 2 grand though, and given the "sold my car privately, buyer now wants money for faults" threads we see popping up here time to time, i can see why some people would leave a few hundred quid on the table to avoid any potential headaches with test pilots, tire kickers and other time wasters.

plus you have joy riders (if its a sports car), dodgy funds, scams etc.

[spreadsheet monkey]

I found the same when shopping for cheaper cars (2-3k) a couple of years back.

Lots of shifty small time traders out there.

I think the key to finding genuine privately advertised cars is:

• Don't rely too heavily on Autotrader - it's mostly dealers on there, as someone else has already pointed out.
• Widen your search area - most of the traders are concentrated in towns and cities. Try to find a seller out in the sticks.
• Trawl through the dross on eBay - there are some genuine private sellers on there. I've sold two cars on eBay and it has worked well for me as a private seller.
• Try owners club websites (not sure what kind of car you are looking for?) - most will have a For Sale page.

[Dr Doofenshmirtz]

Most people seem to use Gumtree these days.

[anonymous-user]

Its too much hassle selling cars privately;

For example,

I put a car on gumtree for £1000
No responses for a couple of days,
Someone asks to come view it
Yay
3 lads show up, one walks round it,
Cos he's got his mates and he knows loads about cars...

"ohh yeah mate i could only take it off your hands for £150 but trust me I'm doing you a favour"

Yeah, fk off.

Rinse and repeat,
Not worth the headaches and hastle.

[berlintaxi]

Learn2MergeInTurn said:

Its too much hassle selling cars privately;

For example,

I put a car on gumtree for £1000
No responses for a couple of days,
Someone asks to come view it
Yay
3 lads show up, one walks round it,
Cos he's got his mates and he knows loads about cars...

"ohh yeah mate i could only take it off your hands for £150 but trust me I'm doing you a favour"

Yeah, fk off.

Rinse and repeat,
Not worth the headaches and hastle.

Exactly this, sold a car last week to wewantanycar, drove it in they had a quick look and walked out 20 minutes later with it sold and paid for, lot less hassle than sitting around for somebody to either not show up, test drive it and never see them again or offer a ridiculous price.

[andy-xr]

In many cases there's nothing to sell at this price range, easier to trade it in and stick a couple of grand into the deal than go through the hassle of '£1k today cash, will set off now' dheads that I assume must land something with their efforts. I've never seen it work though. And the ones who call, go through every detail, arrange to come and see it and never turn up.

[spreadsheet monkey]

berlintaxi said:

Learn2MergeInTurn said:

Its too much hassle selling cars privately;

For example,

I put a car on gumtree for £1000
No responses for a couple of days,
Someone asks to come view it
Yay
3 lads show up, one walks round it,
Cos he's got his mates and he knows loads about cars...

"ohh yeah mate i could only take it off your hands for £150 but trust me I'm doing you a favour"

Yeah, fk off.

Rinse and repeat,
Not worth the headaches and hastle.

Exactly this, sold a car last week to wewantanycar, drove it in they had a quick look and walked out 20 minutes later with it sold and paid for, lot less hassle than sitting around for somebody to either not show up, test drive it and never see them again or offer a ridiculous price.

I think it depends what you are selling. If I was selling anything fast or anything upmarket, then yes I would prefer to PX it at a dealer.

The two cars I have most recently sold privately were a 5 year old Honda Civic and a 10 year old CRV. Neither attracted boy racers or test pilots, just steady middle-aged folk.

[em177]

As stated Autotrader is generally just traders due to the mental prices they charge for private buyers. eBay, Gumtree, Facebook and owners clubs are a big part of it these days.

[catso]

Dr Doofenshmirtz said:

Most people seem to use Gumtree these days.

I put my Son's car on Gumtree the other day, it's an old banger with some 'battle scars' (priced accordingly).

Within seconds of placing the ad, I got a call from a claims handling company telling me that I'd had an accident in the last 3 years and that they would get me some money, coincidence? I don't think so because in the next 5 minutes or so I got 3 more, one of which was from the same (my name is) Sam that called me first.

Just because the car has some minor scrapes, I've set myself up for spam 'cash for crash' calls.

Also got the 'I will buy your item for the full asking price, pay by paypal, courier will collect because I'm disabled' message within the first hour.

I'm not sure setting up a Gumtree account was a good idea, bring back the ebay idiots...

[Dr Doofenshmirtz]

To be honest - if you've got >£3k to spend on a car, chances are you'd be happy to spend a little more and buy from a garage for reassurance. If you buy privately and it turns out to be a lemon, £3k+ is a lot to lose and you're stuffed. And the seller's probably don't care that they're loosing so much money...they just can't afford the time and hassle of selling privately.

Then you've got the <£1500 category as found on Gumtree mostly. People are more willing to sell on Gumtree for maximum return. People are more willing to buy because £1.5k is still a pain to lose if things go wrong, but it's not such a huge bummer.

[Dr Doofenshmirtz]

catso said:

Dr Doofenshmirtz said:

Most people seem to use Gumtree these days.

I put my Son's car on Gumtree the other day, it's an old banger with some 'battle scars' (priced accordingly).

Within seconds of placing the ad, I got a call from a claims handling company telling me that I'd had an accident in the last 3 years and that they would get me some money, coincidence? I don't think so because in the next 5 minutes or so I got 3 more, one of which was from the same (my name is) Sam that called me first.

Just because the car has some minor scrapes, I've set myself up for spam 'cash for crash' calls.

Also got the 'I will buy your item for the full asking price, pay by paypal, courier will collect because I'm disabled' message within the first hour.

I'm not sure setting up a Gumtree account was a good idea, bring back the ebay idiots...

You get this with most car ads to be honest.
I get around it by using the SIM from my GPS tracker (one of those small cheap things that I attach to my drone just in case I loose/crash it). I stick the SIM in a phone for the duration of the sale, and then pop it back in the tracker. Anyone trying to call it won't get a response.

[Markbarry1977]

My wife and I went to the local motor auctions when we were looking for a daily snotter. We were only looking to spend 500 quid and picked up a lovely fiesta that I ran for 2 years to 190k miles before I gave it to the mother in law. Only thing it cost me apart from mot was a wheel bearing and an oil pressure switch.

We were looking at the very cheap end of the market but there were loads of cars in the 3k to 7k bracket. Sure you take a risk but the prices are very low and money saved should cover any minor repairs required.

[Vitorio]

Dr Doofenshmirtz said:

You get this with most car ads to be honest.

Any ads for high value items

Tried selling one of those cheap early netbooks (mini laptops) 6 years ago, even though it was less then €100 i ended up getting the inevitable "Hi, i live in nigeria but want to buy this for my nephew in brussel, willing to pay twice your price" scam emails. Really puts me off selling stuff like that on general second hand sites.

[Richard-390a0]

In the past I've always liked selling my cars privately as I'd get a better price as a seller & the buyer gets a car cheaper than from a trader so everyones a winner. Over the last few years it seems to have shifted from scouring autotrader, freeads etc the day it comes out to find the best car available for your budget & getting on the phone straight away to waiting until the last day of the ad / after the ebay auction has ended & then offering a low ball bid in the hope of a desperate seller taking your insulting offer. Either that or the 'what's your lowest price bruv innit' timewaster types or low end traders messaging you constantly. No one minds a cheeky offer but lately as born out in other threads it's more likely to be the insulting ones you get.

I've had some fantastic trades in the past as either a buyer or seller privately but it would appear those days are gone & it's less hassle / time to p/x with a retailer.

[South tdf]

Never had a problem selling cars privately, I can honestly say apart from one idiot on a Cayman S I have sold every car to the 1st person who viewed.

Example being I sold my mother’s 2011 Audi A3 TFSI Quattro a couple of weeks ago for the asking price of £10,500 after a WBAC value of £8650 and a well known Audi specialist verbally offering £8500. To be fair I might of undersold it as I had 9 calls on it within the first 48 hours with the first a caller driving half way across the country to put a deposit on it. It was a hassle free sale, the buyer did not even drive it but I guess it was helped by a no expense spared Audi service history and extended Audi warranty.