How to best sell your Lotus?

[Lichtgestalt]

Hi folks,

unfortunately I have to sell my Exige S (http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1056859.htm if anyone is interested). Was wondering what's the best way to do it is? Is it worthwhile to pay the 30 quid or so for Autotrader? Or do a premium ad on Pistonheads? Any other places I should put it?

[s111dpc]

Hi there,

I sold mine recently via the Pistonheads site. Did the premium advert and didn't advertise it anywhere else.

I got around 15 enquiries, of which i would say 10 were genuine, and it sold within 10 days - to Europe

Good luck

Dave

[bing]

I sold my previous Type-R on Pistonheads within about a 3-4 days I had around 4 or 5 calls in that space, I didn't go down the Autotrader route due to the amount of time wasters that would have called up!!

[bebee]

HI

I sold both my TVR Griffs through Pistonheads and my Audi TT 225 though the Auto Trader, the point being Pistonheads is better when selling specialist motors and hair dressers cars sell better in the Auto Trader. One thing I would always do when selling with Pisonheads though, is pay the premium price to get more photos up, plus you won’t be thrown half way down the search page as you will be with a standard (free) add.

Best of luck.

[m.barnes]

lovely car!

i advertised my last car on pistonheads and autotrader. sold within an hour of it going onto autotrader. no one contacted us from the pistonheads ad while we have 3 more calls that day all from the autotrader ad.

ps: wish yours was £5k cheaper, i would buy it!!

[Grinnders]

Pistonheads is BEST. I sold mine in less than 24 hours. IMHO Your advert is not untypical but very light on details. Your need to put some effort in.

List all the servicing details; i.e. date: mileage, Type (A, B, C, Cambelt etc)

May 2007 A Service 10,0000 miles Plans
Apr 2008 A Service 18,000 miles Plans
Mar 2009 B Service 24,000 miles Bell & Colvill

I'm not up on what's in each package but purchasers probably are. Make it easy for them. Forget the alloys. I don't know of a modern Lotus that doesn't have them!
So options include
Sports pack (incl. x, y, z,)
Touring pack (incl. electric windows, central door locking)
stereo with ipod connector (is it a face off, mask or some other brand?)
ABS
sport suspension (who's? factory fit or after market)
sport seats (again factory fit or after market?)
aircon

Price it resonably. Look at the price others were up for that have been SOLD on Pistonheads. Doesn't mean it's the price they sold for but it does mean it's a price they got calls on.
Explain why you are selling it. You need more photos which shows why it's great. Pistonheads only let me put up 7 photos or something but I added a page on another website so I could add more information including photos of receipts and MOTs. http://www.simplatech.com/slideshow.html That way by the time someone comes to look at it they are probably going to buy it and trying to justify why they can walk away.

Put some effort in to reap your reward. I'm not bragging but I could have sold mine a few times over, and that includes 2 very serious overseas buyers.

[jondude]

I agree with Grinnders about detailed ads and I'd say that if you want to attract the nervous, first time buyers, it will be brilliant to list the servicing details and talk about the care of your car, rather than list all the tuning tweaks and how fast it goes etc etc.

This frightens newbies as it gives the impression of a hard driven car.....they don't know (as I didn't) that the Lotus was made for such use, too.

'Reliable, cared for and never, ever driven in the 5 miles I've had it as the only owner' will do it for most newbies.....' faster than Schumaker around the track, HGF DIY kit thrown in for the price'....nah, I'll go elsewhere

[ajk]

Lichtgestalt said:

Hi folks,

unfortunately I have to sell my Exige S (http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1056859.htm if anyone is interested). Was wondering what's the best way to do it is? Is it worthwhile to pay the 30 quid or so for Autotrader? Or do a premium ad on Pistonheads? Any other places I should put it?

Other classifieds worth trying:

• Lotus Central - http://www.lotus-central.com/index.php/en/classifi...
• SELOC - http://forums.seloc.org/classifieds

Wouldn't bother with Autotrader, PH/Lotus Central/SELOC will get your car in front of 1000s of Lotus enthusiasts.

Cheers,
Andrew.

[Lichtgestalt]

Thanks for all the advice. Really appreciate it. Will go for the premium ad on Pistonheads and see what comes out of it.
Really bummed about having to sell the car but my company closed down so have to look for a new job and most likely it's not gonna be in the UK. Otherwise I would never let it go. It's unpractical etc but even my girlfriend loves it

[Forbes82]

Lovely Exige, stealthy in black! Hope it sells for ya.