Long time lurker - are the classifieds worth it?

[Golaboots]

Hi, I've been lurking on here for years and actually sold my last car though the classifieds.

Now that you have to pay for the classifieds is general opinion that it's worth it. I paid to put my Mrs' car on the other day (fairly priced etc) and haven't had a single call. I know it's cheaper than autotrader but does it even get 1/10 of the traffic?

Sorry to whine, I love reading PH but I'm not sure what's happening to the classified's is worth it.
What do you think?

[5paul5]

If im honest i have never had much luck selling cars on this site though many others will probably disagree. I find Ebay about the best apart from the occasional numpty timewaster.

[PompeyM3]

I'd say yes. I've sold 2 cars on PH this year and both of them to people what you wouldn't think are regulars on this site so it must be easy enough to find when looking for a new car.

[Codswallop]

I sold several cars through PH, so it worked for me.

You can also try Gumtree and http://www.autoweb.co.uk/ if you don't want to pay for an add, but I think PH is better than either.

TBH, this is probably the worst time of year to try and sell a car OP.

[rralston]

In short, no.

The new and improved classifieds section is still faulty, I've just tried to filter on RS6's and a load of 911's popped up.

It's also being phished by con artists and the classic paypal scam.

Not impressed.

[T7G]

Depends what you're selling IMO. Pistonheads is aimed more towards the enthusiast rather than the general public, so there's more than your fair share of kit cars etc on here.
Personally, I think it's worth it, considering it's approx 6x cheaper than AT.

[K12beano]

When this new format is sorted!

[5paul5]

K12beano said:

When this new format is sorted!

When indeed, its crap at the moment.

[Olf]

I've sold three cars through the PH ads in that few years, on two of those occasions the PH ad worked when the auto trader didn't so yes - gets my vote.

[BigBen]

I had no joy with a boring car (S-Max) on here but my previous Ariel Atom sold in about 0.000005seconds, as did a previous Porsche 944.

So in my experience great for selling interesting stuff and not so good for boring cars

Ben

[CarlosV8]

5paul5 said:

When indeed, its crap at the moment.

I wouldnt bother at the moment. I listed my Chimaera a couple of weeks ago on the old format. Today I went in to check the ad and discovered that now it's been moved over to the new format the text has completely lost its formatting and is just one chunk of text (it was quite a long writeup, so it now just looks rediculous). Can't imagine anyone would bother reading it if they opened the advert.

And to make matters worse I've just gone in to edit it and correct it, but it's trying to make me pay for the advert again. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[alsem]

It should be free, the cars will just get more expensive if pistonheads charge for the adds!

[Wacky Racer]

Sold one car and one motorbike on here for free (long term member), so I can't complain.

Wish they would stick to the old format though.......

[Mattt]

alsem said:

It should be free, the cars will just get more expensive if pistonheads charge for the adds!

Eh?

For specialist cars, PH is great. I wouldn't use it to sell a shopping car though.

[Pints]

Ive not used to sell, but I recommended it to a female colleague a while ago. She got a genuine buyer calling her within hours of putting her car up.

[STW2010]

I have advertised 2 cars for sale on PH in the past couple of years, which were also advertised on Autotrader at the same time. I received no phone calls for the first one via PH, and one phone call for the last one advertised on PH (RX8), and this was a time waster.

In the same period I had 3 calls for the first car via AT and sold the car within a week. The second car (the RX8) took a bit longer to sell (10 days- but I expected this), but over a week I received at least 4 calls from people that had seen the car on Autotrader (compared to none from PH).

The last car I sold was only advertised on Autotrader and sold more or less straight away, as the previous two adverts (paid premium adverts too) on PH were a waste of time.

I'm sure that the PH classified will be sorted out in the near future, but I wouldn't use again.

My main issue with the classifieds is that the number of 'sheds' under 'boring stuff' is significantly less than it used to be, simply because there is a charge to advertise. I personally think that there should be free, or much cheaper, options for cars valued under a grand. But then this doesn't generate money (it may generate more visitors though...).

I buy cars through Autotrader, and look for bargains on ebay. PH classifieds are inferior, and this is to do with both, the charges and the current design (which would be better than the old format when it works).