Thousands of advert views; barely any enquiries

[ooid]

I forget to say, that's a relatively good price (imho). It's a very rare sports car with new engine and etc. I'm not really sure about the "viewing" metrics, some other things might be generating those clicks but If I ask many young people around mid 20s or 30s today, they would have no idea about TVR forget about Tuscan. A very specific buyer will come eventually and buy it, good luck with the sale again!

[rotaryjam]

Others have covered it but I'll summarise and add my own points

- it's too expensive, £25k seems more appropriate for this time of year at least

- wrong time of year/weather, give it a couple of months

- bad photos: you need to get back to that beauty spot and take some more photos there and try and get some background in the shots, they look too cramped and are taken at multiple locations which some may think is dodgy

- agree about removing the steering lock, gives a bad vibe

- it's on pistonheads: of all the sites I've listed on I've had the least success here. Try carandclassic, a tvr owner site classifieds, Facebook and eBay

- awful colour combo (sorry): black with black wheels and red interior is about as bad as it gets for me. You could spray the wheels silver and get the seats dyed.

- you list negatives: my philosophy is if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. Save the negatives for when someone is on the phone, its less easy to dismiss at that stage than scrolling through ads

Hope that's helps

Edited by rotaryjam on Monday 20th March 07:21

Edited by rotaryjam on Monday 20th March 07:21

[Belle427]

I dont get the weather/wrong time of year thing.
Surely an enthusiast especially for this car will buy at any time?
Seems to be an old wives tale to me as I've never thought like that when buying a rag top.

[worsy]

rotaryjam said:

Others have covered it but I'll summarise and add my own points

- it's too expensive, £25k seems more appropriate for this time of year at least

- wrong time of year/weather, give it a couple of months

- bad photos: you need to get back to that beauty spot and take some more photos there and try and get some background in the shots, they look too cramped and are taken at multiple locations which some may think is dodgy

- agree about removing the steering lock, gives a bad vibe

- it's on pistonheads: of all the sites I've listed on I've had the least success here. Try carandclassic, a tvr owner site classifieds, Facebook and eBay

- awful colour combo (sorry): black with black wheels and red interior is about as bad as it gets for me. You could spray the wheels silver and get the seats dyed.

- you list negatives: my philosophy is if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. Save the negatives for when someone is on the phone, its less easy to dismiss at that stage than scrolling through ads

Hope that's helps

Yes this. The photos are really underwhelming.

[bobsavage789]

E63eeeeee... said:

Nothing helpful to add, other than that I don't think people buy convertibles when it's pissing down. You could arrange a test drive and it would be just as likely to be snowing as sunny.

I do think threads like this are the best side of PH though, lots of helpful people on here. Maybe there should be a regular "tear my ad a new one" thread for this sort of thing.

Agree on both points: I feel as though my ad has been torn several new ones!

[phazed]

It is a strange market out there.

For people in the know, the Tuscan speed six engine is very chocolate. Unless it has had a fairly recent powers or another, (of which there are very few) full rebuild, then I would stay away. It doesn’t matter how good you say the engine is now it is only a matter of time.

There are very few trustworthy specialists around that deal with the speed six engine. That in itself puts people in the know off. By comparison, anyone can rebuild a RV8 engine. I did myself on a few occasions.

I sold my RV8 engined 5.5 Chimaera which was well-known and well sorted at the beginning of Covid to the first guy who called on the first day for the full price of 25K. It was advertised on PH. Strangely though, I left the advert up for about two weeks, (forgot to remove it) and I never had another phone call. Just the right guy at the right time.

Regarding the wheels, black works with a light colour car. I had black on mine and reverted back to bright silver which really improved its looks, (medium blue, colour, car).

It also seems that Tuscans went through a period where prices were really high a few years ago, but that has come to an end. Just as well, as the prices were well inflated for some reason. The Sagaris by comparison, good ones were selling for 70–80 K! Supply and demand with them. There are plenty more Tuscans out there.

That’s for the colour, people like TVR‘s in bright colours. They really come round a better price. The dull ones do hang around.

Not what you want to hear. As said, have the wheels done, make sure the engine bay is pristine and polished, (TVR owners love a clean engine bay) and have the best photographs taken. Be prepared to take a hit as even though yours had a rebuild many years ago I would treat this as an original engine.

[plenty]

How long's it been advertised? I'd expect a niche car to take a while to sell...3-6 months.

And as per above, you really need to advertise it everywhere, including Facebook.

[bennno]

ooid said:

I forget to say, that's a relatively good price (imho). It's a very rare sports car with new engine and etc. I'm not really sure about the "viewing" metrics, some other things might be generating those clicks but If I ask many young people around mid 20s or 30s today, they would have no idea about TVR forget about Tuscan. A very specific buyer will come eventually and buy it, good luck with the sale again!

The ‘new engine’ was a rebuild c. 2006 and at 1/3 of the miles now covered. So it’s not really a major benefit

[Mezzanine]

Take your photographs in landscape rather than portrait for a start, and get the car framed properly rather than cutting bits off out of frame. Also the background locations, apart from the first shot, don’t exactly sell it well.

To a viewer, it looks like you haven’t taken any time and care as to how the car is presented, rather just taken a few rushed snaps and added some others that you have found on your photo album. Subliminally if it appears you can’t make the effort to do this, it makes the viewer question the efforts you might have made/not made for maintenance or general upkeep of the car (not suggesting this is the case, just what the photos make me feel)

I’d agree that getting the wheels refinished would help, you mention putting potential colour change in the text but if the viewer isn’t instantly drawn in with the first photo, they might not even click on your advert or bother to read that far. A few hundred quid on the wheels might make a few thousand difference in attracting someone before you consider dropping the price.

I’d also agree that it’s a specialist car, with a limited market so be prepared to wait.

Good luck.

[bobsavage789]

rotaryjam said:

Others have covered it but I'll summarise and add my own points

- it's too expensive, £25k seems more appropriate for this time of year at least

- wrong time of year/weather, give it a couple of months

- bad photos: you need to get back to that beauty spot and take some more photos there and try and get some background in the shots, they look too cramped and are taken at multiple locations which some may think is dodgy

- agree about removing the steering lock, gives a bad vibe

- it's on pistonheads: of all the sites I've listed on I've had the least success here. Try carandclassic, a tvr owner site classifieds, Facebook and eBay

- awful colour combo (sorry): black with black wheels and red interior is about as bad as it gets for me. You could spray the wheels silver and get the seats dyed.

- you list negatives: my philosophy is if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. Save the negatives for when someone is on the phone, its less easy to dismiss at that stage than scrolling through ads

Hope that's helps

Edited by rotaryjam on Monday 20th March 07:21

Edited by rotaryjam on Monday 20th March 07:21

Some interesting points there.

I’ve listed it in other places as well, so I’ve covered quite a few bases in that respect.

I shan’t be going down the route of dying seats: to me, that’d be like having the car resprayed just because people (probably) prefer brighter colours on a Tuscan.

I see your point about the photos, though they are from only two locations.

Ditto the negatives. I’ve always thought honesty is the best policy, as that gives potential buyers all the info they need, and prevents them trying to knock the price down when viewing, but I suppose mentioning them at first contact would deal with that. All going well, there’ll be no negatives after I’ve dealt with the cosmetic issues!

[bobsavage789]

Just as a point of information (not hugely important): the wheels are a sort of copper colour; not black.

The consensus does seem to indicate that they’d be off putting, so I’ll look into getting those returned to silver.

[RD-1]

Plenty of constructive advice above should help, but it is a niche car, difficult private price point and wrong time of year. As such, I would expect it to take a while to find the right buyer.

Shame I’m in Oz, otherwise I’d be all over it

GLWS

[bobsavage789]

plenty said:

How long's it been advertised? I'd expect a niche car to take a while to sell...3-6 months.

And as per above, you really need to advertise it everywhere, including Facebook.

It’s been up for 3 weeks now, and across various platforms. I appreciate it’ll take a while in all likelihood, especially as it’s not exactly TVR season just yet.

[bobsavage789]

Mezzanine said:

Take your photographs in landscape rather than portrait for a start, and get the car framed properly rather than cutting bits off out of frame. Also the background locations, apart from the first shot, don’t exactly sell it well.

To a viewer, it looks like you haven’t taken any time and care as to how the car is presented, rather just taken a few rushed snaps and added some others that you have found on your photo album. Subliminally if it appears you can’t make the effort to do this, it makes the viewer question the efforts you might have made/not made for maintenance or general upkeep of the car (not suggesting this is the case, just what the photos make me feel)

I’d agree that getting the wheels refinished would help, you mention putting potential colour change in the text but if the viewer isn’t instantly drawn in with the first photo, they might not even click on your advert or bother to read that far. A few hundred quid on the wheels might make a few thousand difference in attracting someone before you consider dropping the price.

I’d also agree that it’s a specialist car, with a limited market so be prepared to wait.

Good luck.

Ouch.

Points taken.

[phazed]

I just looked at the advert. The photographs are terrible!

Everything needs to be immaculate. The rear view should show polished exhausts, ditch the satnav with its cable hanging down. Make sure the mats are immaculate.

Take it to a beautiful spot and take multiple pictures frame in the car like a professional. You can get great shots even with an iPhone.

As has been said, accentuate the positives. The advert text doesn’t need to be rambling, descriptive and to the point.

The wheels will probably cost you more like £400 for a decent refurbish but worth it. I actually like the interior so I wouldn’t worry there. TVR‘s are all about individuality.

[Muzzer79]

bobsavage789 said:

I can’t see why the plates wouldn’t be legal: do you mean because of the “TVR” down the side? Nothing has ever been mentioned about them before…

The plates make me cringe.

Rationally or not, 'show' plates like that make me think of someone who doesn't cherish their car.

For the sake of £30, just get some plain ones.

[Olivera]

As others have stated - the photographs could be a lot better.

I might be in the market for a AJP8 or Speed Six TVR at some point, and hence there's also two major things I'd look for:

1) A reasonably recent full engine rebuild at somewhere like TVR Power
2) A documented full chassis refurb by a known specialist

Now your car might not have or even necessarily require the above, but if so then the price should reflect this.

[Puzzles]

I’d put anything that isn’t out the factory back to standard but more an issue is the uncertainty at the moment, the number of people spending 20-30k on a toy must have reduced with interest rates.

[Shifter1]

MitchT said:

Thousands of views but from how many unique users?

If I see a car I like I bookmark it and check it two or three times a day to see if the price has dropped so, in the case of a car I'm interested in, the ad will be getting at least three hits per day just from me.

Same here. I keep checking to see if the seller will wake up and realize it's overpriced and won't sell at the current price. But as I know there might be many others waiting for the same, I check it multiple times a day too. It's a sure saying, an used car for the right price will sell.

And as has already been said, dreadful pictures. With niche cars and anything that costs more than like 10K I feel like hiring a pro photographer is a good investment when selling. Or just ask a friend who might be a photography enthusiast. So many adds overlook this. The photos are the most important part. They not only help seeing the car in the best light, but also say a lot about who is selling the car. A seller who can't be bothered getting proper photos will probably be perceived as either an untidy person or cheap. Neither of which inspires confidence. By that impression, the car was most likely not well cared for and run on a shoe string budget.

[dmsims]

Photo 1 fine

Then a succesion of pics in different random locations with lots of distraction in the background

Take all the photo's in location 1 (or similar)