Is now a bad time to sell a car?

[kiethton]

Well I'm trying to sell my girlfriends car for her currently and am struggling....

Despite it being the cheapest (non-written off) new shape fiesta with less than 100k miles on both here and ebay (ours has 46k) I've had only 2 people come to look at it in 2 weeks, first saying it's too small and second offering £4.5k siting needing 4 tyres (fronts have 2.5mm and rears 4mm) and a service (yes, in March but I have self-serviced the last couple).

My advert should be easy to find (don't want to link and break posting rules) - am I doing anything wrong or is it just the wrong time to sell? - we'd take £5k (maybe £100 less) but know if i lower it to £5k to get the extra interest i'll just have people offering £4k and have nothing to show for it....and see no need as its already the cheapest allowing for the above

Any feedback? - would it be worth just having a service done for £65 at Kwik Fit and listing it as is freshly serviced?

Edited by kiethton on Saturday 14th December 11:50

[Defcon5]

I imagine the type of people who buy new shape fiestas are not they type of people who like to hear 'I've serviced it myself'

Is it on the trader?

[Buff Mchugelarge]

As a rule people don't really buy cars this close to Christmas.
Get it serviced and hang on till January and it should sell.

[zed4]

kiethton said:

Any feedback? - would it be worth just having a service done for £65 at Kwik Fit and listing it as is freshly serviced?

Probably would be a good idea.

A lot of my customers bring boats in to work for me to sell which haven't been serviced for over a year. The first thing the purchaser does is ask if it's been serviced recently and then knock the price of a service off their offer! I tell them they should have had it done before listing it for sale.

I'm also trying to sell my girlfriend's car, a Honda Civic and have had no interest. Ok, ours is a little more expensive than others, but ours has a full Honda service history from the same garage that supplied it new and has just had a service and cam belt, two new tyres and a new battery. Plus it's very low mileage at 50k.

But no interest. Perhaps people don't care about who services the car and what's been done recently when they're looking to buy a cheap car. But I can't see the sense in buying a car that's £250 less than another and then having to spend more over the next year changing service items, when they could have spent a little more in the first place and know it's good for the next year or two.

[kiethton]

Thanks for all the pointers, It's not currently on the trader, baulked at the cost! Will do after xmas if its still here though.

Fair point about the servicing - I'll investigate @ £79 its not too bad and its only £50 for 2 nearly new part-worns so may out them on?

[GC8]

In a world populated by motorists who believe that an MOT and a service is the same thing, will a 'better' service history add a deal of perceived value to them?

[rhoran00]

I'd say it was the worst time to try and sell a car. With the expense of Christmas round the corner, and then the threat of bad weather in the new year, I'd imagine most people who are in the market place either need to buy, or need to sell

[va1o]

This is always a quiet time of the year for used car sales. Good if you are a buyer but not good as a seller! You also have the problem that for a relatively new hatchback most people won't have the cash and will buy from a dealer on finance.

[rehab71]

I'm in the trade and yes this is a poor time of year for selling cars.

The main reason people not getting many viewing/selling their car is they want too much money.

[philmots]

I'd of gone nuts with the people over saying it's too small..! You must know how big a Fiesta is before you wasted everyone's time!

It was like when I sold by ST220.. One blokes reason for not buying it was he didn't want a black car. WTF? You could see it was black in the photos on the advert. (Car was otherwise mint and well priced)

[va1o]

If the one I'm looking at is yours, I'd say its a bit overpriced. A 1.25 60 Style without AC isn't that desirable and what you're asking is about £1000 over the book trade price. I would accept the £4500 offer as that is more than generous IMO. You are competing with this likes of this, which is a better spec car at a dealer - http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2013... or http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2013...

On the private market this is the same price as yours for a much nicer (sorry but true) Fiesta - http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2013...

Your price needs to start with a 4 however you look at it

Edited by va1o on Saturday 14th December 12:52

[northwest monkey]

philmots said:

I'd of gone nuts with the people over saying it's too small..! You must know how big a Fiesta is before you wasted everyone's time!

It was like when I sold by ST220.. One blokes reason for not buying it was he didn't want a black car. WTF? You could see it was black in the photos on the advert. (Car was otherwise mint and well priced)

Plenty of nobheads out there. A few years ago, I was selling a black, cream leather, auto, 330 BMW convertible. I had several calls asking about the car, then saying they were looking for a blue manual with black leather - what they expected me to do I never quite worked out!!

To the OP - you're looking for someone with £5k cash to spend 10 days before Christmas & you'd be very lucky to find them. If I was you I'd wait until the end of January & in the meantime put some newer tyres on it & get it serviced. A Ford dealer would probably do a service for under £100 & that will look miles better than "I've done it myself".

[etchacan]

Yup, wrong time of year - I was selling my (deceased) uncles 2010 Fiesta (60 Edge, FSH, just serviced, valeted etc) - not even a sniff on AT/PH/Gumtree, apart from the usual agency/scam emails. Ended up WBAC it - and they offered more than the Ford main dealer!

You'll either have to make it ridiculously tempting price-wise, or hold onto it till the New Year.

[kiethton]

So we are now in the new year and I've taken £450 off it and it's still not gone.....

stupid thing is its getting ridiculous now, its the cheapest in the country (non write off) and despite 600 ebay views and 23 watchers its dragging - have had numerous time-wasters and 'best price mates' though....getting close to just giving it to WBAC as there isn't much in it now!

Any tips on the advert - £4.8k on here, gumtree and ebay appreciated

[northwest monkey]

kiethton said:

So we are now in the new year and I've taken £450 off it and it's still not gone.....

Seriously?

2 days into the New Year - almost a month until people get paid, Christmas just out of the way where people spend lots of money & you're wondering why your car hasn't sold...

If yours is the cheapest in the UK, are the other similar cars selling at the price they are looking for, or are they just boosting AT revenue?

If they are not selling either, the simple answers are that it's either (A) overpriced for the current market or (B) it's a car people don't want (unless it's cheap enough - see point B).

I have bought a couple of cars at this time of year once was not particularly through choice, more a case of I really needed a car and the other time was I was having a service done, got chatting to a sales bloke & we agreed to swap my 2 cars for 1 of his.

People are mainly skint at this time of year - wait until Spring when the weather picks up & Christmas is something to look forward to & that's when people will seriously look at cars.

Or stick it on Ebay at 99p with no reserve - that will tell you your market value...

[Disco You]

Now is probably a worse time than mid December...

[Troubleatmill]

kiethton said:

So we are now in the new year and I've taken £450 off it and it's still not gone.....

stupid thing is its getting ridiculous now, its the cheapest in the country (non write off) and despite 600 ebay views and 23 watchers its dragging - have had numerous time-wasters and 'best price mates' though....getting close to just giving it to WBAC as there isn't much in it now!

Any tips on the advert - £4.8k on here, gumtree and ebay appreciated

OK..My £0.02 90% of the population have gone into some kind of credit card debt to fund Christmas for their kids etc.
Apparently £1000 spend extra in Dec is the norm.

Payday isn't until the 25-27th of Jan.
Most folks are brassic in Jan.
Go figure.


Sorry - that it doesn't help you. But Jan isn't the best time to be a seller.

[kiethton]

Indeed, as much as I thought....

Think if it doesn't sell upon expiry of the ebay ad on Sunday I'll put it to auction (need a reserve, likely at WBAC price) and go from there as the insurance costs etc. are starting to mount, that and the funds to get the replacement came from my OD, thinking selling this fiesta would be a quick process!

[va1o]

kiethton said:

So we are now in the new year and I've taken £450 off it and it's still not gone.....

stupid thing is its getting ridiculous now, its the cheapest in the country (non write off) and despite 600 ebay views and 23 watchers its dragging - have had numerous time-wasters and 'best price mates' though....getting close to just giving it to WBAC as there isn't much in it now!

Any tips on the advert - £4.8k on here, gumtree and ebay appreciated

No more advice. Funnily enough all the cars I linked to in my previous post are sold...

Should have taken the £4.5k offer IMHO, that's where the market is at.

[kiethton]

va1o said:

kiethton said:

So we are now in the new year and I've taken £450 off it and it's still not gone.....

stupid thing is its getting ridiculous now, its the cheapest in the country (non write off) and despite 600 ebay views and 23 watchers its dragging - have had numerous time-wasters and 'best price mates' though....getting close to just giving it to WBAC as there isn't much in it now!

Any tips on the advert - £4.8k on here, gumtree and ebay appreciated

No more advice. Funnily enough all the cars I linked to in my previous post are sold...

Should have taken the £4.5k offer IMHO, that's where the market is at.

Indeed, hindsight's a wonderful thing...