How to sell a car quickly

Siant

Hi everyone,
I'm emailing to ask a little advice about selling my car. I know now isn't the best time to sell but it's quite urgent for the following reasons:
- It only has 2 seats and now my family is growing I need more (plus I'm the only one that drives so I have to go everywhere twice to get us all there!)
- My OH's family are coming to stay with us in August and without a decent sized car I'll have to either hire or rely on public transport.

OK, so in the past I've had good luck when selling cars and maybe I'm expecting too much but I've advertised my car in the following places:
- motors web (free)
- preloved (free)
- pistonheads (£10 per month)
- gum tree (free)
- carandclassic (free)
- vivastreet (free)
- MX-5 forum
and had diddly squat from any of them. When I look on the pistonheads website mine is the second lowest price for the type of car that it is. The problem I'm having is that, as it's an MX-5 Mk2 they can be bought cheaply for one that was cheap originally and this one comes with the works so naturally I paid a bit more for it and other models cost a bit more to buy.

The worst part is I haven't even had any interest. I parked it on the sea front near where I live with a sign in the window and then hung around as I'd left the roof down and was amazed at how many people came to look but still no one wanted to buy.

I don't have a lot of money as I've just bought my first house and need pretty much every penny I can muster to buy a family car once I've sold the MX. I've considered Auto-trader, Ebay (as a classified) and the local paper but can't stand the thought of spending more money to have absolutely nobody get in touch (as has happened on Piston Heads).

Price any car and Used Car Expert suggest that asking price for this car should be around £4250 and trade in £3700 - I'm asking £3900 for the car which I thought was fair and undercuts dealers by enough to be worth it (other cars of same type on Piston Heads cost over £5000 from dealers) but when asked a garage for trade in price they said £2500 would be maximum (that was without even coming to have a nit pick at the car). I couldn't believe it!

Does anyone know any tricks that would hopefully get me some interest and help me sell my car for a fair price? I'm feeling a little deflated by the whole thing at the moment.

Thanks in advance for the help

bengalknights

Put it on autotrader and should sell if priced reasonably

malkyh

Don't price it too cheap. Although it may be because you want a quick sale, people may be put off thinking there is something wrong. price it more expensive and let them knock money off.

Siant

Thanks for the swift replies. I've sent you the link to the list of MX-5 S-VT's. Mine is the £3900. Do you think it looks underpriced? If so, do you think its right to change the price to higher on Piston Heads? Or should I just ride it out and then advertise elsewhere? <--- sorry had to delete link as it wouldn't work

I like the idea of Autotrader and in honesty it is certainly my first call for a car. This seemed to be the general consensus with people from work too but it's so expensive and my parents recently advertised a car on there (twice) and had no luck at all (again, not even a phone call). I just can't make up my mind - is it worth the money? As it's the most expensive method. Is it twice as good as Ebay?

Thanks again for the help.

Bob_the_Saver

If you advertise it at £1 it will sell in seconds,
At £2 it will sell in seconds.
At £100 it will sell in seconds
It's a case of balancing how long you want to wait with the price you are prepared to take.
ANYTHING will sell quickly at the right price, the problem is finding the right price.
Your car might have been the second lowest price but did any of them sell?

motorguy

Price is the biggest factor here. You need to be in the bottom 20% for the phone to ring.

Other things that will influence the sale is length of MOT, miles and service history.

On a car like this they are also colour and spec sensitive, so the car needs to look 'right'.

My 'rule' around buying MX-5s to resell ('im a trader) is to keep the price under £3,000. That seems to be the max value people are happy to pay for a 'toy'. Over and above that, your prospective buyers drop off dramatically, as they're more likely only to be buying it for a 'main' car. I'm sure your car is worth the asking price, but it will take longer to sell.

s_b

speculate to accumulate
advertise or die
advertise where there are buyers not lookers

getmore4less

These days a documented history will help a lot along side a realistic price.

Has all the important stuff been done on time?

today a car with 200k+ sold in a day on an enthusiasts site good history and fare price.

I guess yours is .

http://vehicles.vivastreet.co.uk/cars+redcar-ts10/mazda-mx-5-s-vt-sport--2004-/49120154

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/3937852.htm

http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C307856

document the history in the adds always helps if it is solid.


problem is there are loads of these MX5 around.
http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C240607

colino

To get top dollar on a car like this it will have to have outstanding history and be in excellent order with appropriate top spec modifications. Buyers at that price will have done their homework and have seen loads of them before picking the best.
While run of the mill buyers will work out how much money they have got and then buy the newest plate they can for the money, no-one is buying a pricey MX5 as an alternative to something else.
Get it in Autotrader, polish it inside out and back to front and take the best possible pictures you can with a pleasant, scenic, but not distracting backdrop.

Siant

getmore4less wrote: »

These days a documented history will help a lot along side a realistic price.

Has all the important stuff been done on time?

today a car with 200k+ sold in a day on an enthusiasts site good history and fare price.

I guess yours is .

(links)

document the history in the adds always helps if it is solid.


problem is there are loads of these MX5 around.

This is her yes. Thanks for this as it won't let me post links because I'm new.

Do you think the adverts are ok or too much/too little? Also, do you think the price seems ok (where it fits in with other cars of this type - it's a Ltd edition S-VT Sport)? Can you spot what I'm doing wrong?

Also what History do you mean?

Siant

Again, thanks for all the replies. Just a bit more info:

I did buy it as a main car and paid £5000 2 years ago for it. The reason I chose the car at the time was:
1 - it's interesting and different colouring
2 - it's added features (leather interior, heated leather seats, 6 CD changer, remote central locking, electric everything (windows, heated windscreen etc) - are these what you mean by modifications?
and 3 - it's full service history

When I bought it, it had a slight hole in the roof but it had been fixed so didn't see this as a problem at the time. I am no expert on cars but I knew I'd looked around and although this one was slightly pricier than some I'd seen, it was in very good condition compared to all of the MX-5's I'd looked at.

As I see it this is what the problem is (correct me if I'm wrong):
- It's a little pricier than your average buyer expects to pay for an MX-5 (for the reasons stated above)
- As someone who's looking for a very special edition it's got a lot of competition.

Do you think contacting a specialist seller for example Super Car Classics is a good option?