help! trying to sell but not getting anywhere?!

EdGasket

Price shows as around £3200 for Good Condition private Sale:

http://www.wisebuyers.co.uk/index.jsp?guide=prices&page=used_cars&no=3&make=Peugeot&model=307+%282005-07%29&vip=24968&yearplate=2007%2F07&mileage=49&x=53&y=4

Your difficulties are:
1) Its a Peugeot - anyone who knows anything about cars avoids the french ones
2) Its got the larger engine so insurance high
3) Anyone doing an HPI check will find its on finance and look elsewhere.
4) It would appear to be overpriced - you can sell anything but only at the right price.

Weird_Nev

From point of view of the advert technique:
Photos: Re take photos of the car, it's clean, but make it dry and shiny and in a nice open location with a decent backdrop.
Do not crop the front and rear out of the photos, get the whole car in each exterior shot. Cropped extrimities (on a london car) scream "hiding damage" to me. Take all the photos horizontally. The jaunty angles are confusing. Nice to see the roof in action though.
Get in the back seat and take a photo of the whole dash and front seat squabs from the centre - set steering straight ahead. Looks much better.

Text wise - start with:
Full [peugeot] service history (if it has it) Or "service history" if it has some.
Tax until (date) - needs to be more than 6 months.
MOT until (date) - really needs to be a full year at this price.
Number of owners if it's one or two only
Condition and wear of tyres (eg matching pirelli tyres, 6mm tread)
Any recent significant wear and tear work - i.e. front brakes replaced at 50,000 miles - but avoid explicitily mentioning any scary work ,like if it's had new roof motors or a replacement gearbox.
Then non-standard options/features, then standard ones (Autotrader inserts these authomatically). Avoid loads of blurb, "first to see will buy, immaculate" etc are all just fluff. But it's a private ad, so put some personality in there if you want: Offer an opinion on condition: Interior in great condition, bodywork good for age - for example. Just helps people not feel it's a dog or you're not mentioning damage. Mature owner or something of that nature could help too. (I've had buyers remark that they liked the fact a car I sold had been "family owned" for 8 years).

Your price point: Well, £4,200 is a bit of a non-price. It'll appear low down if people are sorting for cars up to £5k, it won't even appear if people are looking under £4k. Be brutally honest about where your car sits in the market, and accept that as you can't offer drive away insurance, any kind of warranty, or credit card facilities, you need to make it £500 or so cheaper than an equivalent car at a dealer.
I'd be pricing that at £3950 as a price to get noticed and sell, assuming you're roughly on the money with it's value. Haggle hard when someones negotiating, and say you've already dripped the price. Accept £3,750?

But, I've really noticed a lack of private cars on sale recently, it seems it's all going through dealers now. It's a shame, because Private sales are much less stressful and much more fun for me, and you get better deals that way too.

Re the finance, that could be something to mention to the buyer when they turn up to view. The best way is getting them to pay the settlement figure direct to the finance company.. it is of course down to you how you handle that negotiation.

Perhaps, if it's just not selling, seeing if finance will take it back will be your best option of being shot of it with a blank slate.

forgotmyname

There is a 2006 car on there as an alternative under yours. He is down to £2500 now.

Although the images are screenshots. So probably dodgy?

I would have thought £3500 for yours. But an auto.. Is there demand?

bodgerx

EdGasket wrote: »

Price shows as around £3200 for Good Condition private Sale:

http://www.wisebuyers.co.uk/index.jsp?guide=prices&page=used_cars&no=3&make=Peugeot&model=307+%282005-07%29&vip=24968&yearplate=2007%2F07&mileage=49&x=53&y=4

Your difficulties are:
1) Its a Peugeot - anyone who knows anything about cars avoids the french ones
2) Its got the larger engine so insurance high
3) Anyone doing an HPI check will find its on finance and look elsewhere.
4) It would appear to be overpriced - you can sell anything but only at the right price.

+1. And that is top book condition as well.

If it was a manual diesel it may have shifted by now.

eschaton

Your photos are actually terrible.

I have only sold a car private once and gettibg the advert right is critical. Detail all the spec on the car incl. tax/MOT/history etc..

Get decent photos. Find some open space and take some decent ones. Get some with roof up/down - not roof in progress. The only thing that stands out in your current ones is a rear alloy wheel scraped to hell.

It tells me the car hasn't been looked after. It may well have been but that's the impression I get.

forgotmyname

Telesafe number is a big NO.

Even if you were giving the car away for free i would not phone that number.

Hoof_Hearted

As above, it has a big engine which means more insurance (probably), tax and fuel consumption, and there is only room in the back for double amputees. It's a bit of a niche buy and so won't appeal to the general family market, young drivers or people on a budget. Correct pricing is the only answer -- it needs to be cheaper than similar cars.

colino

Not a particularly sought after car and for some reason we had a glut of them here dumped through Motability at the auctions, further depressing the price. Spend your time on great quality pictures as suggested, but unless you have something that is specifically different on yours to wax lyrical about, price is the key.

kettlenic

Thanks for the advice. I will retake the pics this weekend and re look at the price and the advert.

We are going to try the return it to thye finance company as well. fingers crossed it goes soon.