What's the smartest way to sell a car?

[stace650]

Hi all,

I'm selling my GT after a two year romance.
My question is: how do it do it the smart way? I don't want hoons turning up to give it a squirt and also don't fancy would-be Nicholas Cage types scoping it out to steal later. On the other hand, I don't want to scare off geniune buyers by acting all cagey about the car.
Any advice, wise Ford lovers?

Cheers!

[Yellow_Festiva]

Originally Posted by stace650

Hi all,

I'm selling my GT after a two year romance.
My question is: how do it do it the smart way? I don't want hoons turning up to give it a squirt and also don't fancy would-be Nicholas Cage types scoping it out to steal later. On the other hand, I don't want to scare off geniune buyers by acting all cagey about the car.
Any advice, wise Ford lovers?

Cheers!

Advertise it on carsales.com.au and look at your competition before you set your price, then price it accordingly.

Perhaps have someone around when people visit. Ask for photo ID, write their details on paper and leave it at home prior to any test drives.

Call your insurance to see where you stand should someone have an accident while test driving.

Don't continue conversations with people from private numbers. Request they call you back with a visible number or get their number and call them back.

Have fun. Your will get emails from scammers and prepared for auction houses / dealers calling you telling you they have '2 professional valuers on site ready to value your car to buy'.. when YOU bring it to them of course.

So, be prepared, and have a line ready. Ask them what car they have that fits in with your X and Y criteria, then ask them when is it best for THEM to bring it to YOU for an inspection. When they reply with a confused "we don't do that".. then say "Neither do I"....

Have fun...

[Streets]

You could meet prospective buyers in a car park or something I guess

[Grippy]

Make sure you take the best quality photos of the car straight after a detail too, a bit of presentation goes a long way when selling a car.

[mechanic]

Selling a used car is extremely tough these days.
I've just sold a Landcruiser and was very lucky to get a buyer [ gold miner ] by word of mouth.Only hold up was him waiting for the price of gold to be in his favour.
My son has been trying to sell his ute for nearly 9 months and has had no luck. It's low mileage, RTV, no marks at all and well priced.
Seems to me that this forum and maybe some of the other forums are your best bet.
Friend of mine works for St. George bank and they are really, really tough on finance these days. They're reluctant to lend money on appreciating assets let alone depreciating assets.
Depending on how desperate you are it will probably come down to price.

[GQ_Smooth]

Check what is for sale, same model/year etc..

Price yours at the lowest price point then stay firm with the price, if no luck after 2-3 months start lowering the price. Very hard to sell a performance car in this market. Good luck!

[buggo]

I sold my BA XR6 about 4 months ago using carsales - it sold way easier than I thought it would.

I made sure I had really good photos of it, no dodgey high angled, crooked, half body shots in a scabby looking driveway. I spend the best part of the day cleaning, polishing, detailing, tidying up the whole car and took it down to the water front on the grass reverve about 45 mins before the sun went down. It had never looked better.

Spent until it was dark taking pics everywhere from every angle. Moving the car a different angle or turning the wheel a bit to make it look better.

Went home, uploaded the pics while I wrote a honest yet positive description using up all the characters I could.

After that was done, I picked the best photos I had and put them in the ad. For the pics that get displayed on the results page I had a front, rear and interior shot, rather than all the same angle like some people do.

I priced it slightly under equivelant cars but imo they were over priced anyway. Some people still expect $12k for a 10 year old XR6 with 200k km.

I had about two midnight texts offereing swaps for about the first week and nothing else. I was getting ready for a long sell.

After exactly a week pretty much to the hour on a Sunday night I had a call from the first genuine interest. We chatted a while and all seemed to go well. He said he'd call the next day.

The next day I had another call from someone a lot closer (the first guy was from Adelaide - I'm and hour and a half north of Sydney) This lady was calling on behalf of her son and after another good chat organised to come look that Saturday.

I rang the original guy letting him know what was happening just to keep him in the loop as I would have liked if being in his postion. He called me back about half an hour later and offered just under the asking price sight unseen. I couldn't refuse that and took the deal.

I felt like I had a lot of trust placed in me so I sent him all the photos I took for the ad in high-res plus a video of it starting etc in an e-mail - more so for my benifit because I felt kind of weird about it. I also had to call the second inquirer back explaining what happened.

He flew up on Wednesday morning and met me at work, handed me the cash, shook hands and that was that - 9 Days from ad to cash for a run of the mill BA XR6 Auto. I kept looking every week or so for about 6 weeks and still saw all the same cars there.


Sorry for the super ramble there, but yeah my advice - Great Photos, Great detailed description, and honesty about any questions good and bad. And don't be dreaming with the price either especially at this time of year.

[blueoval]

This is based on my experience.

A car is worth as much as someone is willing to pay for it. A lot of the time, people posts up prices without doing the research on what its worth, often at an over inflated price compared to the market, but a fair one in the owners eyes. It's a buyers market out there and you will find people will skim your ad very quickly and leaving you having a car still for sale for months on end.

Be realistic. Know your competition. Be creative with your pictures and description without being tacky or long winded.

One thing I do when buying, is skim past ads with less than 3 pictures or no pictures at all. Its off putting, and I have no interest in viewing a vehicle without at least seeing what effort you have made to advertise it. So dont skimp out in how many you put up, But also don't be silly about it either in the other extreme. I often see people post 20 pics of the outside on all different angles, and 1 photo of the interior and 1 photo of the engine bay or even no photos. That's just ridiculous and is a huge turn off.

Having a clean car interior is a must. Nothing worse than seeing maccas wrappers, chewed up lollies from kids, toys, junk and un-vacuumed when you take pictures. Not saying a GT owner would have this, but its often a sight I see on ads and I shake my head in disgust.

As for seeing potential buyers, never let them come to your house. Always see them at a public location that's convenient to both parties. If you can, have a friend(s) with you while the buyer looks over the car. Serious buyers will be accommodating to this arrangement and will be happy to oblige. It should separate the tire kickers.

[MercurySilver]

try not to sell at xmas lol
good time to buy, but prob not the best time to sell

[Tonz]

I'll sell it for you.
Take all the hassle out of your troubles, will look after it well at home...on the road?....... well thats another story, I've got to know what its capable of after all. also may take about 6 months getting ready for sale, then when sold a quick trip overseas to see the family.
Yeah mate I'll take care of it for ya

[RANGEREST]

Originally Posted by GQ_Smooth

Check what is for sale, same model/year etc..

Price yours at the lowest price point then stay firm with the price, if no luck after 2-3 months start lowering the price. Very hard to sell a performance car in this market. Good luck!

^^^^^
One of the best bits of advice I've been given was exactly this, for selling pretty much anything. When choosing your price, ask yourself do you want to advertise it, or do you want to sell it?. Have a look at the dearer ones for sale and they're still all there, advertised-Not sold, a few months later.

[05_ENFORCER]

Sold my 2012 GT on CarSales at the mid to top of the market price.

I asked for a home and work phone number and a copy of his drivers license, to be scanned and sent to my email address, I verified all three, he came around to my house to view, I checked license details again, gave his license to Mrs with instructions if I did not return (LOL) took him for a drive, let him drive back home.

He went home and the next afternoon he turned up with a company cheque and said, when it clears, give me a call..................

Now THAT is TRUST...............

That's my positive story!


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