Selling my car

littlebrooklyn

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I have finally put my Fiat 500 up for sale on Autotrader. Only had a couple of enquiries, both of which have made me doubt my decision to sell the car privately.

First call I got was just before 11pm last night from some guy asking details about the car, asked if we were prepared to drop the price, said he would phone back blah blah. Was a bit cross to be phoned so late on a Sunday evening.

Then I got an email from someone else asking if the car was still for sale. Replied politely saying yes it was. This morning had another email from him asking me to phone him on his mobile after 3pm today to 'discuss the car', which I thought was flipping cheeky :shock:

I may just end up using WeBuyAnyCar at this rate :(
 

SL63 Mark

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I have finally put my Fiat 500 up for sale on Autotrader. Only had a couple of enquiries, both of which have made me doubt my decision to sell the car privately.

First call I got was just before 11pm last night from some guy asking details about the car, asked if we were prepared to drop the price, said he would phone back blah blah. Was a bit cross to be phoned so late on a Sunday evening.

Then I got an email from someone else asking if the car was still for sale. Replied politely saying yes it was. This morning had another email from him asking me to phone him on his mobile after 3pm today to 'discuss the car', which I thought was flipping cheeky :shock:

I may just end up using WeBuyAnyCar at this rate :(

At least you haven't had the bloke who spends hours on the phone wanting to discuss every detail, and then never calls you back.

I am wary now. If you want to talk about the car, come and see it.

Some people are basically lonely, and welcome the attention and the opportunity to talk to someone. No intention of buying the car.
 
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Yugguy

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Selling a car privately is a complete pain in the backside. Done it a couple of times, would never do it again unless it was a classic that sells itself.

TBH I'll take the hit on a trade in price just for the lack of hassle.
 

SL63 Mark

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The other scam is when they ring and ask if the car is still for sale, and then try and put you on their website.
 

Lit.91

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If only a couple of enquiries have already put you off from selling privately, then maybe you should just trade it in or use the car buying service as mentioned instead.

You're dealing with public from all sorts of different backgrounds, cultures, interests and values. Questions and conversations will vary from person to person, treat each contact as a prospect that may buy your car.
 

00slk

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In the past when I have had cars advertised, the genuine buyer will first ask is the car still for sale and there second question is where and when can I see it. I give them an hour window after they say I can view today, if they say arrrrmmmm don't know if I can do that, then they are not too keen after all.
When I have wanted to view a car I will first ask when and where can I see it.
Basically the cars details are usually in the ad, the location too is usually there so no need for a potential buyer to ask all these time wasting questions, that means there are none showers.

Peter
 

davemercedes

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Lyn Are you a member of the Fiat Owners Club?

If you are, I guess you already know if you can advertise on there... if you're not into it, it might be worth looking into joining and advertising the car on there. I had a quick look and rather cheekily it will cost you £6 to become an Associate Member:

http://fiat500club.org.uk/home/membership/

The 500 is ideal for new drivers and maybe someone on here would be interested.

What's the year, model and spec? -And if you know it, what is its insurance group?

Dave
 
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kid-jensen

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Try an ebay Auction.

When the hammer falls, that's the car sold. No arguments.

When I sold mine, the guy turned up, I handed him the keys, said goodbye and shut the front door....there was nothing more to discuss, at least nothing to my advantage.

The only condition is that you cancel any bids from buyers with less than say, 20 Positive Feedback points (and say so in your listing).

Chancers never have decent Feedback..
 
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littlebrooklyn

littlebrooklyn

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Lyn Are you a member of the Fiat Owners Club?

If you are, I guess you already know if you can advertise on there... if you're not into it, it might be worth looking into joining and advertising the car on there. I had a quick look and rather cheekily it will cost you £6 to become an Associate Member:

http://fiat500club.org.uk/home/membership/

The 500 is ideal for new drivers and maybe someone on here would be interested.

What's the year, model and spec? -And if you know it, what is its insurance group?

Dave

No I'm not a member of the Fiat Owners Club, didn't even think about that when I placed the ad.

Not sure what insurance group the car is in, but it's zero road tax. I may add some more pics as I used the pics from when I bought the car as it was raining and dull last week, so didn't want to put pics on of the car all wet. Probably not the best time of year to sell a car but oh well ;)

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201702102178749
 
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Yugguy

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When I sold the Bora, that I'd bought at 98k and sold on at 140k it was a good car, well-serviced and cleaned but showing some normal scuffs of age. No rust, nothing major, it was just 11 years old. I had people expecting it to be perfect. I had one bloke who despite the HPI check accused me of covering up an accident by replacing a panel. Apparantly he could see a difference in shade that noone else I knew could.

After that I thought feck that, I don't need the hassle.
 

LostKiwi

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The photos look ok (if a bit 'bleached' but if you're using a camera phone its not easy to fix) - the only thing I would suggest is 2 additional photos from front corners (and maybe lose the full frontal one). Most cars look more aesthetically pleasing from a front corner view.
 

davemercedes

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No I'm not a member of the Fiat Owners Club, didn't even think about that when I placed the ad.

Not sure what insurance group the car is in, but it's zero road tax. I may add some more pics as I used the pics from when I bought the car as it was raining and dull last week, so didn't want to put pics on of the car all wet. Probably not the best time of year to sell a car but oh well ;)

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201702102178749
It looks very good and with low miles etc it should sell okay. I guess you just have to be patient and weed out the tyre kickers and time wasters.

Try putting cards up in supermarket racks like Tesco etc as well, I'm always surprised how many people stop and look at the ads.
 

Brizzle

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This morning had another email from him asking me to phone him on his mobile after 3pm today to 'discuss the car', which I thought was flipping cheeky :shock:

You are trying to sell this car, aren't you? He has loads to choose from out there whereas you're trying to sell your one so why wouldn't you make the effort to do that?

I can tell you from 30+ years of experience in sales that a seller that takes the trouble and shows interest enough to call a potential buyer will be way more successful than the one that sits there waiting for the phone to ring. There isn't a product anywhere in the world that sells itself.
 
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Chrishazle

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Honest John in last Saturday's Telegraph won't help you!

"My Granddaughter has seen a 2012 Fiat 500 Lounge Duologic with the 875 twin air engine and 16500 miles at auction. It has full service history and an MoT, how much chould she pay?"

HJ : "
She shouldn't. I was "upgraded" to a TwinAir Dualogic rental car and soon found that it doesn't work well because the engine's torque is in the wrong range for the automated manual transmission (although the Dualogic gearbox works OK with the 1.3 multijet diesle. The TwinAir manual is a much better proposition."

Hope your potential buyers are not Telegraph readers!
 
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littlebrooklyn

littlebrooklyn

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Honest John in last Saturday's Telegraph won't help you!

"My Granddaughter has seen a 2012 Fiat 500 Lounge Duologic with the 875 twin air engine and 16500 miles at auction. It has full service history and an MoT, how much chould she pay?"

HJ : "
She shouldn't. I was "upgraded" to a TwinAir Dualogic rental car and soon found that it doesn't work well because the engine's torque is in the wrong range for the automated manual transmission (although the Dualogic gearbox works OK with the 1.3 multijet diesle. The TwinAir manual is a much better proposition."

Hope your potential buyers are not Telegraph readers!

I've read of other people who think the same about the gearbox and I know when I first got the car I had some issues with it not going from neutral to drive, or something like that. Took me a little while to work out that I had to press the brake pedal a bit harder to make it do what it should, not had any issues since. I'd always want an automatic and wouldn't consider buying a manual car ever. I've got a 6wk ad so I will just wait and see and probably bring the price down a bit if I don't sell it after a few weeks :wink:
 

EmilysDad

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I've read of other people who think the same about the gearbox and I know when I first got the car I had some issues with it not going from neutral to drive, or something like that. Took me a little while to work out that I had to press the brake pedal a bit harder to make it do what it should, not had any issues since. I'd always want an automatic and wouldn't consider buying a manual car ever. I've got a 6wk ad so I will just wait and see and probably bring the price down a bit if I don't sell it after a few weeks :wink:

I've never driven the auto Fiat, but all the road tests for Smart's automated manual slated it too. I suspect that many test reporters had never driven one & just copied and pasted other test reports. While I'm the first to admit it could be better, once you get the measure of it, it works very well both in fully auto or in manual - even better with flappy paddles.
Don't believe everything you read.
 

A.J.

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First call I got was just before 11pm last night from some guy asking details about the car, asked if we were prepared to drop the price, said he would phone back blah blah. Was a bit cross to be phoned so late on a Sunday evening.

I may just end up using WeBuyAnyCar at this rate :(

How can anybody ask if you are prepared to drop the price when they havn't even seen the car :confused:

All webuyanycar do is direct you to a dealer on their buyers list and take a commission from the buying dealer.

How about getting a price from webuyanycar so you know roughly were the market place is for that car then take it into a Fiat dealer yourself. Use webuyanycar's base price to negotiate a better deal for yourself. No middle man !! :)
 

A.J.

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Try an ebay Auction.

When the hammer falls, that's the car sold. No arguments.

..

That is as long as it as described !!
 

John Laidlaw

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Webuyanycar would give you £4605 for it....

Evans Halshaw are supposed to give more if you want to try them? http://www.evanshalshaw.com/sell-your-car/

Yip, we sold our Galaxy to Evans Halshaw, they offered the best price, then didnt drop very much off at all when I took it in for inspection. All that part was very painless.
What wasn't so painless was being paid, or should I say quickly. I opted for the £15 charge for a same day/latest next day payment to my account. It took 5 days (same as the 'normal' transfer time), to be fair I got it all and wasn't charged. However I wasn't thrilled about having to call them countless times and email to chase the payment
 

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