Why am I not getting any offers for my car?

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Calumcco

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I have adverts in shop windows and local papers but nothing is proving successful. What/Where am I going wrong? I need this car gone now, all my wages are going on petrol and maintenance which was fine when I was in my managerial job but now I have taken a pay cut and a change of job. :(
 
Parisien

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The older it is and bigger the engine then you need to get on to specialist classic car/forum sites, unless you want to let it go for a song.


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They are a specialist car now, not easy to sell on the normal market, it needs to go on Pistonheads or Ebay.
 
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Difficult to give you a reply without knowing the exact circumstances but one standard reasons why a car doesn't sell is that no one is willing to buy it at the price advertised.

Have you tried the Autotrader?

Do remember that the market for the majority of bigger older petrol cars has gone extremely flat. I've a truly toasting 99 Honda Accord V6 Coupe, 75k, FSH, leather, fully loaded etc. Put it on the market for £1250. Not a bite. Down to £1000 and a couple of calls but no requests for test drives. May have to go down to £800. Breaks my heart but its worth what its worth.
 
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Calumcco

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Parisien said:
The older it is and bigger the engine then you need to get on to specialist classic car/forum sites, unless you want to let it go for a song.


P
Click to expand...

Why is this do you think? Are they not a joe public type of vehicle?
 
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MBDevotee

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Once a car that can attract some hefty repair bills falls below a couple of thousand, it's very hard to shift unless it's really in amazing condition.

Then when it falls to £500 ish people will then consider it and "take a punt" with the view that if a big bill comes along they'll scrap it or sell it for practically nothing for spares.

Some in the trade say "If it's not on Autotrader, it's not for sale."

I disagree, and think for your car, eBay is the place.

List it, start it at 0.99p and put a reserve on, that way you will at least get a feel for what people are prepared to pay.
 
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MBDevotee said:
Once a car that can attract some hefty repair bills falls below a couple of thousand, it's very hard to shift unless it's really in amazing condition.

Then when it falls to £500 ish people will then consider it and "take a punt" with the view that if a big bill comes along they'll scrap it or sell it for practically nothing for spares.

Some in the trade say "If it's not on Autotrader, it's not for sale."

I disagree, and think for your car, eBay is the place.

List it, start it at 0.99p and put a reserve on, that way you will at least get a feel for what people are prepared to pay.
Click to expand...


Hi, your idea sounds best to me so I will try that!!! Just one query though. Why would I start bidding at 0.99p??? Wouldn't that make me susceptible to having to actually sell my car for 99p??
 
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Nope, you have a reserve price.
 
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You have a box where you can enter the minimum price that you will accept

If say you put £1k and the bidding got to £850 you can then consider if you will or want to let it go for that price.

The minimum price is not visible to those bidding.
 
Irresistance

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The problem is that a reserve price automatically means that 70% of people that WOULD bid on your auction won't because they would be wasting their time anyhow, knowing any sub-XXX bid wont win anyway.

Truth is... you just gotta get lucky with these cars. When we were moving out of Sydney back to Europe back in 2009 i had to sell my 1990 300SE.

I made a ludicrously long and detailed eBay ad - it just so happened that I worked in an eBay business and it was one of my specialties - great pics, lots of detail, long story on the car, list of all things fixed, honest list of problems, etc. etc - it was at least 3-4 A4 pages of small print's worth!

And... one day I log on to eBay to check and... the ad was no longer listed. WTF?? So I check... and whaddayaknow... some dude in the outback just did a buy-it-now which happened to fit within my margin. No questions, no inspection, nothing. Three days later the bloke flew in on a plane, wad of cash in hand, took one look at her at the airport, gave me the money, drove off, done deal.

We could not believe it.

When I relayed this story to my motorhead mate he could not believe it and said I had been, quote, exceptionally lucky. I suppose I was.

But that's a W126 which was in quite good condition. A W140 is a different beast altogether. If I were you, I'd make a really, really good ad. Be funny, be honest, spend time on it. It will pay off...
 
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Irresistance

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Yeah reading it back actually made me laugh... it was an awesome car that one. My first MB. I'd go down to the garage just to look at it, sit in it, be happy with it, just for fun. I should call the guy that bought it, was an older guy, ran a fish and chips show somewhere in country Victoria...
 
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On eBay you set a starting price and at the same time set a reserve price. So it tells potential bidders that although it starts at 99p that you do have a minimum.

You also have the option if selling if it's close to the reserve or offering it for sale to the highest bidder post auction.

Best way to sell a car it's plenty of good honest information, high resolution imagery, well presented car and added benefits, long MOT, low servicing cost for the next year, stuff like that.
 
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but.. having a car that's (unfortunately) fairly un-loved AND doesn't work properly (misfire) you will struggle....
 
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GeeAy

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Reality. Its an old big car in poor condition. - Garage it for another 15 years then watch the offers roll in.
 
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