Has anyone got any experience selling a moderately cheap car second-hand?

I've had the car in question (1.5dci diesel grand scenic) for a decade and it's done me proud in this time including take the family and a butt-tonne of stuff down to the South of France during lockdown (obviously when such travel was allowed....).

Only issues are

(1) I did the last service myself as couldn't be bothered with main stealer prices any more. I've got pictures showing the stuff being done but I know some people are pedantic even on a 2010 car!!! And I say that as a badge-wearing certificated pedant.
(2) The air-con doesn't work
(3) Some idiot didn't notice a large branch sticking out a hedge and made rather a large scratch down the side of it.

So I reckon WBAC and Motorway won't want it as it won't get much at auction. Which leaves me with Gumtree, Ebay, Autotrader etc. It's actually a good do-er upper. A respray, a service and the air-con fixed and it's a 4k car (whereas I reckon at the moment it's about 2k).

It runs well and it's only done 46,000 miles whereas many of these cars have been used as taxis and done 100,000+. And I've just chucked a new battery in it and it's got new Michelin tyres about 300 miles ago so it should be good to run for a good long time yet. It's also got a nice Bose OEM hifi which is far better than the car I replaced it with..... It's perfect for our local Hermes delivery driver as it's got loads of space, cheap to insure and does 50mpg but they don't want it (I've asked!!!).

Of gumtree, autotrader, ebay motors etc any to avoid? It's not worth a tonne so not keen on having prolonged tyre-kicking discussions.....

Thanks for any pointers. Bizarrely this is the first car I've sold in working order. My first car (Nissan Micra 1.0L) I had from new and was desperate to get it to 100,000 miles but at 99,300 the DVLA towed it as I'd forgotten to road-tax it and I really couldn't spent the hundreds they wanted to get it back (so it got crushed). The second car (Renault Megane) was great until all the windows wound-down and wouldn't go back up again. In autumn. Just before a torrential downpour. So that went to the scrapper.......

from what i have seen places like fleabay are best avoided as they attract a lot of chancers, out here in the stix, a lot of people use faceache market place, seems to be less messers.
put it up for £2000, no offers should keep most of the idiots away.

We sold my son's 2006 Golf (poverty spec 1.4 fsi) a couple of years ago. It was well past its prime, lots of dings, 110k miles but ran okay and no rust. We stuck it on ebay as a classified (£14 fee I think) and also on Gumtree (free to list). We put it on for £800ono. Through Gumtree we must have had at least 20 scammers and no serious buyers. Through ebay we got about about ten offers around the £500 mark which we turned down then near the end of the period had a genuine offer from someone quite local at £650 so let it go for that. Based on that experience only I'd avoid Gumtree but I would use ebay again. I've never tried faceache marketplace.

Facebook ?

When I advertised and sold the MG Roadster I tried Gumtree, but wouldn't again as I got a couple of right stars...

I used Car and Classic as it was free and had very good results and found a buyer

I advertised my mates single seater on Pistonheads and that sold to a lad in Romania (He just bought it from the photos)

Good luck with it….

I recently sold a car…. Put it on Facebook market place and within minutes the endless stream of foreign names scammers asking for “best price” “I pay cash now”…. Genuinely had 20-30 within a few hours. I genuinely couldn’t figure out what their game was… they were all over the country with very suspicious looking profiles.
Eventually I had a couple of genuine messages and sold the car…

I almost gave up and was going to scrap it….

I used eBay to sell the wife's car earlier on in the year.

I had a couple of chancers but in the end it went to a genuine buyer for more than we expected. He got the train down from up north and I picked him up from the station. He was chuffed with it.

I use eBay and faceache. eBay is a lot better for this sort of thing.

2010 car = 12 years old

AC doesn't work - many many cars that age it doesn't

Service - last one by you (hey ho), if you've got photos of the service being done that'll keep many many buyers satisfied. 57 plate VW Passat bought at 3 yrs old by me and serviced by me all the way through. Receipts for service bits, happy buyer. Same with SWMBOs Alhambra and Touran.

Scratch - again 12 year old car, look around a car par park they all have sratches and dings. At that age of car buyers aren't buying a concourse piece.

I've always sold via Autotrader without problem. Selling cars is always frought with chancers, but that's just selling cars. Have your story and price set, don't waver and don't take any dicking about from people.

Looking in Autotrader, the going price for that age and condition is <1500 - are you sure you're pricing it correctly?

At that age, I wouldn't care two hoots about stealer servicing, or air con, but I would be put off by the scratch, I've never bought a car scratched (10 years old or older). My most recent car purchase is a 2010 and it doesn't have a scratch or a door ding at all. It's going to be the biggest impact on your sales price out of anything.

[Edited on 18/10/22 by coyoteboy]

tbh it seems totally underpriced for a large low mileage family car especially considering the price second hand cars are going for.

sorry for being off grid and thanks all for the input fellow LBers! Sounds gumtree is bad so it's either autotrader or ebay for me.
it's very true for the age it's going to have some defects and someone expecting FSH might be disappointed.

autotrader link

suggests 2k isn't out of order in that there are cars for a lot more with more miles and the only vehicle with less miles is 5k!!

suspect it'll be an ad saying "it is what is is, 2k and it's yours!!!".

quote:

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Originally posted by BenB
sorry for being off grid and thanks all for the input fellow LBers! Sounds gumtree is bad so it's either autotrader or ebay for me.
it's very true for the age it's going to have some defects and someone expecting FSH might be disappointed.

autotrader link

suggests 2k isn't out of order in that there are cars for a lot more with more miles and the only vehicle with less miles is 5k!!

suspect it'll be an ad saying "it is what is is, 2k and it's yours!!!".

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You not tempted to keep such a useful vehicle with low mileage? Could be best value to you, rather than convert it a contribution towards its replacement? Or are there low emission zone restrictions that mean it needs to go?

I had an old Skoda Octavia that was worth more to me in usefulness than what I could sell it for and replace it with.

Cheers
Mike

Wouldn't worry about the services - mine is now 7 years old and apart from the first two services its never seen a main stealer - and - I have had a stamp made by - ? vistaprint? I think - with my own details on. All my cars for the last 20+ years have had their services stamped with it and I've attached receipts for the oil, filters, brakes etc. Never caused any problems with selling the cars

quote:

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Originally posted by Mike Wood
You not tempted to keep such a useful vehicle with low mileage? Could be best value to you, rather than convert it a contribution towards its replacement? Or are there low emission zone restrictions that mean it needs to go?

I had an old Skoda Octavia that was worth more to me in usefulness than what I could sell it for and replace it with.

Cheers
Mike

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Originally posted by ianhurley20
I have had a stamp made by - ? vistaprint? I think - with my own details on.

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Originally posted by coyoteboy

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Originally posted by ianhurley20
I have had a stamp made by - ? vistaprint? I think - with my own details on.

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What is the purpose of that?

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I quite like that idea- makes it look more considered, more professional. Okay, someone could go to the effort of getting a stamp, stamp the log book and still not actually do the service. In fact I believe my local Kwikfit adopt that strategy sometimes

quote:

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Originally posted by ianhurley20

quote:

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Originally posted by coyoteboy

quote:

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Originally posted by ianhurley20
I have had a stamp made by - ? vistaprint? I think - with my own details on.

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What is the purpose of that?

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So that the service book has a record of the service be the car mine, my wifes, my son or daughters or anyone else's that I have worked on if they wish. Although my recent work has been in another field and I don't own a garage I am a qualified mechanic (not a 'technician'

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quote:

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Originally posted by BenB
Has anyone got any experience selling a moderately cheap car second-hand?

I've had the car in question (1.5dci diesel grand scenic) for a decade and it's done me proud in this time including take the family and a butt-tonne of stuff down to the South of France during lockdown (obviously when such travel was allowed....).

Only issues are

(1) I did the last service myself as couldn't be bothered with main stealer prices any more. I've got pictures showing the stuff being done but I know some people are pedantic even on a 2010 car!!! And I say that as a badge-wearing certificated pedant.
(2) The air-con doesn't work
(3) Some idiot didn't notice a large branch sticking out a hedge and made rather a large scratch down the side of it.

So I reckon WBAC and Motorway won't want it as it won't get much at auction. Which leaves me with Gumtree, Ebay, Autotrader etc. It's actually a good do-er upper. A respray, a service and the air-con fixed and it's a 4k car (whereas I reckon at the moment it's about 2k).

It runs well and it's only done 46,000 miles whereas many of these cars have been used as taxis and done 100,000+. And I've just chucked a new battery in it and it's got new Michelin tyres about 300 miles ago so it should be good to run for a good long time yet. It's also got a nice Bose OEM hifi which is far better than the car I replaced it with..... It's perfect for our local Hermes delivery driver as it's got loads of space, cheap to insure and does 50mpg but they don't want it (I've asked!!!).

Of gumtree, autotrader, ebay motors etc any to avoid? It's not worth a tonne so not keen on having prolonged tyre-kicking discussions.....

Thanks for any pointers. Bizarrely this is the first car I've sold in working order. My first car (Nissan Micra 1.0L) I had from new and was desperate to get it to 100,000 miles but at 99,300 the DVLA towed it as I'd forgotten to road-tax it and I really couldn't spent the hundreds they wanted to get it back (so it got crushed). The second car (Renault Megane) was great until all the windows wound-down and wouldn't go back up again. In autumn. Just before a torrential downpour. So that went to the scrapper.......

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I've owned and driven my 370Z since 2014. It's currently worth 2-4K more than I bought it for.