Private Car Sale - Any Market

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DangerMouse

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I am thinking about changing my car and rather than restricting myself to the garage selection I would also like to look at some private sales.
This means I also need to sell my car privately. What is the market like for private sales, is it hard to get rid of a car. I have an 02 Opel Astra.
 
I'd say an Astra would be easy enough to get rid of. My personal experience of selling privately has been good - never had to wait more than 2/3 weeks (I live in rural area) and have always got my asking price. Would never part with car until cheque/bank draft has cleared though.

Buying privately, I would be cautious & would insist on at least 1 year NCT, FSH (with receipts) and would get any car independently checked too.
 
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lets you see cars like your's for sale and gives you the average price of what your car is worth, (definately shows the cars as more expensive than buyandsell but its a decent guideline)
 
It could take a long time to sell a car private. Take a look at all the cars in buy and sell, cbg, autotrader, carzone etc. You put you car in at the average price you'll be waiting a good while.

Carzone alone has 100 '02 opel Astra's ranging from €7,950 to €16,950.

Depends on spec etc. Trade in might be your best option. At least you'll get the car you want, when you want. Otherwise you could end up walking for a while waiting on a good car or missing out while you sell your own.

I'd price your car as a trade in against a car you want in a garage just to see where you get.
 
Mr2 said:
It could take a long time to sell a car private. Take a look at all the cars in buy and sell, cbg, autotrader, carzone etc. You put you car in at the average price you'll be waiting a good while.
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The prices in cbg, carzone etc are far higher than the prices in the Buy and Sell. I have bought privately and found that the cbg.ie prices bore no relationship to private sale prices, mostly because a lot of garages advertise there.

Price your car realistically and it will sell. Price it at the level a garage would sell it at and people will buy from a garage! Cars are fastly depreciating assets.
 
My tactic by the way has been to check the prices of private sales of the same models (with equivalent mileage/spec etc) in something like Autotrader (which tends to have a lot of private sales) - if you price yours slightly below the average you should get some interest.
 
Selling a car privately can be a nightmare!
I tried to sell the wife's 2005 Peugeot 206 and advertised on Carzone.ie
I originally priced it at slightly less than the price a garage was asking for a comparable car but over the course of 3 months I gradually dropped the price to become the cheapest example on the website - There were about 60 2005 206's on the site.
It remained advertised for about 3 months, in which time I didn't get a single call.
I eventually traded it with a dealer
 
Personally, I wouldn't sell on Carzone or Cbg etc.

No problem buying there, but the nature of the internal search functions on these sites is such that potential buyers can narrow their choices too easily for your car to have a good chance of selling - particularly if there are a good few of them around.

If you sell in e.g. your local press you more likely to get someone less particular & who just wants 'a reasonable car'.

A lot of people still buy print media for car sales - particularly Autotrader.
 
So realistic price in your book would be around €6,000 ish, I'd recknon a garage would give you the same and you save yourself like JMR said the hassle of trying to sell your own car and people coming to your house and the worry that if some thing went wrong they would be back at your door step looking for money back.

It's up to you. I know what I'd do.
 
Carzone is the best site in my experience. If the car is clean, mechanically sound, has a fsh, and has no issues nor silly mods, it'll generate interest.

The price must be right though. Many private sellers make the mistake of thinking they'll achieve a price akin to what a garage advertises a similar car for. Big mistake.

Private sales need to be at least 10% cheaper.
 
you could always try sell it at one of the auctions rooms like merlin? a lot of dealers buy cars there to sell on, you probably wont get as much as you would if you did it yourself in the buy and sell or that but might just get rid of it for you? not sure what they charge but I bought my last car there and it worked out 2 grand cheaper than the same model in the buy and sell so might be more geared up for buyers. Good luck!
 
I am also selling a second hand car privately, its a 04 Colt. Low mileage 25k what should I expect to get for the car? Would 9k be about right?
 
I agree with JMR. Last Autumn, when my daughter moved abroad we tried to sell her car, a Ford Focus, through Carzone. It had low mileage and we priced it competitively. We didn't get one enquiry. We also had it parked in our drive with a Sale sign on it and eventually got a buyer, who was driving by, saw it and was delighted with the value she got.
 
I sold a car privately a few years ago, after putting 2 ads in the Evening Herald. The first ad yielded no results, I put the words "must sell" in the second ad, got 3 responses and the car was gone 2 days later.
 
Hello everyone. I am thinking about selling my car in a private car sale? Has anyone done that, or do you always sell
through the dealer. A friend of mind told me about something called Trusted Sale, which is supposed to
make selling my car easier. Has anyone ever heard of it? Please let me know.
 
carenthusiast13 said:
Hello everyone. I am thinking about selling my car in a private car sale? Has anyone done that, or do you always sell
through the dealer. A friend of mind told me about something called Trusted Sale, which is supposed to
make selling my car easier. Has anyone ever heard of it? Please let me know.
Click to expand...

Two main websites for advertising cars

Done Deal and carzone
 
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