OT - Have you ever sold a car yourself?

[Mommy Of A Little Angel]

DH and I have been trying to sell his car for a few weeks now without much luck. We listed it on cars.com, tried EBay (but the listing got messed up - their fault but kind of soured us on the idea), and CL but no bites. Is there something else we should be doing? This is a 2004 Jetta so it should be easier to sell than this! I could understand if it had high miles or was in an accident or something, but no, none of that. Can anyone out there give me any BTDT advice?

Thanks!

[bubbaray]

Yes.

We had the best luck with parking the car in a high-profile, trendy area with a for sale sign on it. Had way more calls than any of the ads we placed.

Good luck!

Melissa

DD#1: 04/2004

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[o_mom]

We had the best luck with Cars.com. Our local paper uses it for their online ads, so people looking on the newspaper website would see ours too. They have a money-back guarantee, but you have to follow the rules exactly. We didn't end up needing it. After a month on CL and another month in the paper it sold in 1 week on Cars.com.

[SnuggleBuggles]

My friends did everything...ads in the newspapers, cars.com, not e-Bay or CL, had it parked in a good, high traffic area. It was a 2001 VW Passat. It took them months to sell it. They finally did though. Just took patience! If you aren't driving it regularly be sure and at least drive it around the block every so often.

Beth

[holliam]

Yea, I listed a '92 Honda Civic in 2003 on CL and was overwhelemd with the response.

Perhaps your listing price is too high?

Holli

[tny915]

We've sold 2 cars using Craigslist and made sure to include links to very detailed pictures of the interior and exterior of the cars, different angles so people could see the exterior condition, etc. First time we listed a car, we listed at too high of a price. Once we were more motivated and brought down the price, we got a lot more interest.

If I remember correctly, I think we also reposted every few days. There's so many cars for sale on Craigslist that we wanted to make sure ours would pop up often in people's searches. Both sales involved folks who were very specific about what they were looking for, model and make, so all the detail we put in the ad and in the heading of the listing really helped.

The first car took over a month to sell. It was a sportscar that would fit a very specific buyer. The second car took a week, maybe 2? We listed it low and got lots of interest. It was a Ford Explorer, and we know we could've gotten more than we sold it for, but we were motivated and ended up taking a lower price than we initially wanted because we really liked the buyer.

[jgiovagn]

Do you have good photos and a description that includes everything? Have you tried the "just reduced" tactic? Does the wording make the buyer want to buy? Phrases like "meticulously maintained", "spotless", "loaded", "one owner", "no accidents" etc. might help (if they're true!).

And you're right - who wouldn't want a 2004 Jetta - love that car! I'm assuming you checked edmunds.com or kbb.com to make sure you've got it priced right. Maybe it just needs a little more time...?

Jean

[mimieliza]

I sold my father's truck for him on Craigslist. I included pictures and a lot of detail. It took about a week, and it was a very smooth transaction. :)

[Wife_and_mommy]

nak wrote a post earlier but it didn't work....autotrader has worked marvelously for several in our family including us. it's never taken more than two weeks. this is the online version, not the mag.

hth.



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[KBecks]

I did an ad in the local newspaper, and I sold it for a very attractive price. The first people who looked at it bought it.

[firstbaby]

We just sold our car about a month ago and it only took 4 days. We listed with both craigslist and auto trader (on-line). We got a lot of interest from CL but a lot of the contacts weren't even sure what they were looking at despite a very detailed description or they were looking for a ridiculous deal. I have to say that I think we had a couple of shady calls as well that were way too concerned about what kind of payment we would take and it had me thinking about fake cashier's checks.

Ultimately, we sold to the one person that called from auto trader. Super serious buyer (was driving from 3 hours away because we had exactly what he wanted). DH really liked him on the phone so he did drive one hour his way to shorten his trip. We listed our price $500 less than the Kelly Blue Book good condition and we took another $200 off because DH really did like the guy. But, we didn't have the hassle of showing the car a lot and it did sell quickly.

Sorry for all the detail but we were really happy with the outcome. Good luck!!!

[zen_bliss]

give eBay another try! i tried to sell it locally but got tired of all the repetitive phone calls and weirdos. i used eBay and posted everything i could: pic of the odometer, the carFax report, close ups of dings, and some of the maintenance records. i had a totally easy cash transaction in person. and i sold it for more than i'd paid for it 3 years before :) good luck!

[zen_bliss]

give eBay another try! i tried to sell it locally but got tired of all the repetitive phone calls and weirdos. i used eBay and posted everything i could: pic of the odometer, the carFax report, close ups of dings, and some of the maintenance records. i had a totally easy cash transaction in person. and i sold it for more than i'd paid for it 3 years before :) good luck!