Selling Cars

[TomsFocus]

Is anyone else finding it impossible to privately sell cars these days?

I've dropped a grand off the asking price over a month so I don't think price is the issue and tbh I believe it's worth ~£500 more than I'm asking now, keep seeing worse ones at over £4k at dealers.  Maybe it's because it's diesel but surely not everyone has been brainwashed by media rubbish.  Diesels used to be easier to sell and at higher prices when I was regularly changing car a few years ago.  

I genuinely don't know what to do with it now.  I expected to sell it within a month at (well, preferably above) £3k so am struggling a bit now it's been 6 weeks.  Thinking about going back to it (refitting a DPF and removing the remap) and selling the mk3 instead but I don't know if the mk3 would be any easier to sell...there's a 1.6 EcoBoost TitX that's been for sale locally for months but obviously the running costs of that might be putting people off.  I also know the old eolys type DPF would only last a few months with my lack of mileage as it did last time so it's not really a long term solution to go back to it.

Also can't afford another eBay ad, let alone an Autotrader ad at their ridiculous prices, they seem to want to price out private sales above £999 with a 2 week basic ad costing £37 now!  But it's on Gumtree, Facebook and Swapz as they're free.

Anyone else struggling to sell or have any ideas?

[doggsbody]

I do think people are put off with this rubbish of diesel's will cost more to run, purely because they've been scaremongerd about bio fuel which in fact would bring down the running cost of a diesel as it can't be failed on emmisions because it hardly produces any, yes the floor with bio is during winter you have to use more normal diesel to reduce the expansion of the bio oil and it's recommended to change the oil filter every 6 ish months but the running costs are massive, l used to buy £40 a week of it as l was working virtually 24/7 in a 2.5 diesel van and found it would last virtually 2times longer than straight diesel but before that I would spend £100-£120 on fuel, as to your point of sales places yep total rip offs take the escort MK6/7 you commented on it would be worth £5-600 at most but a sales places want £1k at most of them yeah you might get a yr or so what ever they offer but would they hold up to it probably not as they would say it's either yours or natural wear and tears fault there not going to change there ways just because it's modern modern means more expenses so a second hand 1 isn't going to get dressed up, like yours it'll be what you see is what you get n you know if something went wrong you should check better but a sales place will just give you headache and stress fobbin you off which would be worse.. that's my view on it @TomsFocus

[pragmatix]

Yes it does seem to be harder to,sell diesels even the trade are giving less for them unless like I did used the ford scrappage scheme, I got another diesel because it suits me. On the plus side if your a buyer there's some great bargains to be had, none of which helps you 

Your car looks really good and well priced don't know why it's not selling

[Phil21185]

Offer a free cake with it.

[TomsFocus]

15 hours ago, pragmatix said:

Yes it does seem to be harder to,sell diesels even the trade are giving less for them unless like I did used the ford scrappage scheme, I got another diesel because it suits me. On the plus side if your a buyer there's some great bargains to be had, none of which helps you 

Your car looks really good and well priced don't know why it's not selling

To be fair I got the Mk3 for a good price so it has helped me as a buyer...but I thought it was because it was January, rather than it being diesel at the time.  

Ford would give me £4995 against a new Focus under their scrappage scheme...that would be the best and easiest option if only I could afford the other £15k for a 1.0EB Titanium...  As they'd scrap it I could also swap the xenons and leathers for standards and sell those for a bit extra too.

Thanks though, it's nice to know I haven't wildly over priced it.  

12 hours ago, Phil21185 said:

Offer a free cake with it.

Would that work these days?  It'd have to be vegan, gluten free and sugar free...   

[Jethro_Tull]

Its not media rubbish.  Air pollution is responsible for up to 40,000 annual deaths in the UK, and the behaviour of VW group has shown the public that manufacturers can't be trusted.  Things have go so bad that outside of the lab on a real highway, many diesels of 2 years ago were more polluting than HGVs.  Add to the mix fools who buy diesel and then use them inappropriately about town for short journeys when they are at their most polluting, and you have a very genuine and serious public heath risk.

 

How is that media rubbish?  

 

I tried in vain to save a neighbours 13 year old daughter who died of a severe asthma attack, triggered by air pollution compounded by a local temperature inversion.

 

How is that media rubbish?

 

That is why new diesel demand has dropped by a third, and the bottom dropped almost entirely out of the used diesel market.

 

The manufacturers who cheated governments, and the fools who use diesel for inappropriate motoring have conspired to kill it.  Diesels have taken a tremendous hit in value, and the cost of the fuel is rising as demand dips sharply.  That's the way it is.

 

Dealers charge more because they have to offer warranty back up, have legal responsibilities to the purchaser for a period of time following the sale, and have shareholders to feed.  None of those apply to you ad the private seller, so its pointless comparing your car to theirs.

[Jethro_Tull]

8 minutes ago, Jethro_Tull said:

Sorry, repost in error.

[TomsFocus]

It's media rubbish because ALL combustion engines are bad for the environment.  Doesn't matter whether it's a petrol, diesel, or hybrid, they're all producing huge amounts of air pollution.  It's just ridiculous that the gov't and media focus on one single emission at a time - it was CO2 a few years ago, then particulates, and the latest is NOx.  The irony of NOx is that it's just as bad on a DI petrol as it is on a diesel but the media haven't caught up with that yet...  

The only way to massively reduce pollutants in urban environments is to run purely electric cars and remove all combustion engines.

 

[Phil21185]

35 minutes ago, Jethro_Tull said:

The cost of the fuel is rising as demand dips sharply.  That's the way it is.

Contrary to the laws of supply and demand??

While I don't disagree with what you're saying, as I have no factual basis to do so, it appears neither do you, apart from reiterating what has been in the media has already provided you with. 

Not all diesel cars are Volkswagens...

[pragmatix]

3 hours ago, TomsFocus said:

It's media rubbish because ALL combustion engines are bad for the environment.  Doesn't matter whether it's a petrol, diesel, or hybrid, they're all producing huge amounts of air pollution.  It's just ridiculous that the gov't and media focus on one single emission at a time - it was CO2 a few years ago, then particulates, and the latest is NOx.  The irony of NOx is that it's just as bad on a DI petrol as it is on a diesel but the media haven't caught up with that yet...  

The only way to massively reduce pollutants in urban environments is to run purely electric cars and remove all combustion engines.

 

Actually Nox is worse on a petrol and most petrol cars are used for short journeys so the catalytic converter doesn't get hot enough to do it job, so pollutes more than a diesel

[zain611]

Have you searched your car on these sites just to make sure your able to find it? I remember when I was selling my car on auto trader the ad for it was coming up until I went really specific on the details which not a lot of people would do. After a few days it came up through normal searches. 

[TomsFocus]

1 hour ago, zain611 said:

Have you searched your car on these sites just to make sure your able to find it? I remember when I was selling my car on auto trader the ad for it was coming up until I went really specific on the details which not a lot of people would do. After a few days it came up through normal searches. 

Yeah that's a good point.  It was easily findable (not sure that's a word lol!) on eBay but the ad has expired.  It's only on free sites like Gumtree now, which are shown in 'newest first' order, so after a day it's lost unless people specifically search for 'Ford Focus' with a tight area search.  I keep replacing it every week for free rather than paying to bump it up lol.