Hi there, looking for people's experiences in selling cars privately. Let me know which website you used? Carsales, gumtree, facebook, other? What was the approx value of your car and how many enquiries did you get? time wasters? genuine buyers etc.
Selling Car Privately Online
Adz12 on 10/08/2023 - 09:13
Comments
not selling a Camry
What
wasis the approx value of your car?21k
Do you have one for sale? Interested…..
High yield investment vehicle?
Use it as a trade-in for a Tesla.
Especially on Gumtree!
time wasters?
What do you mean?
lowball offers
Avoid FB Marketplace and Gumtree then
totally depends on the car. sure, it's easier for people to message you on those platforms, but it's also easy to block them.
Why does it matter?
They might be after a bargain.
Hay bro Is da cAr StiLL 4 SaLE. WoUd u tAkE 15k.
Depends on the car.
Buyers looking for BMW X1, but worried about the touch screen.
A replacement touch screen on a BMW would be quite expensive.
And the car would be considered refurbished, so drop in value, at least 10%.
The computerized dashboard in the Merc limo that took me to airport other week was over $9000….. which was why it was still cracked.
I am going to have to go through this rubbish soon to sell my old 2007 Mazda.
Just sell it on OzBargain.
Oh no, you want to flog off your 16 year old car for every buck you can and have to endure the indignancy of receiving messages from people after bargains.
Alternatively, give your old car away for $1k to somebody that really needs it, less fuss and you don't have to get messages from scammers and bargain hunters.
or sell it to a dealer and have even less hassle.
Carsales will attract more genuine buyers, but you have to pay for it.
What are you selling, and what are you hoping to get for it.
I reckon you will get a pretty good idea of the expected price from the mob on here, they know what stuff is worth.
I find Carsales is useful for cars <5 years old and >$20,000, it attracts that sort of buyer. NGL though, a previous car i bought off Carsales for cheap because it sat for what was close to a month (peak covid btw) 10 year old Kia Spotage. Drove it for a year, put it on marketplace & Gumtree, sold within 24 hours for more than i paid.
Outside this and you're better going with Marketplace/Gumtree.
my experience with carsales was absolutely rubbish. I got may be 2 or 3 enquiries over the entire time the ad was up. marketplace on other hand was a different story. Lot of time wasters and shitbags lowballing but its expected anyways. Eventually sold it off to a buyer on mp. I wouldn’t bother with a paid ad on carsales if I’m selling a car less than $15k
" i offer $17k CASH and i can pick up tonight "
is a strategy some purchasers use which is more freaky than effective
Yes to everything you asked.
There is no definitive answer, it just goes with selling anything online.
Search for your model car, see what others are advertising for taking in the mileage etc., then advertise. If it doesn't sell, it's too high.Facebook and Gumtree,
Ended up getting about 7 responses within 24 hours, sold the next day for $500 more than i listed it at.
Carsales is a waste of money, fuelled by dealer spam.
This was the surprising realisation for me too. Carsales is VERY expensive to list/promote on + clunky interface to create ad(especially on Android) but leads have been less.
FB gets more leads - but also comes with time wasters to work around.
Both generated equal amounts of scammers.
interesting, can you let me know the approx total value of the car?
How do you sell for more than you listed? How does that negotiation work?
depends on the car, it's not uncommon for modified JDM cars in high demand, i.e. bidding wars between buyers, interstate buyers offering above asking to secure the car, or negotiation for mods being kept on the car.
for your standard camry or corolla - not a chance…..
frankly selling highly modified cars is less of a ball breaking experience as the people enquiring "should" be knowledgable on cars and it's just a matter of price, selling standard cars is hell with the questions you get asked……
Literally had someone offer me $500 more and i was like
Yeah ok
I found the opposite. As soon as I posted on Facebook marketplace o had about 3-4 scam messages.
Car sales took a bit more time but buyers were genuine. Again you are paying for the advertisement but it's negligible.
As long as you have the wits to filter through the obvious scammers either should be fine.
Time wasters and low ballers is why I CBF selling my second car…
Did you end up selling your car? Mind me asking how? Did you just get rid of at lower price with dealer or the online car buying service?
Gumtree is not free anymore for car listings and in my experience is a dieing platform. Just try marketplace for a week then see how you go.
yeah, they merged with carsguide. been on marketplace for 3 weeks so was considering if carsales is worth the money. Paid gumtree cause it was only $19
How much was listing fee for carsales/ carsguide?
Carsales was $99 for me last year. That's the minimum too.
i would personally be going to those sites where they buy the car from you to get a ball park figure (eg; https://www.carbuy.com.au/sell-my-car - i only know this place because i pass it often). Then comparing that with carsales for approx value, and seeing if its worthwhile
Why is having 2 keys so important?
Generally how lower would the price be of those car buying website vs the market value?
list on FB market place and tell them call you only. no SMS no Txt. and also get a burner phone/sim for this. genuine buyers will make the effort to call you than scammers/tyre kickers
There's no way i'm calling someone on the phone let alone putting my number out there. This generation everything's done over text/messenger.
Are you scared if talking?
Do you need a voice?
Current generation are panty waist children scared of their shadows.
as opposed to geriatrics who want to talk about garbage and say exactly the same thing over a awkward phone conversation without hearing aid turned on.
Messaging is easy quick and effective than playing phone tag with someone. I can respond when and if i want.
Stop living in 1975 with your rotary phone Bob.
@[Deactivated]: okay, so your texts are so amazingly pointed and accurate and leave nothing unsaid?
no clarification ever required?
@[Deactivated]: Goes all the way back to geriatric with a rotary. Lol. More proof this generation is weak. If I get messages and someone leaves a number wanting to call, they get my attention first
@[Deactivated]: I'm not sure why we are going to extremes on both sides of the argument. If you don't like messaging then you're instantly labelled old with a hearing impairment? I thought this generation was big on not labelling people. Or is it you have to be labelled but included? Who knows/cares.
I don't mind a message for a quick sale of something, but as I haven't spent my entire life with a bent neck staring at a phone 8 hours a day, it takes me significantly longer to text on a phone. Emails and messenger on a pc I'm down with, but people can take hours to respond. I can't be bothered constantly correcting my typos on an 6 inch screen either.
Are you scared if talking?
Do you need a voice?
Current generation are panty waist children scared of their shadows.Nah, we're just tired of the unecessary interactions, meetings etc. All things that can be settled, quicker and easier over messenger, oh and more importantly with a paper trail.
@Drakesy: Both ways have their own merits. In my experience phone calls are more genuine and have converted more sales than text. Use both.
@Drakesy: I think the lack of unnecessary interactions will lead to a lot of loneliness in the future, with people having less strong social skills and limited opportunity to develop them
@SpainKing: Oh no
Its more our time is precious and we choose to interact with close friends/family on a personal level. Its almost transactional, if theres no point in building relationships with the other party then why put in time and effort when it can be better spent elsewhere
So true.
Cool
What things to be prepared for btw, if selling car first time.
Say old car no log books. Do they just care that the engine oil and oil filter serviced regularly and generally worn items got replaced beforehand
Would they be jacking the car up or doing compression testing or any other tests/ inspections?
Sold cars on FB marketplace and Gumtree before that. Still ends up better than trade in.
How much better was private sale vs trade in?
If you are selling anything online you need to be prepared to deal with time wasters. Sold a car recently. Listed at $14k on all 3 platforms. Ended up with the first genuine enquiry off carsales and sold it. YMMV.
Carsales is expensive. Just as many scammers as elsewhere.
Gumtree isn’t free, nor what it used to be. Seems to have dropped a lot on popularity. Seems to have more scammers
FB is free but seems a bit random. Eg list something and get no bites for a week or more then several all at once. Just depends on the algorithms and how they promote your ad. Plenty of low ballers, scammers and ghosts who ask ‘still available?’ and then vanish.
Im interested to know what scammers you encountered via carsales?
In my experience in the past (many years ago now) i found it to be the best as only legitimate people contact you.
No one bothers to ring you and flakes or no shows when you have their number too, generally.Now I think about it, maybe the scams didn’t come from carsales, but I got the usual poor English, pay full price, pay for courier pickup etc. the ‘oil rig’ scam.
Are theyvall the scams to be aware of? Are there any other types of scams?
@ATTS: Plenty of other types of scam. Get your google on to edumacate yourself about car selling scams.
If it sounds too good to be true…
How much is carsales ad btw? You mentioned expensive?
The website tells you what it costs. Up to you to determine if its expensive.
I c thanks
Carsales if you want legitimate requests to view and want to avoid time wasters ($100 ish for a basic ad)
Facebook if you want to get spammed is this available at half your asking price and ghosted.
In saying that…
My last 2 cars I intended to sell on carsales but thought I’d try marketplace just for giggles.
I put them up at a higher price then i would of for carsales and sold both at a higher price then i would of asked on car sales 🤷🏽♂️First car took a week on fb marketplace and got like 60 messages (maybe 5ish legit enquiring)
Second car sold next day and got about 12 messages (3ish legit enquiring)
Thanks for this post!
We used fb marketplace
Sold a Toyota echo the next day. Had over 150 messages, albeit, many were scammers.
Got our asking priceSo your asking price. How did you determine a good price to set? Was it comparing redbook and also typical prices on carsales for similar km, model, year, conditions, colour, etc and setting like $1000 lower for quick sale?
Just looked around carsales and fb marketplace and picked a price that was slightly higher than what we wanted, as we expected lowball offers. Because there was so much interest, I decided to be firm on the price. This was over 12 months ago when the market was hot.
Thanks man!
What is your opinion on 90s jdm cars btw? they seem so expensive now, do you reckon it will stay the same. I'm thinking it's gonna drastically drop
@Dlw: I c
I was thinking modern cars were becoming more powerful
I mean im into classics aswell but for less money you could get something more powerful and technology more advanced
For those who successfully sold, what was your go to method of payment?
Would asking the buyer to meet you at the bank with either his cash or a bank cheque be reasonable?
I don't think I want bank transfers.
For $21k bank transfer or bank cheque should be fine. Advise they can only take the car once funds clear into your account
$14k - bank transfer was immediate, transferred the car's registration electronically instantly.
instant transfer assuming they are "Osko" accounts……otherwise a standard 2 to 3 business day cycle.
I don't think this was an Osko account.
Instant bank transfer. But for some reason, the transfer was delayed by about 24hrs - bank issues. Fortunately the buyer was local so was happy enough to go back home and wait for me to recover funds. Picked up the next day.
Previously bought and sold with instant transfer without any delay.
But can't bank transfers be fake or reversed?
If you open your own online banking on your own device then check the balance in your own account you’ve got the money.
Can it be reversed? Probably, but if you’ve got other proof of sale like rego transfer papers or receipt, then you’ve got a good case for keeping the money.
Of course there are ways of being scammed, but IMO the majority of people are honestly buying your stuff. Unless there’s red flags (won’t show licence, buying for a friend, haven’t inspected the item etc), you’re probably good to go.
There is no 100% guaranteed way of payment that prevents any chance of being scammed. Cash could be counterfeit. They could send someone to rob you. Cheques can be counterfeit, cancelled and take extra time to clear.
commonwealth bank delay first time payees 24hrs for instant payments
It wasn’t that on this occasion. There was some sort of fault with the system at the buyers bank.
@Euphemistic: good thing they didn't say I sent you the money and it's out of my bank account and called you a scammer
Carsales is the best, fastest sale and most genuine buyers. FB Marketplace alot of tyre kickers/low ballers
I recently bought my eldest kid a car from FB marketplace. The guy selling it showed me the list of enquiries he had for it (30+ or so- since the car had been listed 72 hours prior. Whilst we went for a test drive and had a chat he receieved 4 more enquiries. He said that he had a heap of low ballers/dealers contacting him.
That said, the seller had put the price up so as to allow for low ballers. I was happy with the list price but he said "dont you want to haggle?". I let my daughter do that and she got 15% off the asking price
interesting what model car was it? must be a desirable model?
2016 VW jetta . it was listed at a good price, had very low kms for it's age. top model . in very good condition.
Depends, if you are selling Camry, you will most likely will have heaps of enquiries.