Stressless car sale - advice welcome!

[Blake's Den]

The time has come for me to move on my car (2006 Subaru Forester XTen if you are asking). I'm looking for a stress free (or stress minimal) way to move it on and I'd like your advice and thoughts. It’s not worth too much so trying to squeeze every penny out of it is probably not worth the effort / reward.  I've actually only ever sold two cars before, once privately and once on eBay and both were stressful sales. 

So what would you do? My thoughts are as follows:

Autotrader or other car website - expensive and from experience I'll get people calling me up at any hour telling me it’s too expensive.

EBay - possibly but likely to get timewasters bidding and not buying.

Facebook - Likely to get lots of messages like "ow much 4 the wheels m8" and general nonsense like that. 

Trade in - I'm not after another car.

Car buying website - possible, but likely to give me half on what it is worth. But minimal stress.

Forum - Possibly. I was thinking of here but whilst it’s an auto (automobile for those who have asked, not auto tranmission) it’s not exactly shite! But one man’s gold in another man’s shite so you never know....

Sell to friends / family - nobody that I know wants or needs it.

Park it up and forget about it for a few years – actually this a viable option but in reality it just moves the problem to the future.

Scrap it - it’s too good for that, it still has 6 months MoT.

 

Have I missed any options out?  What are your thoughts and experiences?

 

Gareth

[adw1977]

Gumtree?  Free but you might encounter morons.

[Jerzy Woking]

Try here first. I've bought and sold, and no stress with any.

[eddyramrod]

There does seem to be a liking for the Forester on here, so it might be worth a try.  Bang up a proper For Sale post, with spec, photos, price and location, and see what happens.

[Jamie]

as above, AutoShite has been the least hassle sale of any ive ever encountered over the years of dickheads on Autotrader/Ebay/Gumtree/Faceache.

 

put the spec/miles/age/faults & some pics on here with a price, im sure if you arent being greedy it'll go no bother.

[camryv6]

Car Take Back or We Buy Any Car if you want stress free, but expect to lose out on a few hundred quid

[bangernomics]

Put a value on it, state faults. State any history.

Let the bids begin.

[New POD]

You forgot the give it away option.  

Usually to family or friends. 

My wife's sister gave her first car to my wife, a Suzuki Sc100. My wife gave a 1978 850 mini, to her friend. My wife's Dad gave her a mk3 cavalier 29k on the clock, I was given a mk2 cavalier by a random stranger, and my wife's Dad gave a mk4 astra to one of his grandsons. 

The fire service like a car. 

[Wingz123]

Can I see some pictures please!

[Blake's Den]

Thanks all for the replies, greatly appreciated

Looks like I'll give the sales section of a forum a try. I'll get some pictures up after the weekend (hopefully).

[groovylee]

i find the beauty of selling a car on here, is that the more gruesome the description, the faster it sells haha!  i found the brutal honesty of descriptions on here really refreshing, compared to buying from the mouth breathers out in the real world.  give it a go on here, you will be pleasantly surprised

 

[New POD]

2 minutes ago, groovylee said:

i find the beauty of selling a car on here, is that the more gruesome the description, the faster it sells haha!  i found the brutal honesty of descriptions on here really refreshing, compared to buying from the mouth breathers out in the real world.  give it a go on here, you will be pleasantly surprised

 

I think you've got to price it to sell. 

I had mediocre demand for tickets on the Yella Fella (BINI).  I was probably too honest with the description. And there was obviously a worry about the head gasket. 

[Out Run]

If you do eBay it, list it with a classified ad with a fixed price.

That way, no penniless fool can ‘win’ it and dick you about. The worst you will experience is the odd daft message and maybe a no show. But it will still be listed for sale, until you decide it has sold.

[purplebargeken]

As said already, lob it on here first.

Pics (cos loserone will harass you otherwise x) and a good description, warts and all.

Location also important although we have shitters who will seemingly travel anywhere just to be able to display a poo count.

Oh yeah, cost. 

[Neil clark]

I get a different sim and cheap mobile for selling anything, then turn it off at night. Put everywhere you can but completely ignore the ones that say "whats lowest price" etc, they are never going to buy it. Be patient and if its the right money it will sell if its not then lower price slightly. When its sold turn off mobile and forget about it

[gm]

Has the added advantage of your real phone not getting loads of nuisance calls the moment your gumtree ad goes live. Within 5 mins of placing an ad using a fresh out of the packet sim, I was being pestered by accident management arseholes  

[Rod/b]

31 minutes ago, Neil clark said:

I get a different sim and cheap mobile for selling anything, then turn it off at night. Put everywhere you can but completely ignore the ones that say "whats lowest price" etc, they are never going to buy it. Be patient and if its the right money it will sell if its not then lower price slightly. When its sold turn off mobile and forget about it

Same but as soon as the cash is in your hand and the car is driven away, the SIM goes in the bin. 

[sutty2006]

1 hour ago, Neil clark said:

I get a different sim and cheap mobile for selling anything, then turn it off at night. Put everywhere you can but completely ignore the ones that say "whats lowest price" etc, they are never going to buy it. Be patient and if its the right money it will sell if its not then lower price slightly. When its sold turn off mobile and forget about it

This. 
 

ive sold loads of cars and none of the sales started with “last price m8?”

 

chuck it on here. You never know. 

[wesacosa]

agree with the above. Yes if you put in on Gumtree or FB you will yet a load of morons but you can tell by the first few words if they serious, don't even bother to reply to them and wait for the serious ones to contact you. I don't even bother with putting my phone number on the ad,  anyone genuinely interested can e mail and ask for a number if required

[Jazoli]

19 hours ago, Blake's Den said:

The time has come for me to move on my car (2006 Subaru Forester XTen if you are asking). I'm looking for a stress free (or stress minimal) way to move it on and I'd like your advice and thoughts. It’s not worth too much so trying to squeeze every penny out of it is probably not worth the effort / reward.  I've actually only ever sold two cars before, once privately and once on eBay and both were stressful sales. 

So what would you do? My thoughts are as follows:

Autotrader or other car website - expensive and from experience I'll get people calling me up at any hour telling me it’s too expensive.

EBay - possibly but likely to get timewasters bidding and not buying.

Facebook - Likely to get lots of messages like "ow much 4 the wheels m8" and general nonsense like that. 

Trade in - I'm not after another car.

Car buying website - possible, but likely to give me half on what it is worth. But minimal stress.

Forum - Possibly. I was thinking of here but whilst it’s an auto it’s not exactly shite! But one man’s gold in another man’s shite so you never know....

Sell to friends / family - nobody that I know wants or needs it.

Park it up and forget about it for a few years – actually this a viable option but in reality it just moves the problem to the future.

Scrap it - it’s too good for that, it still has 6 months MoT.

 

Have I missed any options out?  What are your thoughts and experiences?

 

Gareth

Interested as its an Auto, send me some details, there'll be no stress 

[Flat4]

2.0 or 2.5? What colour is it?

[HMC]

I find pricing low and offering here helps. It all depends how much you want for it. It’s all about the price.  I’ve seen stuff on e bay at optimistic money on ads that have literally been up for years (classic stuff) I personally don’t have the patience for that- do you is the question. To my mind life is short and I can’t be bothered.

[HMC]

If your main motivation is low hassle I would put a low low price on it and offer here. If your after market value then you invite your time being wasted elsewhere. That’s my philosophy anyway, and a decision that is easy for me to take as I value my time.

[HMC]

21 hours ago, camryv6 said:

Car Take Back or We Buy Any Car if you want stress free, but expect to lose out on a few hundred quid

I find those routes such an affront (hack loads of it has a scratch or kerbed alloys but incipient HGF passes below the radar) That id rather scrap if it’s low value. Unless it’s mint and the head gasket is on it’s way out OBVS 
 

They seem fixated on cosmetic condition rather that it’s functioning as a mode of transport - which might fit the profile of some stuff that needs offloading. I suppose the fixation on cosmetics rather than mechanical integrity is why to me they do not fit with my scrutiny of very low value cars, plus the admin fee eats into it a lot If the car is sub £500

[camryv6]

1 minute ago, HMC said:

I find those routes such an affront (hack loads of it has a scratch or kerbed alloys but incipient HGF passes below the radar) That id rather scrap if it’s low value. Unless it’s mint and the head gasket is on it’s way out OBVS 
 

They seem fixated on cosmetic condition rather that it’s functioning as a mode of transport - which might fit the profile of some stuff that needs offloading.

Not on Car Take Back, but the price is hundreds lower than the value

[dc2100k]

I have sold two cars recently on FB marketplace and, whilst I had plenty of the usual '2500 cash tonight M8' messages, both cars sold within a week to the first (car 1) and second (car 2) person who viewed them. It was relatively* painless and was free. No phone numbers on gumtree or ebay timewasters and the audience is huuuuge.

[Six-cylinder]

My experience with We buy any Car was good.

In Feb this year I sold my 2004 114k mile Range Rover Vogue TD6 to we buy any car. At the time the most expensive for sale was £7995, with a typical price of £4,000 and a non runner £1,000. I was hoping to get £2500 for mine with lots and lots of faults, plus rust, but in good running order with a long MOT. I offered it on here at £1,800 but no takers.

WBAC offered £2700 on the computer but as at the time I did not list any faults I never expected the full amount. There offered me £1500 after inspecting the car and advised me there was a way to list the faults. A bit of negotiation then took place and they increased the offer to £2,000 and I accepted. Thing is they did not pick up a number of faults but winged about marks I felt were minor. Overall I am glad I did not spend an hour listing every single mark and fault or the offer might have been less.

It was a relief to sell it to the trade with no further worry as how it would treat its next owner. I felt it could hit you with big bills at any time.

I was treated we nicely by the staff at WBAC and got my money at the agreed time.

[Blake's Den]

Thank you all, its really good feedback. I'll give it a go posting on here and keep my fingers crossed. Its the 2.5 turbo manual if you were wondering

I've actually had a few messages already from people who might be interested which sounds promising.

I really appreciate the help and advice.  I've been lurking on this forum for some time now and I'm impressed with how friendly everyone seems to be. 

[Ghosty]

I'll add another plus for eBay. Classified ad is £20 for a month but I've always got fair money by writing an honest ad, and not having a 'make offer' button. Generally the first literate person to view any given car would buy it, and it seldom took more than a week, if not two. 

[barefoot]

18 hours ago, Blake's Den said:

I've been lurking on this forum for some time now and I'm impressed with how friendly everyone seems to be. 

I'm not friendly, you cheeky fuck.