Is Autotrader worth the cost?

[Joe_SP]

Hi all

I am selling my W202 and have listed on ebay, pistonheads and also in the clasifieds on this site.

Autotrader want £40 for 6 weeks advertising, that seems steep to me for a cheap car, but I have always though that autotrader is the best place to sell a car.

Is it worth £40? What do the panal think?

Cheers

Joe

 

[stumpy1]

You get a lot of scammers and agencies on the trader

 

[trapperjohn]

Used to buy Autotrader, dont anymore. The Thursday bundle of A.T. is awfull small at my newsagents. Other panel members will come up with a defo yes I guess. For me "its a no"

 

[rag1873]

I opted not to when selling my last vehicle, i advertised mine locally, on ebay, pistonheads and gumtree. I had the most enquiries thru pistonheads and gumtree (ebay was all folk looking to buy it for there uncle in outer mongolia etc etc). I too was put off with the price of auto trader.

 

[Joe_SP]

I hadn't though about local ads, do you mean the local paper?

 

[Big_Jon]

I would endorse autotrader.co.uk as we sell 80% of our cars via that medium, the rest are walk-ins and local printed media.

The downside, as previously mentioned, is the scammers/agencies but as dealers, we tend to avoid this.

We pay over £1000 p/m for autotrader and to be honest, if the doubled it we would still use it, they have dealers by the crown jewels really as they know how good their product is so they could hold us to ransom.

You will probably get your fair share of divs, I have lost count of the amount of calls I get where for example I have a car at £8995 and people ring up offering £4000 and silly things like that.

I have looked at your car mate and to be honest, what you want for it is good and TBH I would expect it to fetch that in the auctions down here at the moment, recently I saw a T-Plate C200 Classic Auto with 120,000 go for £1250 and it wasnt the nicest example.

Good luck with the sale.

 

[buccal]

I had a couple of cars on pistonheads for a total of 3 months last year and didn't get a single enquiry.

Much more interest via autotrader.

Didn't bother with the magazine though. Internet only.

Does anyone actually buy autotrader nowadays?

 

[Nik_Endeavour]

I vouch for Gumtree. For a w202 which would be cheap you will get a lot of interest from the Polish community interested for a reliable but cheap car. Have sold quite a few things in there and a lot of people I know have sold their old cars through them.

The best bit is that is free

 

[Big_Jon]

I had a couple of cars on pistonheads for a total of 3 months last year and didn't get a single enquiry.

Much more interest via autotrader.

Didn't bother with the magazine though. Internet only.

Does anyone actually buy autotrader nowadays?

We monitor our enquiries very dilligently and to be honest, paper-based advertising is dying out very quickly and has been for the last 7 years or so.

The only people I see with the autotrader now are the wannabee car dealers at auction who use the magazine as a means to value a car.

We have tried autotrader, exhange & mart, auto exchange, auto freeway, friday ad, adtrader and so on and all were very poor in recent years and came nowhere near to covering their respective costs.

We use local papers still, they are still doing ok for us, but we use them more as a means to keep our presence known to the local community so if we sell a car as a result of a direct enquiry from the rag, it is a bonus.

 

[Joe_SP]

The last car I sold was my wife's 2003 320D last August, I advertised on PH and in Autotrader however i stupidly did not ask people where they saw the ad.

 

[rag1873]

I hadn't though about local ads, do you mean the local paper?

Either the local paper or on supermarket or shopping malls notice boards, normally they are free or very cheap and theres always folk looking at them.

 

[Nik_Endeavour]

Joe I like your car almost tempted to buy it for myself. Just the interior doesn't do it for me. Almost...

 

[peterg1965]

I think eBay is better than the Trader. So long as your car is priced sensibly it will attract interest. I have sold two cars on Ebay in the last 4 months, using their 'Classified Ad' format. I also used Pistonheads, which is free, and generated a bit of interest but only after I had sold one of the cars on ebay. Trader is just too expensive in my view.

 

[mustang]

hi think piston heads is for real car / petrol heads so prob got a better chance on there. i advertised once with auto many moons ago and just got canvassers and annoying weekend riders.

 

[lil.smartie]

We find Ebay a better bet than Autotrader too & that's as a dealer!

Kate

 

[SilverSaloon]

NO, i had my CLK cabrio and my BMW 7 series both on ebay amongst others and AUTOTRADER.

Autotrader was a waste of time - only calls i got were from "canvassers".

ebay was the best and allows good detailed adverts with lots of pics

 

[Big_Jon]

We find Ebay a better bet than Autotrader too & that's as a dealer!

Kate

This interests me as it has been the polar opposite for us.

We tried ebay motors classifieds aswell as auctions and with a 3 month trial we did not sell a single car.

Our adverts were excellent with plenty of pictures.

All we got was idiots who think that a car we have for £4995 was bought at auction for a grand or something. I kid you not, we had nothing but messers thinking they were going to buy cars £000's below trade money.

We even experimented with "calling birds" such as an e320cdi avantgarde estate, It was advertised as a 2001-Y with 46,000 miles, 1 owner, full MB history, unmarked condition with every extra and we had it at £3995. We got offers of £2500.

It really was ruining our patience so we had no choice but to pull the plug.

 

[NicDale]

Thats the nature of ebay though, everyone will tryand bid as low as they can, although that will change now that most main dealers are listing their stock on there.

 

[Big_Jon]

Thats the nature of ebay though, everyone will tryand bid as low as they can, although that will change now that most main dealers are listing their stock on there.

It is amazing though ebay, cars, absolute rubbish for us as I have said, people wanted to pay 1/3rd of what we had anything for sale for.

On the other had, I have sold golf gear and mobile phones on there and people always pay way, way, over the odds.

Really is a mystery but I for one wont be trying ebay motors again.

BTW, your 16-Valver sounds rather nice.

 

[neilrr]

Autotrader's business has confused me for a while now. You can look online & see new, fresh ads hot off the server pretty much as they appear for free or you can buy a paper edition once a week & look at old ads.

Hmmmmm....

I'd say 95% of people look online & they have a HUGE audience & exposure. It's still the best place to selll a normal car IMHO. Add £40 to your asking price.