Problems Selling My E280cdi 2007 - advice please

[mystic.bertie]

I bought my E280cdi 2007 sport in June. I never gelled with the car for some reason and due to different faults i lost faith in the car. I decided to buy something i found more interesting and with a more classic styling, a 2004 Jaguar xkr.

I paid £5000 for my car in June 2016 which i would say was about right as it is in very good condition. I have spent over £600 on gearbox service, suspension components, replaced glow plugs and glow plug module.

2 months ago i listed it on ebay as a classifieds advert, starting at £5500 and seeing what offerers i would get. I got no serious interest and reduced it twice to £5000. I then turned to autotrader, i advertised it for 4 weeks at over £60, again no serious interest and advertised it for £5000. Being xmas time wont help either. I also used gumtree and carandclassics websites.

Does it look like my only option is to put it on an auction on ebay, i worry i will get a really bad price. I have never had this problem selling any car in all my life. What is it with this Mercedes?

I have lowered price to £4500, i have 13 days on autotrader left.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif...des-benz&model=e-class&atcido=soc-cars-fbk001

 

[RSTurbo50]

Looks like a bargain to me..

 

[daveenty]

Looks good to me as well, though I have no idea of prices without doing loads of research, so can't help there.

I notice that it was serviced at Mercland last February. It may be worth having a word with Jay about it as he's very clued up on these, and also sells lots of cars.

Just a thought, though the best of luck whatever happens.

 

[M11GUL]

I have had similar issues selling my 2009 E320. It has just sold today for £6.4k after listing it for £7k previously.

I had many offers of £5.5-6k along the way but glad I held out. I found it very helpful adding as much detail to the advert as possible, things such as detailing each service etc.

I hope you have some luck soon!

 

[horatio]

It's just a dead time of year. The price looks very fair, if you drop it more that might actually not help as people will think something is wrong and you want shot quickly.

Nothing would put me off from the ad. Well, it needs the gunsight back on the bonnet if I'm being super fussy. I love the colour.

I would just be patient, it will sell.


Is it advertised on here?

 

[sinewave]

Out of interest what do 'We buy any car' etc offer U?

 

[bob6600]

As above it's that time of year, a buyer's market at the moment, not a sellers.

Did you advertise it here?

Don't drop it too much as a cheap car looks suspicious and makes a buyer wonder why so cheap. If you do put it on an ebay auction, set a reserve if you are worried about the end price

 

[mystic.bertie]

i already wrote a reply, bloody got logged out and lost my post, i will reply later once i calm down

 

[wu56Shoozz]

Tee Hee... that happened to me too last night....was like WTF??

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

Wrong time of year. It's dark, it's cold, it was Christmas, now it's catch up new year. It's your choice:

a) Drop the price a lot to force someone out;
b) Wait 8 weeks; or
c) Tell your story to those nice chaps on mbclub.co.uk and see if anyone wants it....

 

[mystic.bertie]

Looks good to me as well, though I have no idea of prices without doing loads of research, so can't help there.

I notice that it was serviced at Mercland last February. It may be worth having a word with Jay about it as he's very clued up on these, and also sells lots of cars.

Just a thought, though the best of luck whatever happens.

Ok mate thanks for your feedback. No harm asking Jay thanks for your suggestion'

I have had similar issues selling my 2009 E320. It has just sold today for £6.4k after listing it for £7k previously.

I had many offers of £5.5-6k along the way but glad I held out. I found it very helpful adding as much detail to the advert as possible, things such as detailing each service etc.

I hope you have some luck soon!

Thanks. I have wrote as much as possible, my ebay advert was better to be honest, autotrader does restrict you with how much you can actually write in your advert. I have put up loads of pics too. Im glad you got your sold. Hopefully ill find my buyer soon.

It's just a dead time of year. The price looks very fair, if you drop it more that might actually not help as people will think something is wrong and you want shot quickly.

Nothing would put me off from the ad. Well, it needs the gunsight back on the bonnet if I'm being super fussy. I love the colour.

I would just be patient, it will sell.

Is it advertised on here?

Thanks mate, it is a lovely colour and in very good condition. The reason i never listed it on here is because of the faults i have posted about. So people will read about the car and be put off.

Out of interest what do 'We buy any car' etc offer U?

an abysmal £2900

As above it's that time of year, a buyer's market at the moment, not a sellers.

Did you advertise it here?

Don't drop it too much as a cheap car looks suspicious and makes a buyer wonder why so cheap. If you do put it on an ebay auction, set a reserve if you are worried about the end price

I did not advertise it here due to the many faults i posted about, its bound to put people off. I may end up on ebay with an auction and a reserve. Ill consider this if i dont sell it in 2 weeks time after my autotrader advert expires.

Tee Hee... that happened to me too last night....was like WTF??

I dont know if its a forums fault, i have not had this happen for a while, this time i will copy my post before submitting it. Usually if it happens, hitting the back button, your text is usually still there.

Wrong time of year. It's dark, it's cold, it was Christmas, now it's catch up new year. It's your choice:

a) Drop the price a lot to force someone out;
b) Wait 8 weeks; or
c) Tell your story to those nice chaps on mbclub.co.uk and see if anyone wants it....

I dont mind waiting 8 weeks if i knew i would get a better price, there is no guarantee about that though. Ill not go lower than £4500 for now and see if i get a buyer soon. As i already mentioned, the car has had quite a few problems which i posted about, so this will likely put forum members off.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

As suggested, it's the wrong time of year to sell quickly for strong money. It sounds like you knew the first advert was a speculative punt, so don't be disheartened that it didn't sell. If you can afford to sit tight, then do so. Prices are more likely to creep up than down in the coming months, so I wouldn't worry your car losing value for a while yet.

If I were you, then I would advertise on MBClub and eBay classifieds. Both allow really good descriptions and adverts, and are free or low cost to advertise. You may get a bite. Also,as long as the faults are fixed, ensure your MBClub threads are updated to reflect that, don't worry about the search history. Some buyers will like to know there was a fault and it was fixed, and will be seen as a positive

Good luck with the sale, and enjoy your XKR.

 

[mystic.bertie]

As suggested, it's the wrong time of year to sell quickly for strong money. It sounds like you knew the first advert was a speculative punt, so don't be disheartened that it didn't sell. If you can afford to sit tight, then do so. Prices are more likely to creep up than down in the coming months, so I wouldn't worry your car losing value for a while yet.

If I were you, then I would advertise on MBClub and eBay classifieds. Both allow really good descriptions and adverts, and are free or low cost to advertise. You may get a bite. Also,as long as the faults are fixed, ensure your MBClub threads are updated to reflect that, don't worry about the search history. Some buyers will like to know there was a fault and it was fixed, and will be seen as a positive

Good luck with the sale, and enjoy your XKR.

You need to start high, its human nature and everyone wants money off, so it best to consider this on the price. Even if you price it more realistically, you still get dícks offering you stupid money. One of my fault is the mysterious once in a blue moon 'limp mode' fault, so it cant be fixed without taking a gamble and spending a fortune.

Cheers the xkr is great, 400 bhp and cheaper to insure than my 190bhp mercides I wish i could keep both though.

 

[Mactech]

I do think the time of year is a big issue for car buyers. It's time to face all the post Christmas bills.

I have sold 3 cars on Autotrader in the last 2 years. One of the then being a 2007, 127k miles Mercedes! (C180k estate)

On each occasion i have have very little response for what seemed like forever (2 weeks) then a real buyer called.
The cars were all sold within a few percent of the realistic asking price to the first person to see the cars.
If the car really is well presented, then it will sell.

You only need one buyer. Best of luck

 

[m2287]

It's complete pot luck, I expected my CL55 to take months to sell, it went in a week for £200 under my asking price with 260k! Same with my s320 cdi, sold in 2 days for the full asking price and the only history it had was what I had done to it in the year I had it! Took me over a month to sell a Hyundai coupe I had with fsh, 2 keys, immaculate car and I had to knock £500 off!

As mentioned above, the first person to view every car bought it.

 

[gIzzE]

You need to start high, its human nature and everyone wants money off, so it best to consider this on the price.

I don't agree with this at all.

Price it at your absolute bottom price plus £150, which you can knock off.

I have sold just over 40 cars privately in the last 20 years and the above works best every time. Also, make sure people can email and text you to make first contact, 99% of my sales have been done through email, those that want to call you and discuss tend to be the wasters and those that let you down, not sure why that is, but it is always the same for me. Maybe they are the ones that want to be really thorough and end up worrying about what 'could' go wrong and talk themselves out of it, who knows?

More often than not, the first time I speak to the buyer is usually the day they collect.

It is so much easier for someone to blip you a quick text to see if it is still for sale, rather than get caught up listening to someone babble on about their car for an hour.
And most of the time it will ask "What's your best price?"
Don't be like some sellers and get all annoyed at this, it is a genuine question, reply saying "I will knock £150 off but no more, the car is as described, and worth considerably more, it is priced to sell as I'm sure you agree. If you want to come and have a look you're more than welcome, you won't be disappointed. Thanks for the interest."


I think your car is a 'fair' price, but there have been a fair few facelift E280 and E320 estates at similar price points back in October/November too, and these tend to fetch a premium over saloons, I wasn't looking at saloons.
And remember, most buyers will not know the benefits of buying a facelift model over a 2006 car at 1/3 cheaper.
I would mention in the advert "Facelift model - 7 speed gearbox - no expensive SBC brakes to contend with".

Lastly, eBay sells cars well, nice advert, fixed price, 30 day sale, lots of images, list everything including service dates etc.
I have had much better response from eBay than from autotrader, plus it is £17.

 

[RSTurbo50]

What are the issues you have had with the E280?

 

[tec]

I have always advertised cars at the lowest price I would accept as a starting point and never had any problems selling.
Usually I part exchange just to avoid the hassle of waiting for a buyer.

I don't see the point in holding out for the highest price.

 

[Scott_F]

I don't see the point in holding out for the highest price.

But it's often worth holding out for a higher price.

 

[219]

It's just a dead time of year. The price looks very fair, if you drop it more that might actually not help as people will think something is wrong and you want shot quickly.

Nothing would put me off from the ad. Well, it needs the gunsight back on the bonnet if I'm being super fussy. I love the colour.

I would just be patient, it will sell.


Is it advertised on here?

Agree re replacing the Mercedes Star - the mascot makes the car feel more special .

I'd also remove the dark film from the rear windows - makes the car look 'modded' and will put a lot of buyers off . A standard , unmolested , car sells best ; not something with 'gangsta' looks .