Autotrader vs Ebay
Discussion
Best place to buy/sell a motor?
Personally I like Autotrader for it's ease of use and I prefer the interface.
Hours of fun can be had trawling for bargains! Don't Hammond and May have a play on Autotrader to see what they can dig up?
However to actually do the business of purchasing or shifting cars - Ebay?
Tried (unsuccessfully) to sell through Autotrader before - only received 'hassle' calls off dealers.
Friends/colleagues tell me Ebay is better..PHers?
Personally I like Autotrader for it's ease of use and I prefer the interface.
Hours of fun can be had trawling for bargains! Don't Hammond and May have a play on Autotrader to see what they can dig up?
However to actually do the business of purchasing or shifting cars - Ebay?
Tried (unsuccessfully) to sell through Autotrader before - only received 'hassle' calls off dealers.
Friends/colleagues tell me Ebay is better..PHers?
I have to admit that I have only sold one car through Autotrader and it took ages to shift. All my other cars went through Ebay and sold first time. I've never had any problems with Ebay and it's always fun guessing how much it will go for in the end.
Don't think I'll bother with Autotrader selling wise again, though I do love to trawl through it and see what they have on offer!
Don't think I'll bother with Autotrader selling wise again, though I do love to trawl through it and see what they have on offer!
Ive never sold a car through Autotrader, but I know many people who have and had the usual problem of dealers calling up, but they successfully manage to shift said motor
Personally I have used Ebay to buy 4 cars and sell 3 and so far the only problem Ive had is a dealer that said the car was mint and had the brakes done recently "Stops on a penny" which when we braked coming off of the M1 it took us the entire length of a sliproad to slow down, nearly went into the side of a truck and just managed to avoid everything else on the roundabout so if its stops on a penny, Im Dorris Day!
Not to forget that a 1.6 Mk2 Astra with 38600 miles from 1987 managed to use damn near 3/4 of a tank of petrol to get to Walsall then spewed the remaining petrol all over a pub car park due to a rather large whole in the tank that had been gaffer taped up
Saying that, I made contact with the dealer and it was upto my friend to look at the car which he never did, he just handed over the readies....bad boy!
Both have their uses depending on your needs I suppose
Personally I have used Ebay to buy 4 cars and sell 3 and so far the only problem Ive had is a dealer that said the car was mint and had the brakes done recently "Stops on a penny" which when we braked coming off of the M1 it took us the entire length of a sliproad to slow down, nearly went into the side of a truck and just managed to avoid everything else on the roundabout so if its stops on a penny, Im Dorris Day!
Not to forget that a 1.6 Mk2 Astra with 38600 miles from 1987 managed to use damn near 3/4 of a tank of petrol to get to Walsall then spewed the remaining petrol all over a pub car park due to a rather large whole in the tank that had been gaffer taped up
Saying that, I made contact with the dealer and it was upto my friend to look at the car which he never did, he just handed over the readies....bad boy!
Both have their uses depending on your needs I suppose
I've just sold a car through eBay, was really easy to shift - ended up getting a few viewings and someone bought it cash before auction even ended.
Autotrader's still a good bet, but if you have something in good nick I'd try eBay - you can 'sell' it so much more with lots of pics (you get 12 free) and a good listing description. I think both of the above are vital in getting a good price tho - an ad with just one pic taken on a phone with "lady owner good condition" isn't gonna fetch anywhere near as much!
Autotrader's still a good bet, but if you have something in good nick I'd try eBay - you can 'sell' it so much more with lots of pics (you get 12 free) and a good listing description. I think both of the above are vital in getting a good price tho - an ad with just one pic taken on a phone with "lady owner good condition" isn't gonna fetch anywhere near as much!
h4muf said:
Havent you all got a free ads paper such as loot or ad mag?
Its free to advertise and you just keep booking it in until its sold.
Its free to advertise and you just keep booking it in until its sold.
Don't forget the PH classifieds
I had a better response from that last time I sold than local paid for adverts. Autotrader is very hit and miss IMHO. Plus you get all those canvassers calling.
Ive used both quite a lot and my opinion is this:
Autotrader is better for acheiving a better price, but it will take longer.
Ebay will get your car sold quicker, but normally for about trade money.
With either one, the price will always be the deciding factor in how quickly you sell it.
Autotrader is better for acheiving a better price, but it will take longer.
Ebay will get your car sold quicker, but normally for about trade money.
With either one, the price will always be the deciding factor in how quickly you sell it.
Used autotrader to sell my van. Van was sold in 3 hours.
I used the phone number scheme they offer, which stops canvasers phoning you, plus you don't have to give out your mob or home number, as the number autotrader allocate is passed to any number.
Plus once the vehicle is sold, you ring said number and no more calls are passed through. Worked well for me.
I used the phone number scheme they offer, which stops canvasers phoning you, plus you don't have to give out your mob or home number, as the number autotrader allocate is passed to any number.
Plus once the vehicle is sold, you ring said number and no more calls are passed through. Worked well for me.
Me and a mate have been trying to start a weekend type business - buying MOT faliures on ebay and fixing them up. Just one a month kind of thing. So we start working backwards, looking at what good examples have fetched, subtracting costs plus just enough to make it worth our time and working out what we should be paying - then watching ebay.
The problem we discovered is that there is no shortage of idiots on ebay who'l pay way over the odds for these things.
Hence, I'd say ebay for selling, trader or local papers for buying.
Things may be different further upmarket.
The problem we discovered is that there is no shortage of idiots on ebay who'l pay way over the odds for these things.
Hence, I'd say ebay for selling, trader or local papers for buying.
Things may be different further upmarket.
kentmotorcompany said:
Ive used both quite a lot and my opinion is this:
Autotrader is better for acheiving a better price, but it will take longer.
Ebay will get your car sold quicker, but normally for about trade money.
With either one, the price will always be the deciding factor in how quickly you sell it.
Autotrader is better for acheiving a better price, but it will take longer.
Ebay will get your car sold quicker, but normally for about trade money.
With either one, the price will always be the deciding factor in how quickly you sell it.
Got to agree totally here. Tried to sell my Golf on eBay, went far below what i personally thought it was worth, it went bang on what Glass's valued as a trade example. Have yet to try autotrader, but don't really want to spend too much money trying to flog it! I'm sticking to my local free paper for now and hoping that it turns something up!
Autotrader has a big list of cars because they don't just list the ones being advertised with them.
I found my current daily drive on Autotrader.
Dealer informed me that the details were incorrect. Several problems, but the biggie was that it was advertised as a 2.3, but it was only a 2.0.
Dealer said he had no contact with Autotrader and wasn't sure where they were ripping his stock list from.
Dealer was quite happy about them giving him free advertising, but said the number of transcription errors was unacceptable - approx half his stock was mis-represented.
I found my current daily drive on Autotrader.
Dealer informed me that the details were incorrect. Several problems, but the biggie was that it was advertised as a 2.3, but it was only a 2.0.
Dealer said he had no contact with Autotrader and wasn't sure where they were ripping his stock list from.
Dealer was quite happy about them giving him free advertising, but said the number of transcription errors was unacceptable - approx half his stock was mis-represented.
I help out with a mates a local garage internet dealing, over 3/4 of sale transactions this year via the jumble have resulted in non payers, spurious bidders. So we've now stopped using the auction feature all together, ebay definately generates more interest but is not secure enough for our liking, Autotrader has WAY too many sold cars in its adverts or ones that have been listed for weeks on end.
What you get on eBay is totally dependant on your ad. If you have at least 8 images of the exterior from all angles, a picture for each wheel, also showing tread, a picture of the bonnet, 2 of the front interior, 1 of the rear interior and close ups of any major marks on the car - you will get a good price. Your description needs to be reasonably honest. If you have no negative points mentioned, you are likely to recieve a lower price than if you say, normal stonechips and car park scratches for age (unless of course the car does'nt and you demonstrate that with back up of images). I tried a couple of ads when selling a couple of cars and with more images and a good descrption, both times bids ended 20% higher. I don't like Autotrader as its a load of hassle now, and very few genuine people call.
One problem with ebay is potential for theft and fraud. A friend bought an item from ebay where seller had plenty of positive feedback and paid via paypal. This seller sold several items quickly which were never shipped or incorrect. By the time the ebay fraud machine ground into action this seller had disappeared and closed his paypal related bank account. paypal said there was no way to get the money back if the seller had closed his bank account. Buyers beware!!!
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