Suggestions on selling a car nobody apparently wants.

unfortunately not.

http://atlanta.craigslist.org/sat/cto/5336861322.html

I just delete it every so often so people don't see a 10 day old ad. nobody thinks great deal if its been there for so long.

It is an 11 year old car with 100k miles and bad paint. And it is a stickshift, which eliminates 75% of car buyers.

The paint alone is probably killing your chances at $4,500.

mtn wrote: It is an 11 year old car with 100k miles and bad paint. And it is a stickshift, which eliminates 75% of car buyers. The paint alone is probably killing your chances at $4,500.

click that link above. its not 4500. and bad paint is a bit of a stretch. 95% of the car is great. 2 removable body panels arent.

a month ago the KBB for this car was 4900.

lnlogauge wrote: unfortunately not. http://atlanta.craigslist.org/sat/cto/5336861322.html I just delete it every so often so people don't see a 10 day old ad. nobody thinks great deal if its been there for so long.

You might get a lot of offers at the end of 30 days. People with a end of the month low ball strategy. Another good reason to price the car high and let the buyer think he is getting a good deal. You also lose all the folk that bookmarked the car and were waiting on their end of the month pay check or rich aunt betty to loan them some cash.

lnlogauge wrote:

mtn wrote: It is an 11 year old car with 100k miles and bad paint. And it is a stickshift, which eliminates 75% of car buyers. The paint alone is probably killing your chances at $4,500.

click that link above. its not 4500. and bad paint is a bit of a stretch. 95% of the car is great. 2 removable body panels arent. a month ago the KBB for this car was 4900.

Right you are on the $4,500.

But no, bad paint is not a stretch. It has 2 body panels with bad paint. If it isn't a big deal, fix it--even buying the paint and a sprayer from HF and doing it on your own would vastly improve its image. Just my opinion.

As for the KBB value, this time of year it will be overvalued according to them. Coming from the world of wholesaling used cars, this is a horrible time for selling cars--and it usually continues through February. We'd regularly give cars a "bonus" value just because we knew that they'd get more money. In December? We suspended the "bonus" and degraded all the cars from Good to Average, and Average to Fair, because we knew we wouldn't get what they're worth according to Blackbook and MMR. Why wouldn't they get it? Because consumers weren't buying cars, so dealers weren't buying them either.

This doesn't all translate directly to private party, but the big idea of December and November being a bad time of the year for car sales does.

logdog wrote:

Type Q wrote: If were any color other than black, I would be interested.

^^LOL. "Includes wheels and door jambs..." and bumpers and glass and headlights and trim. Hell, we'll spray the whole damn car, more-or-less.

Criteria: Less words. Clean, well-maintained, receipts for recent maintenance. Clear title. People that buy Japanese cars don't expect it to have CELs, so mentioning it sounds ghetto.

Take different pictures in less harsh lighting and clean your lens. Overcast will give a much better exposure. Mention the paint on the phone when someone calls to schedule a viewing. I don't think it is affecting the price of the car much, but if you have buyers balk because of it after they look, get it fixed. A lot of paintless dent removal places also paint bumper covers for ~$200. As a prospective buyer, it's a lot easier to get a bumper painted than it is to do a manual transmission swap.

Edit: Also, get rid of the Batman Mazda emblem on the trunk, or don't feature it. That bugs me worse than the paint.

In reply to Tyler H:

the batman logo is awesome. Anyone who can't appreciate it doesn't deserve the car anyway.

I've done 3 photoshoots with the car, I'm quite content with the current pictures.

My original ad was like 600 words. I'm down to 50. Nothing in the ad mentions the paint now. I've dropped the price 500 since posting this question. 2 people were supposed to look at it Saturday, no one showed.

When I purchased this car, the debate was between this or a auto IS300. I have regret.

I agree that the batman-ized emblem shouldn't be featured. I don't have a problem with it on its own but that "mod" has been done to every beat-to-hell Mazdaspeed car in my area. So...connotations, and stuff...

Finally sold.

I'm on my mobile, but if anyone suggested skipping Craigslist and using auto trader, that was the winner. I had 4 people call in the past 2 days. A teen? (He kept calling me sir. Was weird) came with his mechanically savvy brother yesterday. It was the most pleasant selling I've gonr through, even though I was losing my shirt, hat, pants and socks on the asking price. The price came down even more when his mechanic found a broken mount.

I'm just glad the stress of someone else looking and inspecting and buying is over. I really hate the process. 3 others have looked at it, and then telling me everything wrong with a 14 year old car, gets old.

Thanks for the other help as well .I'm quite sure cleaning up the ad was the reason for the phone calls in the first place.

Hooray! Now the process of forgetting/repressing can begin and you can move on!

Vigo wrote: Hooray! Now the process of forgetting/repressing can begin and you can move on!

As my wife often points out, I usually start this process long before I even sell a car. Mostly my sold cars are replaced before they are actually sold....