difficulty selling my milly

[crispy1980]

hi guys, some of you may have seen my puma for sale on here. it has also been on ebay twice at a start price of £750. as yet i have not had hardly any interest in it, just one person enquiring. am i really asking too much? i thought that £750 would be a bit of a bargain as it is? im thinking that i may be better breaking it but how easu]y is it to get the money in reality

 

[quest63]

I think most Puma's are selling quite slowly and that the price on them continues to fall. I also think your mileage possibly overrides the fact its a millenium.

Good luck with it peeps

 

[Flying Scotsman]

What is the millage on the Milly?

 

[crispy1980]

125000, but with excellent service history.i know it does put people off but actually its only average mileage anyway. i think i mayactually have been too honest listing the faults,some of which i neednt have said about, but id rather be totally up front. if i could get someone to come and look im sure they would buy it. its much better than the others i looked at when buying it and considerably cheaper!

 

[Evil Monkey]

I know the feeling mate. I've got one on Ebay for spares or repairs and the only offers I've had have,frankly, been a pee-take bearing in mind I can get around £200 scrap, or possibly more if I break it for parts.
If only Mac hadn't buggered off to that dusty place for 4 months!

 

[crispy1980]

waiting for a sale wouldnt normally bother me, as i do still love the puma. but i cannot re insure it and the current policy runs out in july. i also want to buy a mountain bike from a work mate but until i sell the car i dont have the cash!

 

[Flying Scotsman]

Yeah i know... i would like a milly to play with.

 

[Daftgit]

hi guys, some of you may have seen my puma for sale on here. it has also been on ebay twice at a start price of £750. as yet i have not had hardly any interest in it, just one person enquiring. am i really asking too much? i thought that £750 would be a bit of a bargain as it is? im thinking that i may be better breaking it but how easu]y is it to get the money in reality

Private car sales are really slow at the moment. Until recently, I used to buy and sell secondhand cars as a hobby as I enjoy messing around with cars. I gave it up because it just wasn't worth it. Loads of time wasting messers who want you to give your car away. Ebay and Gumtree seemed to attract the worst of them. Autotrader seemed to attract a more genuine buyer, but I still had rip off merchants from there too! Advertising your Puma on here and Pumapeople will hopefully attract you your genuine buyer as they should be a like minded enthusiast!

So, if you want to sell your car at the moment (and this is easier said than done - I should know), you've got to be patient! There will be a buyer out there for your car!

k:

 

[All that jazz]

Advertising your Puma on here and Pumapeople will hopefully attract you your genuine buyer as they should be a like minded enthusiast!

Unfortunately not. Advertising on owner's forums is perhaps the worst place to advertise them as all the members already have one...

I've always had success selling on Ebay using the classified ad option. £15 for a month with as much space as you want and you can add a 'make offer' button too, and no final value fees to pay k: . You get a few stupid offers mainly from dealers trying it on in my experience, but I've always managed to sell before the listing has ended and usually not far off the asking price. Obviously you have to price it realistically to begin with.. :wink:

Re the car in question :

car has a largish dent to the nearside rear quarter. was there when i bought it but never got round to having it done
drivers arch has been repaired in the past as there is a metal panel welded in from the inside. this has some rust coming through
couple of rust spots appearing on bottom of drivers door
cracked front number plate,passed mot though
there is a plastic type rattle from dashboard , havent been able to trace this though as its only at certain revs and not when stationary.
aircon works but the hcv doesnt meaning its stuck on hot( i had to get one from motor factors at the start of winter as mine had broken at the unions so needed one asap. as predicted, this worked for about 1 month then got stuck in hot position.

[...]

sorry i wrote that in a rush and ive missed a couple of bits. good and bad. airbag light is on, has been for about 18 months. rear beam bushes knock on the bad bumps, came up as an advisory on the mot.
slight oil leak from rocker cover

[...]

127000 miles

High mileage + "largish dent" + tatty arches + HCV knackered + bushes knackered + oil leak + airbag light on (reads: been in a crash to most people) = pretty undesirable motor. Given the big choice of other Puma's in that price bracket I don't think you've got a hope in hell of getting anywhere near £750 for it. :-(

 

[melinamotor]

I would of had it off you but the FRP cost me more money to put right the other week, just typical of my luck really. For the record the mileage on your car didnt bother me. You never know if it doesnt go soon I might be in a position to take it.

 

[crispy1980]

cheers, i know the car reads like a bad'un. but it really is one of the better ones.hcv = £40 for a ford one, arches are way better than the average, which if you know pumas you know youll be lucky to get one without, rocker cover leak is very common, mileage is actually average for the year. what imsaying is that it sounds worse than it is, and being a milly it should command a slightly higher price. ive looked on ebay and mine is the cheapest milly on there by far. these are all very common puma faults.
re melinamotor, if you do change you mind drop me a message and im sure we could sort something out.

 

[jonr]

Cant see it being a Milly making any odds after all these years.My mate was after one and ended up buying an S plate moondust.Old Fords are old Fords.

 

[Cherie]

The way I see it, you've made it sound really bad, and you've priced it really cheap. Even someone who's on the lookout for a cheap runaround will read the catalogue of bad bits and decide that it's not worth the effort.

The trick is how to describe it so that it sounds a bargain, rather than a pile of crap!

For example rather than pointing out the 'largeish' dent, just say that it has a minor dent.
Usual puma rust around the arches. You don't even need to go into any detail.
Don't even mention the rattle behind the dash. I can guarantee that no-one test driving will notice it, and what car of the age doesn't rattle. And it's really not important.

Things like the airbag light should be mentioned, but if you know the cause, can you fix it before the sale? That way, it needn't be mentioned.

I know that you'd rather be honest, as I'm exactly the same, but the trouble is, the more honest you are, the less likely you are to sell the car. Would you go to a job interview and admit that you're lazy, easily distracted and don't get on with anyone? No, you make yourself sound like the best employee ever. You concentrate on the good points.

Also, for many, the fact that it's a Millennium means naff all. It's just a yellow car. Those that do know, and do appreciate it being a limited edition will probably be looking at lower mileage ones with the thought of pampering it for the rest of its life.

 

[Daftgit]

The trick is how to describe it so that it sounds a bargain, rather than a pile of crap!

I know that you'd rather be honest, as I'm exactly the same, but the trouble is, the more honest you are, the less likely you are to sell the car. Would you go to a job interview and admit that you're lazy, easily distracted and don't get on with anyone? No, you make yourself sound like the best employee ever. You concentrate on the good points.

Cherie makes some really good points here. As I said in my earlier post, I used to buy and sell cars as a hobby. I used to really put a lot of effort into the adverts, being as honest as possible. My friend who also sold cars, but as a business, didn't put much effort into his ads as he has pretty poor grammer, spelling and general english. He's also hopeless on a computer. He sold a lot of cars and without the hassle that I had.

In my experience, emphasise the good points at the top of the ad to get your potential customers interested and "into your car". Mention features, USP's (Unique Selling Points), extras, points of note etc, service history, recent work done, paperwork included (old MOT certificates) etc. Once you've exhausted all the positive points, mention the bad points, but don't "over egg the pudding"! Keep the bad points short and sweet! By the time the buyer gets to bad points in your ad, they're either into your car or not - hopefully the good points will outway the bad points! Keep your selling price competitive, but don't give it away or come across as desperate to sell as these will also put people off! They'll either say, "why's that so cheap, there must be something wrong with it?" or "why are they so desperate to sell - what's wrong with it?"

Patience is the only way you'll sell it and as I said earlier - it's easier said than done when your desperate for that sale!
Good luck! k:

 

[crispy1980]

cheers all, i think ill re-word the ebay ad and give it another go.