How to Sell my 04 Cab ?

Folks - need a little help. I listed my car, a 2004 911 Cabriolet w/ 21,000 miles on CARS.com for $34,995 (a market price via NADA) over 2 1/2 weeks ago. It is in MINT condition w/some cool extras. It has had close to 200 "views" - during this time I have gotten ZERO contacts ! Do people hate this car? What gives? Can anyone tell me how I can be more successful in my selling efforts? As always appreciate the help!

The problem is that its a NA 996. Other issues may be cab, tip, color, etc. Your going to have to lower your asking price more in line with the current market.

I would list it in as many places as possible. craigslist autotrader kijji etc... also, take lots of high res pictures. do a price comparison with other Porsches, similar years and miles etc to make sure your priced competitively 34k is alot of cash to come up with, these cars can sit for sale for a while

nothing wrong with your car. just list it in more obvious places. youve had it listed for 2.5 weeks and only had 200 views ....should tell you something right there. craigslist, yahoo, kijiji, autotrader. glws

I'm guessing it's this one? http://www.cars.com/go/search/detail...ngId=125094036 First impressions: Looks like a nice car... good colors, good year, good condition, six speed. Low miles aren't as much of a plus on these cars as you might think due to the potential IMSB issue. Some feel that lightly-driven cars are actually more likely to have a failure. September in Boston also isn't RWD Cabriolet 911 season with winter around the corner, and $35K is pretty much full money. I'd wait till the spring, or discount it another $4-5K if you want it sold soon. You don't have a single picture of the interior or a detailed list of what factory options it has. A picture of the option sticker under the hood is also nice to see. No mention if you are the original owner.

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Assuming the price is within the realm of realistic -- and I'm not current on prices -- have lots of pics. They should show the car from straight ahead, each side, from directly behind the car, and 3/4 views from each side from the front of the car and from each side from the rear of the car. Pics of the each front seat, inside door panel, floorboards of each seat, dash, showing the current odometer reading. Pics showing the center stack so the buttons for the options are visble and the options can be determined by from the buttons. If the car has NAV note it has the most up to date map info. Pics of the engine bay, front trunk, each wheel/tire (and show the brake rotor through the wheel). You want the pics to show the car is unblemished, has no signs of paint/body work, and the car is well just as you describe it. The pics should give a shopper the feeling he knows the car as it he had visited it. List service/maintenance and dates/mileages done. Ideally the car should not need any service/maintenance and you can stress in the ad the car is ready to roll and should provide X thousand of miles of enjoyment before the next scheduled service is due. Have a CarFax report. Get the car's DME read and have total engine run time, and the overrev counters/time of events available too in the printout. Even if the car is equipped with a Tip transmisison. You want the shopper to know the car as well as you do from the contents of the ad. You do not have to list this info but state you have it. There are two minds about how long to let the ad run. One is to place the ad and let it run until the car is sold or until one gives up. The other is to run the ad 2 maybe 3 weeks, then if the car hasn't sold pull the ad. Wait a while. How long? Well, 2 or 3 weeks is a good trade off time. Reword the ad but keep it accurate and honest. Reorder the pics. Update the mileage of course. Change the price. No big changes but instead of $34,995 make it $35,499. If someone calls about the car and mentions about the previous ad and asks why the car was removed from the market then put back in the market just say it was for family reasons, personal business, work schedule. List the car at as many good places as you can. To name a few but not all of them: Here. Panorama. www.cars.com . www.autotrader.com . Craigslist. (I had an 02 VW Golf TDi to sell and listed it in various places and on Craigslist. I got zero contacts from any other places but 5 or 6 from the Craigslist ad. One from a young guy in LA. Sold it to a woman from across the bay.)

You are right at or near retail on NADA. This price is competing with Porsche Dealer inventory. It's nearing the end of the season, people aren't looking for convertible sports cars at full retail pricing just before winter hits. One out of a few thousand hits on cars.com may inquire. Many that hit on your ad are sellers, browsers, etc. If you're selling yourself contact friends, associates, list on ebay, craigslist, auto trader, porsche related websites, everywhere you can think of. Take lots of GOOD pictures, put as many up as possible. A dealer may make over $5K commission on selling your car and earn it. Have you done $5K worth of work to sell it? Sorry, not wanting to be a jerk, but thinking you may not be aware of what it takes to sell one of these. Also for a quick sale you may need to drop the price $5K or so, even then it may take some work. Good Luck

What they said above. Plus I would add that there is little difference between an '02, '03 and an '04 in your model of 996, so really you are competing price wise with the '02s and '03s. Also, although you may not sell it in a conventional method on eBay, eBay will get you the most exposure in the shortest time with the most serious buyers. A trend I've seen on eBay is that many buyers wait until an auction is over, then they send an offer via the eBay e-mail system. I think a lot of eBay sales on vehicles are actually done this way rather than someone "winning" an auction. eBay vehicle sales have really evolved away from the traditional auction, I think for multiple reasons. I always offer buyers the right to back out of a deal at any time for any reason - the reality is that you can't force someone into buying a car when they don't want it. I think it is very chilling for sales when you see language in an ad threatening legal action for deadbeat bidders.

Also, fwiw, I purchased all 3 of my Porsches from eBay sellers, all 3 individuals, not dealers. I only "won" the auction on my son's 951. I was the high bidder on the 964 on an auction that didn't hit the reserve and the seller came back afterward to offer to sell at my high bid. The 996 seller stopped the auction early to sell to me at $1,500 below his "buy it now" price. My eBay rating is very high, which I think helped a lot. You will get some clowns on eBay (see nineellebin's recent thread), but you can normally spot them pretty easily and just refuse to waste your time dealing with them.

By the cars.com ad, I can't tell where in the US the car is located.

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+1 on the above comments. FWIW, I bought my car from a dealer ... when they advertised the car on Auto Trader, they had something like 40 pictures out there. Exterior, interior, detail shots of key accessories, etc. I think it helps not only because people get a better sense of the car, but because people process information differently. You could write the most detailed description imaginable, but some buyers need to see the pictures.

You do need really good photos . If I was looking, I would be wary of the VERY LOW MILEAGE. That is not helping the car one bit in my eyes. Not enough to bang the price up top whack like you have it. BUT you have what you have. I am 'well read' on the 996 model. Many buyers are not, so no big disadvantage. A 'Biggy' you missed is, does it have the hard top with it? If so show photos of it in place as well seeing as winter is on the way . Probably NOT and that's one of the reasons it's not used year round and the reason for its extra low mileage. Be prepared to drop the price if a 'well read' Porsche 996 buyer starts his questioning re IMS bearing upgrade on the vehicle because the car has not been used enough to disclose the ifs and buts on that score. A more reasonable asking price would start at $29999 IMHO. A C4 can be a disadvantage to the C2 in some cases and cannot justify the higher asking price but 'You have what you have'. You are battling the fact that any sensible person with $35000 to spend on a Porsche 911 can go up to the 997 model and get a higher mileage younger car for that money. Hey that's OIMHO

I have been shopping a while to replace my 996 with another one. Lots of good comments so far on pictures. Look at the pictures some of the dealers post and emulate them. More is better. You have some things working against you that need to be considered. First, NADA is not going to give you realistic private seller pricing. As a private seller your car is worth pretty much a little over the wholesale value on the open market. Dealers charge more because they put money into the cars with detailing, repairs, here in MD they need to put it through a very tough state inspection process, plus dealers are in business to make money so they need to make a profit. Another issue is that you are looking for a buyer that can pay out of pocket. Getting a loan to purchase from an individual seller is almost impossible to find.....especially on a 10 year old car. As the previous poster mentioned, someone with that kind of cash would probably get a 997 instead. Cabs are not desirable and a C4 not so much either. Unless it is a collectable, cars are not investments so it is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. There are tons of both for sale in this area and none are selling. Bottom line is.....read and emulate the professionals ads (dealers), lower your price, take a lot more pictures.

Are you a PCA member? If so, try advertising it on "The Mart" on the PCA website.

I'm in the market for a 996 or 997.1 currently and I think the biggest thing you have against you right now is the price. As others have mentioned, for $34,995 I would be looking at a well-sorted 997.1 or 996 C4S. And even then I would hope to get one of those for less than $34,995. I am also solely looking for a coupe, but I'm sure there are plenty of folks out there who prefer cabs.