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YOUR RESEARCHBest sales results - Cars.com or Autotrader?
Reported or suspected cause
lack of web traffic relatively
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Reported cause
One of the reasons why I didn't recommend cars.com is due to the lack of web traffic relatively.
Leading evidence: 'lack of web traffic relatively' (1 discussions report identifying this cause; no attributable repair resolution). Across 1 matching discussions, the most frequently mentioned possible cause is 'lack of web traffic relatively' (1 discussions; 1 report identifying it and 0 suggest it). The most frequently discussed action is 'Use craigslist' (1 discussions). For that action, 0 discussions report a resolution and 0 report an unsuccessful attempt. No action has an explicit, attributable resolution report under the current rules. These are forum reports and suggestions, not a confirmed diagnosis.
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Suggestion
I've actually had good luck using Craigslist for higher end cars...AMG's, M's, Lotus's...
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Suggestion
If you price your car to sell, I would use ebay and craigslist personally.
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25 eligible posts · 0 unverified posts · 1 discussions match the subject in their title or opening post.
Rennlist: 1 discussions
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In case I were looking to sell my 4S to buy a TT cab... I'll wait until spring to really try, but I wanted to see what the unofficial poll was for most effective sales site.
Personally, I'm a big fan of Cars, but I found my 4S on Autotrader.
I was trying to sell my BMW last year and posted an add on Craigslist and got nothing but low-balling cheapskates. Then I placed an ad on Cars and the car sold in a week.
As a shopper I use autotrader, cars, rennlist, craigslist, ebay, dealer websites and anywhere else I can think of
Price and condition are going to dictate the sale much more so than where you advertise. With the internet, I can find your car for sale regardless of where you advertise, and I suspect that is true of most serious buyers.
Give as much description as you can, provide lots of high quality pictures. I typically pass on cars with little or no info and few or poor pictures. Do it right or don't bother IMO.
GLWS!
I almost worked for cars.com. They are hurting now but that's not really the point.
It seems like cars.com caters more to dealership businesses and less private sales vs. Autotrader. Personally I would skip cars.com and try Autotrader first. There's a lot more traffic and visibility vs cars.com.
List on all of them. I've sold high end cars on CL and found them there as well.
If you're going to buy a Cab, the best time of year is when it's cold and rainy.
For how inexpensive it is to place on the different websites do as many as you can....post lots of pics and a video even if you have to pay more to do it, it is well worth it. The name of the game is to get as much interest as possible.
Rennlist, Pelican, 6speed, PCA for the enthusiast market, craigslist for the local market.
Yes, craigslist is full of time-wasters, both on the buy and sell side, but a good ad with good pictures still has given me decent results recently.
I recently marketed my 996C2 on many different sites, final buyer was local on Craigslist. Searched nationally for the right Cayman S, found it locally on Craigslist. If you do sell on Craigslist, you just have to be able to ignore the 'I'll give you $1.50 cash for it..." emails without getting bothered. The potential buyers who actually show up to look at the cars have all been legit. You also have to put FIRM in every craigslist listing... It won't eliminate the low ballers, but it sure cuts down on them.
I've never had any luck either buying or selling on Autotrader. Every Porsche I've checked out that was listed on autotrader was absolute junk, far worse than described. Coincidence? Maybe... but seems like lots of dealers plus a handful of private sellers who don't know crap about Porsches. Again, maybe I just have a bad attitude about Autotrader because of my personal experience...
If you price your car to sell, I would use ebay and craigslist personally. I usually sell my cars within 7 days of listing them. Host your own pictures, take copius amounts. Make a link to a web page with a detailed ad that you put together.
Pictures on cars.com and autotrader.com are worthless due to their size.
Try searching autotrader.com for 996's and you'll find about 1,000 of them for sale, and you can't sort by "newly listed" and it has that stupid three tiers of ads.
So if you want to post it somewhere else, post it on cars.com besides ebay and craigslist. You would be crazy not to list it on craigslist.
Good advice, or at least it used to be... Craigslist car ads no longer allow external image tags. They are just filtered out. The good news is they finally allow uploading of more pictures (now 24) and at somewhat higher resolution (now 600x450, was 300x300). Good pictures always a must!
600x450 is semi-decent for an online ad...
Craigslist worked for me. I sold my 335i on it (for $2,500 more than what Carmax offered me). I also found my P-car there. It's free so why not?
One suggestion: Get a Google Voice number. Don't use your "real" number on Craigslist (or any other ad service for that matter). This way you can easily block someone if they annoy or harass you for any reason.
Sold my 84 and bought my 02 on Craigslist. Already said but just have to ignore the BS and get to the real buyers. I also listed an Audi in CarGurus (free site) after finding decent cars on the site and sold it in about a week locally.
...and by the way, how do you avoid sleazy dealers? I live in LA and got calls from a dealer in Vegas..."...you know we can sell your call for you and blah, blah, blah...."
If on CL it's better to just ignore and don't respond at all. They won't have your email address since its filtered out. You can just ignore any response you want to. No harm no foul.
I bought my Alfa, 951 and 996 all on craigslist. I sold my old highly modified A8 on it in a day. My other cars I listed them there, but sold them due to an ad here (968) or on quattroworld (S8) in literally 1 day each.
They were nice cars but priced to sell. I see stuff on craigslist for a year sometimes because it's not priced to sell.
Currently both cars and autotrader have around 250 cars each, 996 under $25k being the only criteria. Many of the cars are doubles but I think I prefer the cars format to autotrader.
I can easily enter my criteria and get it down to 50-60 cars avoiding tiptronics, high milage cars, and cabriolets if I am honest.... Looking at dealer cars is not all bad, often they have a carfax you can look at for free, and that is just where many of them have ended up these days, low end dealers.
Price and condition still dictate, I completely agree with the notion of "priced to sell", I hate those who want to go fishing, or just post up pictures of their cool car then stick to some high price because that is what they want. It is almost as bad as real estate sometimes
If I'm looking to sell, I post everywhere I can. I think Craigslist success is heavily dependent on the population levels in your vicinity. That being said, a 996 is a car people search for, so people will travel to look/buy.
I found my current one on Craigslist and traveled 3 1/2 hours to test it and buy it.
I agree on listing it on as much places as possible. One of the reasons why I didn't recommend cars.com is due to the lack of web traffic relatively. My ex coworker works there and he gives me all the lowdown and has full visibility into their web analytics reporting. For max outreach eBay or Autotrader would be a better choice, or all of them as suggested.
From my observation, CL will vary depending on the car, market region, price you wanna sell it at.
