BMWZ4MC said:
The mileage is reflected in the price. If I were a prospective buyer with £20K to spend, of course I would wait for the exactly the spec I wanted and a low mileage car. However, if I had only £15K, then this would be great.
Exactly. For what it's worth Ben, had your car been for sale when I was looking, I would have been seriously tempted. I think it's priced well, and don't see why the mileage should put anyone off. I'd far rather buy a car that has been used regularly than a car that sat around for weekend-only duty, personally.
It all depends how keen you are to sell and what you feel you'll be willing to take for the car though. If you keep it on the market for ages, and keep dropping the price little by little, it'll likely put buyers off (or they'll wait until it gets even cheaper).
If you really need to sell, lop £1000 off and it'll sell very quickly, in my opinion. If you're in no rush to sell however, consider leaving it at that price, because it's already well priced for the marketplace, so it just takes a buyer - the trouble is, there aren't many of them out there (though evidence is out there of new buyers - a wave of people have bought them within the last month alone on here, including me).
Now, advice on the advert itself...
Your photos are doing you absolutely no favours. I always sell a car with a minimum of 9 photographs, and these should include (but not be limited to):
- Decent photo of the interior (which yours is lacking)
- 'Show' photos at the best angles of the car (which yours is lacking)
- Detailed photos of specific areas that buyers may be interested in; for example the condition of the wheels (again, yours is lacking)
I'd also consider, depending on your preference, providing photographs of the added extras of the car (for example, the Sat Nav). Whilst it is written in the advert, people may prefer to have photographs to look at.
Again, depending on your preference, you could take specific photographs of any damage - this helps buyers made an educated decision on the car before they call you, and eliminates an element of the negotiation process. It also demonstrates that you are being open and honest with potential buyers.
I'm personally not a fan of seeing 'you must have insurance to drive this car' when viewing an advert, and you may be putting potential buyers off. That's not to say you don't request it when they do come to view the car, but you're potentially reducing your buyers straight away by indicating that. When I've sold cars in the past, I've not said this in the advert, but have asked for it when they view the car (depending on the car). None of them had any problems at all with doing that, with all buyers opting to be a passenger whilst I drove the car - each time, they bought the car.
Other than that, I think the advert is excellent. You've included the key facts that I would want to see (including the FULL service history, which is nice to see - some buyers don't mention the brake fluid changes for example). My only further suggestion would be segmenting the advert a bit more, and taking some of the personal approach away - it doesn't need it. For example:
Registration: YF07 ASX
Mileage: 51,000 miles
First Registered: 23rd May 2007
Purchased: November 2007
Previous Owners: 1
Service History
Specification
(I'd put the service history before the specification, because whilst it doesn't feel a 'natural' format, buying a more specialist car such as this, knowing it has been serviced properly is absolutely crucial).
I hope that helps.