Living Car Free - Selling a car...best websites?

Anyone have great luck selling their car on cars.com, ebay or autotrader.com?

I know this is the last place in the world to post a car for sale. But in the name of us going car free, I'll take the shot. Know anyone who might want to buy a 2007 VW Rabbit in the Philadelphia area? We really don't need it and are looking forward to being free of the whole car situation. We're planning on augmenting our daily biking with the occasional Philly Car Share rental. It's all very exciting.

http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/cto/817967068.html

I've bought and sold multiple vehicles on ebay over the years. I sold my MINI there a few weeks back (and now don't own a car).

To start:

- don't say you can't afford to keep the car. It will make people think you're desperate to get rid of it. Even if you are, don't say so.

- don't say it was a dealer demo... implies that it's been beat on.

- if you're going to mention something like a "fender bump", you need to picture the damage. If there's no damage, don't mention it.

- you need better pictures. More of them, larger, and without the sun glare. More of the interior, and if you're going to turn the camera (I wouldn't) you need to rotate the image as well. Picture anything that would be considered a feature of the car. Maybe the sunroof, a shot of the dash while sitting in the backseat, etc.

- spend some time formatting the text. Paragraphs, bullets, etc. In general, I'd advise sticking to the facts of the car - leaving out the personal narrative.


2007 Volkswagen Rabbit 2.5

- grey/green (the actual name of the color would be better)
- 2.5-liter 150HP engine
- automatic transmission
- 16,000 miles
- dealer serviced
- 16" Aluminum wheels
- sunroof
- XM satellite radio
(basically, list every feature that cost extra)
- clean title


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All of the cars and motorcycles I've sold were fairly unique. Even if it was a Civic hatchback, there's still a niche market demand for them. I'm not sure how something like this would do.

I sold my 1970 Nova on eBay. What a disaster. My ex and I did many other auctions on eBay with great results. But selling a 4 door Nova with no motor doesn't get many buyers. The buyer was a kid who didn't seem to finish registering it for several years. All in all, it cost me more to sell the car than I was paid for it.

My 1962 Falcon Squire Wagon did much better being sold in the local paper. My ex also sold the broken engine from the Nova, the transmission and an engine stand for more than I got for the Nova.

I bought both cars via the Auto Trader print magazine.

+1 on the advice from JeffS above. Skip the personal narrative; do a good and thorough job of detailing the car's features in the ad.

That being said -- I've had excellent results from autotrader.com.

Craiglist works, too.

IMHO eBay works best for collector cars/specialty cars where you need to attract a national audience.

Also, since there are a fair number of VW fans, you might try some regional online forums/owners club. Dig around on the Internet -- lots of car makes have fan clubs/user groups and if you can find one that is VW specific that has an interest group that covers your geography you can list it there as well.

Thanks for all of the above advice. I've made changes to the Craig's list listing and will try auto trader in a week or so if it doesn't sell on the list! Thanks again for the tips, really good stuff. Enjoy the weekend!