Introduction

When you decide to sell your car, there are three traditional ways of selling it; either privately to another driver, to a dealer in sale or part-exchange, or through an auction.

Private selling involves advertising the sale of the car yourself; this is usually carried out through newspaper listings, magazine listings, or through an advert in the window of the car.

"One of the fastest ways of advertising a car is through online car listings"

One of the fastest growing ways of advertising a car is through online car listings. These are similar to (and sometimes run by) the listings in car magazines such as Auto Trader and Exchange and Mart.

This article will look at the benefits and costs of advertising your car online.

 

How Online Listings Work

Online listings are stored in a database within each site, and are displayed according to the criteria the potential buyer sets. They can search by make, model, age of car, features, and more depending on the individual site, although the most common way for cars to be listed is by model (e.g.: Ford Fiesta).

 

Details

The most important part of any car advert is the details of the car itself. These are usually written in the same shortened style as classified car adverts. For example:

2002 Ford Fiesta 1.4 ZETEC 5DR NEW SHAPE, 1 owner, 14,000 miles, air-conditioning, power assisted steering, electric windows, central locking, alloys, silver £7599

(Name of City) Tel: 01234 456789

These details are crucial, as any decisions to look further at the car will be made using this data.

Photos

Along with the details of the car, many online adverts include one or more pictures of the car (or a similar spec/colour). This allows the person searching for a car to see what it looks like, as well as maybe allowing a brief look at the condition of the car.

Some sites allow more than one photo to be displayed, attracting more attention to the car than any text advert (however well written). 

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