What Happens to Ads for Cheap Cars in Auto Trader

In every issue, Auto Trader magazine lures readers with cover shots of hot cars for sale, while ads for cheap cars get pushed all the way to the back. If your car qualifies as eye candy, you have no reason to complain. But if you're a typical seller with a less glamorous vehicle on your hands, the odds of getting noticed in Auto Trader are against you. This is only one of the ways Auto Trader will fail sellers trying to unload their car.

 

Once upon a time, Auto Trader was a leading resource for car buyers and sellers trying to find each other. The big ads looked better than anything you saw in the classifieds. Also, because Auto Trader featured only cars, you didn't have to flip through pages of filler to get to the ads that mattered. Finally, it looked professional enough to let you know that it was a real magazine, but it never seemed so slick that your cheap little car would appear out of place among the other vehicles for sale.

 

Auto Trader: A Tool for Everyone or Just the Dealerships?

But behind its humble appearance, Auto Trader holds a few surprises, such as the fact that the majority of ads aren't placed by everyday consumers. Instead, car dealerships buy up most of the ad space, including the featured spots. Private sellers, meanwhile, are lucky if their ad shows up on the second or third page of listings.

 

If your Auto Trader ad manages to get noticed, you'll soon face the next set of hurdles in selling your car: dealing with the private sale. Before long, you'll have to field calls, set up appointments, and haggle over the price. After you've settled on a figure, you still have to file the DMV paperwork and get a smog check for your vehicle. By the time you've closed the deal, you may have invested weeks or months of your time. Combined with the $39 you've already paid for your Auto Trader ad, the costs have really started to add up, and selling your cheap little car has become an expensive proposition.

 

An Auto Buying Service Welcomes Your Cheap Car

Fortunately, you can sell your car and beat the dealers at their own game. With an auto buying service, you can sell your car immediately without the hassle of finding a private buyer. Best of all, unlike Auto Trader, our service is free.

 

Simply contact us over the phone or through our website. We'll set up an appointment at your convenience to appraise your car. From there, we'll make you a cash offer and take care of all the pesky paperwork that comes from the sale. That's all there is to it.

 

We've been in business for more than 25 years, and we've bought and sold more than 50,000 vehicles in our time. We're experts in handling car sales, and we've always stuck with what we do best: treating all sellers equally and giving them the best price possible for their used car.

 

Give us a call, or click here to fill out a brief form, and a trusted valuation expert will be in touch shortly.

 

We look forward to hearing from you.