Best Site For Buying and Selling Cars (autotrader.co.uk)

Member Name: suz1584

Product:	autotrader.co.uk
Date:	16/06/09 (56 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Standard charge and the get no commission for sales

Disadvantages: Slightly Pricey to sell

I always remeber when I was younger that there was a big magazine full of cars for sale. The ads were all really small and I thought it must be extremely difficult to find what you're looking for. As years have gone by and I have grown up and passed my test I still see the magazines in shops for sale but just walk past them. For me there's no better place to search for a car than going onto Autotrader.

The website - www.autotrader.co.uk

This site is laid out well and you can search for cars, motorbikes, caravans, boats, trucks and more on this site. I will only be reviewing the buting and selling off cars as this is the only part of the site I have ever used.

On the left hand side of the site you can input information of what kind of car you are looking for. So you need to input car make and model. As well as this you have to put in your postcode and the distance you want to search from your postcode which could be 10 miles or 200 miles. You also get to choose the min and max price you are looking to spend.

Once you have put in all the information just click on search and the results will come up of that car. All the cars are in a list and is usually sorted from price low to high.

A lot of popular cars like a Peugeot 206 will have pages of results so if you would like to narrow the search down a bit you can select more information at the top of the results page. You can choose whether you want to view private or trade adverts or if you want to look at both.

You can also choose if you want to view - petrol or diesel cars, what mileage, what age of car (e.g up to 5 years old), colour of car, engine size, how many doors, manual or automatic and you can also input keywords - if you have searched for a Toyota Celica you can then type in T sport just to look for that model of the Celica.

If you do make any changes you then have to click show results below. This is so your previous search is no longer there but your new search with all additional information is then listed below.

Once you have chosen all the additional information and the cars come up ou can just scroll down to look through them. Most adverts have a picture of the car on the page and also have some information about the car. The main subject line is in blue writing with the rest of the information below. Some cars also have more than one picture and below the main picture it will tell you if there is any extra photos (e.g 4 pictures available). If you are interested in a car click on the blue writing or the picture to take you to a seperate page with just that car and all the details.

In the new page it will have everything laid out on an easy to read page along with the pictures of the car. If you are still interested in the car there is a contact the seller box which usually has a phone number or email address in the box. If you are looking at trade cars it will also have the dealers website address which will take you direct to the website if you click on the link.

If you have decided you are not interested in the car just close that box and your results will still be on the page behind so you don't have to start the search all over again.

You can also click on Add to compare list if there is a couple of cars you'd like to compare against each other. Once you have done this it will say view in compare list. Once you have a couple of cars in your compare list you can then go in and take a look at all the information you require so you can check off each thing about the cars. You also have the choice to print this, go back to all results or new search.

The site is really simple to use and my favourite car website. I sometimes even go on here just if I want to know what a car looks like or if i'm bored and just fancy a look around. (I always seem to search for really expensive cars like Koenigsegg).

The only slight problem I have with teh website is all the advertisements at the side of the page and also the pop ups. These can easily be ignored though.

Selling a Car

I have only done this once on Autotrader. For months I was trying to sell my Peugeot 206 in a local paper with no luck at all. I decided to bite the bullet and pay to have it advertised on the Autotrader website.

You first have to select whether you are a private seller or dealer. Once chosen Private you are taken to the next stage where you get to choose what package you want to sell your car -

2 weeks on website and 1 week magazine costs - £35.00
Or £15.00 if car is priced under £1000

6 weeks on website costs - £40.00
No special price for cars under £1000

2 weeks on website costs - £25.00
or £9.99 if car is priced under £1000

They can also sometimes have special offers on the website.

I decided to go for the 2 weeks on the website package. Once I selected this it took me to the next stage where I then had to register or log in. I was lucky enough to be registered so only had to log in but registration only takes a couple of minutes and you don't have to input too much information.

Now onto the details of the car -

You need to add the registration of car you are selling, asking price, mileage and a contact telephone number. Click next and it will bring up the type of car you own, all you need to do is click the model of your car.

Once you've done this you click next to get onto stage 3. This is where you can add your photos and videos of the car. There is already text about the car on the advert for you but if you want to add to this you can edit web text and add more. I spent ages choosing photos and uploading them because I really wanted to sell my car.

Stage 4 - is any optional extras you may want but beware because they do charge for any that you choose. I didn't choose any at all as the charge about £10 for anything extra.

Finally Stage 5 - To make your payment by credit or debit card. As soon as this is done your car will appear on the website. The whole selling process was so simple and throughout the time your car is advertised you can go into your account and amend any of the details if required.

This took me about half an hour to put my car on the website which is too bad. After this is done it's a waiting game. I posted my car on the Sunday night at 11pm. My car was sold by 9am the next morning. The man buying the car was travelling 70 miles to pick up the car.

I couldn't ask for anything better than that. It was definitely worth advertising on the site to get a response as quick as that. I would never hesitate in using this website again.

Summary: Great site for buying and selling