Trying to sell Caravan !!!!

[TheTravelMan]

Hi everyone,

Its a while now since I last posted on here, due to not touring for the past 12 months or more.
Anyway, What has happened to the caravan market? Has it gone downhill? Selling privately seems to be useless!

I bought a 2006, 4 berth Swift Charisma 560, back in November, with the intention of selling our current Swift Challenger 490 5 berth, however after much thought and consideration we have decided that we are going to sell the Charisma and keep our Challenger, as a 5 berth layout is still best option for us.

Anyway, getting to the point, I have had the Charisma up for sale for over a month now, and nothing !!! I've tried ebay, it only managed to get half my asking price, and no one came to view!!

Now someone I know is also selling his van, a Bailey Ranger, late 90's model, and again he is not getting any interest?

Whats wrong, is it this dreadful start to the summer we have had with all the bad weather??

Any thoughts or advice would be much appreciated.

Cheers
Andy.

 

[Parksy]

Probably the horrible weather coupled with uncertainty of employment is making people think twice before they splash the cash Andy.
We don't allow advertising on the forum but you can place a free advert complete with pictures and layout plan on the Buy / Sell part of the website, Click Here
You can also place a free classified advert in the Practical Caravan magazine, simply fill in the coupon from the magazine.

Another internet site which costs you nothing is Preloved
My friend sold his Bailey Pageant using Preloved, it has some good results reported.

 

[woodsieboy]

Hello Andy
I agree with you that sales are slow at the moment,it is not just caravans,cars,houses almost anything seems to take along time to sell. It seems that cash buyers are looking for bargains, and in my opinion there are people on ebay who are setting high reserves,I was recently looking at awnings,some had high reserves on 3 year old awnings when a brand new one was available at dealers for only £100 more, indeed some of the newer brands were cheaper new than buying secondhand.Dealers seem to have plenty of new and used caravans available and it seems that they are prepared to do deals to move stock,so for someone with no p/ex buying from a dealer can seem more attractive than buying privately. on a more positive note you only need 1 person to view your van and decide to buy it,perhaps you just neeed to give it more time. Good Luck

 

[TheTravelMan]

Thanks, Parksy and Woodsieboy for your comments.
I think I will look at both the Practical Caravan and Preloved sites as an additional source to advertise my caravan.
Yea, I agree some people seem to be holding out for high prices on ebay, however there are also lots of people being unrealistic and expecting to pay next to nothing for items. Swings and roundabouts !!
We wish now we hadn't jumped in back in November and bought the caravan, we always fancied a large end bathroom with side dinette, however once we bought it we realised it wasn't as practical for us as we had always thought...... just as well we hadn't got round to selling our existing 5 berth layout at that point .. otherwise we would of been totally stuck!!

Well all we can do is keep trying to sell!!

Thanks again,
Andy

 

[Martin24]

Agree with parksy, preloved has done us well for awnings. As a slight aside, thought we would be late booking a CL in Cornwall but no problems aparently bookings are well down for everyone!! Fuel costs??????

 

[Di3]

Hi Andy
have you tried Gumtree? Couple of years ago my son bought a caravan through that site, its free for upto 60 days, we looked at ebay but found any of the vans we liked where so far away, with Gum tree they are posted against your local area.
http://www.gumtree.com/
Good luck.......... can also say that weather not helping.......but if we get a couple of sunny (stop laughing) weekends things may look up
Di

 

[TheTravelMan]

Thanks Martin24 and Di for your comments.

I intend when I get a spare moment to look at preloved and Practical caravan to advertise the caravan, and I will also take a look at Gumtree.

I thought price of fuel, uncertainty of work and this fantastic summer we are having was putting people off, however we popped into our local caravan daler today for a look around and the place was packed out with people.
I also noticed that they had quite a bit of used stock, but in my opinion not the best condition... and top prices wanted! it seems to that dealers are increasing their prices.

I know I might be out of touch a bit, as mentioned in my first post we have not toured for over a year now, mainly due to the fact that we have had free use of a family members static caravan, of which they aren't using, but both New and Used caravans seem to of shot up in price over the last couple of years.

Never mind, I'll look at these options and get sorted.

Cheers
Andy

 

[caravaninspector]

Try Facebook, its free and I have scene many caravans for sale on there.
I think the other problem we are having and will bite harded into the sales of caravans is the change in towing regulations, anybody passing there driving test after 1997 have to pass a further test to tow a caravan/trailer, so the younger families coming through are getting less. This in turn will have a knock on effect on many touing sites in the future.

 

[ProfJohnL]

anybody passing there driving test after 1997 have to pass a further test to tow a caravan/trailer,

Not true.
Post 1997 driving test passes have teh B entitlmnt which permit a combination of up to 3500Kg combined MAM provide the trailer MTPLM does not exceed the cars MRO. In practice may combinatios are available to such drivers. A further test (+e) is required for larger combined MAM's

 

[Dustydog]

Hi Andy
My FIL died last year so we had to sell his Bailey Pageant S6 Monarch. E Bay was a waste of time as were ads in the local paper.
Within days of placing an advert in Preloved two prospective buyers turned up. There appears to be more "trust" in people selling on Preloved than E Bay. We got £500 less than the dealers top forecourt price. Not bad.
So I have to agree with Parksy , Preloved does work.

 

[caravaninspector]

anybody passing there driving test after 1997 have to pass a further test to tow a caravan/trailer,

Not true.
Post 1997 driving test passes have teh B entitlmnt which permit a combination of up to 3500Kg combined MAM provide the trailer MTPLM does not exceed the cars MRO. In practice may combinatios are available to such drivers. A further test (+e) is required for larger combined MAM's

North wales police have just had a clamp down 50% of people with trailers were driving not passed the further test, the road side check was done with police, vosa and Dvla officers being in attendance, There is two halfs to the law you state.. Having spoke to the Dvla and this matter I think you will find we are both right but the police are enforcing the 1997 rule. Until some challenges it in a court of law, nobody will know the correct guidance.

 

[Parksy]

North wales police have just had a clamp down 50% of people with trailers were driving not passed the further test, the road side check was done with police, vosa and Dvla officers being in attendance, There is two halfs to the law you state.. Having spoke to the Dvla and this matter I think you will find we are both right but the police are enforcing the 1997 rule. Until some challenges it in a court of law, nobody will know the correct guidance.

You appear to have either been misinformed or to be confusing the issue slightly.
The law is quite clear. Click Here to read what the law states regarding B+E licence entitlement.
You will find that the Direct Gov information contains the correct guidance. There is no argument about this and no excuse for 'not knowing the correct guidance' which is clearly set out and easily available for those who need to check their driving licence entitlement.
If the police and VOSA in North Wales ran a roadside check and found that 50% of those who were driving vehicles which were towing had 'not passed the further test' this doesn't necessarily mean that they were all breaking the law.
Many car and caravan combinations are within the weight limits set for drivers who do not hold category B+E licences because they obtained full driving licences after 1st January 1997.
It's quite true that drivers who don't hold a category B+E entitlement on their driving licences could face prosecution if they tow trailers or caravans which are over the weight limits which are clearly set out but there is no 'two halves to the law' that could be open to any sort of challenge and you are quite wrong in trying to imply that there is any confusion or lack of clarity in the law.

To avoid any further confusion have a look at the easy to understand guide to the law on driving licence entitlement from Practical Caravan, Click Here