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Suggestions for marketing my insight?

1433 Views 7 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  Rick
I plan on selling my '01 Insight, as we've purchased an '03 civic hybrid for my son to use. We are currently a 3 hybrid family(2 HCH's, 1 Insight! 8) ), but need to go down to two :roll: . I have some ideas but thought I'd open it up to suggestions regarding how to sell my Insight. No hidden surprises or bad news,low mileage w/ex. warranty, etc. Suggestions? How did you buy yours? Thanks in advance for your input. Steve
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Auto trader and/or your local paper.
I sold two Insights through Autotrader in the UK. Unsuccessfully tried to sell them on eBay with the following wording (might be useful but some UK figures quoted in there):

Your chance to own the world's most efficient production car!
Lowest emissions of any production car at 80g/km; Highest MPG of any production car - up to 83MPG; Lowest drag co-efficient of 0.25. Made of Aluminium for lightness & strength (no rust as well!). Congestion Charge exempt. Usual superb Honda reliability.
All the above achieved with a 1 litre VTEC engine combined with a 10kW electric motor assist (IMA). No need to plug in. 0-60 time is a respectable 10.5 seconds and top speed is 110mph. For more information check http://www.insightcentral.net
This great two seater is a five speed manual with climate control, ABS, power steering, electric windows & mirrors, two airbags and CD/tape player. Full service history, MoT and Tax until end of Jan '05. Only two owners & Japanese specification; sorry, high but reasonable reserve to reflect the special qualities of this car.
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Here's what my auto trader ad read, mind you this was in March of 03.

2000 Honda Insight, silver, 5 spd, gas/elec hybrid, ac, ps, pb, pw, pdl, p/mirrors, 33k mi, new car warranty still in effect, very clean, non smoker, gets 70 mpg, $11,900 623-XXX-XXXX


Translation:

2000 Honda Insight, silver, 5 speed manual, gasoline electric hybrid, air conditioning, power steering, power brakes, power windows, power door locks, power mirrors, 33,000 miles, new car warranty still in effect, very clean (I personally detailed it), never smoked in (well a smoker may have sat in it, could barely detect the smell, but an ozone shock treatment took care of that :D ), gets 70 mpg, $11,900 (this is what I'd really like to get for it, but I'm negotiable on this price), phone number.


And the best part about that one was the first time they did the ad they goofed and the picture got lost. So I went down to their office calm, yet not happy they messed up my picture. When I left the next week I was to have the large ad for free. Ironic part was I sold it the next day with no picture in the auto trader.

If you try eBay include as much interesting information and pictures as possible. Your basic ad's tend to not generate as much interest as a nicely layed out one. The one Cakley did comes to mind having a whole explaination of how the IMA worked with images and everything. This would at least tend to attract attention to an uninformed buyer.
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Craigslist is worth a shot: it looks like it's low-traffic for the St. Louis area, but on the other hand, it is free, and you're more likely to get serious lookers than on eBay... In my experience, on eBay people expect that since they probably won't get to look at the car before they buy it, it should be priced 20-30% less than what they'd be willing to pay for a car they could testdrive. Craigslist is more like a normal classified (though I'd expect you'd find a higher percentage of internet-friendly hybrid-interested people there). http://stlouis.craigslist.org/

The things I think are particularly nifty about the Insight:
1. best MPG of any car in America
2. everlasting aluminum body
3. small enough to park in tight spots
4. but a hatchback, so you can still carry lumber and christmas trees
5. lowest air drag of any car in America--bugs whizz past without splatting
6. looks like a space capsule.
Another thing to mention...

The Insight has good leg/headroom, which will be a concern given its size.
My 6'2" uncle was quite comfortable in it.

Another idea is to do a nationwide search on DealerNet or similar sites to see what features dealers list. I think the Insight pretty much has all the goodies except a decent stereo (if stock) and adjustable-interval wipers. ABS, Power Steering, power locks, security, etc.--all there.
Thanks to everyone for your input and suggestions. My Insight found a new owner from Oklahoma and left this afternoon. Again, I have 2 Civic hybrids, so I'll continue to read and take part of this great website :D ! Steve
Congrats on the quick sale. There's nothing worse than having a car for sale for a long period of time.
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