Carsguide private party ads FAQ

Private Party Ads

1. What information do I need to place an ad?

Carsguide has provided a checklist of all the vital information that you will need to sell your car.

For payment purposes you will need a credit card as this is the only form of payment we can accept for an online only advertisement. We can accept Visa, MasterCard, Bankcard, American Express and Diners Club.

2. How much should I charge for my vehicle?

Carsguide.com.au offers a fantastic tool for valuing your vehicle. Go to Car values, fill in your vehicle's details and click Search to get the current book value.

3. I want to place an ad, but my car's make/model isn't listed.

Unfortunately, some vehicles such as older models and grey imports aren't listed in our database. We're currently looking at a way around this.

The only recommendation we can make is to get a newspaper ad with a carsguide newspaper. The text of the ad will automatically get uploaded to our website and the correct info for your car will be in that ad. This means, however, that photos cannot be added to your ad.

4. Why is my car's distance/price "invalid"?

When entering the distance/price fields of your ad, make sure there are no dollar signs, commas or space, e.g. "77000" instead of "$77,000" or "77 000".

5. Why is the "Specify Features" box empty?

Our features box is specific to the car you are selling. If you are selling an older vehicle that does not have many options, there may not be any features for you to select. If you want to include features such as air-conditioning and radio, you can enter these features in the free text description box.

6. What kind of photo can I post with my ad?

If you have a digital image of your vehicle, please convert it to JPEG format and ensure it is no smaller than 12x9 cm in size. We will re-size it to the appropriate size. Remember the smaller the file size the quicker the upload.

7. When and for how long will my ad run?

Your ad will run until sold, however conditions apply to this. Your ad will remain live on carsguide.com.au for a period of 60 days, unless you log in to carsguide.com.au and reactivate it. We will send you a reminder before your ad is deactivated.

If you don't reactivate it after 60 days for whatever reason we will keep your ad in our database for six months, during which time you can log in to carsguide.com.au and reactive your ad. Once your ad has been inactive for six months, it will be deleted from our database.

8. How do I pay for my ad?

You will be asked for your credit card information during the ad creation process. We accept Visa, MasterCard, Bankcard, American Express and Diners Club.

9. Is my payment secure?

Carsguide.com.au uses eWAY secure payments facilities. eWAY is owned by Web Active Corporation Pty Ltd, a web development company that was formed in 1998. eWAY is 100% Australian owned, and based in Canberra, Australia.

10. How will I be contacted by buyers after I post my ad?

Buyers simply fill in the form on your listing, and you'll receive an email with their details. Your phone number and contact info are also displayed, so buyers can contact you directly as well.

11. Can I find out how many people have viewed my ad?

Yes, your ad statistics are available when you log in to your account:

Go to https://privateads.carsguide.news.com.au/index.jsp and log in with your email address and password.
On the "My Details" page, scroll down to view your ads. The list of your ads will tell you how many views you have received.

12. Can I make changes to my ad?

Yes. You can modify, change your images and add more information to your ad easily at any time to attract more buyers.

13. How do I make changes to my ad?

To edit your ad, simply follow these steps:

Go to https://privateads.carsguide.news.com.au/index.jsp and log in with your email address and password.
On the "My Details" page, scroll down to view your ads.
Choose "Edit" as the "Action" for your ad.
You will be taken to the first page of your ad. Go through the same process as you did when you created your ad, making changes and clicking "Continue" through to the end. You should then be taken back to the "My Details" page and your ad status should be "Under QA". The ad will go live again after it has been approved by QA (up to one business hour).

14. How can I change my registration number?

The registration number, registration expiry and engine number fields cannot be edited. This prevents users from selling multiple cars with the same ad. Due to security reasons we cannot change information in regards to registration details. To fix this problem, Click here fill in the form and click send. One of our customer service representatives will make the change for you and email to let you know when this has been done.

15. Why doesn't my ad show up when I do a search?

You can check your ad status by logging into your account:

Go to https://privateads.carsguide.news.com.au/index.jsp and log in with your email address and password.
On the "My Details" page, under "Status" you can find the status of your ad:
- "Active" means the ad is live on our website.
- "Under QA" means that it is waiting to be approved. You will receive an email letting you know when your ad is approved and live on our website. Every time your ad is changed, it will have to be approved by QA.
- "Created" means the ad has been created but the process has not been finished. You will have to log in, "Edit" your ad and complete the ad creation process before it goes online.

When your ad status is "Active," it will appear in be in search results of Classified Ad searches.

If you received an email informing you that your upload has been successful and your ad has not appeared after 2 days please contact us.

16. I've sold my car. How do I remove my online ad?

To remove your ad, simply follow these steps:

Go to https://privateads.carsguide.news.com.au/index.jsp and log in with your email address and password.
On the "My Details" page, scroll down to view your ads.
Choose "Remove" as the "Action" for your ad.
The carsguide will ask you some questions, and your ad will be removed immediately.

17. How can I protect my identity when I list my contact information?

Your last name and email address will not appear on your ad.

The information is being collected by News Interactive and Digital Motorworks to provide you with the online product of your choice, and to assist us in improving our products and services. We may share your information with other companies which are helping us to provide or market our goods and services, but we do not sell or distribute your information to other parties. You can contact us here to gain access to your personal information.

18. Who do I contact about technical errors?

Email us with as much information as possible. Include your log in email address and password, the details of the car you're trying to sell, the error you're experiencing and include a screenshot if possible.