DoneDeal Car Pricing Guide Ireland

The Core Problem: Why Your Car Isn't Moving on DoneDeal

You've listed your car on DoneDeal. It's a decent motor. You set what you thought was a fair price. And now you're getting low-ball offers or worse — silence for weeks.

The problem isn't always your car. It's your price.

DoneDeal is Ireland's car selling battleground. Over 100,000 active listings at any given moment. Irish buyers are ruthless about price comparison. They'll check five similar cars in under five minutes, look up the NCT status, run a Cartell.ie check, and then message you with "best price?" before you've even had your coffee.

If your price is even 5% out of alignment with comparable listings, you won't get serious interest. You'll get time-wasters. If you're 10% overpriced, your listing will stale and vanish from active searches within two weeks.

DoneDeal pricing isn't about what you paid or what you think your car is worth. It's about what buyers will actually pay today — and that's determined by the 50 identical cars listed right now in your area.

How to Price Your Car Correctly on DoneDeal

Step 1: Find Your Exact Comparables

Go to DoneDeal right now. Use these filters:

Make and model — exact match
Year — within one year either side (so a 2020 car should compare against 2019, 2020, and 2021)
Engine size or fuel type — must match or be very close
Mileage range — within 30,000 km of your car
Transmission — manual vs automatic matters significantly in Ireland
County — start with your county, then expand to adjacent counties

You should find between 8 and 15 cars that are genuinely comparable to yours. Write down the asking prices. Do not include cars with obvious damage, salvage titles, or missing NCT. Do not include trade dealer listings — they price differently and often pad their margins.

Step 2: Calculate Your Fair Pricing Band

Take the median price from your comparable set. That's your anchor.

Example: You're selling a 2019 Toyota Corolla, 1.6 petrol, manual, Dublin, 85,000 km, full service history. You find 12 comparable cars:

€10,950
€11,200
€11,200
€11,450
€11,495
€11,600
€11,750
€11,800
€12,100
€12,200
€12,495
€12,750

Median price: €11,675. Your fair pricing range is €11,400 to €11,950.

Step 3: Adjust for Your Car's Condition

Now compare your car to those comparable listings honestly:

Better condition or lower mileage? Price at the higher end of your range (€11,850–€11,950).
Average condition? Price in the middle (€11,600–€11,750).
Higher mileage, minor cosmetic issues, or NCT expiring soon? Price at the lower end (€11,400–€11,500).

This is where honesty saves you weeks of listing time. A car with 120,000 km shouldn't be priced like one with 85,000 km. Full service history beats partial history by €200–€400. Recent NCT beats expired NCT by €300–€600.

Step 4: Apply the Dublin Premium (or Rural Discount)

If you're selling in Dublin, add 5–8% to your price band (€575–€950 on an €11,675 car). Dublin stock moves faster and attracts buyers willing to pay a small premium for access and convenience.

If you're in rural areas (Offaly, Leitrim, Donegal), subtract 3–5% (€350–€585) from your band. Rural listings compete harder on price because there's less foot traffic.

Cork, Galway, and Limerick sit in the middle — use your base band without major adjustment.

What Most Sellers Get Wrong

Pricing Based on Emotion, Not Data

"I paid €15,000 for this car three years ago, so it's worth €13,000 now." Wrong. What you paid is irrelevant. Market price is determined by supply and demand right now. A 2019 Toyota Corolla with 130,000 km isn't worth what you paid — it's worth what someone will pay for it in February 2025.

Ignoring the NCT Status

An NCT that expires in three months? Minus €400–€600 from your comparable base price. An NCT that just failed? You're looking at minus €800–€1,500 depending on the failure reason. Buyers know they'll have to spend money to fix it. They price that risk into their offer.

An NCT done in the last six months? That's a selling point. Price accordingly at the higher end of your range.

Overpricing to Leave Room for Negotiation

This is Ireland's most common pricing mistake. Sellers list at €12,500 expecting to sell at €11,500 "after negotiation." The problem: DoneDeal's search algorithm ranks by price. Your overpriced car doesn't appear in searches for €11,500 cars. Serious buyers never see it. You get low-ball offers from desperate bottom-feeders, which annoy you, so you don't respond. Your listing dies.

List at your actual asking price. If you'll take €11,500, list it at €11,495. If you genuinely won't accept less than €11,750, list it there. Buyers respect clear pricing. They'll negotiate on condition or throw-ins (new tyres, service history, floor mats) — not by €1,000 on the asking price.

Not Updating Price When the Listing Stales

After 14 days on DoneDeal without views or messages, your listing visibility drops sharply. After 28 days, it's effectively invisible unless someone searches by specific registration plate.

Refresh your listing by reposting it — but before you do, drop your price by 3–5% (€350–€585 on an €11,675 car). Fresh listing + lower price = renewed interest. This is not admitting defeat. This is adapting to market feedback. No interest at €11,750? The market is telling you something. Listen.

Quick Wins You Can Do Today

1. Repost Your Listing With Updated Pricing (Today)

If your car has been listed for more than two weeks without serious inquiries, delete it and repost it at 4–5% lower. This instantly resets the "days listed" timer and gets your car back into active search results.

2. Check Five Comparable Cars Right Now

Don't overthink this. Go to DoneDeal, filter for your make, model, year, and fuel type in your county. Note the asking prices of the top five results. Calculate the average. If your price is more than 8% higher than that average, you're the problem — not your car.

3. Audit Your Photos and Description

Price matters, but so does presentation. Bad photos cost you €200–€400 in perceived value. A description that says "good condition" costs you €150–€300 compared to one that specifies "full service history, four new Michelins, NCT valid until April 2026, no rust, one owner."

4. Get Your Car's Real Market Value in Writing

CarIQ's Pricing Report gives you real DoneDeal data for your exact car — it shows you the exact asking prices, sale prices, and days-on-market for cars identical to yours. No guessing. No emotion. Just data. See exactly what your car is worth based on real DoneDeal data right now — the report costs €19.99 and removes all the guesswork from your pricing decision.

Summary: Price Right, Sell Fast

DoneDeal pricing is straightforward once you strip away emotion: find your comparables, calculate the median, adjust for condition and location, list honestly, and refresh aggressively if the market isn't responding. Overpricing costs you visibility and weeks of wasted time. Underpricing costs you money unnecessarily. Getting it right — within 5% of fair market value — is the difference between a car that moves in two weeks and one that stales in two months.

The Irish buyer is skeptical and price-sensitive. They will check five other listings before messaging you. They will run a Cartell.ie check. They will look up the NCT status. They will compare your price to every other Corolla, Focus, or Astra on DoneDeal. Price fairly and transparently, and they'll move fast. Price carelessly, and they'll move on.

Start with your comparables today. If you need confidence that your price is genuinely right, run a CarIQ Pricing Report — it takes the emotion out of the decision and gives you real market data to back up your listing price.