Have never sold a car but is this right?

[Spacedebret]

So if I hand back my pcp VW car I get 14000 which gives me a grand or so after the settlement figure. This was quite exciting until I looked at their sales price for equivalents - over 22k! But auto trader is full of dealer sales and fewer private. What am I missing? Shouldn’t everyone do a private sale or is everyone else getting better offers? Thanks feel like I should know this as a grown up but we didn’t need a car for years so have never sold one.

You can't sell it privately if it doesn't belong to you, that's why so many get traded in for much less than they are worth, that and the fact lots of people cba going through with a private sale, dealer trade in is easier.

Private sale = the buyer has your direct contact details and probably also home address. They may come back to harass you months or even years later demanding a refund cos they crashed the car or the boot started leaking or whatever. Plus you rely on the buyer to register the car in their name correctly and not eg run up speeding tickets and parking fines in your name.

A dealer will give you £2-5k less for the car than they hope to sell it for, but then the car is just gone and any problems are for them to deal with. I always sell to the dealer!

Bluebaul - oh yes I get that you have to have the cash to put for it before reselling. But the mark up Neverreturnroathread is more like £8000.

I can def manage a private sale for that kind of return! I could outwanker a wanker for a few thousand.

There's a couple of other ways to sell. Provided the car is legally yours, as PP said.

You can take it to an auction and they will sell it for you, deduct their fee, and transfer the funds to you.

I've used We Buy Any Car dot com. I was very pleasantly surprised. They honoured their on-phone quote and transferred the funds into my bank account there and then.

Both these ways are considerably less hassle than dealing with a private sale with people not turning up, hassling you, possibly threatening you and generally potentially being a pain. And, on the day, you may get less than from one of the other methods.

IMO, well worth the cost of having a 'middle man'.

I hated selling our car to dealers. It was such a stressful experience because you'd get given an optimistic quote which obviously draws you in, then they made us wait around for ages and would give you a totally rubbish price. It just made us feel grubby and ripped off and we didn't know if there was a way to get a better deal. We ended up part exchanging it to pay off the rest of the finance and the remainder as the deposit on a lease. I would rather know upfront how much money I'm throwing away, and get the benefits of the guarantee so no maintenance costs, this one even includes all the services. Will never buy a new car again and I'm wary of buying a second hand one because of the experience of trying to sell. I can't overstate how stressful and depressing it was!

I don't know if we could have sold privately with it still under finance but in any case, we wouldn't have as we felt anxious about how you make sure it's above board and not a scam. Do watch out for scammers on car trading sites because they are common.

Personally I wouldn’t be spending more than a couple of thousand on a private sale. If I was spending upwards of £20k on a car I’d want somewhere to take it back to if it was shit or had a problem

The used car market has changed hugely since you signed the contract with VW Finance three years ago or whatever it was. I've just looked and the dealer I bought mine from and returned in 2017 are selling the same car for more now than the value five years ago. Plus you have dealer profit to take into account.

If you could possibly manage to buy the car, it's a huge advantage to you. Because you've got a contractual entitlement to pay £14k (ish, I'm not sure about your figures) for a car that's worth £22k in a dealer, or probably around £18k as a private sale.

As you know the history of the car, if it suits you, I'd just buy and run it for the foreseeable, as you're unlikely to get a better deal on a new car or another used one.

Barbara yes that makes complete sense. It makes no sense not to keep it as I will need something similar in the future. Will buy and feel like I am getting g a good deal.