How did you sell your car?

[Lavendar01]

We want to sell our car and get a small run around for now (buying a house). I know part exchange would be the easiest but I've been told doing it via part exchange, I wouldn't get the best (or reasonable) price for the car?

I want a quick sale and hassle free but at the same time not lose couple of grands off the market price. I have sold via Motorway before, it was straight forward enough until the collection day, they were knocking off ridiculous amount (£600) for a very small chip that wasn't even visible to the eye unless you got right up close to car.

Would like to consider garages, how do I narrow down my list of garages in the area I live?

I'm getting different prices online ie Parker's £8.7k -£9.5k, Confused.com £10.1-£10.9k

All advice welcome, many thanks

I've used motorway a couple of times and it's pretty seamless. As long as you take good clear photos for the app, anything else is down to you whether you accept a reduced amount when they come to collect. Given they dealers/buyers are probably driving a reasonable distance, you may be able to agree a compromise. One car I had to accept a small reduction on due to a technical detail on fancy headlights and another sold for the amount agreed beforehand.

Whatever you do- do not use autotrader for a private sale. They are attracting a huge amount of fraudsters. We got done and auto trader didn’t give a shit.

I’d now go for part-exchange and have the security even if the price wasn’t as high.

Gumtree!!! But it was a 15 yr old car valued at under 1k by webuyanycar.

I wasn't selling at that!! My beloved people carrier. Within 10 mins of placing the ad, i had no fewer than 15 people wanting it!!

Got £1800 within ½ hour of putting the ad up.

Thank you everyone.

Any experience selling to garages?

I've part exed with dealerships and carshop before, for PCP and HP deals. Smooth process but you do get less for your car.

Hanks everyone, deciding to go with Motorway in the end.

I have some general wear and tear small stone chips at front of the car, which are noticable on a white car. Anyone know if it's worth fixing them with Halfords chip repair kit or leave it, if it's not going to knock off considerable amount?

Motorway.co.uk

It was brilliant. You have to take a lot of photos and upload a lot on info but your car then goes in to auction amongst interested buyers.

I'd leave it personally. They can do a better repair job than you and there's a certain amount of wear and tear expected. Stone chips are inevitable.

Have you tried T Cut on the chips? Just the regular T Cut, not the coloured one. I was amazed what it did to my one of my wing mirrors! For some reason one of my mirrors looked as though it had been washing using a wire brush. I used T Cut on it and it looked brand new in less than 5 minutes and cost just a few quid. T Cut picks up the pigments of the surrounding paint and blends it together, so it's worth a shot.

@littlemisssunshine247 thanks, should I declare the stone chips or leave it as they'd expect them?

@MalewhoisLaffinalltheway thanks I will make my way down to Halfords see if they got one. Assuming the non coloured one is universal 🙂

Declare it and ensure your photos show it. Then you'll get as realistic offers as possible rather than one based on a more flawless car, which then gets reduced upon collection (as you've previously discovered).

My OH sold his vehicle via FB.

Didn't use FB Marketplace but instead joined a few FB groups which covered his vehicle.
He was contacted by a fair few time wasters/scammers but he weeded these out and ended up with several viewers/potential viewers and sold to the 3rd person who saw it who then paid by bank transfer.
Not talking cheap run about, was a £20k+ vehicle.

I would ring round a few local garages and dealerships that do part exchange and ask to take it in for a quote.
I sold mine recently to We buy any car, they offered me more than garage part exchange prices. Like Motorway, they will knock a bit off for any imperfections though.

Yep. Bog standard T Cut. Hope it works for you.

Last car I sold to Money4yourmotor and it was surprisingly easy. I declared the scratches (not through the paint but in the clear coat) and when they came to collect I got exactly what I was quoted.
My dads old car I sold on FB marketplace and was inundated with calls as it was def in the cheap run around (low mileage, body work trashed) category which apparently in demand for those who work on site

Sorry to hear can I ask what happened as we are planning to sell soon? I wouldn't release the keys until payment was made and received. Wondering what else could go wrong!

@FlutteryButterfly don't allow viewing at your home- meet in a public place. Too many cases of the car later being stolen off the driveway.

Dont sell low value cars on gumtree of facebook. Just dont.

Thanks for the tip, did think possibly key cloning/theft

I've used motorway and webuyanycar. Motorway was really good all the way through until some road man dickhead tyre kickers turned up. I told them pay the price or fuck off in the end. It was exactly what I wanted to avoid from going through a private seller.

We buy any car was only £200 less than motorway and it was done and dusted. (£6.5k car if purchased from a garage but they paid 3.2k - in fact, I saw it for sale after for 6.5k)

Make sure YOU take the v5/log book out of your name. It's your responsibility but we buy any car say not to worry. I used to work in insurance and I can't tell you how many people didn't bother and got fines etc. that's you definitively saying it's not longer your problem. Do it online for ease.

Using Facebook or gumtree just opens you up to lowball offers and scammers.

Even if it's in a public place don't let them drive without you or give them chance to steal the car. Honestly, it's just not worth it!

Only the owner drives the car.

But basically dont allow anyone who sounds dodgy to view it. Simple as that.

I once sold privately and it was a nightmare. Call after call of wrong uns.

@Radged i mean that's fair but I wouldn't buy a car I wasn't able to drive! It's just too much of a risky route!

I'd never buy privately but DH does.

I'd rather take it to a proper garage and part exchange it. Private sales aren't worth the risk IMO.

I agree with re: only owner drives as no way of knowing that the wannabe purchaser has correct insurance/insurance at all to cover them.

We can't part-ex due to various reasons unfortunately and the loss of selling to the likes of webuyanycar is over £2k.