Sell car privately & risk crime or lose money?

[MostlyGhostly]

I came into a bit of money a few years ago and bought myself a niceish car outright and used the rest for house renovations. I now want to sell the car and use the money to get a 4x4 that can tow, and a horse trailer. Cars with make, model & similar spec to mine are selling for about £20k on auto trader and part x am being offered about 12-15k.

I have faffed about for almost a year deciding whether or not to sell the car privately as I am worried about being scammed or the car being stolen during test drives or viewings through threats or violence. If I part x, I will have to put more on finance towards the car and not be able to afford a trailer, which negates the reason for selling in the first place!

Has anyone ever sold a car of similar or higher value? What safeguarding did you do? I’d make sure DH was about, but what about him? He’s not really a fighter. WWYD?

YANBU: sell car privately
YABU: it’s not worth the risk, give up your dream of doing fun stuff with your horse at the weekend

I hate selling cars, for the reasons you mention. Have you tried We Buy Any Car or Motorway ? You might not get as much as selling it privately, but you should beat the part exchange offers.

Agree with previous poster. My mother died and we sold her car through we buy any car. We looked at the potential asking price on various websites and sold to WBAC for a good price imo. My mother’s lovely neighbours offered us £4K less than WBAC…which confirmed my opinion against a private sale!

Selling more expensive cars like yours as a private seller is very difficult. Most spending that kind of sum want the security of buying from a dealer. Many will be in the same position as you and need to sell their current car. Also remember advertised prices in Autotrader etc are just that...adverts. It doesn't mean they sold for that price.

I also sold to We Buy Any Car and it was the least stressful selling experience you could ever have.

I used Carwow, absolutely no bother for me at all and I got a lot more money for my car than I had expected.

WBAC use what is known as bottom book as heir price guide. Try a couple of local garages or even a local auction house.

We also tried motorway and car wow- carwow came up trumps for us. Very easy to use, and they collect the car from your home. Personally I wouldn't want the hassle and risk of selling privately.

WBAc, motorway, kazoo etc were at the lower end of the offers. Do private dealers buy without selling? I thought they went to auctions etc?

I always sell through We Buy Any Car. It's quick, easy and I find their prices very fair.

For me it's not just the risk of being scammed when selling privately, but also the risk that something goes wrong on the car soon after the sale,, and the unpleasantness that might bring.

I daresay I could get a slightly better price, but for me it's not worth it. Also remember the Auto Trader prices are what people are asking, not necessarily what they're getting.

I don't like part exchange because I think you're never really sure what you're paying for the new car and it makes the negotiation muddy.

If all these places are coming in with similar values I'd be tempted to say that's what your car is worth. Bearing mind a private sale the buyer will likely haggle hard anyway.

I was just about to suggest motorway.

I just sold mine (very old 2012 car)

Got very much what I would have expected people to try and haggle me down through auto trader without the advert price and hassle of actually having to do anything 😂

I’d never heard of car wow and just got the best offer so far! Think I’m going to go with them.

We used car wow. It was very easy.

I’d advertise it well on auto trader.
80% of the calls you’ll get will be car dealers trying to buy stock anyway!

WBAC offered me a decent price online but WAY lower when they saw the car, although it was in reasonable condition. Complete waste of my time