What is the best way to sell a second hand car?

[Cam]

Can anyone give me advice on this subject? I bet m/netters will know all the tips.

Autotrader, they have a website and obviously you can buy the magazines too. I'd say that most cars, so long as they are sensibly priced and honestly described (and obv not cut-and-shut affairs) sell within 2 weeks of being published.

You can also try Loot or your own local ad paper, putting a card up in the newsagents, putting a computer printed ad in the rear windscreen of your car so that people will see that it is for sale when it is out and about (be careful when adding your phone number though, it may be best to add a mobile or email). You could also try Ebay too.

HTH
WSM

Loot is good. www.loot.com but it only operates in certain areas.

Or Exchange and Mart.

Message withdrawn

Have to say from now on we just go to a local garage and do it that way. We tried to sell a Ford Fiesta a few years back and it was a nightmare. Three people made appointments to view the car, we arranged times to be available (and even drove 30 minutes to next town for one) and none showed up! In the end we got a preety good deal at the garage at the top of our road - we played a couple of garages off against each other.

Good luck with it all.

I know someone who sold theirs on Ebay!

Is it a cheap, grotty £200 type car? or an executive £15,000 type car. the selling method is different for each.

Oh, are you in/near a city, or rural? That makes a difference too.

I think it was a bit of a cheap heap and the person who sold it lives somewhere around Chesham (he works with DH).

yep, I reckon you could sell a heap or Ebay, never tried. You can usually flog a cheap car in an urban area just by sticking a "for sale" sign in the window, or advertising in your local rag.

Something more upmarket needs Autotrader or better. When I was expecting ds I sold my beautiful Safrane (sob sob) with an ad in the motoring section of the Saturday Telegraph.(Needed to pay off the loan before I stopped work, still miss it).

word of warning if it is a decent car. You are likely to get phoned by a company who claim to have people "on their books "looking for a car just like yours and for about£50 they will advertise it on their website and will throw in some vouchers for cheap hotel accommodation. My gullible dh got caught out by this and one of the consumer progs said although it was legit they could not find anyone who had sold their car this way.
Can't remember the name of the company.

Try Ebay - I've just sold a house on it

I'll go for Autotrader too, all the decent cars are sold by 10am on thursday morning (the day it comes out). If your car is under £1000 you only pay £25 for 2 weeks or otherwise it is something like £30-£50 but well worth it - the price includes a free photo which they will take or you can e-mail one to them.

My boss advertised his in the local paper and paid £70 for no interest and then sold it on the first day that it was in Autotrader.

We also have Adtrader and Yeller around here who do free advertising but the take up isn't as good, though it would be ok if you weren't in any rush to sell.

A long MOT is always a good seller and preferably a bit of tax. Don't forget to add "no canvassers" to your advert, otherwise you will be bombarded with agencies, dealers and other advertising media who all offer to sell your car for you.

Cor thanks for all these messages with their fantastic advice - knew m/net would come out for me!