Jasmine Birtles
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How to sell your car easily
Reading Time: 3 minutesDisclaimer: This article is sponsored by Motorway
With so many options these days, it can be tricky to know the best way to sell your car – should you go with classified websites, local dealerships, part-exchange or online car dealers?
It can feel pretty daunting – and many motorists have admitted that they have taken less money than they could get for their car, simply for the convenience of selling it quickly.
Research carried out by Motorway has shown that the average loss when selling a second-hand car is £977 – that’s nearly a £1,000 hit!
Before You Sell
The first thing to consider is your car’s age and mileage – this is a useful starting place as it will help you determine how much money you’re realistically going to get for your car.
Get together your V5C document, service history, MOT, and spare keys. If you’re missing any of those items, it could affect the price you get. And don’t forget once you’ve sold to send the remaining part of the V5C form back to the DVLA, cancel your car insurance, and reclaim any outstanding road tax.
Look online at what cars of the same age and model are going for in order to get a ballpark figure of what your car is worth – or, alternatively, get a friendly expert to check out, ensuring that the price they tell you takes the car’s condition and service history into account. It is also a good idea to ensure your car is as clean and tidy as possible and that any scratches or dents have been attended to. You should also check the oil and petrol levels are adequate and ensure that your floor mats are in good nick.
The asking price
Once you’ve got your car looking as good as possible and you know what a realistic asking price is, you then need to aim to get as close as possible to your asking price.
A good place to start is Motorway, who will instantly value your car for free. Their valuation tech will accurately value your car using live market data. Simply enter your reg and mileage for an instant quote.
If you’d rather have a face-to-face valuation, you could take your car to a local dealership to see how they would value the car. This is, of course, no guarantee – as whoever is buying the car will decide what they think is a fair price, and you may incur processing costs that will be deducted from your sale price.
Selling options
Motorway is a great way to sell your car. Simply enter your car into their daily sale, where it will be shown to their network of 5,000+ verified dealers. They will then compete to buy your car, offering you their best price. In as little as 24 hours you will receive your best offer – your car will be collected for free by the dealer and the money will be quickly and securely transferred to your bank account.
Part-exchange is another option. It is a fairly simple process, but rarely yields the best return – because dealers will want to make a decent profit, and you already invested into the purchase of your next car with them.
Next, there are online car buyers, who will value your car online and ask you to take it to a local drop-off point for a final valuation before sale. The final price won’t necessarily match the price you were quoted after they have reviewed the vehicle.
Finally, there’s the option to sell your car for scrap, if it’s worth less than £500 or has high mileage!
Disclaimer: MoneyMagpie is not a licensed financial advisor and therefore information found here including opinions, commentary, suggestions or strategies are for informational, entertainment or educational purposes only. This should not be considered as financial advice. Anyone thinking of investing should conduct their own due diligence.
will use these next time i sell my car wish i heard about them a bit earlier only sold my car last weekend.