Planning to sell your car? Motorway shares its top tips to help you easily sell for the best price.
With so many choices now available to motorists who want to sell their car – from classified listing websites, or part exchange, to selling it to an online car buyer – it can be a real dilemma choosing the right route for an easy sale at a good price.
LoveMONEY has asked Motorway to help out by revealing its top tips to sell your car for the best price with no hassle.
1. Understand your car’s value before putting it up for sale
Your car’s age and mileage, as well as its condition and service history will all affect the sale price – but market prices are probably the biggest driver of all.
Research what your car is worth either on Auto Trader, at your local car dealership or check out a car valuation website like Parkers.
2. Weigh up price vs. speed of sale
For price, try selling privately on sites like Auto Trader or eBay – but be prepared for potential long selling times, showing the car to several prospective buyers, bartering and no guarantees of a sale happening.
For speed, you could sell your car fast online to a verified dealer.
3. Don’t opt for part-exchange just because it’s easy
While part-exchange is definitely less hassle, you might not get the best price.
Unless you own a car the dealer really wants to buy to retail it, you’re not going to secure a good price, as they then need to offload it to another dealer and so need to make a good enough margin from that sale – at your expense!
4. Be realistic
If your car is worth less than £200, you may get more selling for scrap.
5. If you do sell online, consider your options carefully
Whilst there are now several online buyers, there are considerable differences between these services.
The price consumers are quoted by some online buyers is rarely the price they end up getting, because this quote is based on the car being in ‘showroom’ condition, rather than its most likely condition for its age and mileage.
Motorists can get the highest price from a dealer by using Motorway to ensure they get the best deal at a fair price.
Motorway allows you to sell your car for free without ever leaving your home. Receive your highest offer from over 4,000 dealers, and sell for up to £1,000 more.
Motorway will find the dealer who’ll pay the most for your car, with no hassle. You only need to enter your reg to get an instant real-world valuation, then receive the highest price from their network of dealers.
6. Prepare your car for the day of sale
Make sure it is washed and cleaned and fix any minor scratches or dents, so it looks as good as possible to avoid buyers chipping away at the price at the last minute.
7. Be prepared to negotiate
Doing the research to know what your car is worth will help you argue back if the buyer tries to reduce the price when they inspect the car.
8. Never accept cheques, bankers' drafts or IOUs
Do not hand over your keys until you have been paid for your car. That goes for private buyers and car dealers or car buyers.
9. Get your paperwork in order
From your V5C document, service and MOT history to the spare keys. If you’re missing any of these, a buyer will have a good case to drop the final price offered.
10. Get money back after the sale
Don’t forget to send the remaining part of the V5C form back to the DVLA, cancel your car insurance and reclaim your road tax