Selling your car

Once you have decided to sell your car, you need to make sure that you can get the most money for it. You should use one of the free car valuation tools available to help you decide how much your car is worth. Take a look at one of the following free car valuation tools, What Car?, AutoTrader or Parkers.

Once you know how much your car is worth, you need to decide how you wish to sell it. You have two options here, you can either sell your car to a dealer, or to another motorist. If you are looking at buying a new car from a dealer then you will more than likely be able to part exchange your vehicle to get some money off it. You should be aware of how much your vehicle is worth, and you aren’t likely to get as much from the dealer if you part exchange it, so you might want to sell it privately to another motorist.

Selling your vehicle to another motorist is now a lot easier because you can advertise it online at places like AutoTrader.co.uk. There are a few things that you need to make sure that you do in order to get the highest possible price for your car.

Is your vehicle ready to be sold?

Car buyers will be looking for any little faults with the vehicle which will allow them to ask for money off. If you take a bit of time to make sure that your vehicle is well maintained and clean then you could gain hundreds of pounds on the price.

Buyers will want to inspect the car under the bonnet as well as checking the body of the car. Spend a bit of time doing the following:

Topping up your liquids – Check the oil levels, make sure you have windscreen washer fluid topped up and check you have brake fluid.

Check your lights work – Turn on all your lights and check that you don’t have any broken bulbs. Press your brake pedal, put the car in reverse and ask someone to walk around the car checking that they are all normal.

Check all your tyres – Have a quick walk around your car, check for any punctures, check that the pressure is correct and that the tread is legal and not unevenly worn on one side of the wheel. If you do have any bad tyres you should replace them.

Wash your car and wax it – You can go through a car wash, but the best way to get a clean car is to clean it by hand, starting at the roof and working your way down to the wheels, with a soft sponge and shampoo. Make sure you don’t clean in the sunshine as this can damage your paintwork. Wax the car once you are finished to give it a ‘just like new’ look.

Clean and hoover the inside – Buyers are going to want to sit in the car and take it for a test drive, if the inside is dirty then it will put them off and make them think the car wasn’t looked after. Use a damp cloth for any dust and hoover the carpets, seats and any little nooks and crannies.

Empty the car of anything unnecessary – Take out any old books, CDs, bits of paper and junk from the boot. Only keep necessary car documents in the glove box, if the car looks ready to be bought then the buyer will be able to picture themselves owning it.

Use an air freshener – Give your car the newly bought smell by using a car air freshener or odour remover spray on the seats and carpets.

Where do I advertise my car?

With many motorists turning to the world wide web to look for a new car, maybe one of the best places to advertise your car is on a website like Auto Trader. However, the more people you get to see your car, the more likely you are to sell it quickly, so think about putting a ‘For Sale’ sign in your car window as well. Just write the price, a quick description and your phone number on it. Remember that anyone driving past your car will need to be able to read the details so write in a large font and don’t put lots of information on it.

If you are going to advertise your car online, in a newspaper or a car magazine, then you need to make sure that you are getting your monies worth from the advertising. The quicker you sell the car, the less hassle it is and the less you spend on advertising.

What price?

Knowing the exact value of your car is hard, even if you’ve got a valuation. Take a look at what other cars within the same model and age bracket are being sold for. See if yours looks in better condition and has less miles on the clock for a bit of extra help as to what you should price your car at.

How to write your advert

You need to keep the advert short and sweet but with all the relevant information that will entice buyers. Summarise all the vehicles key features (take a look at your car manual if you need reminding of the cars features) and any specifications it has, using bullet points where possible is great as it keeps the information concise and is easier to read. For an online ad you should keep it between 60 – 80 words and 20 – 25 words for a magazine or newspaper ad.

Example Online Ad:

Audi A3 1.6L 3dr Hatchback
Metallic Blue, 2006 model (56), Petrol, Manual, 69,000 miles, MOT 06-2012, Tax 06-2012, 2 Owners. Alloy wheels, remote central locking, folding rear seats, CD player, passenger airbags, side airbags, rear headrests, alarm, immobiliser, height adjustable drivers seat, electric windows, electric door mirrors, full size spare wheel, Isofix child seat anchor points, spare key. Insurance group:8.

Pictures are the perfect way to persuade a buyer to come and look at your car. Without pictures a buyer may not even look at your full description. Try to take a picture from every angle of your car. Make sure that you take photos of the interior and under the bonnet as well. Auto Trader recommends that you upload 9 images of your car for the best results.

Viewing your car

When you start to get calls about viewing your car, the interested buyer will want to know more information about the car before coming to view it. It is a good idea to have all the car information written down ready to remind you of the following:

• Make, model, year.
• price,
• mileage,
• engine size, car type, fuel type,
• number of previous owners,
• extra features (electric windows, alloys, air conditioning, seat heaters, sat nav etc),
• tax and MOT renewals dates,
• whether it has a full service history, with documents.

Keep a diary when you’re arranging visits from the buyer and make sure that you inform them that you will need to see relevant insurance documents if they wish to test drive the car. Try to make yourself available for the viewing, but refrain from showing the car when it is dark.

Take the viewers details and let them know if there are other people coming to visit as well. Let any visitors know if you sell the car before their visit. Make sure you are safe when you are showing people around the car. Don’t leave them with the keys and don’t let them go for a test drive on their own. Meet in a safe place where a friend or family member will be around.

Haggling

Haggling is a normal part of buying a car, and you should expect it. Make sure you stay calm and confident and conduct yourself in a business like manner. Before you begin haggling, make sure that you have an idea in your head of the ideal price, a fair price, and your lowest price – do not drop below your lowest price. If you are negotiating on a small difference then you should consider that for the sake of maybe £50 you could save yourself money on further advertising, and time which is probably worth the £50 reduction.

Price agreed, what next?

This may be an obvious point, but make sure that you don’t hand over the keys to the car without having the money in your account. Avoid cheques and bank or building society cheques, but bank transfers, cash and bankers drafts are a good way to take payment. You should note that bank transfer services may take a few days for the fund to be available in your account.

Handing over your car

When you hand over your car, there are a few documents that need to be signed and receipts that need to be written. Make sure you do all of the following:

• Write out two copies of a receipt. This should have on it, the date, the make and model of the car, the car’s registration, the amount paid and the address for both yourself and the buyer. Make sure that both you and the buyer sign both copies, keep one for yourself and give one to the buyer.
• Fill out the slip at the bottom of your V5C registration document and make sure that you send it to the DVLA to let them know there is a change in owner.
• Give the rest of the V5C to the buyer, along with the car handbook, service history and MOT certificates plus any other car documents you have.
• Cancel your insurance for the car, or update it to your new vehicle details if you have one.