Tips for selling a car?

Arbitrax

Hi all,

Well, time for my beloved 1st car to find itself a new home. The old girl has served me well and now I'm looking to sell it, ASAP really as I have another car waiting for me.

My grandad died recently, and my gran has very kindly offered to sell me his old car (she offered to give it to me, but that just wouldn't do). However, I need the money from my car as a deposit for the new one! I'm caught on a chain with cars!

So, I was just wondering if any MoneySaving Motoristas have any tips for a speedy sale? Never having sold a car before I'm not really sure where to begin? Besides taking a nice picture and calling AutoTrader.

Oh, and avoiding any company that advertises on Dave.:rotfl:

The car is a typical first car really - Renault Clio, 1.4ltr petrol, 5 door, with 150k miles on the clock, runs like a dream, had every issue fixed in its last MOT etc (For £350! Bye bye savings :mad:).
I was hoping to get about £550-£600 for it, but that's a bit flexible because of the time constraints involved. Gran can't get the bins out when the car's on the drive, so has to ask a neighbour to reverse it out!

Hintza

How long is the MOT? This really will be the determining factor. If it was close to a yaer just stick it on Ebay with a BIN of £700 +/- and invite fok to come and look. Do not cancel (on EBay) the sale until you have the money in your hand.

I it is as good as you say and has a long MOT then you should get roughly what you are looking for.

LandyAndy

I've always sold through Autotrader and had plenty of success (in the North West). I never bothered with the photo just went with the standard size ad, text only. I think it makes it stand out, the piccie is useless anyway. For what is, I imagine, an old, high mileage car I reckon £50 per whole month's MOT.

Max_Planck

It's important to advertise it as much as you can, emphasising the important bits like MOT, service history and tax. Use newsagents windows, local supermarket advert board, put an advert in the car window (make sure you put price on it!)

And tell as many people as you know about it (pub, work, friends etc), I've sold many a car through word of mouth.

johnson293

I would second putting it on ebay, especially as its value is under £1000.

Last car I sold privately I sold on eBay - stuck it on with but-it-now or Best offer for 7 days - this allows people to throw offers at you if they think the B-I-N is too high - you do get some silly offers, but if someone offer just under the B-I-N, it could make for a quicker sale.

I sold that car on day 5 of the listing - chap came out to view it with/for his daughter, and it was listed at £2150 - he offered £2000 cash in hand, and they drove it away - deal done - I then pulled the listing (saying item no longer available), and therefore didn't need to pay the seller fee.

Listing fee for a car is £8.00 and you can put up to 12 pics on the listing, included in that price - the selling fee for a car under £1000 would be £20.00 - so it'll cost you £28.00 if you sell it on ebay. Obviously if it didn't sell, or you pulled the listing before it ended, you'd only pay the £8 listing fee.

If someone used buy-it-now, they'd have to go through ebay checkout, even if they pay you cash on collection, and therefore you'd incure the seller fee.

Good Luck!

Arbitrax

Thanks all, this is all great stuff.

I've rung round all my friends, and am about to update my Facebook status to advertise it too.

I'll definitely consider that eBay thing, but in the meantime, I need to wait for the rain to stop so I can take a decent picture! It looks pukka, so I think having a photo or two would be well worth it.

Incidentally, does anyone know of any cheap products to get the bumpers/dashboard nice and black again?

Rossy.

Arbitrax wrote: »

Thanks all, this is all great stuff.

I've rung round all my friends, and am about to update my Facebook status to advertise it too.

I'll definitely consider that eBay thing, but in the meantime, I need to wait for the rain to stop so I can take a decent picture! It looks pukka, so I think having a photo or two would be well worth it.

Incidentally, does anyone know of any cheap products to get the bumpers/dashboard nice and black again?

funnily enough it's called "back to black" or along those lines.

Halfords sell it

Stigy

How old is the Clio? £500 sounds reasonable unless it's a Mk1 (1990-1997) model, taking the mileage in to account. The longer the MoT the better too. Also, lack of road tax is off puting to many prospective buyers (I always look for a car with tax, even if it's only a couple of months, that way it's instantly driveable as long as I can sort the insurance etc.).

Arbitrax

It's a Mk2, R Reg. While £500-550 is a baseline figure, I'd be happy to let it go for less. As a matter of fact, as the tax is up next month, I'm preparing to knock off the £70 for 6 months' worth of tax, or buy the tax if I don't get a buyer before then. MOT is until April, so 5 months' worth.

Good news! An old schoolfriend who I havent seen in about 5 years messaged me on Facebook yesterday wanting to know more details! :j

Logie143

I have a friend that buys and sells cars alot- just to keep him from getting bored with whichever one he has at the time.
His best advice was to spend on a decent valet. Or if you want to save money, do it yourself, but be really fussy about it and get it absolutely spotless. He says that it always helps him sell.

Stigy

Arbitrax wrote: »

It's a Mk2, R Reg. While £500-550 is a baseline figure, I'd be happy to let it go for less. As a matter of fact, as the tax is up next month, I'm preparing to knock off the £70 for 6 months' worth of tax, or buy the tax if I don't get a buyer before then. MOT is until April, so 5 months' worth.

Good news! An old schoolfriend who I havent seen in about 5 years messaged me on Facebook yesterday wanting to know more details! :j

I assume you mean one of the first of the bubbly type Clios, as opposed to a facelifted Mk1 model...?