Selling a car - any tips?

kikamorris

I've recently bought a new(er) car and the dealer offered me £200 trade in for my old one, but said I could probably get £400 if I sold privately.

I didn't go for the trade-in, and I've looked online at various sites and seen the same make, model and age but with much higher mileage on sale for £750-£995!

Any tips for selling?

I've cleaned inside & out, and will take several nice photos of inside & outside including showing the mileage and the tax disc.

Anything else?

Thanks in advance for your help.

roonaldo

I think you have almost done it all, cleaned it and good photos. Make sure the tyres are correctly inflated and oil & water are topped up.

Focus on its good points in the ad and listed all the spec eg. air con, electric windows etc. At the end of the day its only a few hundred quid and people will have lower expectations than a £10k car.

Put it on Autotrader, my last 4 cars have all sold within about 5 days in there.

scotsbob

Give the engine bay a good clean and use a good air freshener inside the car.
Use a high quality, high shine, wax and remember to dress the tyres.

If a prospective buyer draws attention to something they don't like the look of, just ignore the comment and mention two plus points.

vansboy

Make sure the number plates - especially front one - are nice and clean, not faded or cracked.

Sounds silly perhaps, but its the very First thing people will look at without even realizing they are doing it.

VB

forgotmyname

How long has the car been advertised for £750 - £999 though?

Plenty of dreamers that think their cars is worth far more than a dealer offers. The advertised price is a starting point. It may sell for MUCH less.

Also are they dealers? A dealer will have a bit of protection for a buyer. You as a private seller offer no protection.

Is the old car still insured? Have you SORN'd it?

colino

scotsbob, is that tongue firmly in cheek or do you think the OP is an aspiring driveway dealer and wants to commit all of the sins at once?

jimjames

I'd agree with autotrader if it is a run of the mill standard car. Had no joy at all with them when selling a 911 despite the ad costing a fortune. That sold on Ebay in the end.

Price it right and it'll be gone in a few days if it's a popular car. When I sold my Golf GTi I'd been offered an amount by dealer as PX so put it on Autotrader for £400 more, sold the same day for £250 more than PX. I could have held out for more but it was still £250 more than I'd have got just by handing over to dealer

Annie1960

How long is he MOT? If it's short, then getting a new MOT could be a good selling point.

scotsbob

colino wrote: »

scotsbob, is that tongue firmly in cheek or do you think the OP is an aspiring driveway dealer and wants to commit all of the sins at once?

I don't consider any of my tips to be "sins." I offered the tips that work for me, the OP is free to accept or reject my tips.

I not see your tips, where are they?

Oh you don't have any.

You just a keyboard warrior who comes to slag off other people without contributing anything positive yourself.

colino

So you are serious scotsbob?
As this has been done to death, (if you can ask a question here it proves you can search), remove everything from the car and boot that wasn't there when it was delivered, nobody cares if you've been to Skegness and bought a sticker. Clean and polish all glass, hoover out the interior, polish all surfaces, wash and wax the exterior and take care of any niggling, easily fixable faults. (If you haven't done so the prospective buyer will think they are more difficult/expensive to fix).
Stereotypical driveway dealer things not to do are; clean the engine bay - it looks suspicious as if the car has had work done or has a leak; use tyre slik - it looks less straight than a normal private sale; put in an air freshener - veritable devil of the low-rent trader planted to conceal obnoxious whiffs.
Be honest, approachable and friendly, there are plenty of cars for sale, a potential buyer wants to feel secure with you before they part with their hard earned cash.
Happy bob?