Selling car privately.... am I being OTT?

ali-t

I bought a car recently from a dealership and test drove a couple from different places and legally they don't have to ask to see your driving licence never mind whether you have insurance. Obviously they will have insurance that covers the car but they didn't need any proof I was able to drive and in one place I took the car out on my own.


Rather than selling your car privately, depending how old it is and what condition it is in you could phone your local dealership and ask them to buy it from you. I did that with one of my cars, it was a couple of years old and Vauxhall took it off me for more than webuyanycar were offering and sold it on. It was a trade in without me buying anything from them.

spookylukey

ali-t wrote: »

I bought a car recently from a dealership and test drove a couple from different places and legally they don't have to ask to see your driving licence never mind whether you have insurance. Obviously they will have insurance that covers the car but they didn't need any proof I was able to drive and in one place I took the car out on my own.


Rather than selling your car privately, depending how old it is and what condition it is in you could phone your local dealership and ask them to buy it from you. I did that with one of my cars, it was a couple of years old and Vauxhall took it off me for more than webuyanycar were offering and sold it on. It was a trade in without me buying anything from them.

A dealership will have a policy that allows any driver to drive under their policy fully comp so whether or not you have your own insurance is irrelevant to them. I test drove a brand new car yesterday and they didn't ask to see my driving licence either, I did mention it but he said they assume that if you want to buy a car you've probably got a licence!

I'm getting mine serviced before I sell it (at the main dealer) so may ask if they'd consider buying it. It's low miles, full service history and still has manufacturer warranty left so I reckon it should be fairly easy to sell privately but agree it would be much easier to sell to the dealer. Good idea

loskie

it is foolish of a dealer not to ask for a licence.

arcon5

Most dealers don't ask for a license in my experience. In fact I don't think i've ever had to show one

loskie

yes but it is foolish.

straighttalker

OP, proof or insurance and being accompanied to the bank is a perfectly reasonable request. In the past, I've bought a £13500 car privately and paid cash. I went to a small NatWest bank with the seller and the money was paid in without a problem.

Bank transfers also work however they can sometimes take a few hours.

Richard53

Re the 'insurance wording' - to be fair, I was thinking about an ebay listing, where you have a lot more room to set your stall out and anything you can put there to weed out the idiots and tyre-kickers is a good thing. For a classified ad, I wouldn't bother, just make sure that any potential buyer was aware of the condition before setting out on a long journey to view. As above, it's the risk of allowing an uninsured person to drive the car, more than the risk of an accident during a test drive.

takman

The problem you may have is that the bank has to be open for you to be able to sell the car. Every car and caravan i have bought over the last 5 years i have done so during hours when all the banks are closed. So if i was told on the phone that i would have to visit a bank to pay the money in then i would be unable to purchase it.

GabbaGabbaHey

spookylukey wrote: »

If the test-driver was unfortunate enough to crash and refused to pay for the damage I'd have to take them to the small claims

Unless they were guilty of reckless driving (or driving without due care and attention), what exactly would be the basis of your claim?

spookylukey wrote: »

I'm getting mine serviced before I sell it (at the main dealer) so may ask if they'd consider buying it.

If you are doing that, make sure that you agree a price before they do the service. Otherwise you'll be paying main dealer rates for a service which they can do in house much more cheaply.

bigjl

arcon5 wrote: »

Going to the bank with you is weird. Why would anybody in the right mind want to go in to a bank to withdraw a large sum of money to come buy your car just for you to say they need to drive back to a bank, wait in the queue for you to bank it?
Either check it yourself or insist on bank transfer.

I don't see why it would be considered weird.

Any dodgy buyers would be scared off by the quality CCTV and fact that bent notes could easily be spotted.

Another option would be Banking Apps if the buyer has one.
Money is transferred immediately and the new Barclays App can transfer funds using a mobile number apparently.

At the end of the day businesses that deal with lots of used cars prefer not to accept cash.

They do it for sound reasons.