Selling Car In These times

knightstyle

I have sold a couple of cars privately over the last few years, use Autotrader for newer cars is my advice.
Put as much information in the add. as you can and then when people contact you if they ask questions that have the answers in the add. you know that they are probably time wasters.
Obviously viewings and test drives will be a problem at the moment. But make sure the car is insured for tests and transfer money by bank transfer or by you sending them a Paypal payment request.
Do not accept lots of cash or Paypal friends for payment.

Herzlos

AdrianC said:

Herzlos said:

How newish?

Being realistic, no-one buys anything more than about £5-10k in 'cash' as they want finance and warranty, so you're most likely going to need to sell it to a dealer. First port of call would be your nearest Honda dealer, then the car buying services.

Especially if it really is "newish". It's the sort of thing that people will look at and go "Why isn't it in the manufacturer approved-used? Did they reject it for some reason...?"

I've never considered that angle. If it's being sold privately then that'll be why it's not manufacturer approved, nor will that many people be aware of it.
I think most people are wary about handing over huge sums of cash (directly or digitally) to buy a car, especially in a world where it's all about monthly payments.
The cars I've sold lately on autotrader were bought by dealers anyway, so that's always worth a punt.

Grumpy_chap

With "newish" cars on Autotrader, it can sometimes be the case that private sales are just as expensive as dealer sales without the buyer protections. 
OR, "newish" cars listed as private sales are "too good to be true" which is another reason to avoid. 
Getting the pricing right is very tricky and that window between trade-sale value and retail from dealer is sometimes surprisingly narrow.

The same does not apply with older cars, where the "fixed costs" of a trader are disproportionately high.

Of course, we don't know what age the OP refers to as "newish".

williamgriffin

knightstyle said:

I have sold a couple of cars privately over the last few years, use Autotrader for newer cars is my advice.
Put as much information in the add. as you can and then when people contact you if they ask questions that have the answers in the add. you know that they are probably time wasters.
Obviously viewings and test drives will be a problem at the moment. But make sure the car is insured for tests and transfer money by bank transfer or by you sending them a Paypal payment request.
Do not accept lots of cash or Paypal friends for payment.

What's the deal with PayPal?

I didn't think friends and family could be reversed. PayPal should be a no no for a vehicle and the buyer could claim non receipt of the car and the sell has no proof of delivery.

Herzlos

PayPal F&F provides no protections for anyone, so should only be used in trusted instances.
If I remember correctly, PayPal doesn't provide any protection for car sales either.

knightstyle

I used Paypal for a deposit when a buyer could not come to view for two days.  It was sent as a "non refundable deposit" and I agreed to remove the add when I got it.  The buyer was genuine and bought the car after a test drive.  Nothing special about the car except i had just replaced the clutch at 72K miles.

Biggus_Dickus

happyhacker said:

I have a newish honda and want to sell it. Is it better to do this privately say via Ebay or go to a dealer? Just looking for others experiences and how they did it. thanks.

A quick squint at today’s Autotrader ‘newish’ Honda adverts shows this:

Honda (all models) 2017 >>2019:

Trade adverts  3818,... Private adverts 47;...that’s a ratio of  81:1

If Autotrader is indicative of the UK ‘newish car sales’ as a whole then private sales are almost as rare as hens teeth. Make of that what you will.

In the dark-ages before the interweb was born buying/selling a car privately using Autotrader or other media was definitely the way to go. Sellers got much more than a dealer would offer and buyers paid much less than buying from a trader; Win-win. Those times are long gone...apparently.