Advice on selling a car

B0bbyEwing

Sounds daft maybe but I've never really sold a car before as I tend to buy end-of-life motors. I'm the last owner, generally. Even the last car I had, it went knackered so while I sold it rather than scrapping it, it was a non-runner & I'd have accepted any offer over scrap really so it doesn't actually count.

I'm pretty decided now that I'm going to try and move my car on which I only bought 2 months ago. I bought at £1.8k - £1.9k & it's going to cost another £1k - £1.3k to put everything right. Maybe my estimate is a little high but it depends on how dear the garage is so I'm estimating on the higher end. Even lower end it'll still be best part of a grand & that's the trap I got in to with the last car & I don't want to keep throwing money at a car that may not even be suitable (has DPF, I think it might've been ok but don't know for sure as it's not regening, probably due to 1 of the faults).

Anyway so I list it up for sale. In the windows, in Marketplace, wherever.

Joe Bloggs wants to come & inspect. He wants to take it for a test drive.

What then, really? 

I've only ever really had garage experiences where the guy says just stay local, don't go too far & I'm just like yeah whatever & take it for a spin (actually sticking local but point being he doesn't do any checks on me, doesn't seem to care).

Like do you check if they have insurance? And what if chappy pulls up some grainy photo on his phone of some kind of document which has no name on it. What about if that's his mates paperwork or whatever?

And this is what I'm getting at, what sort of checking do you do really with these private sales & do you treat it any differently at this price point?

And do you then allow them out themselves or do you sit in with them? Or say you can come but you're not driving it, I'll drive & you be passenger?

Unsure on how to play it really.

And how honest are you in the listings? Like do you describe every fault going, even though nobody ever seems to do that for you? What do you declare, what do you hold back for the buyer to stumble across themselves?

Car_54

If the driver isn’t insured to drive your car, you will be guilty of “causing or permitting”. Six points, fine plus surcharge and costs, and much higher insurance premiums for the next few years. Don’t even think about it.

You must check that he’s insured. If his certificate covers “driving other cars”, be aware that it is almost certainly third-party only, so it may be legal but your car is at risk.

Safest course is to drive yourself.

Isthisforreal99

To be honest I'd be putting that up as for spares or repair.....or scrap it.

B0bbyEwing

Car_54 said:

If the driver isn’t insured to drive your car, you will be guilty of “causing or permitting”. Six points, fine plus surcharge and costs, and much higher insurance premiums for the next few years. Don’t even think about it.

You must check that he’s insured. If his certificate covers “driving other cars”, be aware that it is almost certainly third-party only, so it may be legal but your car is at risk.

Safest course is to drive yourself.

Yeah ideally I wouldn't have them driving it because they'd probably want to rag the hell out of it. I just wondered how others who've dealt with private sales have handled folk saying - can I take it for a test drive.

No you can't.
Well I wont buy it then.
x repeat repeat repeat.

Another thing I'm cautious over, is matey boy from Birmingham, Burnley, Nelson, Blackburn, Bradford etc. coming with his dad, his cousin, his cousins cousin & their 2 brothers. 

Relative of mine actually had something pretty much like that. I think it was for a Honda Civic Type R at the time. Chappy from Birmingham (he'd have had to have driven a few hours north) was interested & sorted out a time & date with my relative. When he turns up, my relative is like - what's this, a family outing? Thankfully he didn't get turned over but it was a lot of them & 1 of him & could've easily gone wrong.

Isthisforreal99 said:

To be honest I'd be putting that up as for spares or repair.....or scrap it.

It needs jobs doing to it but it's not at that stage right now ... depending on your outlook on cars.

If you're one of these who only buys £30k cars & anything less is bargain basement then yeah fair enough.

But if you scrapped every car on the road that was in the position mine is in right now then there would be a LOT of cars wiped out.

Timing belt, oil seal, glowplug (x1) & you'd scrap it? Maybe you would. Many wouldn't.

There is another issue with it too which I'm trying to determine which of a few things it may be. I'm hoping it's the cheaper of the 3 options anyway.

sheramber

You must describe it truthfully or the buyer can come back to you about it. 

Advertising it as for spares or repair is not scrapping it.

The buyer can chose if he wants to repair it or if he wants to use it for spares for his own car.

Isthisforreal99

B0bbyEwing said:

Car_54 said:

If the driver isn’t insured to drive your car, you will be guilty of “causing or permitting”. Six points, fine plus surcharge and costs, and much higher insurance premiums for the next few years. Don’t even think about it.

You must check that he’s insured. If his certificate covers “driving other cars”, be aware that it is almost certainly third-party only, so it may be legal but your car is at risk.

Safest course is to drive yourself.

Yeah ideally I wouldn't have them driving it because they'd probably want to rag the hell out of it. I just wondered how others who've dealt with private sales have handled folk saying - can I take it for a test drive.

No you can't.
Well I wont buy it then.
x repeat repeat repeat.

Another thing I'm cautious over, is matey boy from Birmingham, Burnley, Nelson, Blackburn, Bradford etc. coming with his dad, his cousin, his cousins cousin & their 2 brothers. 

Relative of mine actually had something pretty much like that. I think it was for a Honda Civic Type R at the time. Chappy from Birmingham (he'd have had to have driven a few hours north) was interested & sorted out a time & date with my relative. When he turns up, my relative is like - what's this, a family outing? Thankfully he didn't get turned over but it was a lot of them & 1 of him & could've easily gone wrong.

Isthisforreal99 said:

To be honest I'd be putting that up as for spares or repair.....or scrap it.

It needs jobs doing to it but it's not at that stage right now ... depending on your outlook on cars.

If you're one of these who only buys £30k cars & anything less is bargain basement then yeah fair enough.

But if you scrapped every car on the road that was in the position mine is in right now then there would be a LOT of cars wiped out.

Timing belt, oil seal, glowplug (x1) & you'd scrap it? Maybe you would. Many wouldn't.

There is another issue with it too which I'm trying to determine which of a few things it may be. I'm hoping it's the cheaper of the 3 options anyway.

Paying £1 - £1.3k on a car worth £1.8 to £1.9k is madness imho.

Each to their own.

Bit racial undertones there as well?

B0bbyEwing

sheramber said:

You must describe it truthfully or the buyer can come back to you about it. 

Advertising it as for spares or repair is not scrapping it.

The buyer can chose if he wants to repair it or if he wants to use it for spares for his own car.

Problem with spares or repair is everyone then wants whatever it is for £5 no more.

I'm asking where do you draw the line with "describe it truthfully"...?

If i say ... it's a Ford Focus 1.6, made in 2013 & has done 100k miles ........ and that's exactly what the car is, then that's truthful.

But say it's got a list of troubles as long as your arm but I don't mention these. 

I've not said "there's nothing wrong with it". I've just simply not mentioned them & left the potential buyer to do their own detective work the same way my seller did with me.

So I've not lied in the above example.

To say another way ... when they're having a walk around the car & they may or may not have noticed any issues with it. Am I to say oh hang on, before you go let me show you this scratch over here that I've just noticed?

Now I want to point out, I'm not being flippant here, I'm painting examples to just ask again my question of where do you draw the line with this being truthful? There's different ways of looking at it.

Isthisforreal99 said:

B0bbyEwing said:

Car_54 said:

If the driver isn’t insured to drive your car, you will be guilty of “causing or permitting”. Six points, fine plus surcharge and costs, and much higher insurance premiums for the next few years. Don’t even think about it.

You must check that he’s insured. If his certificate covers “driving other cars”, be aware that it is almost certainly third-party only, so it may be legal but your car is at risk.

Safest course is to drive yourself.

Yeah ideally I wouldn't have them driving it because they'd probably want to rag the hell out of it. I just wondered how others who've dealt with private sales have handled folk saying - can I take it for a test drive.

No you can't.
Well I wont buy it then.
x repeat repeat repeat.

Another thing I'm cautious over, is matey boy from Birmingham, Burnley, Nelson, Blackburn, Bradford etc. coming with his dad, his cousin, his cousins cousin & their 2 brothers. 

Relative of mine actually had something pretty much like that. I think it was for a Honda Civic Type R at the time. Chappy from Birmingham (he'd have had to have driven a few hours north) was interested & sorted out a time & date with my relative. When he turns up, my relative is like - what's this, a family outing? Thankfully he didn't get turned over but it was a lot of them & 1 of him & could've easily gone wrong.

Isthisforreal99 said:

To be honest I'd be putting that up as for spares or repair.....or scrap it.

It needs jobs doing to it but it's not at that stage right now ... depending on your outlook on cars.

If you're one of these who only buys £30k cars & anything less is bargain basement then yeah fair enough.

But if you scrapped every car on the road that was in the position mine is in right now then there would be a LOT of cars wiped out.

Timing belt, oil seal, glowplug (x1) & you'd scrap it? Maybe you would. Many wouldn't.

There is another issue with it too which I'm trying to determine which of a few things it may be. I'm hoping it's the cheaper of the 3 options anyway.

Paying £1 - £1.3k on a car worth £1.8 to £1.9k is madness imho.

Each to their own.

Bit racial undertones there as well?

I agree, it's madness, hence why I'm looking at selling.

If I'd had the car for ages, I knew the car well, it had been super reliable so far for years on end & needed this work then I'd think about it actually because I prefer to keep a car that I know has been reliable.

But I've known this car 5mins (8 weeks) so have no idea what's going to crop up next.

And it's 2025 so I'm aware of all the label throwing that goes on these days because it seems the fashionable thing to do. I mentioned nothing about any race though. You're just assuming and I'm just talking from life experience.

Woodstok2000

These are situations where webuyanycar etc. may be worth a look.  My last car had a bunch of underlying issues which I knew wouldn't show up on the day, but which might end up coming back to bite me with a private sale or massively impacting the price.  For the sake of a 5-10% lower offer, I sold it online and there's no possible come back from the buying company,

B0bbyEwing

Woodstok2000 said:

These are situations where webuyanycar etc. may be worth a look.  My last car had a bunch of underlying issues which I knew wouldn't show up on the day, but which might end up coming back to bite me with a private sale or massively impacting the price.  For the sake of a 5-10% lower offer, I sold it online and there's no possible come back from the buying company,

5-10%?

My experience of those kinds of sites is that that's what they offer you not what they reduce the value by. 

If your car is worth maybe £1000 then they'll offer maybe £100 is my experience. 

It's willingly accepting a huge reduction in what you'll get for a car. 
I can accept a reduction. Say I buy for 1.8 & I advertise for 2.5 (because looking on ebay & people's wildly varying pricing this seems to range from 1.2 to 2.5 with most around what I paid) and then someone came in and said I'll offer you 1.5.

Thats a reduction but it's chancing your luck. Seeing what happens. 

To willingly go to WBAC, knowing full well you're basically taking your 1.8k & sticking it on the fire

Well as someone mentioned earlier, that's just madness to me. 

Mildly_Miffed

B0bbyEwing said:

I'm pretty decided now that I'm going to try and move my car on which I only bought 2 months ago. I bought at £1.8k - £1.9k & it's going to cost another £1k - £1.3k to put everything right.

Define "put right"...

Is it legally driveable?
What are the issues?

These days, £2k is pretty much bottom end for anything with more than negligible MOT, and which isn't being nursed into the ground. Spending a grand plus on that...? You're either a perfectionist, or it really is spares-or-repair.

As for test drives and insurance... Yes, you need to check they're insured. Otherwise you're on the hook legally.
Get a feel for the individual before agreeing to anything. If they're going out on their own in it, they leave something of value, such as their licence or the keys to their car. If there's questions over whether the car is legally roadworthy, don't let them drive it - but then, you shouldn't be, either.

WBAC will give you buttons, especially if the issues are noticeable.

Woodstok2000

B0bbyEwing said:

Woodstok2000 said:

These are situations where webuyanycar etc. may be worth a look.  My last car had a bunch of underlying issues which I knew wouldn't show up on the day, but which might end up coming back to bite me with a private sale or massively impacting the price.  For the sake of a 5-10% lower offer, I sold it online and there's no possible come back from the buying company,

5-10%?

My experience of those kinds of sites is that that's what they offer you not what they reduce the value by. 

If your car is worth maybe £1000 then they'll offer maybe £100 is my experience. 

It's willingly accepting a huge reduction in what you'll get for a car. 
I can accept a reduction. Say I buy for 1.8 & I advertise for 2.5 (because looking on ebay & people's wildly varying pricing this seems to range from 1.2 to 2.5 with most around what I paid) and then someone came in and said I'll offer you 1.5.

Thats a reduction but it's chancing your luck. Seeing what happens. 

To willingly go to WBAC, knowing full well you're basically taking your 1.8k & sticking it on the fire

Well as someone mentioned earlier, that's just madness to me. 

There are lots of options, including many who guarantee their quoted price as long as the description is accurate. Parkers guide for a private sale of my car was £9k and I ended up getting quoted and paid £8600. £400 to avoid all the viewings and hassle was well worth it imo.