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I normally trade in because I used to need a car for commuting every week and couldn't be without one for a period of time. Now, for obvious reasons, I can make do without one for a few weeks. So I think the next time I trade up, it makes sense to sell privately. Having not done this for a good couple of decades, what makes most sense financially and simplistically nowadays?
Not Gumtree.
Nothing is worth that pain.
EBay ad or autotrader.
Quickest would likely be that face book thingy market place.
eBay and Facebook. Should be an owner's group or two on Facebook, especially if it is interesting.
Whatever you do you will be inundated with driveway traders / hobby traders who think you need to sell it for what they say its worth and will list every single thing that has ever gone wrong with the type of car that they have come to buy. They will list everything that is wrong with the car you are selling and will make a derisory offer and tell you that you won't get near that from the "We Buy Any car" type places. After telling them to do one, they will call back in a day or two, nice as pie and repeat the whole process. My god it was hard work. On the other hand MIL sold her car recently (With a fault) on one of the sites and it was painless and a good price. Depends on how you value your own time, money and sanity.
FB market place
"Will you swap for a hydroponics growing kit and a PS2?" no. "OK I'll throw in a top of the range Carrera Downhill Mountain Bike M8"
Shove a FOR SALE note in the window.
Depending on value ebay classified advert is 19.99 for a month and no extra costs to pay. You put it up at a price, no bidding etc. Busiest sales platform by some way too.
Join the Facebook owners club for the car and stick it on there.
Last time I sold a car I advertised in an owners group at 10am Sunday morning and it was gone by tea time for the full asking price.
A postcard in the post office window.
I sold a bangernomics A3 on Facebook market place. The number of wasted hours from no shows, never again. The only person that turned up was also the only one that could spell. They did buy it though.
Normally use ebay and will do again shortly.
Depends on the value of the car to be honest... And on the desirability of it to a degree. If it's a desirable model, then owners clubs are a great place to advertise, but assuming it isn't...
Under £1500... You're gonna get lots of hasslers who want it for half price and are looking to cut you down on price for anything and everything. Most of them have more time to waste than you do, don't sink to their level. But you don't really want to be paying to advertise a sub £1500 car IMO, so Facebook marketplace, Gumtree etc. are all useful free ads.
£1500-£5k roughly... Probably ebay... Ebay car auctions are at a fixed price per advert rather than paying a final % fee. Gets the car to a large audience, gives you more space to put proper pictures and go into more details about the specifics of the car so pre-screens some of the timewasters IMO. Though of course, you will get some still.
£5k up... Probably worth paying for an Autotrader advert... People who are searching for your specific car will probably be checking regularly for specific search criteria, if it's good condition and priced well for whatever model it is, it will sell quickly. Works better for more desirable cars I think, if it's a generic "LX" specced hatchback then probably not so much.
Worth chucking it in the classifieds on here too potentially. I've sold a couple of cars through the STW classifieds before! 👍🏻
I used motorway.co.uk when I sold my Passat. Trade in offered was £7k, I got £7,750 through motorway. I'd probably have got a bit more via autotrader or similar but it meant none of the hassle of dealing with morons, test drives, wads of cash etc that come with private sales that I just couldn't be bothered with this time.
I'd also considered ringing round local used car dealers - a lot state on their website that they're looking for decent cars to buy direct from the public - again it removes a lot of the hassle of a private sale.
Evans Halshaw used to have a buy any car type thing, were painless and better valuation than webuyanycar
I wouldn't sell privately at the moment, you'll get loads of covid ridden people to take on test drives in a global pandemic when it's not an essential journey
Thanks all. I won't be selling it for a while, just wanted to get an understanding of options nowadays. It's a 64 plate Octavia estate, basic 1.6 diesel. Sounds like ebay is the best option. Looking at total fees, should be about £70 to sell it. Private asking prices are so much higher than trade-in, so I think it's still worth the hassle.
You can filter the hassle to some extent. Ignore all the low offers, reply to messages with questions, don't let people look at it until you've had a few messages forward and back, give out a partial address then the rest just before the visit. The ones that do visit will be serious buyers.
I've not had any problematic selling experiences...however be on the lookout for an increasingly common scam.
Buyer brings a friend or mechanic who wants to look under the bonnet, then a distraction tactic is used, such as wanting to look at a scratch at the back. Oil is either added to the coolant, or a couple of sensors are unplugged causing the car to go into limp mode or illuminate warning lights on the test drive.
A lowball offer then follows, potentially whilst at the side of the road with a car that won't drive and appears to have a serious problem. Potentially with a disgruntled buyer who wants £50 for 'the wasted trip' and his mate backing him up, if you refuse to sell.
Should be easy to spot if they keep trying to get you to leave the engine bay unattended...takes seconds to unplug a couple of items.
Autotrader recently worked well for us - sold 10 year old Galaxy within 12 hours to first chap who showed up. Plenty of interest. Price much better than wbac
I was put off eBay as a buyer as it doesn't give you the option to filter by mileage on vans. I have only just realised that it does give you mileage on cars though, weird.
I think Facebook works well for either very good examples of interesting things posted to owners groups, or absolute middle of the road "everyone drives this" type cars. Sold a Citroen c1 in 24 hours and bought my mx-5 about 6 after it was posted.
Never plan time out of your day for a viewing because most people are time wasters on any of the free sites. Make their visit work around you so that you don't lose out when their excuse comes 10 minutes before they were meant to arrive