How to sell your old banger

Discover the most cost-effective way to say goodbye to your motor

There are lots of options when it comes to selling your car. Some are better if you want a quick sale, whereas others should get you a better price. Before you sell your car, pay off any outstanding finance, unless you’re trading in with a dealer. You’ll need your car’s log book, its service history and you should have two sets of keys. And give it a clean before you sell!

Private sale

You can still sell your car privately by listing it in your local paper, or try a website such as Gumtree where you can list for free. A six-week online advert on the Autotrader website costs up to £64.

On many websites, once you put in your car’s registration number and make, its details will come up. If the site doesn’t suggest a value, there are online valuation tools you can use – we can recommend www.parkers.co.uk.

Car-buying sites

There are a number of specialist carbuying websites but Webuyanycar.com is probably the best known. You can get an online valuation but this isn’t a guaranteed price – to find out what you’ll actually get take your car to one of their branches. If your car is worth over a certain amount (this varies) you may have to pay a transaction fee of up to £75. You will hand over the car the same day as you get your quote, so make sure you have a plan to get home!

Trade in

Trading in your car at a dealer can be a quick – and guaranteed – way of selling. You generally won’t get as much as if you sell it privately, but you may get more than you would from a car-buying service. Look at Google and TrustPilot ratings of dealers near to you to find out what sellers – and buyers – think.

Selling on eBay

eBay is becoming a popular place for buyers of second-hand cars to look. The main disadvantage is you may sell for a lot less than you expect (or not sell). When you’re writing the advert description, the key is to think about what people will be searching for. For example, ‘Ford Focus 1.4 petrol 2012 70,000 miles’.

Sell safely

Watch out for scammers if you’re selling privately or on eBay, and make sure you don’t let anyone test drive your car without you being in it.

Some sellers only accept cash or cheque, but a bank transfer can be easier. Don’t hand over the car until you’ve checked the money is in your account and always give a receipt to the buyer – making a copy for yourself.