Selling your car is renowned for being a testing experience. With multiple routes to go down, each with their own unique pitfalls, even starting the process can seem overwhelming. This guide will go through all the main ways to sell your car, breaking them down into their pros and cons.
Sell through Motovate.
Motorvate is a new website to sell your car. By getting more information about your vehicle, a valuation can be given that is generally much more accurate than other websites and will not be knocked down at point of sale. By matching cars to their perfect buyer, the highest possible price can be achieved.
Where Motorvate differs from other comparison sites is that vehicles aren’t simply placed onto an online auction. Instead, Motorvate actively work on behalf of their customers to get the best price possible, approaching multiple dealers and specialist car buyers and haggling to get a better price. Once a sale has been agreed the approved dealer will collect the car from the customer at a convenient time and place and make full payment.
Sell privately.
Selling your car privately carries the potential for the highest reward, but at the cost of the highest number of obstacles to navigate. If you do manage to find the right private buyer you can potentially sell your car at retail value, i.e. the best possible price. This is because when a dealer purchases your car they have to bake in a profit margin so that they make money when they resell it.
However, finding a buyer will often require you to give up a lot of your free time, as well as marketing the vehicle yourself, which can be costly. You will have to arrange viewings and test drives. Many times these will not lead to sales, and if they do you should be prepared to haggle over price. There’s also no guarantee that your vehicle will sell, so you may end up incurring pointless advertising costs.
Sell to a dealer.
Selling your car directly to a dealer removes the hassle of selling your car privately and saves you advertising costs. If you are purchasing a new car you might also consider part exchanging your old one to offset the price. This can seem like a good option, but they way it is worked out will generally not be in your favour. This is why it is recommended to keep the two transactions separate.
Whilst selling to a dealer is generally a hassle-free experience, there are a couple of drawbacks which are important to bear in mind. They are normally expert negotiators, so you can expect to have the value of your car knocked down substantially, especially if you are part exchanging. Also, different dealers will have different values for your car. Unless you are prepared to approach multiple dealers to get the best offer, you might be getting a bad deal.
Sell online.
There are a few different ways to sell your car online. Online car buyers like WeBuyAnyCar will give you a guideline quote on their website and then require you to take your car to one of their physical branches to complete the sale. The process is relatively straightforward, but it’s standard practice to knock the price down at point of sale based on things like minor scratches and tyre condition. This can be problematic, especially if you were expecting the full amount quoted to offset the cost of a new car.
Comparison sites like Motorway require more information about the car, including photos, and then essentially auction the car out to their dealer partners. This has the benefit of saving you from having to approach multiple dealers to get the best price, and the final offer will generally be what you actually get paid. However, they do not work with all dealers or other online car buyers, and there is no option to negotiate a higher price (although you don’t have to accept the offer, of course).
Online marketplaces like eBay provide another option for selling your car. They have some of the same benefits as selling privately, allowing you to find your ideal buyer and achieve the best price possible. However, there may be advertising costs and there is no guarantee your car will sell.