Selling:
Sell at auction
There are usually more bargains for the buyer than the seller at auctions, but if time is money and you're not part-exchanging then entering your car into an auction house like BCA is an acceptable route. It's not cheap. BCA for example charges a commission of 7.5% on the sale price, plus a £42 entry and a £9 service fee.
Don't sell to a friend or relative
Unless you're genuinely helping them out, selling to friends or family is not a good idea. You'll feel bad about pushing for the best price, and resent them haggling you down. Selling to strangers is so much better because you can treat it purely as a business transaction and remain focused on getting the best possible price. It also avoids arguments when hidden problems rear their head later in the car's life.
Flog it for free
You don't have to shell out anything to sell your car privately. Websites such as Loot.com and Gumtree.com are free to use, and often prove to be the better bet for selling an older car. For specialist cars, enthusiast forum Pistonheads is another good freebie route, or sign up to an owners' club web forum. If that fails, then Autotrader's £34 option for two weeks on the website and a week in a local edition of the magazine is usually money well spent.
Get a fresh MoT
Nothing lifts buyer confidence more than a 12-month ticket on a older car. Having spent the £50, you can then confidently post the price you want for your car; assuming it passes of course. It isn't quite a bill of health, but it does signal to the buyer that they're buying a fundamentally safe motor. Writing 'should pass the MoT no problem' just makes people suspicious. Three months or more worth of tax is another selling point.
Cold-shoulder the canvassers
Ignore with extreme prejudice the chancers who promise to sell your car for you. They ring the number you've left on your ad, and then outline the miraculous things they're going to do sell your car, all for the low, low price of
anything up to £100. Then they just stick it online. Try writing 'no canvassers' on your ad.
Describe the car without superlatives
Don't make the same mistakes as the traders when describing a used car. Either they knock up a standardised ad that lists all the extras the car obviously has (eg power steering on a BMW 7-Series), or they're shedding superlatives like rust on an old Maxi. Describe the good bits only (unless it's an auction site), include some clear pictures and don't go over the top.
