Best places to sell your car: Your complete guide
Selling a car is stressful at the best of times but it doesn't have to be — here's your complete guide to the best places to sell your car based on its age, type, condition and value.
- Find out the best places to sell your car
- What's the best time of year to sell?
- AutoTrader and eBay explained
Selling a car is theoretically easy — you agree on a price, do the paperwork yourself and transfer ownership without additional incurring fees or many responsibilities. But that easiness can be open to abuse, causing stress and hassle most people would rather avoid.
Regardless of underlying economic conditions the used car market is usually lively, vibrant and in many ways, a bit skittish. Buyers often assume the worst and used car dealers play on this, so it’s understandable that you might want to avoid the whole process.
The good news is that for desirable, young cars, there are plenty of options that will take the stress out of the deal and still give you a reasonable price for your old motor.
Likewise, for end-of-life cars and old bangers, you may find it easier to just accept the scrap value and see the car — and the associated costs of keeping it road legal — gone.
For classics, unusual cars and just getting the most money back for your vehicle, you’re going to have to do a bit of work, however. This guide will help you decide if it’s worth making the effort and how best to apply that effort if you do want to achieve the best price for your used car.
Check what your car is worth
Age, mileage, condition, specification and even colour are just a few of the seemingly endless factors that can influence your car’s value. One of the best ways to work out what it’s worth is to have a look at classified adverts for similar cars. This is how the Honest Used Car Prices work - it scours online to find actual cars for sale. You can search for a price below or use the link above.
When is the best time to sell a car?
In any buying and selling scenario there are good and bad times to advertise. As a rough guide, demand for convertibles and cheap seven-seaters goes up in summer, while for 4x4s and cheap small hatchbacks the same is true in winter. The convertible and 4x4 pattern makes sense but why so for MPVs and hatchbacks?
In summer, particularly around school holidays, cheap MPVs are popular for roadtrips with friends, such as for sporting events and festivals, camping conversions or general DIY and tip runs, With longer days and more options for leisure, demand for cheap, good seven-seaters increases. If you're selling one, make sure it's got a long MOT and looks clean and presentable — don't be shy asking for strong money if you’ve confidence in its reliability.
In winter a lot of commuters want to avoid the unreliability and delays, the cold and darkness of trains, buses or bikes, and will take on a cheap to insure, scruffy ‘beater’ of a small hatchback even if they own a nice car already. It can be cheaper than risking salt-road wear and risks of winter driving on a more expensive model.
In those cases, a long MoT, good tread on the tyres — with bonus points for new cheap-brand winter tyres, which are often surprisingly good for British winter — and a dry interior with good heater matter more than dents, scuffed wheels or a bit of cosmetic rust. If you have a low insurance group car with good economy that isn’t quite presentable enough for aspiring first-time car buyers, this is your market.
For newer cars, prices fluctuate in line with demand and the most recent registration number changes but we may see a change in these patterns as the move to zero-emission new cars gets closer. You’re likely to get lower offers for potential approved-used stock around the time of new registrations, as PCP returns and trade-ins are abundant. Sales also slow around November and December with many dealers discounting stock.
Selling a car with outstanding finance
Generally you should not sell your car if you owe outstanding finance on it. That means secured loans, PCP deals or a logbook loan registered against it. That does not mean you cannot advertise it for sale but before transferring ownership the finance must be paid off.
Many owners will only consider this situation at the end of a PCP deal, where the choice is either to return the car, trade it in against a new one or pay off the final payment and keep it. PCP finance packages include a manufacturer guaranteed minimum future value. Note the word ‘minimum’.
Most packages are designed to give you a healthy margin between trade value and the final payment, which the dealer will use against the deposit on your next car. In other words you’ve got a two to five year old car with a good maintenance history that you can buy for well below the trade value.
To check if you're about to hand back some unexpected cash, a couple of months before your PCP ends use sites like HeyCar to research retail prices for cars identical to yours. Check out all locations — if your car has lived away from coastal or higher altitude areas it’s likely to have less wear or corrosion underneath and be more desirable, a factor that manufacturers don’t take into account.
If the margin is more than a couple of thousand over the manufacturer figure it’s well worth offering the car for sale even if you plan on going back to the dealer for a new car. In that case you should ask them for figures with and without trading in your existing car.
Where is the best place to sell a car with finance owed?
If you want to sell a car and pay off the finance, the easiest route is to sell it to a reputable trade buyer. We would recommend using Motorway first for competing offers rather than We Buy Any Car.
Be honest in your description, particularly regarding stone chips and minor damage, and you should find the price offered is paid without problems. The balance due to the finance company will be paid directly to them and you should get the difference — with PCPs that's the money you would have lost by just returning the car and walking away.
To sell privately it’s best if you have the cash to pay off the final payment first. For many cars this is a five-figure sum but buyers will not want to buy a car with outstanding finance and you won’t want to risk a fraudulent sale.
It’s often the case that people with a car they’re about to trade in might offer it to colleagues or family for a low price. That’s as safe as your own judgement and a kind thing to do, but you still need to settle that finance before they take ownership of it.
Most finance companies will give you a settlement figure that is applicable for 14-30 days together with bank transfer details. For your buyer's peace of mind you can suggest that they pay that portion directly and the remaining balance to you, before you hand over the car.
Selling an MoT failure car
- Failures caused by bolt-on parts but uneconomic to repair are worth selling
- Structural corrosion is probably better scrapped if not rare or classic
- Stay on the right side of the law when moving, storing and selling your MoT failure
If you car has failed its MoT test you can still sell it, though you will not be able to keep it parked on the road legally. It will also have to be transported if it has failed with dangerous defects that make it illegal to use on the road.
Services such as Car TakeBack will get quotes from scrap buyers but these will often be low and reflect their fees for collecting it. It’s a good route to getting rid of the burden of insurance, tax and storage.
If you have space to store the car and feel it’s worth repairing you can list cars for parts on eBay or sell via Facebook Marketplace. Make sure that any buyer gives you their details and you change the registered keeper online. Also try to make sure the car is collected well before 7:00pm.
Generally speaking, if your car fails the MoT test on extensive corrosion and rust, unless it’s a classic car it’s probably not worth the hassle of selling it for spares or repair. If it has failed for uneconomic repairs, such as suspension bushes, tyres, electrical and lighting problems, brake pipes or emissions system issues, there’s a good chance someone will want to buy it to repair.
Remember that the DVLA’s computerised systems automatically issue fines for unroadworthy cars, so keeping a car that has no MoT or insurance on the road will soon incur more costs than it’s worth. If you have off-road parking, then don’t forget to declare it SORN.
Private number plates on MoT failures
If you are disposing of a car and it has a cherished registration it’s worth paying the £80 to retain it first. You’ll lose it once it’s registered to a new keeper or scrapped. You do not need a valid MoT to retain a transferable number, although you may need to send paperwork in to DVLA if the car has not been taxed or SORNed continuously for the past five years.
Selling a car on AutoTrader
- Good for well-maintained, clean mainstream cars between three and 12 years old
- Also good for MOTedd or cared-for older cars under £1000
- Unusual cars and classics can be overlooked and you're competing with traders
AutoTrader leads the way for classified adverts on mainstream, modern cars up to 12 years old but it’s also a good place for cheap bangers — cars under £1000 are free to list.
Remember you’re competing with used car dealers also selling their wares, so study the language used and keep your advert appealing by focusing on the car’s good points. Take lots of good pictures with the car clean and dry, as well as being prepared to answer phone calls from buyers.
Chances are you’ll get a good number of sensible buyers with money to spend and on more expensive cars, AutoTrader is littered with adverts for car finance, so they should be able to arrange funds themselves. You can pay one fee and the advert will remain live until the car is sold, with cheaper options if desired.
Despite the dealer-style appearance and descriptions, AutoTrader doesn’t offer much protection for you from fraud or theft, so remain as diligent and aware as you would with any private sale. Most people are honest, most payments are safe but there is always a risk.
Selling a car on eBay
- Good for unusual modern classics, low-volume brands and older cars
- Classifieds avoid the hassle of non-paying bidders
- Lots of searches per day, lots of competition and sub-prime cars lowering prices
If you want lots of money don't sell your product next to the cheapest one. That addage applies to used cars more than you'd expect and eBay sets the bar low for buyer price expectations thanks to the number of failed auctions. That's your first tip — tempting as the 'it's ended, it's sold' model of an auction is, when eBay does it there's nothing forcing the buyer to actually complete.
Fortunately eBay classifieds avoid this and are worth the small amount they cost if you have an unusual, cherished car, or something that needs work that you want to sell as a project but need space to explain.
Your subject line has 80 characters to do a lot of work — year, make, model and engine/trim matter most, as buyers filtering by mileage can use the item specifics. You can pay extra for a subtitle to carry information like that but make the pictures you choose do the selling for you.
There is no character limit, so there’s no need to use abbreviations. However eBay’s smartphone app limits your formatting options. Try and list using a desktop computer or tablet that allows the desktop version of the website to display. Use bullet points early on to highlight the car’s best points — and its worst ones if you know of problems and want to avoid buyers walking away.
Tempting as it is if you don’t enjoy writing avoid using the AI descriptions. Not because they’re AI, but because they’re utterly useless and don’t describe the actual car you’re selling. You might as well just fill the boxes and say ‘contact me to arrange a viewing’ — not that we'd really advise doing that. If writing isn't your thing your best will still be preferable to the AI option — or ask someone you know who does like writing to craft the advert for you.
Your location is important to include in the listing as eBay is not always good at highlighting the distance people may need to travel to view the car.
Selling to a car-buying service
- Less hassle but don't assume they won't haggle
- Straightforward quotes and process, easy to trust for paperwork and funds
- Not always the best price but the quickest — and safest sales
There are several firms offering car-buying services, with Motorway offering one of the easiest experiences and We Buy Any Car easily holding sufficient brand awareness to ensure thousands of transactions a day.
You can get a good idea of your car's minimum selling price by using these services and if you are happy with that price it is by far the quickest, simplest option. You get a trade buyer who collects the car and as long as it matches the description and assumptions you've agreed to on the website — usually a light amount of wear or stonechips, two keys, all paperwork, no damage or obvious neglect — then you'll get the price offered.
If you have a modern, low-mileage car to sell this is the route that protects you from scammers, dodgy payments and timewasters. You'll also find them useful for surprisingly old, end-of-life vehicles that still have some MoT — the sort of car that through a classified advert would get an endless stream of low offers and questions about why the car isn't in as-new condition. Before begrudgingly taking a scrap value offer consider that you might get a quick £500 from We Buy Any Car if you drive it to their premises.
Oddly enough, that's partly why you get so many scrap-value offers — this is exactly what the buyer does with it.
You will often need to provide a full set of images and be prepared to get a few messages from dealers chasing up after you've got a quote, particularly if it's a newer, desirable car.
