The easiest way to sell it it is- clean it, get rif of all the rubbish inside and sell it at auction.

I'd have thought eBay the best way to sell an older car. You can make it very clear that there are no comebacks.

BCA Sure Sell (as someone quite rightly pointed out) isn't easy as nearly all cars I have heard of bought that way had major faults. It's actually a pretty clever way of selling a car with a big problem such as needing a new gearbox! What would you rather do? Spend £3k on a new gearbox? Put it on eBay or Auto Trader declaring a gearbox fault and sell it for thousands less or stick it in an auction and get the same money as you would if there wasn't a fault!

Personally speaking, I think auctions should describe any major faults in the cars they sell - that way you can decide a fair price to bid. I have known people pay over the odds for cars at auction only to find they need to spend thousands on them to get them roadworthy.

Auctions are a bit of a law onto themselves as unlike every one else who sells vehicles, they can sell cars totally sold as seen with no comeback.

I wonder if eventually the law will be changed so even auctions have to describe major faults, it would certainly make life a lot easier when buying at auction! The other frustrating thing at auction is that many use Experian when carrying out HPi style checks. So if the car you buy comes up all clear on Experian it may still have a mileage discrepancy on HPi or outstanding finance etc etc! Trying to prove a mileage discrepancy is incorrect with HPi is a total nightmare and if you go back to the auction they say the discrepancy must be an admin error! The big auctions have a monopoly so can pretty much operate how they see fit.

There was a Daily Mirror article recently saying that We Buy Any Car staff get a £100 a week basic salary if they pay the agreed price on the website valuation. They earn commission for knocking the price down, moaning about things like the tyres etc which of course wouldn't even effect the value they get when the car goes to auction!

I think it's fair to say that any company with the finances to constantly advertise on TV and sponsor Motoring on Dave (i.e. repeats of Top Gear) aren't exactly a charity. It just seems a little harsh that money from very vulnerable people who desperately need cash for their cars at least partially ends up in the pockets of the Top Gear trio who aren't exactly strapped for cash! RH's £750k Morrison's ad springs to mind! Nice work if you can get it!

If your car is a decent one with no major faults selling at auction should be a last resort. For private sellers it is to get rid of the duffers and the unsaleable - not the place top get rid of anything moderately decent.

You will be very, very lucky to get book trade at auction selling as a private seller and on top of that the commission levels are horrendous (8% + VAT in some cases).

Many cars in, for example, BCA's "Select" or "SureSell" sections fail to atract any bids at all and those which do are frequently thousands below "book" because buyers assume from the outset that they have to be duffers to be there.

As a first attempt, if you can't be bothered with normal Autotrader avenues, bung it on ebay with no reserve, some nice photos and an honest description. You may get timewasters and the winning bidder might not turn up but for £7 it is worth a pop and whatever it gets will be more than you'd nett at auciton.

bung it on ebay with no reserve.

What !!! So you would have the guy sell it for 99p !!

Umm...but it's not going to go for 99p is it?

I can guarentee that any reasonably described car will go for more on ebay, 99p start no reserve, then you'll get in a general/select/suresell or whatever section at auction.