Top Tips to Sell Your Car Quickly and Easily

There are many routes to selling your car, some are more profitable than others, and some take more time and patience. Here we look at what you need to do before you plan to sell your car, and how to find the best balance to ensure you get a good price in a short period of time.

Ascertain a fair asking price

Determining a fair asking price is the first and often largest hurdle in pricing and selling your car. What you think it is worth versus its book price or other valuation can be two different things. The price you can ask for needs to be determines by the vehicle’s mileage, age, condition, as well as popularity, availability, location, extra features, and desirability.

Every dent and scratch makes a difference, and you usually won’t get as much for a yellow car as a grey one. You may get a little more or less depending on all kinds of optional extras such as upgraded alloy wheels, or lose a little if you have an unusual set up such as a manual gearbox in a 4x4. What extras are worth and how much difference minor condition issues make is largely in the eye of the beholder and you may need to be flexible if you have a higher starting price.

Check MOT, service and cambelt status

Make sure your car has a minimum three months left before an <OT or service is due, ideally more. The more time left until the next buyer has to pay for maintenance the better.

If your car has a cambelt (also known as the timing belt), check when that is due too. It’s a big but essential job, and a cambelt coming up for replacement or overdue will be considerably less attractive to potential buyers.

Clean it, then clean it again

Regardless of whether time or money are your main driving force for moving your car on, the better the condition the more chance you have of selling. Remember, you will rarely be the only person your potential buyer is meeting that day and the cleanliness and condition of the car may end up being a determining factor in whether the buy from you or the next person.

Make sure all paperwork is readily available

It’s essential to have easy access to all paperwork associated with your car. No one is going to buy a car without seeing the log book (V5) and associated paperwork. 

Most people and all businesses will want to run an HPI check on your car, and when it comes to the service history the more paperwork you have the better. Hand over all receipts, inspections, notes and warranties to show what work has been carried out. If you know there are service stamps missing from your service book because you forgot to bring it on the day, take it to the service centre and get it updated before you sell your car.

Don’t let anyone take your documents or make copies of them under any circumstances before the sale has been completed.

Ways to sell your car

There are many ways to sell your car, each with their own set of pros and cons. Some will be more attractive if speed is of the essence, others may take longer but you might get a better price, and some sit in the middle whereby you can sell your car quickly at a reasonable price.

Sell your car to a dealership

If your aim is to sell your car quickly at a reasonable price then one of the best options for selling your car is to sell it to a used car dealership. Used car dealerships are always on the lookout for attractive new stock to sell to their customers and offer a painless way to sell your car quickly at a fair price. 

Each dealership or chain of dealers will have their own range of cars they are looking for. For example, DCC buy petrol, diesel and hybrid cars which are between five and nine years old. Other dealership may focus on cars which are very cheap, or nearly new. Some may sell hybrids only, or only automatic cars. Each business is looking for a particular type of car, and when you find the right dealership for your car, you should have an easy sales transaction.

You can’t sell a car with outstanding finance to a member of the public, but a dealership can sort this out for you, making selling your car to a dealership an attractive option if your car is still part of a finance agreement.

Sell your car to a friend or family member

Another popular way to sell your car would be to a friend or family member. This usually means a fast transaction, but you may be expected to sell the car at a lower price, and there could be friction if the car breaks down or if something goes wrong. Even a fault develops in years to come it could still come back to bite you. In the long run it is often easier to sell to someone who you do not already know.

Sell your car privately to the general public

You may wish to advertise your car for sale to the public, such as in local papers or via local community boards. If you want to try this route you may be able to price the car higher as a private buyer will not have dealership overheads, administration, repair, reconditioning, and resale costs to worry about.

Selling privately is often people’s first thought when looking to sell their can, but it can be time consuming and come with a mire of pitfalls including safety and security issues, tyre kickers, and some over the top haggling.

Sell your car at a discounted price

If you want to get rid of your car fast, discount it. Look carefully at how much similar vehicles are being sold for, and don’t discount it too much as people will assume there is something wrong with it or that it has been stolen; very cheap cars for sale privately often fall into one of these two categories.

Sell Your Car to DCC

You can sell your car to DCC in Southampton or Fareham in three simple steps:

• Follow the simple instructions online and upload the important details about your car together with a few photos.
• Get an instant guaranteed online offer to buy
• Either accept our online valuation or, if you think we have missed something, request a call-back from one of our valuation experts. Once you are happy with our offer to purchase simply choose a convenient date for us to collect your vehicle.

How Much is my Car Worth? Get a Valuation from DCC

DCC offer a hassle-free way to sell used cars. If your car is between five and nine years old and you’d like to get a fast, competitive valuation, speak to our team today.