If you haven’t done it before, it’s tricky to know how to sell your car. Given that your motor could represent a significant sum of money and all the legal issues that are wrapped up in car ownership, it’s important that you get it right.
Jamjar’s car selling guidance section has been written to cover everything you need to know if you’re thinking about selling your car. This page gives you a broad overview of the process to get you started.
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If you want to sell your car and maximise the car’s value then this guide will help you discover how to establish what your car
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When thinking about selling your car, you have a big decision to make off the bat: do you sell your car yourself (privately), sell it to a dealership as a part-exchange as a deal for another, normally more expensive car or sell it to an online car buying service for cash? No one option is clearly better than the other. Selling privately could get you more money, but it’s a much lengthier and riskier process than selling by another means.
If you sell privately, the onus is on you to advertise and prepare the vehicle for sale, legally handing over the vehicle correctly and ultimately making sure you’re getting the right price. If you sell to either a dealer or a used car buying service, you know you’ll be dealing with a business that has done this thousands of times before who can also offer additional help with any paperwork, road tax refunds, outstanding finance etc.
Read more about the pros and cons of selling and trading in.
Whether you’re selling privately or to a commercial buyer (either online or a dealership), it’s important that you do your research to check the value of your car before you decide to sell it. To see how much you could get, checking used car sites or even local dealerships that are selling the same or similar models can be a good indication but bear in mind that prices do fluctuate and they may not be accurate when you decide the time is right to sell.
It’s even easier to see the kind of price you could get from an online buyer. Simply entering your registration number and a few details about the condition of the car into a trusted comparison site like Jamjar will give you the best current offers available from online car buying services. An advantage of these valuations is that they’re easy to find and always up to date. With multiple buyers in competition for your car, you can rest assured that the valuations will always be as high as possible.
If you still have money to pay on your hire purchase finance, it’s not quite as simple when selling the car privately. There are a few different considerations to bear in mind:
Read more about selling your car with outstanding finance.
The most important document to have at the time of sales is a V5C. Anyone who’s buying your car, whether they’re a dealer, an online car buying website or a private buyer, should ask for this certificate to be transferred to their position. Depending on the arrangements made with the buyer, you may also need documentation of the car’s service history, mot and outstanding finance paperwork (if applicable).
Read more about the documents needed to sell a car.
The only section of the V5C you’ll need to keep is a slip from section 6 of the V5C form. This is for you, as the previous owner, to complete and send to the DVLA to inform them that ownership of the vehicle has changed. This will also trigger any due refund from the DVLA for the excess road fund licence previously paid.
Read more about informing the DVLA.
Just in case you didn’t know, there have been recent warnings about a rise in “crash for cash” scams involving moped riders. These fraudsters deliberately crash into cars to make bogus insurance claims. Many of these scammers are believed to be couriers delivering items like takeaways, according to Sky News.
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BMW CEO Oliver Zipse recently expressed his disagreement with the European Union’s plan to ban sales of new combustion-engined cars by 2035. He believes this approach is misguided and advocates for the acceleration of e-fuels instead.
Rumour has it that Government electric vehicle (EV) sales targets are indeed pushing car manufacturers to adopt some drastic tactics to meet their quotas. The Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) Mandate, for example, requires car brands to sell an increasing number of electric vehicles (EVs) each year until 2035, or face hefty fines, according to This money. This has led to some unusual strategies.