Five top tips to get the best price when selling your car.

Our customer database has shown a steady increase in the number of customers selling and purchasing used cars online. This trend is inline with figures released by SMMT and Experian which showed used car sales in Q1 2014 rose by 5.87% compared to the same period in 2013, reaching 1,750,675.

With numerous car selling websites and used cars to choose from, we discuss the secrets to online car selling success.

I spent time with Andy Doyle one of our customer advisors. Like all of our advisors here at Creditplus, Andy is a specialist at buying and selling cars and holds expertise in the principles around customer satisfaction.

Read his latest online review on Trustpilot here, titled “Superb Experience”

Andy Doyle (who looked after me the whole way through the process) made sourcing a car and deciding a budget a breeze

The result: A surprising list of tips that will help you sell your car on and offline, to dealerships and private buyers.

5. Don’t give up. If what you are doing isn’t working look deeper and play to your cars strengths:

Arm yourself with knowledge about your vehicle before you sell it. Look at online reviews, ratings, attractive insurance costs, most reliable cars index, MOT winners or losers, best selling cars of year etc.  Look at how people are discussing your car make and model online. If there are issues brought up in car forums, make sure you address these in your advert. For example: Does the car have any outstanding recalls? Has any recall work been performed?

Along with the service book, collate every bit of paperwork relating to your car. If available, take along your original invoice for buying the car and include receipts of money spent on repairs.

When meeting with the buyer, be sure to answer all the questions truthfully and remember, if you don’t know the answer to a technical car question, then it is OK to say “I don’t know”.

Consider if you have explored all the avenues. There are a wide range of well known websites you can use to sell your car. There are also several free selling websites such as Gumtree or local buy and sell Facebook pages. Our customers have told us that social networking is a good place to start asking your friends to share your car advert on their pages.

4. Don’t give people the option to bring down the price:

If you are selling your car as being in excellent condition, make sure it is. Bald tires, dust on dashboard, a messy boot, don’t bode well with excellent condition statement.

Make sure your oil is at the right level. If your car does have the odd scratch, find out the cost to repair it and consider having this work done before you try to sell.

Write down your target price for your vehicle on a piece of paper. Decide what you will negotiate down to before the deal. If your price is negotiable consider your “Best offer” option. The buyer believes they have saved some money and seller gets target price, so a win win all round.

Do your homework and study the pricing of the car. We recommend you search for your make and model on our vehicle database and for further clarity search for valuations of your vehicle on Parkers.co.uk  WhatCar.com  and Glass.co.uk.

Additionally here is an extra tip from the trade: if a dealer asks you “Are you here to buy?” in the first 5 minutes of walking into the showroom, this isn’t a good sign that they will be focused on giving you the best price for your vehicle.

3. Optimise your car advert:

If your car is in public view, put a note in the window with the price and telephone number.

Review your published advert and consider whether you have listed all the areas that should influence a customer’s decision to buy. If you have spare keys, list these in your advert, keys cost money! Are the tyres matching? What is there condition? Has any major repair work been done?

If it’s a small car, you could write about how it drives around town, fuel efficiency, if it’s easy to park. If it’s an estate, you could talk about comfort of interior for long drives, large boot for family shops.

Watch the TV adverts of your vehicle on the car manufacturers YouTube page. Look at the keywords they use in their marketing. Also if you have the tools, consider making a walkaround video of the car and share a link on the advert to where they can find the car on YouTube.

Should the value of your car be over £2,500, they may wish to buy the car on finance. Use our Car Loan Calculator to work out the monthly payments and list these.

A little bit obvious, but it needs to be said: good quality photos are a must to stand out in a busy online marketplace. Take your car out to a clean well lit landscape, it will get more views than if it is just parked right outside your house.

Consider reaching out to the savvy buyers. Include photos of the engine, boot and underside of vehicle. Also be sure to take photos of any defects. People are more likely to buy when there are no surprises.

2. How to get the money? How to get someone to sell it for you?

If your buyer prefers to give you a cheque or bankers draft as payment, rather than cash, please make sure that they have cleared funds prior to releasing the vehicle. To be extra cautious, you may request for proof of the buyers address. Then you can chase them up if there are any problems following payment. You should also not hand over the keys to the car before you have received payment.

If you don’t have time to sell your current vehicle and you are considering car finance, then you may have the opportunity to part exchange it with Creditplus and bring down the cost of your next car. Should you apply for car finance with us, our friendly customer advisors can provide you with a part exchange valuation service and, if it meets the requirements, give you a confirmed price for your car.

For more details on part exchanging and Creditplus visit our part exchange page or read the most common questions on part exchanging vehicles over at our help and advice pages.

1. Know when to sell

If you have just started to think about getting a new car and selling your old one then, consider your mileage: a car with 29,000 miles sounds better than a car with 30,000 miles.

Consider that when a new model of a car is brought out as this will bring down the cost of your car. The end of a model year, is usually Sept/Oct, when dealerships have to move cars off the car lot. During this time they may find it difficult to find room for the vehicle you wish to sell.

Be sure to check if there is any outstanding finance on your vehicle by contacting your car finance company or via a vehicle check service.  With all cars Creditplus arrange for our customers, we automatically HPI check the car as part of our service, saving around £40. Find out more about HPI Checks here.

If you have any extra tips on selling your car we would love to hear about them, send us a comment below or via our social channels.  If you are thinking about selling your current car and need car finance, then our advisors will be happy to talk through the options available to you.

Apply online today for a decision on car finance.