Sell Your Car Online for Free!
We’ve teamed up with Autotrader for this great offer. If your car is valued at £1,000 or less, Autotrader will list your advert online at no cost!
Autotrader is the UK’s largest car marketplace in the UK, it’s also my favourite website! Offering nationwide coverage, this free listing is saving you a significant amount of money in advertising costs.
Advertise your car for sale online with Autotrader. For car valued at less than £1,000, the advert will be free!
Our Top Tips For Selling Your Car
Selling your car privately means you can get more money for it than using a car buying service or part exchanging your car with a dealer.
Make sure you have all the paperwork and there is no outstanding finance on the car. Car buyers will want as much paperwork as possible including the V5, instructions/owner’s manuals, MOT’s, previous MOT certificates and the service history including any receipts for work carried out at a garage.
How to make your car advert stand out
First my personal pet hate, do not write your ad in block capitals! It makes you look like you have something to hide and a bit stupid.
Take some good pictures, preferably on a sunny day of a clean car. Autotrader say an advert with 20 photos gets 39% more views than one with 4 photos.
Do make sure the quality of the pictures is good as low-resolution photos makes you look like your trying to hide something so if your camera isn’t very good, borrow one or ask a friend to take some photos for you. If you’re downloading pictures from Facebook or Instagram then most of the quality will have been taken out already.
Try to include the following photographs:
- Front corner
- Rear corner
- Front straight-on
- Back straight-on
- Side profile
- Close-up of a wheel – especially if they are alloys
- The dashboard
- Front and rear seats
- Inside the boot
- The engine bay
- Any damage to your car
- If it’s a convertible, take a picture with the roof down and one with the roof up
Taking payment
Remember cash is always king, however, you may want to consider taking payment at the bank as the cashier can count the money and verify the notes are genuine.
BACS and CHAPS transfers are good and Faster Payments now can be very quick but some people may not be comfortable giving their bank details.
You still can take a cheque or bankers draft but confirm with your bank the funds have cleared before your hand over the car keys.
After agreeing to sell
However the payment has been transferred, always provide a receipt for both the buyer and yourself including a signature.
Once the deal is done you must fill out the small section on the V5 called V5C/2. It’s a small slip, but you must tear it off and give it to the new owner as proof of the transfer of ownership.
Then log on to the DVLA website and let them know about the sale. They will also refund any remaining road tax that has been paid.