How To Sell A Car Privately (Part 1 - Sorting The Car, The Price & The Advert!) 

This is the main barrier for me to sell a car privately.

Yes I thought this would be one of the main points to cover

Yes I would have thought the payment side and paper transfer of the car would have been covered in this video. Otherwise a great insight into selling mine this year. Having lost loads over the years on part ex and am willing to sell private this time.

Seeing this comment and realising that this isnt covered makes me surprised because thats the main issue as far as i am concerned.

Agreed!

Put me off for life when I tried to sell privately.

Exactly the reason I stopped selling privately

E bay auction really is the way to go I've sold a few bikes and a car I've always been really happy with the price I've got. You literally won't get any more money than the highest bidder is willing to pay.

But then some private sales are Dealers not showing there company name. Like taking it to a employee house or to meet you some were to look at it.

@@davidsworld5837 I don't think that's true, what is your point?

I know this option , I just wonder where would it leave the buyer and garage if car develop a fault after purchase. In law. Ie would garage add warranty insurance to cost u can say so if a fault develop, the warranty insurance will sort it out?

A friend part exchanged a VW GTI that was pumping out a huge amount of smoke to a main dealer they may have filled it with extremely thick oil before taking the car in so there was no smoke 😂

Sounds like a fair dealer mark up to be honest. Vat preparation and warranty are not free. There cut after that probably doesn't leave much after paying for there time and premises.

Would you want to buy an EV privately without knowing it's full history of how it's been charged up and used. The majority of people only want new EV's on lease because if it goes tits up they can just give it back, they are a throw away item like everything else powered by batteries, that's also why their depreciation is so massive. If your ICE car goes tits up even a new engine is cheap compared to a new battery. Main dealers don't even want to buy them back and they struggle to sell them through auction, the same EV keeps going through week after week getting cheaper and cheaper and still not selling. There has been a 29% drop in ev sales in Germany and also a big drop all across Europe, they have also dropped in the uk, I have a feeling the ev bubble is about to burst. I am an electrician and been fitting domestic chargers since 2012 and the majority of our customers have already gone back to ICE or hybrid. We used to do quite a few chargers a year but the last couple of years we have hardly done any and very few people asking for quotes.

@@ADYDRURY1234 for most cars the price of a new engine will write the car off

@chrishart8548 not at the age it does it to an EV. I make money out of them and still wouldn't have one, the majority of our customers are all excited when they first get them then after a few times stuck in shit hole carparks reality starts to sink in. EV sales are dropping, Tesla are laying off 10% of their workforce, Ford and Toyota are back tracking and I think our politicians are starting to wake up and smell the coffee at last.

Yawn.

The idiots take no notice of any statement like no offers or no low balling and will spam you regardless

a lot of the so called private sales are dealers, when you phone just say I'm enquiring about the car you have for sale and then can you confirm the mileage, the answer you get will be which car was it

The vast majority of evs have more than 5 years warranty that gets transferred with the ownership. Buying privately or from a dealer is irrelevant in these cases. The remaining warranty just depends on the age of the car.

The previous owner may well have invalidated the warrenty

@@NigelSavagery may have or may not have .....evs have less frequent service requirements and are cheaper than ice cars to servicee so many people don't have concerns taking them to a main dealer or the network of specialised ev service places , so there is no reason for anyone to void any manufacturers warranty

I don't think it matters that much as a seller. If car dealers are asking for £15k I don't see any reason why you can't ask for something similar or maybe just below like £14k assuming the car is in good condition, well maintained and serviced. Potentially a win win for both the buyer and seller. Buyers can always ask to get the car independently inspected before buying.

My local garage services the range extender motor - just an oil change

If the car is still insured and their insurance covers them to drive other cars that works. If the do crash they will have to buy it.

Can get liability contract written out, literally one page long that say I X person commit to purchasing X vehicle reg X if crashed on test drive

If they can't show you they have cover to drive your car, don't let them drive it. They can get 1 hour insurance from Veygo or similar for reasonable cost if their normal insurance does not include cover for test drives

Cheers all, I was wondering whether this was the norm.

@@chrishart8548 good luck getting the money from them, you will spend more in legal fees then you lost and even then they probably still won't pay.

Bank transfer is good really especially if its £15.5k you can see if it goes in and if the sale is done through e bay they already have the buyers details

The more expensive Autotrader one is what I’d usually use as the advert is live until it sells and it’s a tiny % of the whole cost. As for always needing a car, that I can’t help. You could borrow or hire one after selling but that’s the convenience package dealers offer. Is losing £2500 (for eg) good value on not having a car for 1-3 weeks?

I do the the test drive in whichever manner they suggest. Even with proof, I don’t want someone binning my car and waiting months to go through their insurance. Never had an issue. Plus most won’t be fully comp so not going to happen.

I don’t let them. I drive it in any manner they would like but I’m not taking a 3rd party insurance risk like that.

​@ElectricVehicleMan Interesting that you don't let potential buyers drive your cars as I would have thought MOST people would want to drive ANY car they were looking to buy?

I had the same thought - assuming you dont want a wad of cash in an envelope what is the accepted way people pay for the car - I have no clue

Bank transfer is usually immediate. Until it’s in my account, the car stays. I think worst case I had was about 30mins waiting for it to show up in mine.

@ElectricVehicleMan thanks! And after the sale is there any potential come back for the seller? For instance if I sell a car in good faith that is mechanically sound, but within the first couple of days/weeks it develops a big problem, has the buyer got any recourse?

As long as you don’t misrepresent anything and they’re aware, it’s essentially buyer beware so to speak.

Bank transfer is essentially immediate. I just use that.

Thanks, this is the question i was wanting to know! Makes sense but I've never sold a vehicle worth more than a few thousand pounds.

Over £10K you can get flagged by the fraud department. My experience a couple of times buying (at dealers) so now I’d advise anyone to contact the bank and inform them you are planning to transfer funds (provide the name of the person you are transferring it to) then do the transfer electronically(or do the transfer with an actual person from your bank while you have them on the phone) if I was selling my privately I’d advise the buyer to do that to make sure the transaction is smoothly carried out and you both aren’t waiting around to speak to a fraud team at the bank

I do the driving.

Bank transfer or cash straight into the bank with them.

Cash - Good God NO!. Far too risky - possibility of forged notes and who the hell wants several, possibly tens of thousands of pounds in an envelope in the house??

@@Richard-io9xe That’s why I said straight into the bank. 🤷‍♂️ Then give the keys.

Works for me.

@@ElectricVehicleMan weird, the latter works for me, so all is good although I did not know about either until your video. Thank you for your content .

No forthcoming assistance from a private sale that's for sure. Some dealers offer a 3 month warranty that covers everything.

I've found the best way to get a car is if you know anyone with a company car when the lease ends there is always the option to buy the car before it goes to auction. Get them to buy it and then give them the money. Obviously it has to be the car you want. It's usually a great deal though. Know someone who bought there car every 3 years and sold it straight to we buy any car and made 2-3k every time

You get buyer protection from a dealer and main dealers especially. Depends on the car tbh. Very little to go wrong on an EV so as long as it all works and no unusual noises etc then I’m usually ok with buying that. Piece of mind costs. And there’s always aftermarket warranty too.

@@ElectricVehicleMan but electric cars catch fire and burn your house down at least a few times a week how do you check if its going to catch fire. ?

@@chrishart8548 Include a fire blanket.

Drive in whichever manner that ask but they wouldn’t be fully insured on it anyway for the majority. If they accidentally bin it, they’ll say sorry and walk away with you having no car left.

I use this www.theaa.com/~/media/the-aa/pdf/motoring-advice/aa-car-buyers-sellers-contract.pdf?la=en Bank transfer is pretty much immediate so once I have the money they get the car.

@@ElectricVehicleMan and can be reversed if fraud is involved

always get them to sign a receipt describing the car car and purchase price and stating sold as seen. If you haven't hidden anything it will cover you, if you have not disclosed about a problem, they may still be able to get compensation

Faster payments cannot be reversed.

Who can be arsed with time wasters and idiots for an extra £2k?

@@Swwils Case in point - 2k pounds is not a lot of money, and acceptable loss, if, and only if, you're one of the "easy mode" folks.

​@@user-kp3qx5fu3swhy spend £3000 worth of time making £2000 more. Doesn't make sense.

Bank transfer is always the safest for me. Or cash if they put it into your bank account there and then.

@@ElectricVehicleMan How would they pay cash into your bank account there and then?

Both go physically to a branch. The bank will check the notes when depositing.

@@ElectricVehicleMan Thanks.

Same way, just less likely given the figures.

Any insurance write off can be ignored for comparison. Find some others that are as close as possible and go from there that.

Or you just check the car. It's not hard. Or even buy a third party warranty. Hell, even BMW sell a full comprehensive warranty direct with their dealers for any BMW up to 10 years old.

@@ElectricVehicleMan Too often they're selling for a reason. And too often they've hidden it as best they can. By the time you find out you're stuck with a problem car and big bills to put it right. No trust, no protection with private sales, just not worth it unless it's at least £1k less than dealer prices.

@@UKDagnar that’s why you check the car! Or get it checked properly. I’ve not had the issues you mention. Just be sensible.

You’ve never heard of an i3?

@@ElectricVehicleMan heard and seen, my uncle had one, I would love to see you standing next to my Ioniq 5.

@@mattrowe6394 The drive slopes down, cars leaning quite a bit to the left.

@@ElectricVehicleMan that's the funniest weeman, excuse I have ever heard lol. I am only teasing btw 🤣

They wouldn’t. It would be more expensive from a dealer. Have we watched the same video? 🤔

​@@ElectricVehicleManyou found 3 dealer prices then said you'd sell it privately for more than the cheapest dealer 😂

@@adamspencer95 Completely different spec! It’s not the same car. 🤷‍♂️ And you can just check the car out, it’s not difficult. Or buy a warranty. Or get it checked beforehand.

@@ElectricVehicleMan You can do all the checks in the world. Buying from a dealer gives consumer protection rights by law. Buying private gives you zero. You have no protection and take 100% of the risk

@@stevebeever2442 “You can do all the checks you want!?” Of course you can! Thats the point. What do you think mechanics are for. 😄 A dealer gives you 3 months, you think that’s worth the £££ extra? I could buy a BMW 1 year warranty on this car for about £1k for a year. Even adding that on to the price it’s still 4 figures cheaper. Besides, this is about selling, not buying.

Option 4?

And how many people by a ICE car that got no warranty?.

if you buy a stolen car privately that's your money gone. If you buy stolen car from a dealer, they have to refund you dealers also offer finance which is another reason people pay more from them.

Meanwhile in the real world, second hand EV sales are soaring!

@@simonpaine2347 but they are not soaring are they, look at the data and look at the prices. second hand cars have the worst value retention of any vehicle

@@simonpaine2347 soaring so much that their residuals have totally collapsed 🤣🤣🤣🤣

You’re talking about £500-£800 for all that. If you can throw away even £2k then that’s just insane for me. Think about it. You’ve just used washing your car as an excuse. Isn’t that something you do anyway?