Top tips to sell your car
Looking to sell your car fast and hassle-free?
With Motor Merchants, you can sell your car and get a great offer from our nationwide network of XX+ dealerships who compete to purchase your car, but there are always a few things to consider before jumping in and selling your vehicle…
Read on for Motor Merchants essential online car sales hints, tips, and tricks – updated for Summer 2022. Here are our top 5 tips to help you get the fastest car sale with the best possible price.
1. What is the value of my car?
We agree that your car is certainly special, but the reality of vehicle valuations is that car market determines the price – used cars behave like a commodity much like anything else.
The value of your used car is affected by things like vehicle age, mileage, vehicle condition, and service history – but market prices are the biggest driver.
2. How to value my car?
Getting an accurate estimate of your car’s market value is easier than ever, and it's 100% free to do.
To get a value estimate from professional dealers, we highly recommend listing your vehicle on Motor Merchants, your vehicle will be algorithmically matched to dealerships in your region that are statistically most likely to bid high for your car.
The dealerships bidding for your vehicle will provide competing offers for your car based on live market rates. The vehicle offers will provide a good benchmark for the value of your vehicle.
Then for a deeper dive, Carsales and Gumtree are useful too for private sale price indications. We suggest SellMyCar and other alternatives for instant buying valuations, which are typically lower than a private sale valuation.
Just remember: your valuation will be hugely variable depending on who is buying it and why.
3. What is important to you?
It's important to understand what you value most when selling a used car. Is it the speed of the sale, the convenience of the experience, or the final selling price? In most cases it's a bit of all three, so understanding what you are trying to achieve will help you determine which car sales approach to take.
If you have a lot of free time to work towards getting the highest possible offer, then a private sale through a classified listing or auction website (such as Gumtree or Carsales) could be the best bet. The downside is that you have to wait for a good offer to present itself, deal with timewasters and negotiate on prices, and you would need to show the car to several potential buyers, with zero guarantee of a successful sale.
Meanwhile, Motor Merchants features a network of xx+ verified dealers to help you secure a top price from a professional dealer. It’s fast, simple, and you get a great offer without the work.
4. What works best for others may not work for you.
Motor Merchants removes the need to have private buyers on your doorstep and in your car, instead it connects you with the dealers willing to pay the most, as easy as 1-2-3.
In the case of instant offer car websites, if your car is accurately described, sales are typically guaranteed and money can be in your bank account within 24 hours if you book the sale for the next day and handover your vehicle.
Going down this avenue may be the best choice if your car is below $3,000 as many cars at this level are not purchased directly by dealers, and the price difference from private sales to the online instant offer is insignificant.
5. Clean your wheels
Make sure your car is looking and operating as well as possible, to avoid prospective buyers from chipping away at the price following a vehicle inspection. It’s recommended that your car be washed and cleaned inside and out on the day you’re selling, as well as fixing any minor issues (e.g. correcting small dents and scratches).