How I sold my car to simplify my life

Reducing the amount of “stuff” you own can be mentally freeing, but selling a car can be a daunting process. In this guide, I’ll go through exactly how I sold my car in the UK, so that you can follow the process to let go of your car stress-free.

First, get a rough idea of how much your car is worth by checking online valuations. My ex-car, as an example was a 2013 Lexus CT200h with 114k miles on the clock. The following was what I got for online valuations for it:

I actually ended up selling the car for £5,750 (on Autotrader eventually), which was way above the market valuations above. Read below the full process of how I did this!

Be mindful of trying to sell your car quickly for cash. Since I was new to this space, I thought Webuyanycar had the highest valuation so great, I should go there.

I booked an appointment to sell my car with Webuyanycar, and after them looking around and entering the details on their device, they returned me a cash settlement amount of £3,697 (£1,058 less than their online valuation)!

I asked them to explain the discrepancy as online, as I’d expected a few hundred pounds to be knocked off for minor scratches, but given my car was in very good condition, a deduction of over £1k made so sense to me.

They explained my car is grade 4 but offering grade 3 price due to how well maintained it is - which is £3,697. That’s crazy to me as if I hadn’t maintained my car well then their offer would have been even lower. They said the max they could offer would be £4,300 but for a grade 1 car, which is practically new. Disappointed, I took my keys back and walked away.

In addition, they charge transaction fees for the sale depending on the sale price (e.g. vehicles valued at £4000.00 to £6,999.99 have a transaction fee of £74.99) and there are additional fees if you want to get paid quicker (e.g. if you want to get paid within 15 minutes - £29.75).

What I realised is that this service is purely for getting cash quick for your car, but for a major hit to how much you’re going to get. Save your money and sell on Autotrader using my steps below instead.

After my disappointment in the Webuyanycar appointment, I decided to go with the next highest valuation, which was motorway.co.uk. The way this works is it’s an auction site where dealers bid for your car and you get offered the highest bid.

They have a really intuitive app where it guides you to take pictures, so I used this to take pictures and listed it. I had to call them to confirm a few details and they then listed my car for auction to the dealers. After a couple of days of bidding, I got offered £4,501 by the highest bidding dealer, which was close to their online valuation.

I was nearly about to go through with this deal and thought I was getting a fair price, until I browsed Autotrader out of curiosity. To my surprise, I saw my exact car with similar miles and age being listed for £6,300 by the same dealer! So they were literally going to buy my car off me, buff it up and sell it for much higher (nearly £2k more)!

As a compromise, I thought surely I could list it for around £500 less than they have and still end up with about £1k more, so that’s what I did. I took the nicely formatted pictures that motorway.co.uk app helped me take and listed my car on Autotrader.

The next day I was full of enquiries and calls with potential customers wanting to get my hands on my car.

Being inundated with potential customers was quite overwhelming as if you are not organised, it can get hard to keep up with. I created an organised system to keep track of the enquiries and communications I had with potential buyers - I have created a Notion template for this and you can get it from my bundle below.

The simplicity of having a dealer come and pick up your car is you don’t have to deal with the logistics of selling to a private buyer, receiving low-ball offers and time-wasters but being organised helps keep track of serious buyers and filter out the time-wasters.

To filter serious buyers, ask these questions when taking enquiries:

For example, if a potential buyer offers you £2,000 less than your listing price and doesn’t follow through with when they want to view it, they are likely just casually browsing, whereas a potential buyer who asks very specific questions has likely done their research and is more likely a warmer lead.

If you have warm leads but they seem unsure, reassure them by sending them a video walkthrough of the outside and inside of your car. It can be a quick video recorded on your phone, just upload it unlisted on YouTube and send the link to them. You can then reuse this link for anyone else you want to send the video to.

Once you have eliminated the time-wasters and booked in potential buyers, next comes the viewing and closing the sale!

Make sure you meet in a public place for safety. For example, I met my buyer in a supermarket car park.

Make sure your potential buyer has temporary insurance for test drives. I’ve used Veygo by Admiral for temporary insurance and it’s been very straightforward, easy to use, nice app with good UI and the best price from price comparison sites. Sign up using my link and we both get £10 voucher (T&Cs apply, min spend £30, etc.). As an example, 1 hr cover is ~£15, but of course this will depend on the vehicle and person.

If your potential buyer does not have temporary insurance, don’t let them drive. Instead drive them around yourself (that’s what I did), as the main functionality of the test drive is for them to see that the car works. If you are letting them drive, ensure you see their full driving license before and always keep the keys with you.

For the viewing, make sure you have all your documents organised and available to answer any questions the buyer has and make the process trustworthy. First let the viewer look around and inside the car, and then show them one-by-one:

Quite frankly, I didn’t have to negotiate with my potential buyer. He could see how demand it was in and my unique selling point was the full Lexus service history, which 13-year old cars just don’t have on the market. I knew the buyer was getting a good deal (£500 less than similar on Autotrader) and I knew I had a good offer.

The power of negotiation was all mine and I didn’t even have to try to hold my ground on the price. Even during the viewing, I had other phonecall enquiry to me. The potential buyer could see how demand it was, knew if he didn’t take it now he would miss out on a good deal so had to make it there and then. Perhaps I got lucky, but my buyer didn’t even try to negoriate on the price (made me glad I rejected those prevoous low-ball offers)!

I met my buyer at the train station, so I had parked my car in the station car park and we sat down at a table for the paperwork. Ensure you take time with the paperwork and fill out the sales receipt invoice properly, as it provides a record of the sale.

The sales receipt invoice template I have guides through each step-by-step, which you can download from my bundle below. Ensure you see the money in your bank account first before handing the keys (all if you have multiple keys).

Give them the green new keeper slip from the V5C and register the transfer of the vehicle to the new owner on: https://www.gov.uk/sold-bought-vehicle

Once you’re done, and you’ve handed over the documents (as above), show them to the car and give them your keys. Congratulations and bid farewell to your now ex-car! 🎉

I created a professional invoice and contract template to make sure I didn't get scammed and to keep the paperwork organised. You can grab my exact template for free here: https://abhiyanbeta.gumroad.com/l/car

This post contains affiliate links, meaning I may earn a small commission if you use them, at no extra cost to you. Thanks for your support!

And also, I have to mention:

This guide and my “Car Sale Paperwork Bundle” (bundle) is provided for general informational purposes only and is based on my personal experience selling a car. Note, I have only sold one car in my life thus far so I am in no way an expert on the topic. I am not a lawyer, and this guide or my bundle does not constitute legal advice.

Laws regarding private vehicle sales vary. By using this guide and / or my bundle, you acknowledge that I am not liable for any disputes, errors, or losses arising from your transaction. For complex sales, please consult a legal professional or refer to official government guidance (e.g. gov.uk).