Selling your car

Almost every question about selling comes down to one trade-off. Selling privately usually pays more, while part-exchanging is faster and much less hassle. The gap between them is smaller than people assume, once you count your own time.

Which suits you depends on the car more than on you. Part-exchange against private sale walks through where the difference is worth having. Cheap, older and high-mileage cars tend to close that gap, while clean and desirable ones widen it.

If you go private, our step-by-step guide covers writing an advert that pre-empts the obvious questions. It also covers handling viewings safely, and taking payment in a way that clears before the car leaves. Payment is where private sellers get hurt. Haste is usually why.

The paperwork is the part people get wrong, and it carries legal weight. Telling DVLA the car is sold is your duty, not the buyer's. Doing it late is its own problem, whatever the buyer does next. The paperwork when selling lists every document that has to change hands.

One thing is worth knowing before you advertise. A private seller isn't held to a dealer's standard on quality. You are held to your own description, and that's a lower bar to trip over than most people expect. A car described accurately is much harder to complain about later.

Still paying finance on the car? Then it isn't yours to sell yet, and the order of the moves matters more than anything else here. Selling a car with outstanding finance covers getting a settlement figure and the four ways to clear it.

Our complete guide to selling pulls the sequence together in one place.