Private sale or part-exchange, what each is realistically worth, and the paperwork you have to get right when the car changes hands.
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.
Car at the end of its road? How to scrap a car covers scrapping it properly, and the other ways to get rid of it.
Our complete guide to selling pulls the sequence together in one place.
Car finally done? You can scrap it at an authorised treatment facility, sell it to a salvage buyer, or sell it privately as a non-runner. Only scrapping takes it off the register for good. If it's still worth something to someone, selling usually beats scrapping.
11 minOnly one piece of paperwork is legally yours to deal with when you sell a car in the UK: telling DVLA you are no longer the keeper. The MOT certificate, the service history, a written receipt? All worth having. None of them required by law.
9 minStill paying for the car you want to sell? It isn't legally yours until the finance is settled. Getting out of that is normal and routine, and there are four ways to do it.
10 minSell your own car and you usually walk away with more than a trade-in pays you. The trade-off is that the vetting, the payment and the paperwork are all yours. Do it in the right order, know the scams, and know what you're still liable for once the buyer drives away.
11 minThe gap between selling privately and part-exchanging is much smaller than the figures repeated online. For some cars, it even runs the other way. One properly sourced comparison exists, and this is what it found.
8 minReady to sell but unsure which route to take? Private sale, part-exchange, an instant-buy service and auction all pay differently, and they cost you different amounts of hassle. This guide covers what each one realistically gets you, the paperwork DVLA actually requires, and what the law says you must tell a buyer.
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