Best ways to sell your car

• Pressure wash your car to remove debris. Pick from the best here
• Chamois it off by using one of these
• Make sure you use a good quality polish - our top picks can be found here

Whether you want to sell your car privately or trade it in against another, it pays dividends to prepare it before any potential buyer sees it. A little work can go a long way when it comes to the price you achieve, so get ready with the elbow grease.

If you’re handy with a bucket and sponge, give your car the best clean of its life. Wash off the muck with a jet wash first and then use a good quality car shampoo to clean the bodywork with a clean microfibre mitt or cloth that you rinse often in a separate bucket of warm water. Sponges can hang on to dirt and cause tiny scratches in the paint that leave a dull finish.

Make sure you get into all of the door apertures, boot surround and lift the bonnet and wipers to clean every bit of bodywork. Use a clean chamois leather or microfibre cloth to dry off the bodywork. Now is also the time to touch up any stone chips or scratches in the paintwork.

There are plenty of excellent polishes available at reasonable prices. The easiest are spray-on that make it quick and simple to get an excellent shine. And don’t forget to thoroughly clean the wheels.

A damp cloth is ideal for removing dust from the engine bay. Also, take the time to brush out any dead leaves from air vents to present a neat and tidy under-bonnet appearance. Beware of steam cleaning in the engine bay as it can let moisture into the electrics and cause problems.

If the car has any small mechanical or cosmetic faults, get them sorted. Spending a small amount now will help realise a better price as you can advertise the car as fault-free.

Simple things can make a big difference too. So remove any rubbish and unnecessary clutter from the interior.

Clean the interior with the same care as the outside. Give all of the carpets a thorough vacuum and treat any leather to a specialist cleaner. Not only does this improve the appearance, it gives the cabin a fresh smell. Oh, and clean all of the windows. But avoid using a high gloss spray on the plastic around the dashboard. This looks and feels hideous and will only make a buyer suspicious.

Of course, if you don’t want to do all of the cleaning, you can spend a reasonable amount on a professional valet and then keep the car spotless.

Gather together all of the paperwork for the car in one folder. Make sure you have the V5C registration document in your name and with your current address. Put all of the service records together and organise any receipts for work in chronological order so a potential buyer can see how well you’ve looked after the car.

Now the car is spotlessly clean, take plenty of photos for the advert. Make sure the car is large in the photos and show every angle of the exterior, as well as lots of the cabin, boot, wheels and any relevant features such as leather seats, sunroof or satellite navigation.

Where to advertise

Finding the right place to sell your car privately has never been easier. With so much choice, it pays to narrow down a few outlets where you will get the best response and price.

Online classifieds

This is by far the most common way to advertise a used car for sale. The internet offers the widest audience and many buyers are prepared to travel the length of the country for the right car. There are lots of online classified sites with Auto Trader being by far the biggest, plus there are sites like Gumtree and Facebook Marketplace.

If you have a specialist car like a classic or high performance vehicle, advertise it on an enthusiast site where more possible buyers are likely to see it. Most of these sites charge a flat fee for an advert that will appear for a set number of weeks but others such as carandclassic are free. Make sure you are available to answer phone calls, texts and emails promptly to arrange viewings.

Online auction

There are several online auction sites, with eBay the biggest by some margin. They charge a percentage of the selling price, which can add up to a lot if you get a good price for the car. However, they often attract motivated buyers and you can put a reserve price on the car so it won’t sell for less than you’re prepared to accept. Always reply to any questions quickly and honestly.

Social media

More sellers are now using their social media feeds to advertise a car for sale to friends and acquaintances. You can also join online groups and forums relevant to your make and model to find potential buyers.

Local newspaper

The local rag is still a good way to advertise used cars, particularly ones at the cheaper end of the scale. Often, these adverts are free or very cheap, though they may only run for one or two editions of the paper, so you’ll need to renew the ad if the car doesn’t sell promptly.

Local ads

Putting up an advert in the local newsagent or supermarket can yield good results. It works well with cheap cars and ones that are suited to your area, so a 4x4 will find a ready market in a rural area whereas a small hatch will be popular in a city.

Sign in the car window

Don’t dismiss the idea of putting a sign in the window of your car. It’s not the most reliable method of selling a used car, but it can alert an interested buyer who might not otherwise be aware your car is available. For rarer cars, like classics and higher performance motors, this tactic works well at vehicle shows where enthusiasts gather.

Creating a good advert

There’s no secret art to making a successful car advert, but there are some simple rules you need to follow. 

For starters, it’s a legal requirement to include the exact make and model, year of manufacture, body type, colour, type of gearbox, engine size and fuel type. Most online classifieds websites will do this automatically using the DVLA’s database when you type in the registration number.

It’s a good idea to include other important information such as the car’s service history, how long the MoT has left to run and an honest description of the car’s condition.

However, keep the advert free from jargon that most potential buyers won’t understand. Also, keep it brief and to the point. Always be honest in how you describe the car as the law states you cannot misrepresent it.

Remember to list all of the equipment you think a buyer will be interested in, such as air conditioning, electric windows, satellite navigation, leather seats, sunroof or metallic paint.

It’s also worth listing any recent work that’s been carried out on the car, which can include a routine service or new tyres. This tells the buyer they won’t have to spend money on these items in the near future.

Decide how you want to be contacted and include this. It’s usually best to provide home and mobile phone numbers, as well as an email address. Many classified websites will offer a screening process so your real numbers do not appear in the advert but buyers can still contact you through safe numbers.

Finally - and crucially - take some decent photos. Find a clear background, make sure the car is clean and do it on a bright - and if possible - sunny day. Photographs taken on a wet and dark evening on your driveway are unlikely to attract many people. Remember, you want your car to look desirable to potential buyers, so make it look its best.

Take photos from different angles showing the front and rear, as well as interior pictures, the boot and anything else you feel is important - alloy wheels, the engine bay, the navigation or stereo. Get several shots from each angle to you can choose the best to go with your advert.

As a rule, if you’re prepared to roll up your sleeves and sell your car yourself you’re almost guaranteed to get more money than selling it any other way.

It’s a more laborious and time consuming process than, for example, trading it in at dealer. Plus you will need to work out how much the car is worth, prepare it for the sale and advertise it – but if you want the most amount of money possible then selling privately is the best way to go about it.

Age, mileage, condition, specification and even colour are just a few of the seemingly endless factors that can influence your car’s value. One of the best ways to work out what it’s worth is to have a look at classified adverts for similar cars.

Search for models that are as close to yours as possible in terms of year, mileage, specification and condition, as this will give you a good idea of what your car is really worth. 

Don’t be tempted to inflate the price above the market value. Unless you have a particularly rare and desirable car, buyers will always have other options and they will go elsewhere if they can get a similar car for less cash.

Dealers charge more than private sellers as they typically offer things like warranties and have facilities to refurbish cars before they’re sold, so don’t expect to make the same money as the trade. You should also expect buyers to haggle and build a little discount room into your advertised price – the vast majority of other sellers will have done the same.

Even very cheap cars should be given a good clean before they’re advertised and as a rule, the more expensive the car, the more money you should spend on it before the sale. A full professional valet will sharpen it right up and it’s worth considering smart repairs to remove small dents, scratches and similar blemishes depending on the value of the car.

Buyers don’t like the thought of having to pay for things shortly after the sale so it may be worth shelling out for an MoT if the car needs one imminently as well as sorting any minor faults.

Stick to the facts when you write the advert. List the car’s important details – make, model, trim level, year, mileage – and follow that with as big a list of specification (alloy wheels, air con, DAB radio etc) as you can fit in the advert. Buyers want details, not flowery prose about how lovely the car is.

Give as accurate and as detailed a description of the car’s condition as you can, even if it’s poor. You’re wasting your time if you mislead buyers or worse, breaking the law if you sell a car without disclosing a serious fault or that it has outstanding finance.

Photographs should illustrate the car as clearly and cleanly as possible. You want to make it look good so make sure you’ve done any cleaning and preparation before taking the pictures. Don’t to get too creative – shoot it in front of plain background and avoid having anything else in the picture that might draw the viewer’s eye away from the car.

Shoot it in the daytime but not in direct sunlight. Take plenty of pictures inside and out and publish as many images with the advert as you can. Ditch any blurry shots.

Beware fraudsters targeting cars for sale. Odd emails with curious back-stories are often just fishing scams looking for bank details, as are offers that sound too good to be true or messages from people offering to buy the car without seeing it.

Buyers should be encouraged to take test drives but make sure you’re sitting in the car before you give them the keys. And check they are insured to drive it - don't be afraid to ask for proof. At the end of the sale, never allow the buyer to leave with the car until they’ve paid. That could mean anxiously waiting in front of your computer for a cheque or a bank transfer to clear.

Set a limit for the lowest price you’re willing to accept for the car. It’s common practice to negotiate so having a firm idea of what you will and won’t accept makes the process easier. Don’t be afraid to turn down offers you consider too low unless you’re in a real hurry to sell.

There are plenty of ways to accept payment and a faster payment bank transfer (done online or over the phone) is among the best, as the money can be in your account in less than two hours. Cash is also instant but it’s safest to do the handover in a bank. However you sell, don't hand over the keys until you've safely got the money in your bank or in your hand.

When the deal is done, tear off the bottom part of the V5C registration document, send it to the DVLA and give the top part to the buyer. This confirms you no longer legally the registered keeper of the car. Also give them the MoT certificate, service history and any other documents relating to the vehicle.

Don’t forget to hand over the spare keys and adaptor for locking wheel nuts if the car has them. If there is any remaining warranty then contact the provider to change the details and ring your insurance company to declare you no longer own the car.

There are ways of shifting your car quickly if you don’t have time to sell it yourself – but you’re unlikely to get the best price for it. The most common option is to trade it in at a dealer but you could also sell it through an auction centre.

There is a number of online car buying sites that promise to buy your car whatever its condition, the most well known being We Buy Any Car. However, they will often try to reduce the online quoted value once you take your car to one of their sites and are generally the least cost-effective way of selling your car.