Best way to sell a banger?

Autotrader? eBay? STW classifieds?

2005 Audi A4 estate, mechanically sound except that it needs a new A/C compressor and the rear windscreen washer doesn’t work. Has some scrapes, and quite a bit of moss / algae on the outside, also pretty darn scruffy on the inside. I mean, I could wash it and try to make it look decent, but I’m not sure it’d fool anyone anyway.

Has done 180-something thousand miles, will quite possibly do another 100k. Where do people go to buy such things? Do I need to join Facebook and deal with idiots?

I assume that part-ex or WBAC would offer me about £50 so would rather get a little more and also talk to the person that’s going to own it next!

Sell it to a STWer!

Buying vehicle for 3 months — advice sought

If nobody on here wants it, Gumtree is the place.

Free ads and functionality similar to Autotrader. Much less of a horror show than Facebook.

Used it myself for a spares/repair car – only got serious enquiries.

I’d open a butchers if I were you

Wait till just before 5/11.

I’d go with Gumtree too. It will attract idiots and scammers, so make sure you ignore anyone who you have any concerns about.

Wedged firmly between two slices of bread and topped with crispy onions

But remember, hot dogs die in hot cars

Ebay, honest description, low reserve and prepare yourself for a flurry of “what’ll you take for it?” emails from morons who don’t understand what an auction is.

Give it a good clean inside & out, then stick an honest review listing all the good points and bad on eBay with a 99p starting price.

I did that with my old Ibiza which was 12 years old with 276k miles on it and it sold for £400.

At the time, wbac offered £140, so was pleased with £400!

Where in the UK are you? I have a son looking for a new whip for 6 months…

(Oxford based)

Not keen on cleaning it (haven’t washed it once in the 10+ years that I’ve had it!) but I guess I could…

I used Facebook Marketplace and sold my old and very knackered car very quickly (listed at 6pm on Saturday, collected at 10am Sunday). I know it can be a shit-show but it does work sometimes.

Not keen on cleaning it (haven’t washed it once in the 10+ years that I’ve had it!) but I guess I could…

I’ve always wondered why some cars look like they get parked in a pond, with all that green stuff on them.

I only wash mine a handful of times a year, but I’d have a word with myself if it started looking like Swamp Thing.

Do you get it serviced at all?

Give it a good clean inside & out, then stick an honest review listing all the good points and bad on eBay with a 99p starting price.

This is what I did with a 12 year old Fiat 500 with a knackered clutch. Got £1800 for it, which frankly astounds me, this was only a couple of months ago so not an ancient experience. Make sure you put a clear warning that you don’t have a buy it now price and you won’t respond to any enquiries for one. I made that mistake, got probably a hundred message asking.

I assume that part-ex or WBAC would offer me about £50 so would rather get a little more and also talk to the person that’s going to own it next!

try them – you might be surprised… because:

Not keen on cleaning it (haven’t washed it once in the 10+ years that I’ve had it!) but I guess I could…

Suggests you want the path of least resistance rather than maximum cash.

fwiw I went with British motor auctions equivalent of WBAC – they collect from you so have slightly less room to negotiate if the turn up and try to say your description is not right.

you don’t need to wash it yourself, just drive it to the local scratch n shine, and spend a fiver.

Do you get it serviced at all?

Heh. Yep, serviced once per year whether it needs it or not! I care that it works, but not that it looks clean. My wife used it to ferry forest school stuff around for a couple of years, and my two kids have grown up in it so I gave up any idea of keeping it cosmetically nice immediately.

It’s overdue a cambelt change because we’ve been kind of assuming that something else would go pop for a couple of years, but aside from that we’ve always done whatever the garage suggested.

Give it to Charity

They will come and take it away for you

Yep local car wash spend a fiver will make a huge difference. Clear out the crap from the interior and spend 10 minutes with a vacuum.

Then you’ll realise that actually it’s an ok vehicle and decide to keep it. Or if you don’t then go the eBay route.

We just sold a tatty but well serviced VW Passat estate 1.9tdi with a crunchy 2nd gear on Facebook for £500.

We gave it a good clean and a very honest description, made it plain we weren’t in a rush to the potential buyers. We were polite to the ‘swappers’, firm with the messers and just plain ignored some of them. Gone in 6 days.

The scrap value according to the trade in garage was £214 so there’s always that choice.

Just read your cambelt comment. Ours had that done last year.