Selling a car privately, advice please

Morning all,

I’m selling my car privately via Gum Tree and wondered if there was anything I should worry about in terms of not being ripped off/having the car nicked? I’ve never sold a car privately before and am a little scared of the whole process!

The things that concern me are:
Payment. Is cash best? or bankers draft?
Test drives. Quite understandably they may want a test drive. How do you manage it? Do you go in the car with them? Do you ask them to leave something behind and hand over the keys?
Location. Currently said car is sat on my drive, is it best to sell it from there or would I be better advised meeting somewhere neutral?
Comeback after the sale. The car is, shall we say, temperamental. I’ve been upfront about this in the advert but if it does break down within an hour of them buying it what comeback do they have?
Receipt. Related to the above, is it advisable to write a “sold as seen” type receipt? If so, anyone have a suitable template I can borrow?!

Thanks all, and apologies for the long post.

http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/askhj/answer/29309/selling-a-car-with-known-faults

its a great web site, with all sorts of info you might find of help

Whoever buys it *will* try to barter you down to nothing.

Get the price you’ll accept in first, as this sets the level for the haggling to follow. Better for the buyer to be trying to get your price down rather than you trying to get the buyer’s offer up.

Ask around some local garages to get a rough idea of the cost of fixing the issues. Also, search the internet for the cost of any parts required on their own, so you know how much it’ll cost the back garden tinkerer to fix. The existence of faults will be used by the buyer, so if you know it’s £300 quid for a garage to fix and the buyer’s wanting £600 off, you’ll know to show them the door.

I sold a car via gumtree last year. I met them in a neutral location and sat in the back when they took it for a test drive, I took my sister with me as felt that being a lone female it was probably unsafe to go alone. I was upfront about issues with the 10 year old car, but they still tried to make me pay for repairs after they bought it, in cash. I refused, it was a father & son tag-team, the son played the innocent youth card and the dad tried guilting me with “I thought you were a decent person, you seemed honest, if you were a good person you’d be helping him out, now he has no money and a car he can’t drive”.

Only because of previous posts on here did I have the nerve to stick to my guns, sold as seen, you knew the issues, they were present in the test drive, I was with you. You drove it away, it is yours. The issue did not make it undriveable, that is their choice.

I felt really bad about it, they did a good job and others may have cracked, but I stuck to it, especially as when I suggested they get a second quote they told me they trust this guy, I said I don’t, end of.

So, good luck and if they do try it on stick to your guns. 🙂

fair question..

dont let anyone test drive it.. they can come for a ride with you but dont let anyone drive it. ( insurance issues nickability etc..)

cash is the only way to pay.. bankers this and that cheques can all be duds.. dont accept a check and let them come back in 5/7 days .they can still bounce even when ‘cleared’

give a simple reciept.. recieved x as full and final payment for reg no abc 1 sold as seen sold by sold to make two copies one for buyer one for vendoe sign both copies

absolutely no comeback whether it explodes at the end of the drive or vice versa they find a squillion quid on the back seat..

loads of folks now think they are in an episode of fast and loud when making an offer.. if you ve advertised it at 500 quid they ve come to buy a 500 quid car not a 50 quid car.. say no unless you get to a figure your happy with

repeat dont take cheques for full or part value ( its alright i ve a cheque guarantee card for 100 quid … NO No No)

Good advice above. The only thing I would add is not to uncheck show map of the location so you don’t get folk coming round unannounced.
I’d also use chuck a pay only sim in a phone and use that for dealing with the sale then bin it afterwards.

Firstly, I’d stick it on ebay. You’ll get a much bigger market. There is a cost but that will be more than covered. If you are honest about the faults then there is no comeback.

There’s no way I’d buy a car I hadn’t driven and I would be pretty wary about buying from someone who who let me come to their house. They should have 3rd party insurance to drive other cars.

Nothing to be scared of. There’s lots of chancers and scammers out there but there are usually weeded out at the email stage, the vast majority are just ordinary, honest people looking for a cheap car.

Good advice above. As long as you are upfront with the issues and state sold as seen then you will be fine. Payment wise, I have in the past always asked the buyer to accompany to the local bank branch and have them accept the payment there (bankers draft / cash).

As a buyer, I’d never buy a car without test driving it. And I’d never buy a car somewhere ‘neutral’. If the address doesn’t match the V5 I’d walk away.

As a seller, if they want to test drive it (which they should) insist they bring allong the advertised price in cash. This has 3 benifits, 1 their insurance is only 3rd party so doesn’t cover your car if they crash it, just whatever they hit. 2, gets past tyre kickers with no intentio of buying. 3, they’re on the back foot haggling, they can’t open with “I’ve got £xxx cash” if you’ve already seen £yyy and would then have to actualy find something to haggle about that they didn’t already know to get the price below that.

As soon as you’ve sold it, cancel the insurance on it.
Don’t be tempted to wait a few days

Thanks for the advice so far, brilliant stuff, very helpful.

As soon as you’ve sold it, cancel the insurance on it.
Don’t be tempted to wait a few days

Never heard this before?

Why would that be a problem?

Surely the policy is null and void as you are no longer the registered keeper?

The new owner could not make a claim on it.

The new owner could not make a claim on it.

If they have not arranged insurance on the vehicle and hit someone/thing while your Insurance is in force then it’s your Insurers who will foot the bill.

the new owner does not make a claim on it the injured party does.. even though the new ‘owner’ crashed the car you still insure it.. on that basis you ve let him drive it with your permission so you are liable as your insurance wont pay you personally become personally liable.. one of those insurance ”you what” that has just been clarified in law. you insure something even if you no longer own it you are an interested party in law.

you insure something even if you no longer own it you are an interested party in law.

That seems a very strange ruling!

How are you still an interested party?

There was a case recently, chap sold motorcycle, buyer was not insured & crashed, insurance company paid up & sued previous owner for money – believe me do cancel insurance policy as soon as cash exchanges hands

Just on my phone but a quick Google

I sold my bike but didn’t cancel my insurance

That makes more sense when it is explained like that.

Still seems very harsh!

And if you are going to let someone test drive your vehicle make sure they are properly insured to do so

for a car with faults I’d be tempted to sell it on eBay with a million photos and a tediously long description. it’s what I did with a motorbike and some guy who seemed to know what he was doing (unlike me) paid a decent price for it and took it away. start the auction at 0.01 and just let it ride…if nothing else you will get rid of it. buggered cars (unlike currencies ) are a liability, not an asset!

The insurance things is harsh but it is 100% legal. The motorcycle crash referred to happened about 12 miles away from me and the insurance aspect of it was all over the local papers.

That case isn’t the only one
There’s a case that involves a fatality and the poor guy is facing losing his house and anything else that can be liquidated.

A few things I found when selling a car:

– DONT let them testdrive your car unless they are insured fully comp on your car.

– Buy a cash checker pen from office depot etc.

– Download a disclaimer/receipt for the buyer to sign saying they accept the car is as described etc.

On my recent xsara Picasso a couple turned up- the woman rode the clutch round the block then when we were outside my house the chap jumped in, handbrake on and into third and did a stall test. It stalled.

I bit my tongue. They said they had an older, higher-miler same car to see the next day with an indie and they’d be in touch. Funnily they did call me back- I ignored their calls until they went away. Fuming over treating a good car badly.

The other one I mentioned

http://britishbikersassociation.org/blog/entry/scots-biker-in-insurance-hell-after-legal-loophole-forces-him-to-pay-thousands-for-death-crash-on-his-old-bike

Bike? Scotland? Wheres the op and whats he selling?

+1 for eBay

Much easier to find the right buyer and harder for them to haggle you down.

I’ve sold 2 on Ebay be up front mention all the faults, never had an issue.

OP is here. I’m selling a car in England. I may yet go to eBay but, as Gumtree is free I thought I’d try it.

Gotta be an ebay with full disclosure …

Can’t think of anything worse than selling a car privately tbh….so many clowns about 🙂

I create a simple receipt and get them to sign it too with date and time. Had one sold car caught doing 56 in a 30 half an hour after selling it, and another taken into the London congestion charging zone the day after it was bought without the correct ticket thing being paid for. V5 posted off, but it can take weeks for the new one to arrive. Having a signed receipt can make life a lot easier.

They should have 3rd party insurance to drive other cars.

check this. i did and 2 people swore blind they did and on checking they didn’t.

Even if they have third party, don’t let them drive it until they have handed over the cash in case they smash it up

‘kin ‘ell! There’s some real paranoid people on here…

Unless you can afford the financial loss of someone stealing / trashing etc the car I think their paranoia will serve them well.

etc the car I think their paranoia will serve them well.

and I think not. A lot of the behaviour above will put a lot of buyers off.

What car and how much are you asking for it?

Who’s going to give cash first? I wouldn’t. But then I wouldn’t buy privately so maybe ignore me!

Thanks you all for the advice. Just sold the old girl on Gumtree to a lovely fella who met me somewhere neutral, didn’t mind my paranoia about a test drive (he told me to drive and he would just listen), paid me a reasonable price in cash then didn’t mind me counting it twice and checking every note with a fake note pen. He then happily signed a receipt and drove off without fuss or incident. Happy days.