How to get the most money when selling your car

You have the choice between selling or part-exchanging it to a dealership – the quick and easy option. Or you can sell it privately, which can be the most lucrative route, but is usually a lot more hassle.

Here's our guide to getting the most money when selling your car.

Car selling tips

We'll go into much more detail below, but our favourite car-selling advice is:

• Keep all documentation including your handbook, V5C and all maintenance and service records
• Try to keep hold of all sets of keys
• Be honest about your car's age, mileage and condition
• Consider fixing small maintenance issues before putting the car up for sale
• Consider putting the car through an MOT if it only has a few months left
• Clean the car before getting it valued

Selling your car privately vs selling to a dealership

What impacts your car's value?

Condition

Unsurprisingly, the better your car's condition when you sell it, the more money you'll get for it. Some of the most common condition issues that crop up include kerb scrapes on alloy wheels, dents or scratches in the paintwork, or damage to windows.

If the car you're selling has visible damage on the outside, you should weigh up the potential value you'll lose in a sale against the cost of getting the issues repaired. For some cheaper used cars, the cost of repairs might not outweigh the money you'll lose in a sale but, for most vehicles that are still worth a few thousand pounds, there's a good chance you'll make back the repair costs in the increased sale price. This is especially true for lighter paintwork scratches, which can be very unsightly to buyers but are relatively affordable to fix.

Buyers can also tell a great deal about the general condition of a vehicle from how the interior is presented. A car with a grubby cabin might be indicative of an owner that neglected to care for other areas that are less visible, too. Before selling, consider taking your car for a valet or giving the interior a good scrub yourself so potential buyers get a great first impression when they open the door.

Service history

The service history is an important record that shows your car has been maintained in line with the manufacturer's recommendations. When selling a car, service history is classified in one of three ways:

• Full service history – your car has been correctly serviced at every service interval and you have the documentation to prove it, most often in the form of a service book or, for some models, a digital service record.
• Partial service history – you have some evidence of your car being serviced in a service book or elsewhere, but one or more of the entries is missing.
• No service history – you have no proof that the car has been serviced either in the service book, in receipts or in a digital service record.

You'll get the most amount of money if the car you're selling has a full service history – this proves to buyers that the car has been maintained as specified by the carmaker, and that it should last longer as a result. You can expect to get less money for a model with a partial service history, and even less for one with no history at all.

Buyers of certain cars – especially premium and performance models – might be willing to pay even more for a car that has a full dealer service history. This is where all the services were carried out at a manufacturer-branded service centre, rather than a local garage, giving even more confidence that proper parts and methods were used throughout the vehicle's maintenance. Manufacturer services do tend to cost more, however, so it's better to have a full service history of any kind if it's too expensive to go with a manufacturer.

Make sure you service your car in line with the manufacturer's stated service intervals – these can usually be found in your car's user manual. For the majority of cars, service intervals are every 12 months, or around every 10,000 miles if you reach that figure before the annual schedule.

MOT

It might be tempting to put your car up for sale sooner if you see that its MOT test is nearly due, leaving it to be the next owner's problem. However, this could be costing you money because many buyers will be suspicious of a car that's being sold very close to its next MOT.

Buyers will have much more confidence paying for a car that has a good amount of MOT left because it gives them a little more reassurance that no major issues are lurking below the surface. If the car you're selling is nearly due its MOT, consider taking the test and paying to fix any issues flagged up as this can help push up the car's sale price – potentially by more than the cost of the test and repairs themselves.

Keys

New cars are mostly supplied with two sets of keys. However, over time, the stresses of day-to-day life mean that spare set can sometimes vanish into thin air. A used car sold with only a single key will inevitably be worth slightly less than one that still has all its original sets.

The difference is driven by the surprisingly high cost of getting spare keys made and programmed for a car – a process that often costs hundreds of pounds. If you've lost the second set, you'll need to balance the cost of getting another key made against the potential value you'll lose if you only sell the car with one set.

Mileage

Mileage is also an important factor in determining how much a used car is worth. Cars with less mileage are generally held to have suffered less wear and tear over time, making them worth more than cars that have covered greater distances.

However, your mileage can be difficult to control, especially if you need your car to get to your place of work or for ferrying your kids about. The trick here is not to avoid the journeys you need to cover, but to simply aim to reduce the number of unnecessary miles you put on your car – an easy way to do this is to try to walk, cycle or use the bus for local journeys that would otherwise wastefully increase the mileage on your car.

Getting your car ready to sell

Research

Another crucial tip to getting the best price for your car is to have a clear idea of how much it should be worth. There are several ways you can go about doing this – you can use any number of online car valuation tools, including Motorpoint's own free Value My Car service, or you can hunt around on used car sites to get prices for similar models on sale.

Most car-buying services value vehicles using the same data, so your car should be priced fairly consistently wherever you get it valued. This will help you get a ballpark value for your car, which could help you negotiate to get the best possible price when you come to sell it.

Consider doing some servicing and maintenance

Cars naturally pick up a little wear and tear over time. Most buyers will expect to see a few small scuffs if they're viewing an older car but, if your car has fairly obvious cosmetic damage, it might be worth getting it repaired before putting the car on sale. You may well recover the cost of the repair through the extra value you get when selling.

It's also worth considering whether your car is nearly due a service or an MOT. Buyers might avoid a car with very little MOT left, as it suggests the car has a known problem that you're unwilling to fix.

Clean your car

Finally, when you're showing your car to a prospective buyer, whether that's a dealership or a private individual, we'd try to present it in the neatest light. That means you should, at the very least, give your car a quick clean inside and out beforehand, and make sure all of your personal belongings are removed.

What to avoid when selling your car

Lying about your car's condition, age or mileage

You need to be totally transparent about your car's condition, age or mileage.

Any potential valuation you receive from a dealership or a private buyer is conditional on the car being as-described. If the buyer views your car and spots obvious damage or wear, or finds that the age and mileage aren't correct, then they're going to be more suspicious of your car.

For a private sale, you'll probably find the buyer walks away at this point, or offers a much lower price to reflect the car's status. Dealerships will also place your car under extra scrutiny and might find even more reasons to knock money off the price they offer you.

Losing documentation, keys or space parts

Every component and piece of paperwork associated with your car has an impact on its value. If, for example, you have no way to prove your car has been serviced on time, then the car cannot be sold as having a 'full service history', even if you did actually make all your service appointments.

Similarly, replacing a missing key fob often costs hundreds of pounds, so private and dealership buyers will also knock money off if you've lost the space key. Also remember to keep track of items like your parcel shelf and spare tyre, as these will also influence your car's value.

Taking the first offer you see

It's a good idea to try several different car-buying services to see which offers you the highest amount for your car. Bear in mind, however, that some of these retailers will show you a slightly inflated initial value, and then knock that number down when they view the car in person.

For reference, you can get a final valuation from Motorpoint in just five minutes. We pay out 99% of those final valuations with no adjustments.

Is there an easier way to sell your car?

If you don't fancy the hassle of selling your car privately, why not sell your car to Motorpoint? It's free, convenient and much easier than selling your car yourself. To see how much your car might be worth, take a look at our free value my car tool for a no-obligation quote, guaranteed for 7 days.