Selling a 50k car privately

[Venisonpie]

I'm selling my Alpine due to having a deposit on an Emira and have some interest privately. What is the best process to ensure both parties are protected during the transaction? It has some outstanding finance. My thoughts so far-

I'll draw up a sales contract, sold as seen without warranty or guarantee (anything else I should add)
Payment - I ask for settlement of the finance and transfer of balance to my account.
I call both the bank and the finance company for confirmation funds are received
Once satisfied I write a sold date on the contract and both parties sign

Any constructive advice welcomed.

[voram]

If you're nervous and have two bank accounts with different banks, transfer the cash from one account to the other immediately after it arrives.

[ChocolateFrog]

Isn't the piece of paper a bit meaningless these days?

Concentrate on making sure the money is in your account before handing over the keys.

[mattman]

Sell it on wbac/motorway/wizzle and cut out the worry? How far off are their prices vs private sale?

With the inflated prices these days that’s been my preferred option for the least amount of hassle and quick payment

[GX337]

Do what Mattman advises. It’s worry free as far as scams are concerned and the price achieved selling to the trade will likely be higher than a private sale in this climate.

[georgeyboy12345]

I reckon you'll make an extra 4 grand selling privately over WBAC, etc, so not to be sniffed at. Lots of potential hassle though.

[griffter]

If you can, get a bank transfer done in branch. This is perfect if you both bank with the same bank as there seems to be very little that can go wrong and the money should move instantly.
There’s nothing wrong with doing it online, but it can trigger fraud protection processes and incur delays.

[Wills2]

Venisonpie said:

I'm selling my Alpine due to having a deposit on an Emira and have some interest privately. What is the best process to ensure both parties are protected during the transaction? It has some outstanding finance. My thoughts so far-

I'll draw up a sales contract, sold as seen without warranty or guarantee (anything else I should add)
Payment - I ask for settlement of the finance and transfer of balance to my account.
I call both the bank and the finance company for confirmation funds are received
Once satisfied I write a sold date on the contract and both parties sign

Any constructive advice welcomed.

As a private sale it is sold as seen unless you misrepresent the car, I would insist they get an independent inspection to satisfy themselves the car is as they want it, your obligations below:

The seller must have the right to sell the car.
The vehicle should match the description given by the seller.
The car must be roadworthy – it is a criminal offence to sell an unroadworthy car and an MOT certificate from a test several months ago is no guarantee that the car is roadworthy today.

The finance company will confirm to you that the funds have arrived but some take a few days to be able to do that which is where it becomes tricky I had with with BMWFS took them 2-3 days even though the money went to them instantly, your balance of the payment will typically show instantly using the FPS.

The buyer should pay using the faster payment system which cannot be reversed by the sender.

[Andy_290]

Maybe try a specialist buyer, I sold my RS3 to Alexander's Prestige and it was hassle free, and far off a private sale, just without all the s

[matt21]

mattman said:

Sell it on wbac/motorway/wizzle and cut out the worry? How far off are their prices vs private sale?

With the inflated prices these days that’s been my preferred option for the least amount of hassle and quick payment

This. Less hassle and I bet you’ll get more too. I sold my 997 Turbo and M6 this year on Wizzle, both for more than advertised privately where I barely got a sniff

Edited by matt21 on Sunday 3rd October 13:09

[anonymous-user]

"Best Price?", "£2K in hand, cash, today?", "I am a key worker", "Can you wait until pay day?", "My dad/children/dog are ill and I need to drive to Scotland today to see them and my current car broke down/was written off today, can you help". "I live a long way away, can you lower the price?"

It's bad enough trying to sell a shed, the thought of having to deal with the general public trying to sell a £50K car would keep me up at night.

[georgeyboy12345]

Would the large price tag not drive off the majority of idiots?

[krisdelta]

I think at that price point and the car will mean you'll get a good ratio of "normals". At £30k I got a few silly emails about my Vantage, at £20k I got a lot of timewasters / tyre kickers about my C63 estate.

A simple seller / buyer contract you both sign, downloaded from the AA website covers everyone's position. The timely factor will be clearing the finance as that make take more than a day to get confirmation of (which if you're the buyer - isn't ideal!) .

[georgeyboy12345]

krisdelta said:

I think at that price point and the car will mean you'll get a good ratio of "normals". At £30k I got a few silly emails about my Vantage, at £20k I got a lot of timewasters / tyre kickers about my C63 estate.

C63 for sure is more of an idiot magnet than an AM Vantage. I don’t think idiots will be that attracted to an Alpine somehow, so I think he’ll be alright.

[joropug]

I wouldn't buy a car that had finance to be settled at point of purchase - Are those interested aware?

A scammer could phone a fake company, get them to take a fake payment to settle the finance, tell the buyer over the phone that it is now settled in full.

Perhaps this sort of thing doesn't happen but it's not a risk I'd take. Getting stung on a Cat S car or something you didn't HPI is one thing but finance outstanding could see the the car taken away from you.

[keo]

georgeyboy12345 said:

Would the large price tag not drive off the majority of idiots?

I dunno I had a few when I was selling my GT4. Offering nearly £7k “cash money” (wtf else you going to pay me in? Bananas?)

But I had a decent buyer turn up we negotiated a fair price that we were both happy with. He transferred the money. Job done. Just takes one decent buyer. Lots of idiots about though. I hate selling cars!

[Sidekickwilson]

I just wouldn’t sell this car privately. In the current market you’ll likely get a similar amount via Wizzle or Cazoo with no risk. Do you want loads of time wasters contacting you and test pilots poking your pride and joy? Also, buyers with £50k privately are rare and they’d probably pay a little over for a warranty and the security of a specialist. That said my Elise went privately but it was a fraction of the value and had been supplied to me by a known specialist - appreciate your car will have been main dealer but it’s a totally different market to an older Elise.

[Venisonpie]

Well, I'm keeping it. The Emira is too wide for the access road to where it will live so order cancelled.

Had two enquiries within a few hrs of the ad going live, both very sensible people with one chap v keen to buy. No idiots as price point and non obvious choice of car probably aren't attractive to them.

Finance position made clear up front, neither buyer concerned. Would definitely advertise privately again.

[mrdanbartlett]

Glad you were open to a private sale, I much prefer to buy private myself.

I think its always best to try and filter out the idiots, i.e just have email as the contact method to begin with.

I once went to buy a private Z4, had £10k cash on me ready to buy it after the inspection went well......the guy wouldn't take it and insisted I come back the next day and we went to the bank together and paid it in - actually made good sense!

Next private car after that I transferred the guy the money whilst at his house, problem was it didn't go through so I was trying to call the bank.......whilst they were trying to call me to check what was going on (was around 15k). Took 2 hours to sort out and I had to drive back from Scotland to Essex so didn't want to be waiting around. Lovely guy though, made me some toast and was chilled about it but just naturally wanted to wait until it was in his account.

I guess the best method is as suggested earlier in this thread, both go to the bank and do the transfer there and sign the documents over?

I rarely buy car and my next is 30k+ so interested in this topic.

[Prohibiting]

All mine done via bank transfer albeit not the sums we are talking about.

When I bought privately, I took my laptop with me and did it online. Another time I just did it via my banking app…

When I’ve sold privately, again, bank transfer at my house via banking app. Always been instant even when banking with different banks.