How to sell a car: the complete guide
Selling a car has three parts: deciding how to sell it, getting it ready, and doing the paperwork so that it stops being your responsibility the moment it leaves. Most people do the first two reasonably well and rush the third, which is how they end up receiving someone else’s speeding fine six weeks later. This guide covers all three in the order you will need them.
Step 1: Decide how to sell
You have four routes, and the price you get and the effort you put in move in opposite directions.
Private sale. Highest price, most work. You advertise, deal with enquiries, run test drives, and take payment. Expect to get within 10% of the retail price a dealer would ask.
Online car buyer. Companies that quote a price from the registration, inspect the car, and pay by bank transfer, often collecting the same week. Fast and safe; the price is usually 10% to 20% below private sale, and the on-the-day inspection commonly revises the quote down.
Part exchange. Trade the car in against your next one. Convenient, and the dealer sometimes flexes the part-exchange value to close the deal on the new car, but you will rarely see the best price for the old one on its own.
Dealer or trade sale. Selling outright to a dealer, or at auction. Lowest price, least effort, and the right answer for a car with problems that would make a private sale awkward.
Our guide to dealer versus private sale works through the trade-offs with numbers. If the car is on finance, read selling a car with finance first, because the finance company owns it until it is settled and the settlement changes which route makes sense.
Step 2: Find out what it is worth
Get three numbers: what the online buyers will offer, what dealers are asking for the same car, and what private sellers on the classified sites are asking. Your private asking price sits between the second and third, and your walk-away price sits a little above the first. Our guide to checking your car’s value covers the valuation sites and how to adjust for mileage and condition.
Check the car’s own history before a buyer does. Run the MOT history and a car check on your own registration; if there is an advisory, a mileage discrepancy or a finance marker you did not know about, you want to find it now, not when a buyer waves a printout at you.
Step 3: Get it ready
A clean car sells for more than a dirty one, by more than the cost of cleaning it. Spend a day on it or pay for a valet; our detailing guide covers what to do yourself. Fix the small things: a blown bulb, a worn wiper, a warning light that is a £40 sensor. Do not fix the big things unless the maths works; a £600 repair rarely adds £600 to the price.
Gather the paperwork. The V5C, the MOT certificate, the service history, any receipts for major work, both keys, the locking wheel nut, and the handbook. A car with a full folder of history sells faster and for more than the same car without. Our guide to increasing resale value lists the other things buyers pay for.
If the car has a private plate you want to keep, take it off the car before you sell; our guide to private number plates covers the retention process, which takes a few days online.
Step 4: Advertise
Write the advert as if you were the buyer. Make, model, trim, year, mileage, MOT expiry, service history, number of owners, colour, and the reason for sale. List faults honestly; the buyer will find them at the viewing and a disclosed fault costs you less than a discovered one. Photograph the car clean, in daylight, from every side, with the interior, the dashboard with the ignition on to show no warning lights, the tyres, and the documents. Twenty photos is not too many.
Whether to show the number plate is a common question. There is no security reason to hide it and buyers use it to run history checks; our guide to showing your number plate when selling settles it.
Step 5: Viewings and test drives
Meet at your home in daylight, with someone else around. Ask to see the buyer’s driving licence before a test drive and photograph it.
Insurance is the part most sellers get wrong. Your policy covers you to drive the car; it does not usually cover a stranger to drive it, and their own policy will only cover your car if it includes driving other cars, which most no longer do. The safe options are for the buyer to arrange a short-term policy for the test drive, which takes minutes, or for you to accompany them with a policy that explicitly allows it. Our guide to test drive insurance explains what to ask for. Go with them on the drive regardless.
Step 6: Take payment safely
Bank transfer, and watch it arrive in your account on your own banking app before handing over the keys. Not a screenshot, not a text saying it has been sent, not a “pending” transaction. For larger sums, a CHAPS same-day payment clears within hours. Cash is fine for small amounts if you can check it, but be wary of anyone insisting on paying a large sum in cash. Never accept a cheque or banker’s draft from a stranger.
The scams to know about: the buyer who overpays “by mistake” and asks for the difference back before the original payment bounces; the buyer who wants the car delivered abroad and paid through an escrow service you have never heard of; and the “courier” who arrives to collect a car that has been paid for with a stolen card. Each of them ends with you having no car and no money. Slow, boring bank transfers protect you from all three.
Step 7: The paperwork
This is the part that makes the sale final, and it is quick if you do it in the right order.
- Write a receipt, two copies, signed by both of you. Date, time, price, registration, mileage, both names and addresses, and the words “sold as seen, tried and tested, without guarantee”. A private seller is not bound by the Consumer Rights Act, but the receipt fixes the moment responsibility passed.
- Tell DVLA online. Go to the vehicle-sold service on GOV.UK, enter the 11-digit reference from the V5C, and give the buyer’s name and address. It takes two minutes and you get an email confirmation. From that moment the buyer is the keeper and any fines go to them. Our guide to transferring ownership walks through it, and the V5C guide explains each section if you are doing it on paper instead.
- Give the buyer the green slip (section 2 of the V5C, the new keeper supplement) and keep the rest of the document until DVLA confirms, then destroy it. Do not give the buyer the whole V5C.
- Hand over the keys and documents only once the money has cleared and the DVLA notification is done.
If you have lost the V5C, you can still sell, but it is slower and buyers are warier; our guide to selling without a V5C explains the options.
Step 8: After the sale
Three things, the same day.
Tax. It does not transfer. DVLA cancels it when you notify the sale and refunds any full months remaining to the address on the V5C. If you paid by direct debit, it stops. Our guide to cancelling car tax covers what to expect.
Insurance. Ring your insurer, or use the app, to either transfer the policy to your next car or cancel it. Cancelling mid-term usually carries a fee and a pro-rata refund; if you are buying another car within a few weeks it is cheaper to move the policy. Our guide to switching car insurance covers the mechanics. Do not leave the old policy running on a car you no longer own.
Everything else. Breakdown cover, any parking permits, the toll or clean air zone accounts registered to the car, and the private plate if you have not already dealt with it.
Frequently asked questions
What documents do I need to sell my car?
The V5C is the only essential one. The MOT certificate, service history and receipts make the car easier to sell and worth more.
Do I have to tell DVLA I’ve sold my car?
Yes, and immediately. Until you do, you are the registered keeper and liable for anything the car does.
Can I sell a car without an MOT?
Yes, but the buyer cannot legally drive it away on the road except to a pre-booked MOT, and it will sell for less.
Is it safe to let a buyer test drive my car?
Only if they are insured for it. Ask for proof of a short-term policy or arrange one, photograph their licence, and go with them.
How do I sell a car that’s on finance?
Get a settlement figure from the finance company first. You cannot transfer ownership until it is paid. See our finance sale guide.
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