Car sales advice required

[R.C.Anderson]

I've ordered a new car, which is due to arrive at the beginning of April, however I'm a little unsure what to do with my current car.

Simplest thing to do, would be to just part exchange it, but obviously due to the convenience, this would get me the least money for it.
Other alternative would be to sell it on one of the car selling sites, which (from the quotes I've got) would get me a little more than part-x, but that might change when they view the car etc.
Other alternative I have, is to sell privately (through gumtree, autotrader etc), which would get me the most for the vehicle, but isn't a guaranteed sale.

If I was just wanting to get rid of the car, I would stick it on autotrader etc, and wait for it to be sold, however there's a couple of issues I see with that at the moment.
A) If someone wants to buy it in the next couple of weeks, I have to decide between selling and not having a car for a few weeks, or turning down the sale.
B) If there isn't any interest, I run the risk of still having the car, and ending up getting rid of it for a much lower price once I've got my new car (or I would have to insure 2 cars etc)

What's the general people do this? I did think I could put the offer up to sell, then if I get a get an offer before my new car comes to either get taxis/a hire car etc until my new car arrives, but this could quite quickly (taxis estimated at £25/day to get to/from work, and car hire probably will be something similar) eat into any extra money I would have made from the private sale. The other thought I had (but would be far too much hassle for what it's worth), would be to buy a small cheap car (no more than a couple hundred £) to run for the couple of weeks between selling my car & my new one arriving, then sell to a car buying site when my new car arrives.

Unfortunately busses aren't really an option for the mean time, as it would take over an hour with busses to get into work (rather than the 15 mins it takes by car), and I live on my own, and none of my friends, or work colleagues live near me, so no chance of lift sharing etc.

 

[mccarf]

Unfortunately busses aren't really an option for the mean time, as it would take over an hour with busses to get into work (rather than the 15 mins it takes by car), and I live on my own, and none of my friends, or work colleagues live near me, so no chance of lift sharing etc.

Couldn't you just live with this for a few weeks? If it nets you a lot more £ then surely it's worth it? Might not even sell straight away, anyway.

 

[~Divine~Wind~]

What?! Buy another car to run in the meantime before another car arrives?
Sounds like an unneeded mess about tbh, what if the temp car develops faults?

An hour to get to work isn't exactly a huge commute, yes it's not ideal but more than doable on a temporary basis.

The other option, advertise for sale stating clearly the date it's available from and mention that it's due to delivery of a new vehicle, should stop muppets calling asking to buy the car right away.

As above however it could take you weeks/moths to sell the car unless id something special or priced keenly. whats the tradein value offerred and what do you expect to sell the car for? Got the car details?

 

[R.C.Anderson]

Couldn't you just live with this for a few weeks? If it nets you a lot more £ then surely it's worth it? Might not even sell straight away, anyway.

What?! Buy another car to run in the meantime before another car arrives?
Sounds like an unneeded mess about tbh, what if the temp car develops faults?

An hour to get to work isn't exactly a huge commute, yes it's not ideal but more than doable on a temporary basis.

The other option, advertise for sale stating clearly the date it's available from and mention that it's due to delivery of a new vehicle, should stop muppets calling asking to buy the car right away.

As above however it could take you weeks/moths to sell the car unless id something special or priced keenly. whats the tradein value offerred and what do you expect to sell the car for? Got the car details?

Unfortunately can't really go without a car for that long. If it was just work, I could probably live with it temporarily, however everything else I do during the week would either be not possible, or highly inconvenient, meaning it's not really an option.

For reference, the price differences are:

Part-X: £1500
Car buying sites: £1600-£2000
Estimated autotrader price: ~£3000

I am leaning more towards just putting it up, but stating it's available from April, but I was mainly wondering if anyone else had been in a similar situation, and found a clever way around it that I hadn't already considered.

 

[iaind]

Nobody is going to be interested now for a car thats available in April. Advertise it at the end of March and if you get a buyer quickly then either explain in person or deal with it another way

 

[~Divine~Wind~]

And if you look on pistonheads, autotrader and the likes what kind of prices are they selling for?

the car buying sites will lower their prices for every little mark on the car.

At the end fo the day if its a boggo spec car that thee hundreds of them listed then yes could take a while to sell.

 

[Redgie]

Unfortunately can't really go without a car for that long. If it was just work, I could probably live with it temporarily, however everything else I do during the week would either be not possible, or highly inconvenient, meaning it's not really an option.

For reference, the price differences are:

Part-X: £1500
Car buying sites: £1600-£2000
Estimated autotrader price: ~£3000

I am leaning more towards just putting it up, but stating it's available from April, but I was mainly wondering if anyone else had been in a similar situation, and found a clever way around it that I hadn't already considered.

Don't forget, cars on Autotrader rarely sell for the price they're listed for. But despite that, it looks like quite a jump to not take the trade in so that'd definitely get my vote...

 

[HangTime]

Haven't thought this through but maybe put it up for sale for an 'optimistic' / fair price (i.e. not "pricing to sell") assuming the car is in good condition etc and hope you get lucky, then lower the asking price as you get closer to April.

Basically means if you do sell before April at least you will have got top dollar for it to offset the inconvenience. The downside could be wasted listings fees if nobody interested, and more chance of time-wasting buyers wanting to haggle.

Autotrader price sounds like a big markup so even if you sold it in say early-mid March for £2700 you'd still be a grand up on the other options to offset the few weeks without a car (could you take a holiday?)