Advice on selling a car

[soir]

Apologies, I have never done this before.

I wish to sell my car privately but need to check a couple of pointers (Car is worth around £19k, no finace on it).

1) Once advertised and people come to view it - do I let them/anyone drive it, or only if they put a deposit or book it in for an inspection?? (Want to avoid people just wanting to take it for a spin!)

2) Once price all agreed - I've been told Bankers Drafts are pretty dodgy these days (so if I get one, phone the bank who issued it & they will tell me??) Cash is a no no, too much. Electronic Transfer, then give the car once funds have cleared?

Thanks all & looking forward to a load of tyre kickers!!

[leosayer]

You will be committing an offence by allowing someone else to drive your car without insurance. Plus the fact that if they crash and it and then leg it, what are you going to do? IMO, don't let anyone drive unless they can prove fully comp insurance and give you a deposit first.

Only hand over the car when you have cleared funds in your bank account AND....

Only accept cash if you can pay it straight into the bank, while the buyer is with you (just in case it's forged or he has mates round the corner to get it back from you).

Only accept a bankers draft if you can prove it's legit (ie. ring the bank to confirm.

[zippee]

On the subject of insurance as its an expensive car make sure they add your car as a temp vehicle to their own policy.
If their comp on their own policy, whilst it entitles them to drive other cars with owners permission, it only covers them 3rd party. So if they prange your car it still won't be covered.
If their genuine and really interested then they shouldn't mind.
Another way to weed out test pilots is to insist on proof (bank statement/loan agreement) that they have the funds to pay for your car. Agaim if they're genuine they shouldn't mind doing so.

[cosmoschick]

leosayer said:

Only hand over the car when you have cleared funds in your bank account AND....

And don't forget that it takes 7 working days for a cheque to go through the full clearing process despite the fact that you can draw on the funds after 3-4 days. So the buyer could put a stop on the cheque after, say, day 4 when you've handed over the vehicle. The manager of my building society was really helpful when I expressed my concern about this and advised against letting the car go before the cheque had fully cleared. But because the buyer was getting twitchy and wanted to take delivery before then, the manager made a note to block the purchaser putting a stop on the cheque.

In any event, it all went smoothly and I got much more money by selling my car privately but it's a somewhat stressful experience, especially when the vehicle is worth a lot of money!

[shadowninja]

zippee said:

On the subject of insurance as its an expensive car make sure they add your car as a temp vehicle to their own policy.

is this possible? never heard of this.

I usually make them sign an agreement to buy the car at MY ASKING PRICE should they crash the car.

Also worth asking them if they have had any insurance quotes for it. The number of dreamers who either can't raise finance or have yet to find out that no insurance companies will give them a policy...

[CCCS]

If you accept a bankers draft go with them to a bank branch local to you and be there when they collect the draft.