Selling A Car For Cash

[sunny-dave]

My lovely Audi S5 has to go - it's supremely impractical for rural Ireland .

The (lack of) ground clearance means it's acting as a lawnmower on some of the grassier lanes and its knee-trembling performance is superfluous except on the occasional trip back to Blighty.

I need to sell it for cash in the UK (if I import it to Ireland I have to keep it for a year at least) - and selling £20 odd grands worth of motor to a private buyer is on the 'too scary' pile, given the number of scam merchants out there.

So, has anyone got any good/bad experiences of the 'WeBuyYourOldBanger.Com' market?

SDxx

[choux]

Will any Irish driver want it or are you bringing it back to England to sell?

[sunny-dave]

Back to the UK - can't sell it in Ireland unless I import it and keep it for at least 12 months

Even then it would not be going to sell - the Irish Road Tax regime is heavily weighted against big petrol engined cars - and the insewerance is awful too.

[Buenchico]

WeBuyAnyCar has surprisingly good reviews on TrustPilot. (Yes, I know that good reviews can be faked but that still doesn't hide any bad ones):
https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.webuyanycar.com

That probably needs to be read alongside this:
https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-3341716/WeBuyAnyCar-hoped-online-auto-dealer-s-price-guarantees-deserve-scrapped.html

If you're looking for alternatives, there's a list here:
https://motorway.co.uk/guides/webuyanycar-alternatives

However you don't need to worry about selling to a private buyer if you use an escrow service, such as Transpact:
https://www.transpact.com/

[choux]

Insewerance :)

You shouldn't drive it in dirty ditch water Dave.

[choux]

Sorry Dave. I swear the 3rd paragraph wasn't in your op when I answered ...

Should have gone to Specsavers - they have 'em in Ireland too.

[sunny-dave]

A Terry Pratchettism - which nicely expresses my opinion of the whole business, choux

[sunny-dave]

Chris - I used WeBuyAnyBike to sell my (pristine) Kawasaki - and they were excellent - paid the full amount on collection.

But the car has done many more miles and has the usual odd stone chip etc - I fear the 'inspection and tutting' process may be a tad irksome.

[tonyav]

I'd put it on Ebay, Facebook or Autotrader, Dave. You'll flog an S5 easily.

[rockyracoon]

Mr RR’s niece used webuyanycar, and got offered more from them than a dealer she went to to part ex for a brand new car.

[jazzyjen]

Last summer I tried WBAC who offered £350 for a 12 yr old runaround. They then kept sending chaser emails with ever increasing offers, up to a max of £410.

I took it round the corner to a local garage who offered me £500 in cash there and then.

[ToraToraTora]

knock it out on ebay, insist on net transfer, sorted.

[Calicogirl]

Seriously flog it yourself you'll lose thousands using we buy sites. It's no scarier selling a £20k car than a £200 banger, just be duly dilligent and get a bank transfer, don't let it go til you have the funds actually in your account, take a photocopy of their photo ID, insist their bank and address details match the ID and it's done. If you're worried you might get turned over for the keys arrange to meet at a very public place like a drive through Mcdonalds that's always busy and has CCTV. At a push you could stick it through a car auction but webuy sites will be the lowest amount you'll get for it, so I'd avoid them at all costs x

[sunny-dave]

Thanks everyone - some ideas to explore there.

[shoota]

PX for a Discovery Sport.

[sunny-dave]

No chance - a petrol one would be ruinous (Irish VRT tax) and I don't ever do diesel.

Looking at various PHEVs at the moment - but need to buy in Ireland to get the various green grants that they have now.