Selling a Car.

[osarusan]

My family and I are moving back to Japan in Feb. / March of next year, and we're looking to sell our car. Both the tax and insurance are due this month, and it will have its NCT this week.

I'm looking for advice on whether to get the full year for both tax and insurance, or get a six-month deal. I'll save with a shorter deal, but will I lose out when selling it?

Any other advice on how to go about selling / who to sell to would be greatly appreciated.

[Lev Yashin]

Well I definatly wouldn't insure it past when you are going to be driving it as a prospective buyer will still have to insure it. As for tax it can be a selling point so maybe tax it for the year.

In regards selling it, carzone or done deal are pretty popular for buyers and sellers.

[EAFC_rdfl]

yes insurance makes no bearing on a sale, as its only for you yourself. Tax can be a selling point, but at the same time, it can be handy to buy a car with the tax up, if say the buyer didnt want to put it on the road for a while, they can avoid paying a couple of months tax. so maybe price it allowing for no tax on it.
what is the car btw?

[osarusan]

Good point on the insurance. The car is this one (http://www.carsireland.ie/detail.php?ad_id=409681&r=s.php%3Fm%3D61%26o%3D528%26r%3D2000%26g%3D0), except it's a 2.0 engine, petrol, 1 year younger and with only half the mileage.

[thischarmingman]

Paint it green and white, send it to, 'POTM Department, Foot.ie, The Internet' and we can offer it as the POTY prize.

[dahamsta]

Here's some advice from someone that watches the used car market religiously:

As others have said, forget the insurance, it has no bearing on a sale. I can't really comment on the tax, I generally budget for it, but I'm looking for a big car that generally won't be taxed. If you do tax it, add it into the sale price and mark it up by €50 for saving someone the hassle. NCT is very important, if there's less than 3 months left on the disc (6 months if you imported it and it hasn't had one yet), get it done asap, people put an awful lot of stock in them. If it's /just/ passed, mark the price up a little, it adds more value.

Check your service history, if it's missing any stamps try and get the garage to correct that. Gather up receipts for everything you've ever spent on the car, it'll add enormously to a potential buyer's sense of security. Lastly on the car, clean it before you photograph it. Better still, wax it, and clean the engine bay too. You'll add to the value and you'll catch more potential buyers. Some say that a dirty car demonstrates a well-used car, I think that's absolute nonsense; to me a dirty car has a careless owner.

When you're ready to sell, mark the lowest price you'll accept up by 20%, to give people room to haggle, and aim to sell for the middle ground. People love being met in the middle and go home happy if they think they've got a bargain. Stick it everywhere you can but focus on the big Irish sites first: Carzone and DoneDeal.ie. Use Carzone as your template for everything else. Post it on the free sites like Adverts.ie, Gumtree and all those crap carsireland websites, but don't spend too much time at it, do it when you have a minute here and there. Ignore the emails asking you if "you still have your item" or from companies that "have buyers waiting". You'll get a lot of them, tell them to f*ck off.

Put up as many photographs as you can, with definite quarter, side, front, interior, engine and boot shots. Take it somewhere nice for the photos, not just in your driveway, it shows attention to detail. Put plenty of detail about service history and receipts in the description panel, and make it personal ("really looked after", "great condition", etc, but don't get chummy ("feckin' minter") and try to avoid common phrases like "here I have such-and-such a car", they scream casual trader.

Post the ad in the Marketplace forum too, you never know. :)

adam

[Poor Student]

Osarusan, I know you're hardly likely to fall for it but if you are selling it online beware of people paying by draft/cheque (particularly foreign ones) and "accidentally" making it out for too much and asking you to return the difference or pay the difference to a shipping agent. It even sounds stupid as I type it but a lot of people get done this way.