Having just been through this process, with my gal's old car, for the first time, I thought I'd share my thoughts on the whole thing...
1. Find out what it's worth. You can ask around garages, and see what they'll give you (I started with the one that has been servicing it for the past few years), see about part exchanges if you're buying from a garage, or see what similar cars are being advertised for online.
2. Decide what is your priority. Is it
a) To get as much as you can for the vehicle?
Or
b) To get the bloody thing sold, and off your drive?
Mine was b.
I decided that I did not want to do ten or more viewings on the car, with people like Yassin, from Rochdale, who might ask if you will accept several hundred pounds less for the vehicle, before he's even seen it. I wanted to be able to pick who I sold it to, in the manner that a responsible dog owner might care about sending puppies to a good home. This is because I do not want to deal with the kinds of characters who will get in touch in five months time, wanting me to chip in for a new exhaust etc. Therefore, I advertised it at about 15% less than the price suggested by the website.
The car went to the first people who viewed it, who were clearly on top of their game, checked it thoroughly, could tell that I hadn't attempted to conceal any faults in the advert, and who had already seen and rejected six other cars. There were no attempts at haggling, because they were clearly aware that I was asking a reasonable price for the car.
I ended up taking over twice as much money as I would have done, had I part exchanged it, and a third more than the garage seemed to be willing to pay, so I'm feeling rather pleased about the whole thing.
Could I have got more for it? Well, maybe I could, but I wasn't willing to put in the time, I wanted the whole thing sorted out in good time, with minimal messing about. But that's just me.
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