How much is my car worth?
The seller’s playbook for a real answer.

Start with the live adverts, not your feelings

Every seller believes their car is the good one, and every seller’s memory of what they paid is quietly doing the pricing. Neither is evidence. The evidence is the set of cars a buyer can choose instead of yours, at this moment, for money: search the major listing sites for your exact model, year, engine and gearbox, then filter to your mileage band and your condition. Read the descriptions honestly — the ones with long MOTs, full histories and careful photos are your real competition, not the neglected examples priced to clear. If the cheapest comparable cars are asking £7,000 and the best are asking £8,500, your car sits somewhere in that band according to where it falls on condition and history, and no amount of attachment moves it outside it.

Note the geography too. The same car can carry different money in different parts of the country, and a valuation built from national data will not know that your local market is short of your model or flooded with it. The adverts correct for that, which is why they are the first check, not an afterthought.

Pricing to sell is a different skill from pricing to keep

There are two asking prices for every car: the one that tests the market and the one that moves the car. The testing price sits a little above the evidence and invites negotiation; it works when you have time, the car is desirable and the adverts are thin. The moving price sits at or just below the evidence, and it works when you need the sale — the car is costing you tax, insurance or a parking space, or the replacement is already chosen. Choose deliberately, because an overpriced car does not simply wait: it gathers days on the market, and buyers read a long listing as a car with a problem, which then costs more in negotiation than the extra money you asked for in the first place.

What never works is pricing by what you need — the deposit on the next car, the settlement figure on the finance, the amount you paid last year. Buyers do not know those numbers, would not care if they did, and will not pay them. The market pays for the car, not for your circumstances, and the sooner the price reflects that, the sooner the car sells.

The evidence pack: paperwork that defends your price

Buyers discount what they cannot verify, and they pay for what they can. The pack that supports your price is unglamorous and it works: the V5C log book in your name at your address, a complete service history with stamps or invoices, the MOT certificate and its history (especially a long MOT), receipts for recent work — tyres, brakes, a cambelt — and the second key. Present it as a folder, not a carrier bag, and let the buyer read it before the test drive: a buyer who has seen the history stops looking for reasons to chip the price and starts deciding whether they want the car.

Understand what the pack is really doing: it removes the buyer’s reasons to chip the price. Every missing document is a discount the buyer will helpfully suggest, because uncertainty is priced into every offer. If the history is incomplete, be honest about it and price accordingly — a candid gap costs less than a discovered one.

Part-exchange or private sale: choosing your route

The two routes pay differently because they demand different things from you. Part-exchange is the easy route: you hand the car to a dealer as part of buying another, the dealer handles the paperwork and the risk, and you are paid for that convenience in a lower figure — the trade value, not the private one. Private sale is the profitable route: you keep the dealer’s margin for yourself, and you earn it by doing the dealer’s work — advertising, viewings, negotiation and the risk that a buyer changes their mind.

Either way, settle the mechanics in advance: how you will accept payment (a bank transfer confirmed in your account before the car leaves — never cash in an envelope at night, never a cheque), and the paperwork sequence, including notifying the DVLA of the keeper change, which the seller can do online in minutes.

Preparation: the cheapest money in the whole sale

No step in selling returns more per pound than presentation, because buyers can only judge what they can see, and they price risk on appearances. Wash and vacuum the car properly, clear every sweet wrapper of your ownership out of it, and photograph it in daylight from every angle, including the honest ones. Fix the trivially cheap deductions buyers exaggerate: a blown bulb, a low tyre, an empty screenwash bottle reads at a viewing like neglect of the expensive things too. Gather the advisories from your last MOT and decide consciously which, if any, are worth addressing — a fresh MOT with a long life left is one of the strongest lines an advert can carry, because it converts the buyer’s biggest unknown into a date a year away. What preparation is not is concealment: the checks on this site will show a buyer your car’s record regardless, so a prepared car with an honest description is not just the ethical route — it is the one that survives the buyer’s own homework.

Timing, honestly stated

Sellers love timing theories, so here is the measured version. Demand for cars is not flat across the year: convertibles and soft-tops are wanted most when the sun is out, four-wheel drives attract their keenest buyers as winter approaches, and small economical cars draw interest whenever running costs are in the news. Registration-plate change months stir the whole market, pushing nearly-new supply up and buyer attention with it. All of that is real — and all of it is worth a fraction of what correct pricing, strong presentation and complete paperwork are worth. Timing is the garnish on a well-priced car, never a substitute for one. If your car is ready and the market evidence says go, the best time to sell is when you have done the work in the sections above.

Track your car’s value while you decide

A valuation is a snapshot, and a car’s value does not stand still while you decide. It falls with every month that passes, every mile you add and every month that runs off the MOT, and it can also move with the market — demand for your type of car rising or falling, a new model replacing yours, or running costs coming into the news. That is why services such as Motorway offer a car value tracker: a regular, updated valuation for the same car, so you can watch the trend instead of relying on a single number from months ago.

Keep a simple record of your own: the valuation, the date and the mileage, each time you check. If the value is falling faster than you expected, selling sooner may be worth more than waiting for the perfect month. If it is holding steady, there is no need to rush. And whatever you do, re-check the valuation in the week you advertise the car — a figure from three months ago, before you added a thousand miles and before the MOT lost a quarter of its life, is not the price to advertise at.

After the sale: the DVLA and tax steps

The sale is not finished when the money arrives. GOV.UK says you must tell the DVLA that you have sold the vehicle, and you can do it online. Give the new keeper the green new keeper slip from the V5C, and keep the rest of the log book. Vehicle tax does not transfer with the car: the buyer’s tax starts fresh, and the buyer must tax the vehicle before driving it or declare it off the road with a SORN.

Once you have told the DVLA, your tax is cancelled and you will get a refund for any full months of remaining tax. That is also why telling the DVLA promptly matters for another reason: until you do, the car is still registered to you, and fines, parking tickets and other notices for it can still come to your address. If you sold the car to a dealer or motor trader, the dealer should tell the DVLA, but check that it has been done — the responsibility for making sure the record is right is still worth confirming.

When the value is for insurance, not a sale

Sometimes the question “how much is my car worth?” is not about selling at all. If your car is written off or stolen, your insurer will pay its market value at the time of the loss — what a similar car would have cost to replace then — not what you paid for it, and not what you still owe on finance. That is a different number from a selling price, and it is the number to have in mind when you check your cover.

If you think an insurer’s write-off offer is too low, you can challenge it. Gather the evidence a valuation is built from: adverts for cars of the same make, model, year, specification and mileage, your service history and receipts for recent work, and the condition of your car before the loss. Ask the insurer to reconsider with that evidence, and put your complaint in writing if it does not. If the insurer still does not agree, the Financial Ombudsman Service can look at the complaint — it is the free, independent service that settles disputes between consumers and insurers in the UK.

The same logic applies after an accident that does not write the car off. A car that has been in an accident, especially one that leaves a write-off marker on its record, is worth less than an identical car with a clean history, even after a good repair — buyers will find the marker on their own history check and price it in. Be honest about it when you sell, and price accordingly: a candid history costs less than a discovered one.

Frequently asked questions