The Pros and Cons to the 4 Main Ways of Selling Your Car

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Selling your car in Malaysia? Did you know that there are multiple ways of doing it? Four of them, in fact. Let us run through each of them in detail.

Among these four options, they can be split into traditional and unconventional selling methods. By analysing each of them in detail, we can find out how each might affect how much you can get for your car.

1) Second-Hand Car Dealer

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Selling your vehicle to a second-hand car dealer is probably foremost on every seller’s mind due to the convenience and time saved on their end. There are more used car dealers in Malaysia than we can count, thus you require tremendous patience and a firm demeanour to go to multiple dealerships to get the best price for your vehicle.

The pros include a process that is relatively simple, a quick sale that might save a lot of time and effort is greatly possible. As all the necessary paperwork will be done by the used car dealer, it will be fuss-free on the seller’s end too.

A big con to this method is the widely known fact that used car dealers often try to buy your vehicle at the lowest price possible, thus getting the maximum amount of profit possible by reselling it. Thus, checking with multiple different dealers to get the best price possible is always a good idea.

2) Private Buyers

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One of the more traditional ways to sell your car in Malaysia is by advertising your car online or in the newspapers to get the attention of private car buyers. The success rate from using this method often hinges on the effectiveness of your advertisement, like for instance, the number of people that would chance upon your listing.

The one and only pro to this method is that you will probably get the best price for your car, compared to all the other methods listed here.

But the cons for this method just piles up. For starters, a lot of effort and patience is needed. From the minute your advertisement is up, be prepared to receive tons of phone calls from used car dealers and buyers, asking you to lower your price and sell it to them.

Should you come across a few interested direct buyers, you will have to put together appointments for buyers to view your car and handle important paperwork such as loan settlement and vehicle transfer. On top of all that, your car might require a trip to the workshop to make sure it is in a good enough condition to sell.

This is a complicated process, we know, and chances are, you are not completely sure on how it works. If so, it is inadvisable for you to sell your vehicle to directly buyers yourself. After all, the whole process can be very stressful to an inexperienced car owner, and one could make the argument that it is not worth the extra few thousand dollars.

Finally, don’t forget, with this whole process possibly taking a few months, your car is still depreciating in value.

3) Trading in to Dealer

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When you buy a new car to replace your current one, the dealer will often quote you a price to trade-in your current vehicle that will offset the price of your new car.

The pros of this option include removing the hassle of finding a buyer for your own car. Also, as mentioned earlier, the quote you get from the dealer will offset the cost of your new vehicle.

Unfortunately, the cons outweigh the pros here. First off, it is not guaranteed that you will get a good price for your old vehicle. Dealers like to play with the numbers to create the assumption that you are getting a good deal overall. Often, new car dealers just contact their associates in the used car market for a quote on your old car.

This simple handoff of your vehicle can let the dealers earn a few thousand dollars that was meant to be yours. Should you get a supposedly good offer for your car, chances are, your new car is being sold to you with a high profit margin.

4) Consignment

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Frustrated with the process of selling your car yourself, but still craving a high price for your car? How about getting an agent or used car dealer to sell your car and handle all the necessary paperwork? This method does involve a service fee of approximately one to two percent of the car’s selling price, payable to the agent or used car dealer.

The pros include maximum returns as there is no dealer profit margin incurred. Plus, there is minimal hassle involved, compared to selling off the vehicle yourself.

However, the con to this method is duration. As there isn’t much money in it for the agent or dealer, they often take on multiple consignment cars at any one time. Thus, they have to split up their focus, running the risk of having your car be on the market for a long time.

As we have seen in the article, no method is perfect, each of them has its own pros and cons. To get the best price for the car, selling it yourself to a private buyer is your best bet, but the trouble of doing that puts most people off.

But people, it's 2019, why are we still relying on these old-fashioned methods to sell our cars? We here at Motorist.my have taken the traditional method of selling cars and thrown it out of the window. Motorist.my bridges you to our network of almost 500 used car dealers and direct buyers. In just a single working day, we will revert with the most competitive quote for free, with no strings attached.

With our method, we are finding the best price for anyone looking to sell their cars in Malaysia. We have successfully transacted almost 11,000 vehicles worth over RM600,000,000, with thousands of satisfied users to match. Why not be our next satisfied customer?

Read More: How to Sell Your Used Car for More