Looking to sell your car? Take a look at my review of The Car Buying Group to see what you can expect and if you should really consider them when it comes to looking for the best price for your car.
Recently, my wife’s car had become a real money pit. We had spent over £2000 fixing various faults in just under 2 years, so we decided it was time to upgrade. In the end, we sold through We Buy Any Car, which wasn’t as bad as I expected (although I didn’t expect much).
But 6 months later, as luck would have it, my car started to play-up. It didn’t come as a massive shock though as it was over 14 years old. Over the last couple of years, it had been taking longer to start in the mornings and had been emitting some very odd noises. During its last service, the mechanic had been unable to change the oil because of some rusted bolts that needed changing. The break discs needed replacing and it needed 2 new tyres.
In total, I was looking at around £600 to get everything done. I almost went ahead, but after thinking long and hard, I decided to cut my losses and sell-up.
Where to sell my old car
As I said in my We Buy Any Car review, you will always get more money if you sell privately. However, you often need a bit of time and patience, both of which I lack. I couldn’t trade-in my car, which I had often done before, as my new vehicle was going to be leased. So I decided to use another car buying company.
Getting the best price for my car
Where can you find the best price for your car with the least effort? Luckily, there is a comparison site for almost everything now and that goes for car selling.
I took a look at a site called Motorway. Unfortunately though, it’s not just a case of entering your registration. You will need to enter some personal details including phone number and email address. Personally, I often make these up so I can still get a price and know I’m not going to get a hard-sell. This time, for the sake of my review, I gave my genuine phone number and unsurprisingly, I received a call within a few hours.
Annoying phone-calls aside, Motorway is a handy site. They gave me a list of car buying sites and the best prices they offered.
The best price on offer came from We Buy Any Car, but I’m well aware from previous experience, that this price will get knocked down after their inspection. So I went for the next best offer which came from a company called The Car Buying Group.
Why The Car Buying Group?
I’m all about the money and they offered a good price for my car. Ok, so it was a few hundred less than I could expect privately, but that wasn’t a surprise. But it came with a few advantages compared to We Buy Any Car.
First of all, they guarantee to pay the price they offer from their initial quote – so no annoying haggling. Next, there are no hidden fees – some other companies charge you an administration fee to buy your car (most annoying) and charge you extra to pay you in a timely manner.
And the main advantage to the Car Buying Group? They will come and collect your car from you which makes life far easier! No longer do you have to drop your car off and rely on somebody else to take you home. Although, there is an option to drop your car at one of their
My experience
As I said above, The Car Buying Group offered the 2nd highest amount for my car, so I went through to their site to accept their offer. The issue I had though was that I couldn’t declare damage to my car. Unfortunately, it had a few nasty scratches which really needed fixing.
However, I spoke to somebody called Paul who asked for me to send some photos over Whatsapp (you can send pictures by email). After checking the damage, they reduced the offer for my car by £150, which I thought was fair. However, it appears that there is now an app which will allow you to enter any damage on your vehicle.
That left the matter of arranging collection of my car. They were very accommodating and more-or-less allowed me to pick any date. Mine was arranged for 4 days later.
Collection day
I had been told by Paul that my car would be collected after 9:00 and to expect a phone call on the day. I wasn’t called until around 11;00, which was a little annoying, but I had booked the whole day off anyway.
The driver arrived at midday and
Issues with The Car Buying Group.
There were a couple of small problems. When Paul sent a confirmation email for the amount they would pay for my car, he sent me details about a completely different car. I now know that the owner of a car with a registration YM65*** was paid £15,576.80! I also have their account details too. Obviously, I would never do anything with these details, but it does concern me slightly how safe my details are with The Car Buying Group.
Another issue was with the payment process. I provided my Nationwide account details for the money to be sent to. After about 15 minutes I was told that there are issues sending money to Nationwide accounts, so I had to provide another account. Fortunately, this isn’t a problem for me, but I’m not sure what would happen if I didn’t have another bank.
What if?
One thing that crossed my mind… the chap that collected my vehicle had
Would I recommend The Car Buying Group?
Even though there was a slight data issue, yes I would. In fact, I prefer it over We Buy Any Car. Overall, it took me under an hour to get a decent(ish) price for my car.
If you don’t want to sell privately and you’re looking to get the best price for your car, I would recommend checking out Motorway first.