Used car valuations.

Private sales will of course always make you more which you offset against the risks. As long as you are careful there's no reason why you cannot sell quality cars privately. Ive sold many so my comments

- car jacking during test drives is the worst risk so be careful with keys and if you're unsure take a big mate with you too
- make sure you're insurance covers test drivers. I ask they provide their own comprehensive policy doc which usually do not wish to do so it means I just do a demo drive
- make sure you get cleared funds before releasing the car. Sounds obvious but there's a lot of dodgy bankers drafts out there. I usually ask for transfer direct to my account

My Audi RS4 sold for £25k to a private buyer who viewed the car but didn't even ask for a test drive and transferred cleared funds before collection!

Thanks for that QueJumper.

But the concerned seller in me thinks, I wasn't aware of dodgy bankers drafts, I am now, secondly if a person is capable of getting a dodgy bankers draft, how safe is it to give your bank details to transfer money direct into your account, that type of person is likely to empty your account.

Just a thought.

That's not possible. Even if someone has your name, bank account number and sort code there is no way that they would be able to empty your account. After all, this information is shown on the front of any cheques that you may write.
The biggest scams at the moment are the ones where they want to pay you via PayPal or where they want to 'export' the car and you end up getting stung for the bogus shipping costs - I had around 10 of these emails when I was selling the TT

I tried to sell my SLK in the summer and was inundated with scams like above.

Eventually it got to the point that I was scaring off viewers, asking for proof of ID ect before I gave them my address! Didn't mange to sell it in the end. Will try again in Spring, but can't say I am looking forward to try sell it privately again. I have sold and bought privately with cheaper vehicles but the SLK was about 25 k. I will end up part exchanging it, despite the low valuations, because I certainly didn't feel safe trying to do it privately