Just the other day, I noticed that there were too many cars parked on my drive, so I thought I’d better do something about it. Yes, I went to my local ‘We Buy Any Banger.com’ emporium – you know the one I’m referring to – and sold a surplus car.
You may think I’m mad, stupid or misguided for doing this, but I needed to sample the ‘We Buy Any Shed.com’ experience. At my first attempt, nearly four years ago, I broke down several miles from the compound. I ended up driving the Jag I was trying to sell to a specialist breaker's yard, where they paid me cash and rang me half an hour later to ask why it wasn’t working anymore. Well, that was their problem.
I’ve sold cars direct before but that was in the pre-internet days, when you rang a number and spoke to a bloke who ummed and ahhed and would then turn up at your place with a flatbed. Actually, that’s what I did last year with my Land Rover Discovery which pretty much committed suicide. I eventually got a strangely large amount of cash from two quite scary gentlemen who wanted to have an argument, but eventually caved in after driving all the way from Essex.
Car dealers, traders and automotive ne’er-do-wells all reckon that ‘We Buy Any Rustbucket.com’-style schemes have been a force for good. They set a price that they know that the punter is looking for as a part-exchange price. It also means that the dicey part-exchange issue goes away.
Anyway, back to that surplus car that I had on my driveway, and how did the appraisal go with my nearby 'We Buy Any Motor'-style seller's yard? Well the chap in the office was extremely nice and polite. However, if I’d appraised a vehicle as quickly when I worked the forecourts, I’d have been out on my ear. Anyway, the bottom line was that the money was transferred to my account a few days later and that’s it.
The experience was positive. It didn’t take long and was stress free, provided you have all the documents for your car. Obviously I could have got more selling privately, or maybe playing the part-exchange game.
Would I do it again? I don’t know. Hopefully there is some other kind of car-buying scheme I could try next time. However, if someone asks my advice, and cannot face the alternative methods of selling, I would recommend it.
So, have you sold your car to the people off the television with the annoying jingle? And if so, how was your experience?
Join the debate
Add your comment
Con artists
Went to we con you out of your car.com...
Tried the same with my A4 two years back, just for a laugh. They offered about £2K, the part-ex value (that I took) at our local VW dealership was £3K, agreed 4 months before the actual trade of ditching the Audi and picking up our new car, and pror to negotiating a healthy 12% discount on top of the (already) marked down price.
I guess we buy any tat.com has their place in the market, but almost anywhere can offer a better deal.
They only recently stopped emailing me, for which reason I'm loath to try them again. Could set up a one-time-only email address I suppose...
Alternative car buying scheme