When is the best time to sell a car?

Getting ready to sell your car? You’d better take a look at your calendar first, as the time of year can affect how easy your car is to sell and how much money you can expect to get for it. Selling your car at the wrong time certainly won’t do you any favours.

Just like mileage, condition, and colour, there’s no hard and fast rule for the best time to sell your car, but data does show that certain months can be advantageous, while certain types of vehicle, such as convertibles and SUVs, have their own strong months where demand is likely to be highest.

Below we’ve explained when the best time is to sell your car, plus other factors that might make a difference on how easy it is to sell, from mileage to condition and more.

When is the best time to sell a car?

You’ve probably heard nuggets of advice about selling a car, such as shifting a convertible in spring before the hot summer weather arrives, or not trying to sell before Christmas when everyone’s spending money on the festivities instead, but believe it or not, there are certain months that seem to be the best for selling cars as a whole.

Research into valuation data from 2022 by our parent company Carwow suggests the very best month to sell a car is February, followed by January, March, April, May, and August. As you can see, that’s very heavily weighted towards the first half of the year, too, so generally speaking that’s going to be the best time to sell.

The reason for this skew is partly influenced by new vehicle registrations in March (which is also why August features, since it’s the month before the new registrations in September), as well as dealers looking to buy stock ahead of high-demand periods in late spring and summer. While you might think new car registrations mean a flood of used cars on the market, the data suggests it doesn’t have much influence on the supply and demand equation.

And yes, that advice about selling particular cars during particular seasons certainly applies – the data shows that convertible cars sell in the highest volumes in March, and get the highest prices (as a percentage of valuation) in April, ready for summer. Estates, hatchbacks, and saloons get the best prices in January (and highest volumes in March), while somewhat predictably, November will get you the most money if you’re selling an SUV – as buyers scrabble to find an all-wheel drive car for winter weather.

When is the worst time to sell a car?

Unsurprisingly, you’ll find the other six months in the second half of Carwow’s data. It isn’t trick or treaters that’ll cause a scare in October, but the stress of selling a car, since the data shows it’s the worst month of all for selling. It’s followed by July, September, November, June, and December. 

If you’re surprised to see December only the sixth worst (or, if your glass is half full, the seventh best) given that rule of thumb about not trying to sell a car around Christmas, then its proximity to January (second in the list of best times to sell) probably helps. Consider December the early-bird month, with sellers moving cars just ahead of the busiest time of the year.

And of course, while November isn’t a great month for selling in general, it does seem to be the best for SUVs in particular, so don’t be too deterred by the second half of the year if you’ve got a 4x4 to sell.

What factors should you consider when selling your car?

Time of year isn’t the only important factor when selling your car, even though it’s still well worth considering. But a car’s rate of depreciation, its mileage, condition, specification and more will all influence how easy it is to sell and how quickly you’re able to sell it. Below we’ve covered some of the main factors that will affect a sale.

Depreciation

Cars depreciate the moment they’re driven off the dealership forecourt, and while there’s no hard and fast rule for depreciation – every car is a little different – the rule of thumb in the industry is that there’s a drop in value of around 20 per cent every 20,000 miles, and a slightly steeper drop-off after 60,000, before levelling out past 100,000.

As a result, selling your car before it reaches 60,000 miles will stave off the steepest depreciation, while selling at around 100,000 miles will probably get you similar money even if you put several thousand more miles on the car before it goes to a new owner.

New number plate launch

As the data shows, the months before and around new car registration plate launches are a great time to sell, since buyers will be moving on their old cars, either privately or in part exchange, as they get into brand new models. While it might seem counter-intuitive to sell when plenty of others are doing exactly the same, the data doesn’t lie – perhaps the buzz of new car registrations gets used car buyers onto driveways and forecourts, too.

Car condition

As well as lower mileage, buyers will be prepared to pay a lot more for a car that has been looked after, both mechanically and aesthetically. A full service history always looks better to a buyer than a patchy maintenance record, and something as simple as cleaning and vacuuming your car before you sell it will suggest to a buyer that you look after it. Unsurprisingly, any obvious damage is also likely to put off buyers, so if you’re thinking of selling your car, it may be worth getting dents, kerbed wheels, and scuffed bumpers repaired first.

Other factors

As well as condition, your car’s specification will also make a difference to what you can expect to sell it for - generally speaking, buyers will pay more for a car in a higher trim level, for certain desirable options, and in the right colour (though the best car colour for resale value isn’t necessarily retail-friendly silver, black, or white, as their popularity means plenty of competition on the used market). And if you have a niche vehicle with a strong enthusiast following, like a desirable sports car or hot hatchback, demand for it may negate the usual time of year rules, as buyers may be searching for one all year round.

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