When to sell your used car ?
Selling your car in the UAE is not a walk in the park. The key questions that will come to your mind are, where can i sell my car? How much will i get for it?
UAE used car market is not that friendly when it comes to one selling their car. There are tough choices to make when it comes to selling something that you have taken care of and used on a daily basis as means of transport. Some people would get attached to their car and have a hard time making a decision when they come to a point where they have to decide whether to sell or to keep their car.
I have seen lots of cases where people have made mistakes while deciding whether to keep the car or to sell their car. The most important aspect of deciding is WHEN. Timing is very important when it comes to selling your car. An average car sells around the 5th year of ownership from when you bought it brand new. The key reason behind this statistic is that mostly people in the UAE take car loans when it comes to buying their car. As per bank regulations, they can only finance a car for the maximum of 5 years in the UAE. So, when the loan is all paid up, just around the 5th year of the cars ownership, people tend to sell off and buy a new ones and some tend to keep on driving their current car.
The worst time to sell a car in the UAE is when it’s still under the loan. If one has paid a minimum down payment (20%) and has decided to sell the car all the way up to 1/4 of the loan remaining, then they will have to pay out of their pockets to cover the difference between the remaining loan amount versus the car value in the market. There is no standard here in the UAE to determine the depreciation of the car value year on year, this is where experience is important.
So, it’s always a good practice to pay a higher down payment (min 40%) when financing a car here in the UAE. Cars tend to depreciate faster when they get 5-year-old. Reason behind this is because most of the cars come with 3 year to 5-year warranty. And once the car is out of warranty then its value tends to drop sharply depending on the make and model. Some brands, such as Toyota Prado, Nissan Patrol, Toyota Landcruiser along with other retain most value compared to other makes and models.
Now, when to sell your Used car?
- Never sell when the car is still under a bank loan ( if you paid minimum down payment ).
- Try to pay the loan off while the car is still under warranty, selling the car under warranty will bring you more price than when its not under warranty.
You will have few choices to minimize the loss once selling your car. Every one expects their own desired price but 90% of time, they will not get it. Why, because if you think from a buyers perspective, they have to decide whether to pay high for a used car, or take that money and put a downpayment on a new one. So if you don’t price your car to sell, then you will lose more money waiting. Never, sell a car while still under a bank loan, you will 99% of the time (from my 10 years of experience in the used car market here in the UAE) pay out of your pocket to settle the loan. Unless it’s dire and you have no choice. Once the loan is paid off and you decide to sell, then you will get something back.
If you want to sell and have options where YOU can decide which price to settle for, than try https://www.justcarprice.com they don’t buy the car but they do help you sell yours and their service is free, no cost to you whatsoever.