When Is the Best Time to Sell a Car?

People ask whether spring beats winter or whether to wait for tax time. The calendar matters less than they think. What moves the price is what your car is about to do: cross a kilometre line, need a big service, renew its rego or fall out of warranty.

Is There a Best Month to Sell a Car?

There is some truth in the seasonal advice. Utes and four-wheel drives get more interest before school holidays, and some buyers have more money around tax time. But the effect is small next to what the car itself is doing, and a month of waiting costs you a month of depreciation. Use the triggers below instead of the calendar.

Should You Sell Before Your Car Hits 100,000 km?

If you are selling soon anyway, yes. Listing sites let buyers filter by kilometres, and a lot of them set the cap at 100,000 or 150,000 and never see anything over it. A car at 98,000 km and the same car at 103,000 km aren't really different cars, but they get treated differently.

Should You Sell Before a Big Service or New Tyres?

Some services are cheap. Others, like a timing belt, a major interval service or a transmission service, run into four figures, and so can a set of tyres or a full brake job. A buyer sees new tyres as normal, not as a reason to pay $1,200 more. If a big bill is coming and you were planning to move the car on, sell it before you pay for the work. Our guide on whether it's worth fixing your car before you sell goes through which jobs pay for themselves.

Should You Renew Rego Before Selling in QLD?

Usually not. In Queensland the registration stays with the car when it is sold, so the buyer gets the months you paid for. Rego adds a little to the price, but rarely the full cost of renewing, so if yours is due in a few weeks there is not much point renewing it just to sell the car a month later.

You can sell an unregistered car in QLD, and a licensed dealer can buy it without a safety certificate. Our guide to selling an unregistered car in Queensland covers how that works.

Does the Warranty Running Out Affect Resale?

It can. A car still under the manufacturer's warranty is easier to sell, because the buyer gets that cover too. Most new cars now come with five or seven years. Once it lapses some buyers get nervous, especially on European cars where repairs cost more. If your warranty ends in the next few months, that is a reason to move sooner.

Does a New Model Announcement Hurt Your Car's Value?

Yes. When a manufacturer announces a new model or a facelift, buyers who want the new one stop looking at yours, and dealers take more off trade-ins on the old shape. You don't need to follow car news closely: if you have seen ads for a new version of your car, the clock has started.

When Is It Fine to Wait?

If none of the triggers above are close, the car is reliable and you still need it, keep driving it. There is no prize for selling early. The point is to sell before a cost or a price drop, not to sell in a hurry.

The exception is a car you no longer need. Plenty of the people we buy from aren't timing the market at all. They have moved, started working from home, lost a parking spot or ended up with two cars and only need one. If a car is sitting in the driveway costing insurance and rego, every month it sits there costs money.

Useful Government Resources

Sell Any Car Fast is a licensed QLD motor dealer (DLN 4871214). This guide is general information based on what we see buying cars across South East Queensland.