Sell my Ford Focus: 6 things you need to know to get the best price

Our independent guide has all the tips and info you need to help you find the best possible price for your Ford Focus.

Are you looking to sell your Ford Focus quickly, or get the best price for it?

There is a clear pay-off between effort and reward when it comes to selling your car: to get the best price, you’re going to have to put in the legwork.

Conversely, if you want to sell your car as easily as possible, then you’ll have to accept a lower price.

So let’s look at all your options.

How do I get the best price when I sell my Ford Focus?

If you want the best possible price for your car, you need to cut out the middleman and sell your car yourself.

To do this, you’ll need to post a listing for your Ford Focus on the likes of Auto Trader, arrange viewings and test drives then haggle over any potential price.

It can be quite a time-consuming process.

If you’d like the absolute quickest and easiest way to sell your Focus, you could simply part exchange it when buying your new motor.

Sadly, this will mean you get far less for your car.

There is a third option that which is far easier than selling yourself and will net you a better price than part exchanging: you can sell it to one of the various car-buying sites out there.

But how much can you expect when selling online?

And how can you get the best possible price for your Ford Focus when selling to the likes of Motorway, Cazoo and Money4yourMotors?

Sell My Car Guide has all the answers you need.

How much is my Ford Focus worth?

How much your Ford Focus is worth will depend on the model, its age and condition.

If you want a rough idea of the value of your Focus, you can look at an online car valuation service.

We went to this page on the Parkers website to check the price range for a second-hand Ford Focus and found that hatchbacks made between 2011-2018 are worth between £1,415 and £4,100.

That sum seemed low to us, so we decided to conduct some research of our own.

We went online and got quotes for five Ford Focus models at six different car-buying sites: Motorway, Webuyanycar, Cazoo*, Arnold Clark, Wewantanycar and Money4yourMotors.

In all cases, we assumed an annual mileage of 10,000 miles.

Sell my Ford Focus: who will give me the best price?

**Cazoo prices based on one owner, full service history and in ‘good’ condition
***We’ve excluded any columns where any provider couldn’t offer a quote

It’s quick and easy to get an instant on-screen price using these car-buying sites.

Motorway and Arnold Clark are the easiest ones to use for valuations, as both only ask for your registration and current mileage before giving an instant on-screen price.

All the other car-buying sites want more details before giving a price.

Cazoo ask for the most information, including the number of previous owners, the vehicle’s service history and condition, before giving an on-screen and email quote.

Cazoo is the only car-buying site, from the six we looked at, that asks about the condition of your vehicle before giving its valuation.

Webuyanycar, Wewantanycar and Money4yourMotors all want your email address, mobile number and postcode before giving a quote, and with Money4YourMotors and Wewantanycar you do need to agree to be contacted by phone and email before you can get a valuation.

Who offered the highest price for a used Ford Focus?

When it comes to who offered the highest price, Motorway came out tops on our two oldest models, both with the highest mileage.

Cazoo offered the highest price on two other models, and Webuyanycar just beat Motorway’s best offer by £65 to come in with the best price on another model – the Ford Focus Zetec 1.6.

The difference between the highest and lowest offers for each model across the six car-buying sites ranged from £761 up to £1,516, which shows the benefit of shopping around.

With one model we tried to sell, the Ford Focus Zetec Turbo 2012 Hatchback, Cazoo refused us a quote, claiming it couldn’t buy our Ford Focus as ‘our history check shows that your car has been in a major accident, or marked as an insurance category A, B, N or S’.

This however didn’t come up as an alert with any of the other car-buying sites we tried; all of whom offered a valuation price.

We also worked out the average price quoted across all five Ford Focus models, (shown in the last column), to compare offers across all the car-buying sites.

Cazoo came in top, with an average price of £6,231, which was almost £150 higher than the next best ‘average’ from Motorway.

Who offered the lowest price for a used Ford Focus?  

Arnold Clark made the lowest offers on three of the five Ford Focus models we attained quotes for, with Cazoo and Webuyanycar coming in with the lowest offers on the remaining two models.

No single company consistently came out top with its offers, which is why at Sell My Car Guide, we always suggest you shop around for quotes from different car-buying sites, especially as some companies may be in the market for different models at specific times.

Key considerations before you sell your Ford Focus: fees, collection & more

When you are comparing offers from different car-buying sites, it can pay to look at other factors, such as fees, or collection charges, which can vary depending on each car-buying site.

Some companies charge an ‘administration fee’ for selling your car.

With Webuyanycar this is up to £100 depending on the value of your car, while Money4yourMotors and Wewantanycar will charge a hefty £125.

Others, like Motorway and Arnold Clark, don’t charge an admin fee.

You may also be charged a ‘collection fee’ if you want the ease of a home collection, instead of having to drive your car, potentially miles, to a drop-off centre.

If you’re selling a non-runner or unreliable car, it could be worth going for companies offering a free home collection service (such as Motorway or Wewantanycar).

Read our round up of who charges what here

Car-buying sites: who charges fees and who collects?

To save you some hassle, we’ve put together this table showing which companies offer a collection service along with any selling fees.

Sell my Ford Focus: what documents will I need?

Before selling your Focus, it’s worth checking you have all the necessary documents as failing to show one of them could mean a lower price, or you may be unable to sell your car.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• At least one set of keys;
• MOT certificate;
• Logbook (also known as a V5C document);
• Service history (ideally stamped by the dealer);
• Receipts for any work done, parts purchased, recent repairs etc.

What to do after you sell your Ford Focus

After selling your car, you must tell the DVLA that you no longer own the car.

You can do this either by filling in the relevant section of the V5C log book and sending it to the DVLA or completing a form online.

You should also ask your insurance company to cancel your existing policy, as you may be due a refund, minus any policy admin fee.

And you should get a refund for any full months of vehicle tax left on the vehicle.

This will be done automatically once the DVLA receive notification that you no longer own the vehicle and will be sent as a cheque.

*Cazoo’s quote system requires additional information beyond simply the reg number and mileage. We’ve tried to match this to the most common seller scenario, but it’s worth keeping in mind the comparison isn’t exactly like-for-like.