Sell my Mini UK: how to get the best price when selling your car online

Here’s our independent guide to getting the best price when selling your Mini to the likes of Motorway or Webuyanycar.

Want to know how you can get the absolute highest price when you sell your Mini?

Your best option is to list it on the likes of AutoTrader.

By fielding queries from various would-be buyers, arranging viewings and haggling over the price, you’ll undoubtedly get the highest price for your motor.

That might sound like an awful lot of hassle to you.

If you’re keen to sell your Mini with the absolute minimum of effort, you could just trade your Mini in at the car dealer where you’re picking up your next motor (assuming you’re getting one of course).

Sadly, this simplicity comes at a cost and you’ll generally get the lowest price for your car by part exchanging in this way.

Another option that’s far easier than selling yourself but will still get you a better price than part exchanging is to sell to one of the many car-buying sites out there.

But which one is best? And how much can you expect to get for your Mini when selling online?

The rest of this guide explains everything you need to know when selling your Mini to a car-buying site, including tips to get a better price.

What price can I expect when I sell my Mini?

If you want a rough idea of your Mini’s value, you can look at an online car valuation service.

We used Parkers to check the price range for a second-hand Mini, which we’ve listed in the table below.

In order to give you a clearer idea of how much you can expect when selling your Mini to a car-buying site, we rounded up quotes for a few different makes of Mini at the main car-buying sites.

Sell my Mini: who will pay the best price?

*Cazoo prices based on one owner, full service history and ‘good’ condition

So who offered the best prices for our Mini’s?

Motorway came out with the highest offer on four out of five of the models we got quotes for.

It was beaten on price on just one model – the Mini One – by Arnold Clark, and even then this was by just £1.

Motorway claim on their websites that they’ll pay £1,000 more than their competitors, and our research found much the same.

Looking at the average price quoted for all five models (last column in the table above), Motorway offered £1,040 than the next best competitor Arnold Clark.

The difference was even greater on specific models.

With the first Mini we tried to sell, which was the newest model at just one year old, Motorway’s offer beat the lowest valuation from both Wewantanycar and Money4YourMotors by a whopping £3,072.

With our second model, Motorway beat the lowest offer from Webuyanycar by £1,335 and with our third model, Motorway’s top offer beat the lowest offer, this time from Cazoo by £2,759.

Who made the lowest offers? 

There was no single company that consistently made the lowest offers.

Cazoo** offered the lowest quote on two of our Minis, Webuyanycar on another two and both Money4YourMotors and Wewantanycar came in with the joint lowest offer on another model.

Sell my Mini: why you MUST shop around to get the best price

Despite the fact that Motorway offered the best price overall for Mini’s in our research, we wouldn’t recommend simply going to them and assuming you’ll get the best price for yours.

For starters, we only compared a handful of models, so it’s hardly categorical.

What’s more, we’ve compared loads of quotes for some of the UK’s most popular cars and although some car-buying sites are generally more competitive, we found none that are always cheapest.

The specifics of your Mini – the model, colour, age, mileage, and so on – will have a different impact on how much each site is willing to pay.

This is why at Sell My Car Guide, we suggest you shop around for quotes from a few places.

Getting an instant on-screen price with these car-buying sites is quick and easy, however, some sites want more detail than others before quoting.

Motorway only want your registration and mileage before giving an on-screen valuation, while others like Wewantanycar and Money4yourMotors ask for contact details including your email and mobile number along with your postcode, and with Money4YourMotors, as part of the valuation process, you need to agree to be contacted by phone and email, before you’re given a price.

Cazoo ask for the most details as you’ll be asked about the number of previous owners, the condition, and service history of your Mini.

Overall, it’ll probably take between one and three minutes to get a quote from each.

Here’s a list of all the main car-buying sites with a link to our reviews of each to help you understand how each works, plus a direct link to their sites to get a quote if you’re keen to get cracking now.

Read our Motorway review or get a quote now

Read our Cazoo review or get a quote

Read our Webuyanycar review or get a quote

Read our Arnold Clark review or get a quote

Read our Wewantanycar review or get a quote

Read our Evans Halshaw review or get a quote

Read our Money4yourmotors review or get a quote

Read our Carwow review or get a quote.

What do I need to know before I sell my Mini: fees, collection & more

When comparing offers across car-buying sites, it can pay to look beyond the headline price and factor in any fees as these vary across different car-buying sites.

In most cases, the ones to watch for are ‘admin fees’, basically a charge for selling to a site, and ‘collection fees’ if you want your car picked up from your home instead of having to drive to a drop-off centre.

Any fees charged will be taken off the final price paid.

Some sites like Motorway are totally fee-free, as are Evans Halshaw, Carwow and Arnold Clark.

However, Motorway also offer a free home collection service, while with Evans Halshaw and Arnold Clark, you’ll have to make the effort to drive your car to one of its drop-off points and foot the bill for getting yourself home afterward.

Webuyanycar charge admin fees of up to £100, depending on the value of your car, while both Money4yourMotors and Wewantanycar charge a set fee of £125 regardless of your motor’s sale price.

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 fees charged.

Sell my Mini what documents will I need?

Before selling your Mini, 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;
• Log book (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 car

Once you’ve sold your car you must inform the DVLA that you no longer own the vehicle.

There’s two ways you can do this; either by filling in the relevant section of the V5C log book and sending it to the DVLA or by 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.

When it comes to any outstanding vehicle tax, you should also get a refund for any complete months left. This will be triggered automatically once the DVLA get a notification that you no longer own the vehicle and will be sent out to you 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.