Buying And Selling A Car In South Africa

ByJohnny
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Last Updated On:October 25, 2019

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Selling a car in South Africa

Updated as of August 2014: It was time to start moving back to America so it was time to start the process of selling my car. As stated in this article earlier, cars depreciate in value QUICKLY in South Africa so I know I wouldn’t get much for it. The process for selling a car is pretty straight forward, but not without its challenges. The main things to worry about before selling a car in South Africa is to make sure it is roadworthy. Make sure, if you haven’t already, to obtain a roadworthy certificate for the car. This way, you can renew the all important license disk, which most buyers and/or dealerships will require before selling.

license disc south africa cars — South African license disc (it should already be on your car)

The license disc is that round sticker that should be somewhere on your front windshield. I actually didn’t even notice this thing until I was ready to sell my car. Nevertheless, this along with your ownership documents are your most important car documents. They mean you really own this car legally. You should have obtained this certificate when you first purchased the car. It’s a pain in the ass to replace if lost.

Car registration certificate south africa — Car registration certificate in South Africa. DO NOT LOSE THIS!

After you’ve sorted out all your documents. It’s time to see what it’s worth on the market. The best place is to check on AutoTrader or a similar site and see what the dealerships are selling it for. This price is what dealerships are selling it for so you can expect them to offer to buy your car for like 25-40$ less as they need to make a profit. I ended up using Gumtree to list my car. It’s the South African equivalent of Craigslist and it’s absolutely fantastic. Within a day or two, I was actually contacted by a few second hand dealerships that was willing to appraise my car and potentially buy it.

As my car is a BMW, there is a serial that dealerships can run background checks to see if there’s any accidents. Turns out, my car had been in an accident! They were originally ready to offer me R135,000 for my car which would have been a great deal as I had bought it for R150,000 15 months before. When they found out about the accident, I was only offered R100,000. I wasn’t in a hurry or anything so I decided to wait. After scouring the net for car buying services, I stumbled upon WeBuyCars, a company out of Pretoria that specializes in buying used cars for cash. I thought I’d give it a shot.

How it works, they come to where you are, look at your car, do some research on the spot, and give you a price there on the spot. If you have your documents ready and are ready to sell, they will give you cash on the spot! Their website looked professional and I had friends that had used them before so why not? Sure enough, they scheduled a time to come look at my car, did NOT run a background check on my BMW, and offered to purchase it for R120,000. Considering I knew this car had accident history, I couldn’t pass this offer up so I took the offer right away. I told them I needed another 3 weeks with the car as I wasn’t moving just yet and they said no problem. Three weeks later, a day before I was scheduled to leave South Africa, they met me at work, took my keys, wired me money, and went on their way! Car sold! The process was so easy, I couldn’t have asked for anything more!