• Find your car
• Sell or trade in
• Car finance
• Why Carma?

Demand for the model. A popular model like a used Honda CR-V in good condition has more active buyers than a niche model with lower demand. High demand supports pricing at or near the top of the comparable range. Lower demand requires more competitive pricing to generate enquiries.

Colour and specification. Silver, white, and grey sell fastest across most segments. Unusual colours take longer and may require a slight discount relative to neutral colours in the same model.

Price for your selling method

How you're selling affects the right price. Private sale prices are generally higher than dealer prices because there's no intermediary, but the buyer is also taking more risk (no consumer protections, no return policy). Private buyers typically factor this in when making offers.

If you're selling to a dealer, the offer will sit below private sale value because the dealer needs to build in margin. The convenience of a fast, simple transaction is what you're trading against that gap.

Understanding this distinction before you set a price means you're comparing the right things. A Carma valuation versus a private asking price isn't a straight comparison: they represent different selling experiences, different timelines, and different risk profiles.

The difference between asking price and selling price

List at what you genuinely expect to achieve, not at what you'd accept if a buyer pushed. Private buyers expect to negotiate, and a listing priced with room for negotiation is more likely to convert than a listing at the absolute ceiling of what you'll take. A buyer who feels they've negotiated a fair price is also more likely to proceed quickly rather than continuing to shop around.

If you want $18,000, listing at $19,500 is reasonable. Listing at $22,000 hoping someone won't notice will cost you weeks and ultimately the same or less than $18,000 when the listing goes stale and you reduce. Buyers also research prices before they enquire, so a listing that's clearly high relative to comparables gets filtered out before it even appears in their shortlist. Price it right from day one and you'll spend less time selling it.

How to adjust if the listing isn't moving

No serious enquiries within the first two weeks is usually a clear signal. It means the price is too high for the current market, the listing quality is poor, or both. If the photos and description are good, the price is the most likely issue.

A reduction of 5% is often enough to restart momentum on a well-presented listing. More importantly, reduce before the listing has been active for four to six weeks. Once a listing becomes visibly stale, a price drop alone isn't sufficient: refresh the photos, update the description, and relist to reset the days-active counter.

If you'd rather skip the pricing and listing process entirely, sell your car to Carma. You get a competitive market-backed offer without the usual private sale process to manage.