How to price a used car you’re selling privately

Working out how to price a used car isn’t a lookup. Datium Insights recorded used prices falling 1.1 per cent in the week to 18 May 2026, while the Toyota Corolla rose 4.40 per cent in the same week. Price your car, not the average.

• How do I find out what my car is actually worth?
• Why is the asking price never the selling price?
• How much do kilometres, service history and condition move the price?
• Do I need a roadworthy certificate, and does it change my price?
• How do I set an asking price with room to negotiate?
• What should I do if the car isn’t getting enquiries?

How do I find out what my car is actually worth?

You work it out from three things: transaction data for your car’s segment, a price range from a valuation service or motoring club, and the comparable private listings that have gone quiet because they sold. An asking price is one seller’s opinion. A sold price is two people agreeing, and it is the same evidence your buyer will find when they do their own homework.

Doing all three takes an evening. It also tells you something a single valuation can’t, which is how wide the range for your model is. A private sale normally lands above what a dealer would hand you as a trade-in, and knowing where that difference actually goes helps you decide whether the extra effort is worth it before you start pricing.

Wholesale and auction market data

Wholesale data won’t give you a private price, but it tells you which way your segment is moving while you are deciding. Datium Insights publishes weekly movement for Australia’s 15 most-traded used vehicles, and in the week to 18 May 2026 the Kia Sorento rose 3.21 per cent. Trade numbers sit below private retail, so read the direction rather than the dollars.

A motoring club price range

If you belong to a motoring club, use it. NRMA says its Motoring and Technical Advice department has access to industry data and can give members a broad price range for their car, which is then narrowed by factoring in condition and kilometres travelled. That gives you a defensible band rather than a single figure you will feel obliged to defend.

Comparable private listings

Enter your make, model and specification into the major classified sites and record what comes back, then watch those listings for a fortnight. The ones that vanish quickly tell you where the market clears. “From there you should be able to determine a fair price depending on factors such as mileage and condition.” That’s Andrea Matthews, motoring editor at RACV, on turning that range into your number.

Why is the asking price never the selling price?

Because an asking price carries negotiating room inside it, and because the market keeps moving while the ad sits there. Every listing you are comparing yourself against is a number someone hopes to get, padded by however much that seller expects to give away. Treat the listings as the ceiling of the range and the cars that sold as the middle of it.

The second reason is drift. Prices do not move as one block, and a single national figure hides what is happening to your model. Here is one week of movement recorded by Datium Insights, in the seven days to 18 May 2026.

Market signal	Change in week to 18 May 2026
Used car prices overall	-1.1%
Toyota Corolla	+4.40%
Kia Sorento	+3.21%
Repossessed vehicles	-20.7%
Auction clearance rate	+2.6%
Sales volume	+11.1%

A Toyota Corolla gained 4.40 per cent in the same week the overall market fell 1.1 per cent, according to Datium Insights. That is the whole argument against pricing from a headline average. One number went down, two popular models went up, and a seller reading only the first would have talked themselves into a discount they didn’t need.

The repossession figure is worth sitting with. Prices for repossessed vehicles dropped 20.7 per cent in that week, the largest decrease of any category Datium Insights tracks, because cars sold under time pressure clear at the bottom of their range. A private seller who needs the money by Friday is selling in that part of the market whether they mean to or not.

Clearance rates rose 2.6 per cent and volume rose 11.1 per cent in the same week, per Datium Insights, which means stock was moving. That matters for diagnosis later. When cars are selling and yours isn’t, the problem is sitting in your ad, not in the economy.

How much do kilometres, service history and condition move the price?

They decide where you land inside your model’s range rather than pushing you outside it. The model and specification set the band, and kilometres, paperwork and presentation then move you from the bottom of that band to the top. Both RACV and NRMA treat condition and kilometres as the two factors that refine a broad range into a real price.

Kilometres

Kilometres are the first filter a buyer applies and the first thing they use against you, so be honest about where yours sit against the comparable cars you found. If your odometer reads below the group you are comparing against, you are entitled to the upper part of the range. If it reads well above, pricing at the top will simply mean nobody calls.

Service history

A full book, logged and stamped, is the cheapest advantage a private seller has, because it answers the question every buyer is privately worried about. NRMA tells sellers to locate the service history before advertising for exactly that reason. Missing records don’t make the car worse, but they shift the benefit of the doubt to the buyer, and the buyer will price that doubt.

Condition and presentation

RACV says professional detailing can deliver both a better price and a quicker sale, and NRMA gives the same advice in plainer terms: clean it inside and out, or pay someone to. A dirty car invites a buyer to start listing faults. If you are weighing up what else to spend before listing, our guide to what’s worth paying for before a sale separates the jobs that return money from the ones that don’t.

Specification and options

Specification belongs in your research, not just your ad. RACV’s advice is to search by make, model and specification, because two cars of the same age and badge can sit in different price bands on the strength of the variant, the drivetrain and the factory options. Price against cars built like yours, then list the features that justify where you have landed.

Damage you haven’t mentioned

RACV advises disclosing damage and accident history upfront, because undisclosed damage found later hands the buyer grounds to negotiate the price down. Say it in the ad and it is a known quantity priced into your number. Let an inspector find it on the day and it becomes a discount you negotiate from a weak position. RACV also notes that supplying a vehicle history report builds trust and helps close the sale.

Do I need a roadworthy certificate, and does it change my price?

In most states you need one to transfer registration, and it affects your price mainly by removing a reason for the buyer to discount you. The rules and the names differ by state, so check yours before you spend anything. Our state-by-state guide to whether you need a roadworthy certificate to sell sets out where the obligation falls.

Timing is the part sellers get wrong, because these certificates expire. In Queensland, a safety certificate issued to a private seller is valid for 2,000km or two months from issue, whichever runs out first, and it covers one transfer only, so a second sale needs a second certificate, according to the Queensland Government. In Victoria, RACV puts the roadworthy certificate’s validity at 28 days.

Get the certificate when you are close to listing, not weeks before, or you will pay for it twice. Skipping it is worse. The Queensland Government warns that a seller disposing of a registered vehicle without a current safety certificate can be fined more than $700, with narrow exemptions such as transfers between spouses or to a beneficiary of a deceased estate.

RACV’s position is that a roadworthy certificate, current servicing and current registration, mentioned in the listing, all help a private seller reach their target price. None of them adds value to the car. What they do is take away the three easiest things a buyer can point at when they want a thousand dollars off.

How do I set an asking price with room to negotiate?

Set your floor first, add a negotiating margin, and advertise the total. Doing it in that order means the number in your ad is deliberate rather than hopeful. NRMA is blunt about why the floor comes first: negotiating on price is part of selling, so decide your firm minimum before anyone makes you an offer.

Step 1: Work out your floor price

Write down the lowest figure you will sign for, with your selling costs already taken out of it. NRMA advice published in 2021 put the cost of advertising an average vehicle on the major car sales websites at $60 to $100, and an inspection certificate and a detail sit on top of that. Those costs come out of your margin, not your floor.

Step 2: Check what comparable cars actually sold for

Go back to the listings you tracked and sort them by what disappeared and what is still sitting there. Cars that have been advertised for a month are telling you where the ceiling is, not where the market is. Your floor should sit at the bottom of the sold range, not below it.

Step 3: Add negotiating room, not wishful thinking

The margin above your floor needs to be an amount a buyer can talk you down by in one conversation and feel they have won. Too little and you have nothing to concede, which makes you look rigid on the phone. Too much and you price yourself out of the search results your buyer is actually looking at.

Step 4: Price just under a round threshold

Buyers filter classified searches by price bands, and almost all of those bands end on a round number. A car priced just under the threshold appears in the results of everyone searching up to it. A car priced a few hundred above it does not appear at all, which is an expensive way to protect a small amount of margin.

Step 5: Write the condition into the ad

RACV recommends naming the roadworthy certificate, the servicing and the current registration in the listing, and offering a vehicle history report. Do that and your price arrives with its own evidence. A high number with no explanation reads as optimism. The same number sitting next to a full history reads as a reason.

What should I do if the car isn’t getting enquiries?

Drop the price, because enquiries are the only live feedback the market gives you. NRMA puts it the other way around: if an advertised car is attracting a reasonable level of interest, the asking price is probably in the right range. Silence is the same signal in reverse, and it arrives faster than any valuation tool.

Give it a fortnight before you act, then look at what you have. No calls at all usually means price, since nobody is getting as far as the photos. Plenty of calls but no inspections usually means the ad, not the number. Inspections that go nowhere point at condition or at something the buyer found that you hadn’t mentioned.

When you do move, move in one step large enough to cross a search threshold. A token reduction keeps you in the same band of results you were already invisible in, and repeated small cuts tell watching buyers that another one is coming, so they wait. One clear drop that puts you in front of a new group of searchers is worth more than three apologetic ones.

Hold your floor once you get there. NRMA warns sellers not to let a buyer’s hard-luck story move them off their asking price, and the same applies to the buyer who turns up with cash and an offer well under your minimum. RACV frames the risk on both sides: price too high and buyers walk away, price too low and you have given away your own money.

Best for: sellers with a full service history, a car in a segment that is holding its value, and enough time to list above their floor and wait out the first few weeks.

Not for: anyone who needs the money by a set date, where holding out for another thousand costs more in registration, insurance and effort than it brings in.

If you have the time, price at the top of the sold range, document everything in the ad, and drop once in a decisive step after a fortnight of silence. If you don’t have the time, set a floor you can live with, price close to it, and sell the car. Both are fair outcomes. The one that costs real money is advertising a number you picked from other people’s hopes and then negotiating downwards from it with no idea where your own limit sits. Before you hand over the keys, check what a registration transfer still leaves you liable for.