How to sell my Mercedes – the ultimate guide
Consistently a favourite brand within the automotive industry, Mercedes-Benz has a great reputation for producing reliable and stylish vehicles, with great resale values.
Mercedes also has a history of innovation, including patenting the first ever internal combustion engine in a car. In 2022, with the release of the EQS fully electric model, many car experts have considered Mercedes the first major luxury brand to produce an EV that rivals Tesla.
When you’re planning to sell your Mercedes, it’s hard to know where to start. Read on for our top recommendations for getting the most for your car.
- Value my Mercedes
- Do Mercedes cars hold their value?
- How to sell my Mercedes?
- Sell your Mercedes privately
- Sell your Mercedes to a dealer
- Part-exchanging your Mercedes
- Scrap your Mercedes
- Selling your Mercedes to an instant car buyer
- Best place to sell a used Mercedes
Value my Mercedes
Before anything else, if you’re interested in selling your Mercedes you should get an up-to-date valuation, and have it serviced.
When you get a free, online valuation, it tells you what your car could fetch if you were to sell it now. In order to achieve, or even exceed, that price, it’s vital to have your car well-serviced and cleaned. It’s a good idea to get any repairs done to a high standard, as this could cost you less in the long run than getting low offers to compensate for faults.
To track your Mercedes’ ongoing value for free, enter your reg and mileage on our new car value tracker.
Do Mercedes cars hold their value?
Motorway sales data on Mercedes shows on average better than usual depreciation at the two year mark. Both the Mercedes A-Class (with a median new price of £31,200) and the C-Class (with a median new price of £34,700) typically lose less than 20% of their value when sold at two years old on Motorway. The Mercedes E-Class (with a median new price of £40,300) loses a median amount of 22% of its value when sold at two years old.
When sold at five years old, the best performing model is the C-Class, keeping 61% of its original purchase value. Although the A-Class, or ‘baby Benz’, depreciates slowly at first, its value when sold at five years old can drop to just below 50% of original purchase price. The E-Class keeps a robust 57% of value.
All models drop again significantly when sold at ten years old. The E-Class will still achieve a median value of 20% of purchase price, which is about average for quality and luxury cars. The C-Class is virtually the same, achieving 19% of original price. However, the A-Class drops significantly to just 11% median of original value when sold at ten years old.
Since Mercedes are luxury cars, there is a big variance in how they are used and driven. Some owners may keep them for best, while others will want to enjoy their investment to the full.
Read our guide to learn more about how best to care for your car, to keep its resale value as high as possible.
How to sell my Mercedes?
Mercedes-Benz models are popular and well-made cars, typically with strong resale value.
As one of Motorway’s bestselling car brands, it’s safe to say that dealerships are keen to acquire Mercedes, especially when they’re in great condition.
It also shouldn’t be hard to drum up offers when selling your Mercedes privately, although you may find some time-wasters angling for a free test drive, who actually aren’t in a position to make you a good offer. Read on for more.
Sell your Mercedes privately
Depending on your location and network, it is hard to predict how easy a private sale will be. If you already have contacts who may be interested in buying your Mercedes, it shouldn’t be too difficult. However, less common models, such as 7+ seaters, will be harder to sell, as will older models, and any Mercedes with very high mileage.
If you don’t know who you’d sell your car to privately, you’ll have to take on the responsibility and cost of advertising locally or online. Then, you’ll set up meetings and test drives, negotiate the price, ensure payment and transfer ownership.
Since Mercedes are so attractive, it’s possible that adverts will generate interest from browsers who won’t commit to an offer. Furthermore, even when Mercedes lose half their value, they’re a five-figure sale. Safely handling a payment that big can be daunting.
While you may end up with a great price for your car, it could be a lengthy and tricky process to sell it privately, especially to people outside of your network.
Sell your Mercedes to a dealer
Typically, selling your car to a dealer is a relatively straightforward process. Cars don’t have to be in pristine condition for dealers to see some value in buying them. However, it can be hard to negotiate your ideal price. Depending on the dealers’ stock profile and the market, they may also offer a much lower price than you were expecting, based on a valuation. Selling to dealers can be fast, if you’re willing to accept their offer.
Part-exchanging your Mercedes
Mercedes-Benz does not directly offer part-exchange against new or used Mercedes vehicles. However, there are many Mercedes-specific dealers who will offer this, as well as dealerships who offer a wide range of brands.
Part-exchange is a low-hassle way to sell your car against the price of a new or used vehicle, that you can often drive home the same day. Although it cuts down on time spent selling your car, it tends not to be a route that offers a compelling price.
In the majority of cases, the discount you’ll get for your next vehicle won’t be worth as much as if you’d sold your car individually. For more information on part-exchange, read our ultimate guide.
Scrap your Mercedes
Mercedes-Benz offers an end-of-life car, battery and packaging recycling service. If you need to scrap your Mercedes, this is an option that’s environmentally friendly. They have speciality recycling systems for batteries which are legally and logistically complicated to dispose of safely.
As part of the service, they’ll take the V5C logbook and other necessary documents to prove they took over ownership. As the scrapper, you must notify the DVLA that your car has been recycled, or you can get a fine of £1,000.To get money out of the vehicle before scrapping, you can sell individual parts before recycling the shell responsibly. The parts that sell best online are the engine, seats and airbags. You can find more information on selling your car for parts in our ultimate guide.
Selling your Mercedes to an instant car buyer
If you’re looking to sell your car as fast as possible, you might consider an instant car buyer. There is some variation in how they work, from the well-known firm We Buy Any Car to the online services provided by more traditional companies such as Evans Halshaw or Arnold Clark.
Typically, you can enter your reg and mileage on their websites to get a first valuation. The next step will be to have your car profiled, and many of these companies do this in person, meaning you have to drive to a local hub. When you and the company agree on a final price, they’ll keep (or pick up) your car, and transfer the money to your bank account.
Best place to sell a used Mercedes
If you’re thinking about selling your Mercedes-Benz quickly and easily, at Motorway we offer a simple — and completely free — method of getting the best price when selling, whatever the model.
Just enter your reg on the homepage and you will be provided with an instant estimated sale price based on up-to-the-minute market data. We’ll then ask you a few easy questions about your car and guide you through the photos you need to take to complete your vehicle profile. It can be done right from your phone — in a matter of minutes.
If you choose to enter your car into a daily sale, it will be shown to our nationwide network of more than 5,000 verified dealers looking to add to their stock of used cars. Interested dealers will then compete to buy your car, offering you their best price.
In as little as 24 hours you will receive your best offer — and, if you choose to go ahead with the sale, your car will be collected for free by the dealer and the money will be quickly and securely transferred to your bank account.
Thinking of selling?
Want to learn more about selling your car? Check out more of our guides here, covering the most popular cars on the road, from Ford to Ferrari, Audi to Mercedes, and everything in-between.
How to sell a car for parts
Car scrappage schemes
Top 5 ways to sell a car
Companies that buy cars
How to sell your van online
How to part exchange your car
Car scrappage schemes
WeBuyAnyCar alternatives
Auto Trader alternatives
Selling a modified car