Short of arranging to have your car stolen or leaving it to a relative in your will (neither of which are recommended - the first is illegal and the second involves dying first) you've basically got three main choices when it comes to turning your car into someone else's problem.

All three have pros and cons and, depending on individual circumstances, either one could emerge as the right one for you. They are, in no particular order...

THE DEALER

Selling to a registered car dealer is all about convenience at a cost. That cost varies, but it amounts to the difference in price between selling the car privately and unloading it to the dealer. That difference is not insignificant, either, and in the case of, say, a $15,000 car, might amount to $1500 or even $2000.

Talk to a dealer, however, and they'll tell you that such a price differential isn't always a problem for some people who either don't want the aggro of selling privately, or who don't reckon a couple of grand is worth arguing about. Don't know about you, but... Anyway, this is where the convenience comes in. You don't have to spend your weekends at home waiting for people to phone and then never showing up.

Also, you don't have any advertising costs and you're not printing your phone number for the world to see, or having strangers phone up and you having to tell them where you live. And you won't have complete strangers wandering around your castle, clocking the place.

Meanwhile, you'll do better at a dealer if you're actually trading in on another car on the lot. That might sound obvious, but a lot of people who have already bought their next car need a quick sale to avoid owning two cars for any length of time. Flogging the old one to a dealer is often their response.

You'll also have a bigger stick if the car you're trading is a make or model that the dealer is actively interested in handling.Some dealers, for instance, specialise in, say, convertibles or four-wheel drives and will potentially offer a higher price for your convertible or four-wheel drive than the dealer who sells anything under $50,000.

Trading in a Ford to a Ford dealer on a new Ford is always going to work well, and the more obscure the make or model is, the more that holds true.

For instance, just about any new-car dealer will happily trade a low-kay, tidy, late-model Holden or Ford. But if it's a Renault or Peugeot (just for instance) then a Renault or Peugeot dealer is going to be more receptive.

While the price from a dealer will be lower, you don't need to run around getting the car up to roadworthy condition. The dealer looks at the car, you arrive at a price and a sale takes place. From then on, it's the dealer's problem, including anything wrong with the car. It's that convenience thing again.

That can also sometimes (rarely, however) mean that you're financially better off selling to a dealer as the cost of repairs to get the car to the stage where a private buyer will be confident in handing over the dollars can easily be more than a grand or two. On the other hand, don't expect a dealer's trained eye to miss much and adjust the offer accordingly.

If your car has its share of scrapes and bumps or missing trim items, don't waste money getting them fixed if selling to a dealer. Repairs that would cost you $1000 are likely to cost a dealer - at trade rates - just $400 or so to put right, so forget it.

Finally, don't be a smarty. Dealers buy cars from people all the time and you can be pretty certain they've heard every line in the book. Be honest and up front, but at the same time, don't take any nonsense. If you think you're being shucked and jived, make leaving motions.

PRIVATE SALE

The big bonus with selling privately is simply that you can potentially wind up with more money in your pocket to offset the cost of your next car. On any used car, the price you'll get privately should be more than a dealer would have paid for the car. So why would anybody buy privately? Simply because the dealer is a middle man and while selling to him or her involves the exchange of fewer dollars, buying from him or her involves more.

Since you, as the private seller, don't have to provide anything in the way of a statutory warranty, you're not paying a lease on the lot and you're not selling the car to put bread on the table (or at least we hope not), you can sell more cheaply than a dealer. So you can expect many potential buyers to be of the bargain hunting variety. But boy, are there some downsides to the private sale. For a start, you've got to remember that presentation is everything.

You need to get any body damage fixed, have the car meticulously clean (a professional detailing is the best way) and generally give the impression that the thing is perfect. In many states and territories you've also got to sell the car with a current roadworthy certificate which indicates a basic level of safety. Either that, or the car has to be sold with the registration suspended and that can involve trailers, permits, paperwork and heaps of aggravation.

You're also up for the cost of advertising which, if the vehicle doesn't sell on the first weekend, can wind up costing plenty.

And you need to do some research. To arrive at the correct asking price, you once had to leg it around to look at similar cars for sale and find out what the owner is asking. That involved buying newspapers and magazines and sussing out the situation. It's important: too high an asking price and nobody will phone up; too low and you've just dudded yourself.

Nowadays, the internet is your friend. Browse CarPoint's used car classifieds paying close attention to vehicles similar to yours. Compares yours to theirs and set the price accordingly. Or, tryu CarPoint's car value calculator to find out how much your car is worth.

The biggest problem is that by advertising a car for sale, you're leaving yourself open for car thieves and burglars to make the most of your situation. It's not uncommon for a baddy to ring up about your car, come and inspect it and then politely decline the chance to buy it.

Unfortunately, he then returns at about 2am and quietly relieves you of the vehicle without even leaving a thank-you note. Sometimes the crooks aren't even interested in the car and just want to suss your property so they can come back and 'borrow' your VCR. Older people in particular are monstered by this prospect, but everybody should beware.

THE AUCTION

It's not that long ago that buying a car at auction was more of a gamble than most people wanted to know about. That tended to rub off on potential sellers, too, but the reality today is quite different.

Okay, you might be attracting a different type of buyer, but who really cares? Money is money, right? And the flip-side is that auctions offer great exposure before the sale ever takes place. Many of the bigger auction houses have their own internet home pages, and most privately offered cars will go straight on to those databases for the eager cyber-punters to peruse.

Combine that with the 150 to 200 people that can filter through a big auction house each day - and up to 1000 on the actual day - and you're exposing your car to a lot of potential new owners. You'd be doing well to get two or three thousand people to look at a car for private sale.

Most auction houses also take care of the paperwork on your behalf, including government red tape, and a good auction house will also guarantee clear title on the vehicle.

You get to set the reserve price (below which the car doesn't get sold at all) and in most cases you can elect to have the auction house pay out any finance on your behalf and pay you the difference, further reducing your paper-chase.

Some auctioneers we talked to carry out a full engineer's report (as a guide only) on every car as part of their selling fee. That might sound like an advantage to the buyer, not the seller, but anything that makes a potential buyer more confident in the vehicle has got to be good for the other party.

That's you, remember?

Most auctioneers agree that there are no hard and fast rules for what works and what doesn't at a car auction. Obviously, specialty auction houses are the places to go to sell a classic or sports car - or anything a little different which, these days, includes older Australian cars.

Other than that, the cars that do best are good clean cars at a sensible price. It might be an auction, but bear in mind we can't get around the basic supply-and-demand phenomenon we all tried to forget minutes after leaving high school.

The downside to selling at an auction is that, unlike a house auction, there's no chance of a negotiated sale after the event if the vehicle doesn't sell on the fall of the hammer. It's all to do with the law and the various Motor Traders Acts around the country forbid the practice. The danger with that is that you might be tempted to make the reserve price a little lower to ensure a sale and rob yourself in the process.

The other thing auctions are not so good at doing is shifting cars without registration. For some reason, auction crowds just don't want to know about unregistered cars, although cars that need a roadworthy certificate for a smooth change of ownership (it varies from state to state) can sometimes be inspected and certified by the auction house.

The caveat, of course, is that no two auction houses are ever the same, so it pays to do some homework before you make a decision. Auctions still aren't the best way to go for every seller, but more than ever, they're a viable alternative.

THE BOTTOM LINE

The bottom line with all of this? Simple. Selling to a dealer is the simplest, most hassle-free way to go. Selling privately is more financially rewarding but harder work. Meanwhile, selling at auction is a bit of a wildcard, but one that is rapidly gaining acceptance and, therefore, effectiveness.

Article by Joe Kenwright and CarPoint.com.au