Car for sale: one careful lady owner

I have been given another job.  Granted, this is a one-off and should not take all that much of my time, probably no more than an hour or two.  The Old Bat has reluctantly decided that the time has come to sell her car.  I took it into the garage this week for its annual roadworthiness test, which it passed with no problem, and noticed that the mileage since the test almost to the day last year had increased by 283.  Yes, 283 miles covered in a year.  The old duck is still quite capable of driving but just can't get to or from the car without assistance.  I know the time will come when I have to accept that I can no longer be trusted behind the wheel and will have to accept that my days of independence are over, but it must come very hard to people who suffer from neurological conditions such as the Old Bat's CBD or MS when they have to acknowledge that they are no longer independent at a comparatively young age.  The Old Bat is, in most ways, still very much compos mentis, she has no cognitive problems whatsoever.  It is simply that her legs don't do what she is telling them and she shuffles along.  Once she is in the driving seat of a car she is OK.  For now.

So I have to decide how best to dispose of the vehicle.  We both have a dislike of selling cars privately.  We don't think there are any problems with the car, but should something go wrong a little way down the road, we might almost feel morally obligated to make recompense.  That is not the case if we sell to a motor trader.  There is a company which frequently advertises on the television that they buy any car.  One goes to their web site and enters the details of the car, they tell you what they think its worth, then you take it to their local branch for inspection.  What I have heard is that they then reduce the offer price.

Another option is to send it for auction, but that involves paying the auction house a percentage and to transport the car.  One also has to hope that it actually gets a reasonable price.

My favourite option (at the moment) is to take it to our local garage, where it has been regularly serviced, and see if they will buy it.  The boss-man certainly expressed interest when I collected it after the MOT test this week.  And I trust him - which is worth something.

Which is more than I do for a main dealer along the coast.  The car was recalled recently for a possible small defect and I took it to the nearest main dealer.  When I collected the car I was told that the driver's wiper blade and the rear wiper blade were both split and one tyre was almost worn out.  Did I want them to do the work there and then?  There is nothing wrong with any of the tyres and no splits in wiper blades.  I did nothing and the car still passed the MOT.

I'll drop in on our local garage one day next week.

This bijoux cottage is just along the road from the garage.  It's not often that one sees the rows of bricks that this has in a flint cottage.