Amsterdam
Sell your car in Amsterdam
Amsterdam is full of cars that nobody drives. The permit renews, the insurance renews, the road tax renews, and the thing has not moved since March. We buy it, collect it from wherever it is standing, and take it out of your name on the spot.
Noord-Holland
Selling a car in Amsterdam
Owning a car here is a monthly subscription. There is the residents' permit, if your district has one to give you, and in several districts there is a queue for it that can run on for years. There is paid parking in effect across practically the whole city. There is a garage space, if you pay for one. Add it up over a year and the number surprises people who moved here from somewhere with a driveway.
So the cars we are asked about in Amsterdam are often in good order. A low mileage hatchback that got used twice a month. A second car that stopped being needed when somebody changed jobs and started cycling. A family car made redundant by a lease car from work. There is usually nothing wrong with them at all. They have simply stopped earning their keep.
The other half are leaving the country. A contract at the Zuidas ends, a department relocates, a family goes home at the end of the school year. There is a date, the house has to be empty by it, and the car is the item that gets dealt with last. Ask early and the car stops being the thing you are still sorting out in your final week.
Worth knowing in Amsterdam
Rules at a local level can shift. For anything official, check the municipality's own site; each note below links straight to its source.
Older diesels and the zone inside the A10
Amsterdam runs an environmental zone, a milieuzone, inside the A10 ring. Diesel cars at the lower emission classes are not allowed into it, which is why some owners here find themselves driving around their own city. Petrol and electric cars are unaffected. The zone governs driving, not selling, and for a number of people it is the reason they decided to sell at all.
Diesel cars and the low emission zone (City of Amsterdam)Do not leave the permit running
A residents' permit belongs to you but is registered against one number plate. The moment the car is out of your name, either move the permit onto its replacement or end it with the city. Leave it running and you are paying for parking that no car of yours can use. Amsterdam refunds what you have paid in advance, counted in whole months.
Ending a parking permit (City of Amsterdam)If you are moving abroad
Sell while you are still registered at a Dutch address if you possibly can. Once you have deregistered at the gemeente, your municipality, and flown, a car still in your name becomes somebody else's favour to arrange. The road tax carries on until the car is transferred, wherever in the world you happen to be.
Collection
Where we collect around Amsterdam
We come to the car, not the other way round. A canal street with no loading bay, a bridge-to-bridge spot you have been nursing for weeks, a space in Nieuw-West: all normal. What slows a collection down is access we did not know about. If the car lives in an underground garage, behind a gate, in a courtyard, or down a street with a height barrier, put that in the request and we send the right vehicle first time.
Not on either list? Ask for an offer anyway. We buy cars everywhere in the Netherlands, in all twelve provinces.
Neighbourhoods and areas
- Centrum
- Amsterdam Zuid
- Amsterdam Oost
- Amsterdam West
- Amsterdam Noord
- Nieuw-West
- Zuidoost
- IJburg
- Zuidas
Towns nearby
- Amstelveen
- Diemen
- Duivendrecht
- Badhoevedorp
- Zaandam
- Hoofddorp
Questions from sellers in Amsterdam
My diesel is banned from the Amsterdam zone. Can I still sell it?
Yes. The zone decides where the car may be driven and nothing else. Transferring it out of your name at the RDW works exactly as it would for any other car. Tell us which street it is parked in and we plan the collection from there.
What happens to my Amsterdam parking permit when the car is sold?
It is tied to the plate, so it does not follow the car to us. Either put your next car's plate on it or end the permit through the City of Amsterdam. Do it once the transfer is done, and ask about the refund for the months you have already paid.
The car is in an underground garage. Is that a problem?
No, it is routine, but we need the details before the day. Send the address, how we get in, the height limit if there is one, and whether a key or a fob is needed. Those four things are the difference between collecting the car and standing outside a closed door.
Is it better to sell before I deregister at the gemeente?
Before you deregister at the gemeente, your municipality, if the dates allow it. Selling while you still hold a Dutch address keeps the whole thing simple, and it stops the road tax and the insurance running on a car you have already finished with.
Other cities we cover
Ready to sell your car?
Your number plate is all we need to start.