Utrecht
Sell your car in Utrecht
Utrecht sits at the middle of the Dutch rail map, which is why so many cars here end up barely used. Six weeks parked becomes six months, the battery goes flat, and the APK runs out while nobody is looking. We buy it in that state.
Utrecht
Selling a car in Utrecht
Every intercity in the country goes through Utrecht Centraal, and the city is small enough to cross on a bike in twenty minutes. For a lot of people that combination makes the car optional within a year of arriving. The university, the Science Park and the hospitals bring in international staff on contracts of a few years, and the car bought in the first month is very often the one sold in the last.
Inside the old centre the streets are narrow and the parking is regulated, which turns the car into a line on a bank statement that you notice every month. Nothing is wrong with the thing. It has simply stopped being worth what it costs to keep standing there.
Standing is what does the damage. A flat twelve volt battery, tyres with flat spots, brake discs rusted where the pads sit, an APK date that passed in February. All of it is normal on a car that has been left, none of it stops us making an offer, and paying a garage to put it right before you sell almost never comes back to you.
Worth knowing in Utrecht
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 centre
Utrecht runs an environmental zone over the city centre which keeps the lower diesel emission classes out. Petrol cars are not affected. The municipality's page lets you check a plate against the current requirement, which is worth doing before you take anyone's word for it, including ours.
Emission requirements for passenger cars (Gemeente Utrecht, in Dutch)Suspending the registration is an option, not a solution
If a car is going to stand for months, a Dutch owner can suspend the registration, which is called schorsen. That stops the road tax and the insurance requirement, and it also makes it illegal to park the car on a public road. Plenty of Utrecht cars sit in this state. Tell us if yours does, because it changes where the car can be handed over.
A short ownership with thin paperwork
If you bought the car a year ago from someone who was leaving, you may have almost no history for it. That is usual here and it is workable. What has to be in place is the registration in your name and both halves of the registration code, the tenaamstellingscode, from your kentekencard.
Collection
Where we collect around Utrecht
We collect anywhere in Utrecht and the ring of towns around it. What we need to know is whether the car moves. If it does not start, or the APK has expired so it cannot legally be driven on a public road, we collect it in a way that does not involve driving it. Add the parking situation too: a permit zone, a garage under a block of flats, a courtyard. Those decide the vehicle and the time slot.
Not on either list? Ask for an offer anyway. We buy cars everywhere in the Netherlands, in all twelve provinces.
Neighbourhoods and areas
- Binnenstad
- Utrecht Oost
- Lombok
- Kanaleneiland
- Overvecht
- Tuindorp
- Leidsche Rijn
- Vleuten
- Utrecht Science Park
Towns nearby
- Nieuwegein
- Zeist
- Houten
- De Bilt
- Maarssen
- IJsselstein
Questions from sellers in Utrecht
It has not started since last winter. Do you still want it?
Yes. Say when it last ran, whether you think the battery is simply flat, and which street or garage it is in. We arrange a collection that does not depend on the car moving, and the price reflects the car as it stands today, not as it would be after a repair you had paid for.
My registration is suspended. Can I sell a geschorste auto?
Yes, a suspended registration transfers like any other. Bear in mind the car cannot legally be parked on a public road while suspended, so tell us where it actually is and we come to it there.
My diesel is not allowed in the centre. Does the offer drop for that?
The zone does not change what we pay. The emission class is one of the facts in the register and it is part of the market picture already. The zone is about driving, and we are not planning to drive it through the centre.
Are my kenteken and the mileage enough to get a price?
Two things. Your number plate, the kenteken, and the mileage. From the plate alone the Dutch vehicle register gives us the make, model, year and fuel. Photographs help and are not required at this stage. Documents belong to the handover and are nothing to think about yet.
Other cities we cover
Ready to sell your car?
Your number plate is all we need to start.