Consignment vs selling your car outright: which suits you?

Letting a dealer sell your car on consignment makes sense if you can wait with no fixed end date, keep paying for a car you can’t drive, and trust the dealer to pass on the buyer’s money. It can get you closer to a retail price, because the dealer sells to a retail buyer on your behalf and pays you after that buyer pays, less a commission or fee.

If you need the money or the car gone by a set date, selling outright usually suits better. You agree a price up front, and the buyer takes on the cost and risk of reselling the car.

How does selling a car on consignment work?

You leave the car with a dealer, who displays it, advertises it, takes the enquiries, runs the test drives and negotiates with buyers. You stay the owner until it sells. When a buyer pays, the dealer takes its commission and any agreed costs, and passes the rest to you.

In a trade-in or an outright sale, the dealer buys your car and the resale risk is theirs. On consignment the dealer never owns the car. If it sells slowly, sells for less than you hoped or doesn’t sell at all, that lands on you.

NRMA’s guide to selling a car sets consignment out in a table alongside a private sale, an auction and a trade-in. Each one trades price against time, effort and risk in a different way. If you’re also weighing up an auction, see our guide to selling at auction vs to a dealer.

Western Australia regulates consignment closely. There, a dealer needs consignment sales (Category E) added to its licence, and must have a consignment trust account.

How much does consignment cost?

There’s no set rate, so any figure you’re quoted is that dealer’s own. What matters is the structure, because it decides how much of the sale price reaches you. Dealers generally charge in one of three ways:

• A percentage of the sale price. The dealer earns more when the car sells for more.
• A flat fee. You know the cost up front, whatever the car sells for.
• A net price. You agree a minimum sale price and the dealer keeps anything above it. WA’s required consignment terms work this way: the dealer may sell above the minimum and keep the difference as its commission.

Then look for extras. Detailing, photos, advertising, a mechanical check, repairs, and a roadworthy or safety certificate where your state needs one can all be charged on top or taken from the proceeds. In WA, the required terms say the dealer can’t do any work on the car without your written consent. Elsewhere, ask for that in writing.

A net-to-you worksheet

Before you compare a consignment estimate with an outright offer, run it through these lines using the dealer’s actual figures:

1. The price the dealer expects the car to sell for. Ask what that’s based on.
2. Less the commission or fee.
3. Less the extras: detailing, photos, advertising, repairs and certificates.
4. Less your holding costs while it waits: loan repayments and interest, rego and insurance.
5. What’s left is what you’d receive if it sells at that price.

Now compare line 5 with an outright offer. The outright figure is agreed when you accept the offer and paid before the car goes. The consignment figure is an estimate, and it only turns into money when a buyer pays. A private sale has its own costs too, set out in our guide to the true cost of selling a car privately.

How long does a consignment sale take?

Nobody can tell you in advance. It depends on the price you set, how many similar cars are for sale and how many buyers come through the yard. Ask whether the agreement gives the dealer the exclusive right to sell for a set period. WA’s required terms include one, and either side can end the contract with 24 hours’ written notice before the car sells.

The gap that matters most is between the buyer paying the dealer and the dealer paying you. In WA, the required terms say the dealer pays your net proceeds within two business days of receiving payment, and a cheque doesn’t count as received until it has been honoured. In other states, ask for a payment deadline in the agreement.

Who’s responsible for the car while it’s on the yard?

Mostly you. The car is still yours and still registered in your name until it sells. That means:

• Rego and insurance. You keep paying both. Tell your insurer the car is with a dealer for sale, and ask whether you’re covered when dealer staff or prospective buyers drive it.
• Loan repayments. If there’s finance, the repayments and interest keep running, and the lender’s security interest stays on the PPSR until the loan is paid out and the lender releases it.
• Fines and tolls. Camera fines and toll notices usually go to the registered owner first. Ask how the dealer records who drove the car and when, so you can pass on anything picked up during a test drive.
• Damage and theft. WA’s required terms make the dealer liable for theft, loss or damage caused by its negligence, not for every loss. Elsewhere, the agreement decides. Photograph the car and note the odometer reading when you drop it off.
• Warranty claims. WA’s required terms put warranty claims on the dealer. In other states, ask who pays if the buyer comes back with a fault.

Who lodges the notice of disposal on a consignment sale in NSW?

It can be the dealer. Service NSW’s guide to transferring a vehicle says that when you sell on consignment, a notice of disposal must be submitted within 14 days of the date of sale, and that the dealership acting for you may complete it.

Three details catch NSW sellers out:

• The clock starts at the sale, not at drop-off. The 14 days run from the day the car sells, so the dealer needs to tell you that date promptly.
• Agree in writing who lodges it. If the dealer is doing it, ask for confirmation once it’s done. If not, you submit it yourself, and Service NSW’s guide says you can do that at a service centre. Keep a copy either way.
• Lodge it straight away. Service NSW says to submit the notice immediately after the sale, so you aren’t held responsible for the new owner’s parking or driving fines.

In an outright sale to a NSW dealer, plan on lodging the notice yourself. You enter the dealer’s NSW motor dealer licence number and registered business name in place of a buyer’s licence. When you sell to us, that’s MD 077404, and we’ll make sure your notice is done correctly. Other states set their own rules, so check with your state’s transport authority. Our guide to selling a car in NSW covers the full NSW process.

What protects you if a consignment dealer doesn’t pay?

This is the risk that sets consignment apart from an outright sale. The buyer’s money goes to the dealer, not to you. If the dealer collapses or doesn’t pass it on, you can be left without the car and without the money.

So if a Victorian trader offers to sell your car and pay you afterwards, ask how that fits the rule. If a business holding your car won’t pay you or give it back, contact Consumer Affairs Victoria.

The NSW compensation fund covers claims about NSW-licensed dealers, and it’s a last resort: you must take all reasonable steps to recover the loss from the dealer first. As at October 2026, the maximum payment is $100,000, and claims generally have to be made within 18 months of the loss. Whether a particular loss qualifies is for NSW Fair Trading to decide. It’s a safety net, not a quick refund.

The better protection is to check before you hand over the keys:

• Look up the dealer’s licence on the register of the state that issued it. Our guide on how to check a car buyer is licensed shows where.
• Don’t sign anything that transfers ownership until you’ve been paid. The NSW Government and Consumer Affairs Victoria both say this.
• Keep the signed agreement, your drop-off photos and every message about the sale.

Wherever you live, the WA consignment rules show what a fair written agreement covers.

Which cars suit consignment, and which suit an outright sale?

Consignment earns its keep when a retail buyer will pay clearly more than a trade buyer, and you can afford to wait for that buyer. An outright sale suits when certainty matters more than the last few dollars.

If yours is a late-model prestige or European car, a specialist consignment yard is one route. A genuine offer from a dealer who knows those models is another, and our page on selling a prestige car explains how we buy them outright.

What should you ask a consignment dealer before you sign?

Take this list with you, and get the answers in the written agreement.

1. What’s your dealer licence number, and which state issued it? Does it cover consignment? In WA, look for Category E.
2. Can I take the agreement home and read it before I sign?
3. How is your commission worked out, and what else can be charged or taken from the proceeds?
4. What’s the minimum sale price, and do you need my written OK to accept less?
5. How long is the exclusive period, and what does it cost me to take the car back early?
6. Where is the buyer’s money held, and how many business days after it arrives will I be paid?
7. Who insures the car on your premises, and how are test drives supervised and recorded?
8. If there’s finance, who pays out my lender, and when?
9. Who lodges the notice of disposal, and how will you tell me the sale date?
10. If the buyer makes a warranty claim, who pays?

If a dealer won’t answer these in writing, that tells you what you need to know.

So, consignment or an outright sale?

Choose consignment if you’re chasing a retail price, can wait without a deadline and can carry the costs and risks above. Choose an outright sale if you’d rather have a price agreed up front, paid before the car goes.

Selling to us is an outright sale. We’re a licensed dealer, and we make a genuine offer by phone, not an online estimate. A deposit is often paid the same day. The inspection happens after you accept, at a time and place that suits you. The balance goes into your bank account, and we collect the car anywhere in Australia only after you confirm the funds have cleared. No fees come out of the offer, and if there’s finance, we deal with your lender directly. As Spiros put it: “I was paid before Autohaus took possession of my car, which from my experience normally doesn’t happen.”

We buy cars, utes, SUVs and 4WDs 2021 or newer with 100,000 km or less. If yours is older or has more kilometres, send it through anyway and we’ll tell you straight away if we can help. Ask for a free valuation to compare against any consignment estimate, or call 1800 73 55 73.