Frequently asked questions

In short; we will advertise, do test-drives, negotiate the right price, and sell your premium used car on your behalf.

When you sign-up with Summon you will be prompted to download the Summon mobile app (coming soon), which keeps you up-to-date on all of the steps in the process, which include;

Advertise;

• We will collect your car from your house (or work), wash and clean the car, take professional photography, and return your car to you the same day
• You will provide us information about the car such as service history, factory and non-factory options
• Together we will agree on the right price for which we’ll advertise the car - for this we use industry data that is only available to car dealers
• We will create a compelling listing advert, buy and place the ads for your car in the right places (e.g. Carsales.com.au)

Test-drives;

• We will field all enquiries for the car from interested parties
• When a test-drive is requested, we do an ID + drivers licence check and take a security deposit from the interested party
• We will arrange a time to collect the car from you, and will do the test-drive with the interested party (where possible we will group several test-drives on the same day). We will clean the car before each test-drive so that it looks great! After the test-drives are finished for the day, we will return the car to you.
• We will take care of each test-drive until the car is sold
• Our mobile app (coming soon) will show you details of each test-drive such as the distance travelled, a map showing where the car was driven, and the top speed/s (so you know your car is being driven responsibly)
• If a vehicle inspection is requested by the potential buyer, we will take care of this for you (this is paid for by the buyer)
• Once we receive an offer for the car, we will discuss with you and agree a sale price

Selling the car;

• We will (as much as possible) assist with the paperwork required for the sale, such as registration check, PPSR (finance/loan) check, licence check, vehicle transfer forms and providing a receipt to the buyer
• We will organise a Roadworthy Certificate for your car (this must be completed no more than 30 days before the sale of the car)
• We will facilitate a process for the transfer of ownership / keys and receipt of money by you
• Once the sale is finalised and you have received the funds, we will collect the car from you and deliver it to the new owner

Summon charges an initial listing fee of $950, which covers car detailing, photography, and listing fees on sites such as Carsales and Autotrader. Upon selling the car, we take a 6% commission on the final sale price.

There are no extra fees for the seller, but there are some optional extras that the buyer may choose to take up, such as a vehicle pre-purchase inspection and transportation.

Cars are advertised as a private sale price, and do not include stamp duty and other government charges.

Drive Away charges are paid for by the buyer, in just the same way as if they purchased the car directly from a private seller with no involvement from Summon.

Drive Away charges vary from state to state, but generally include Stamp Duty, Registration Fees and Luxury Car Tax (if the price for the car is over the LCT threshold).

Summon have partnered with Stratton Finance to bring you great deals on finance for your next vehicle.

Stratton Finance is one of Australia’s leading asset finance brokers. When you finance with Stratton, you’ll get:

• Access to an unmatched network of partners, including a panel of specialist lenders.
• Market leading knowledge and service.
• Personalised service; Ryan and his team will take the time to understand your finance needs and find a deal that’s right for you.

If you're ready to finance, give Ryan a call today on 1300 787 288 or get an instant quote now.

Cars will be covered by any factory or manufacturers warranty, and/or any extended warranties that have been placed on the car. We will include in the car listing the details for what (if any) warranty each car has. Just like if you buy a car from a private seller, neither Summon or the seller offer a warranty for cars outside of their warranty period.

Currently we accept any prestige car over $50,000 in value. There are some exceptions to this, so please contact us at hello@summon.com.au if you are interested in the service for your car.

We are currently providing our service to cars around central Melbourne + Eastern Suburbs, Sydney central + surrounding suburbs, Brisbane and Gold Coast. Please contact us to ask if you are within our service area. Over time we plan to expand our service area to more areas.

No, one of the advantages of selling with Summon compared to selling on consignment with a car dealership is that you get to keep your car and use it while it’s listed for sale. This creates cost savings for us (we don’t have dealership real estate to pay for) which we then pass on to you.

On average we expect it to take 3 - 4 weeks to sell a typical car with Summon. The speed a car sells is very much based on how aggressive you wish to price the car - if you want to sell quickly then you should list the car at an attractive price.

Thanks to our access to market data, we can ensure your car is priced accurately from the start, and make sure your car doesn’t “go stale” on listing Web sites - leading to a sale as quickly as possible.

Lots of people sell cars themselves, and are quite happy to invest the time and energy in order to save some money. However, many people are confused by the process, don’t have time to create an ad, handle enquiries, do test-drives and then finalise the sale paperwork. If that sounds like you, we’re here to help!

Many people are also uncomfortable with strangers coming to their house and conducting a test-drive in a luxury car. Not to mention the numerous online scams that try to snare private car sellers.

Also, we can help you to maximise the price you get for your car, by creating a great well written ad, with all of the detail a buyer needs, and amazing photography. We also use our access to market data to ensure the car is priced correctly in the first place, and doesn’t “get stale” by sitting on Carsales for too long - once this happens a car becomes much harder to sell (as potential buyers assume something is wrong with the car).

If you are thinking about buying a car that is listed with Summon, there are several benefits over buying a similar car from a private seller or car dealership.

• Price - we don’t mark cars up like a car dealer does, you get the same price of buying from a private seller with other perks
• Concierge test-drives - we will arrange a convenient location for you to conduct the test-drive
• Safety - some buyers are nervous about taking a test-drive with a stranger in their car, our professional team conduct the test-drive on behalf of the seller
• Negotiation - if there is negotiation on price, this conversation is with us rather than the seller of the car - avoid any emotionally charged discussions on price!
• Funds transfer - we help to facilitate the exchange of money and keys
• Paperwork - we also help to streamline the registration process and transfer into your name

Keeping your car safe is our priority.

We request that sellers have comprehensive insurance in place that will cover Summon driving your car, and potential buyers test-driving your car. If unsure, we recommend you check with your insurer.

If you don't wish for buyers to test-drive your car, we can do a test-drive with us driving and the buyer as a passenger.

We will take a copy of any potential buyers drivers licence prior to test-drive, and if agreed with you we will ask them to leave a (refundable) deposit to cover an insurance excess. Our staff members are always present on any test drive.

In Australia the most visited platform is carsales.com.au and all cars will be advertised here, along with Carsguide and Autotrader. We will also look at alternatives depending on the type of car, for example specialist cars will be listed on relevant car forums. We don’t list on Gumtree or eBay as these are generally not well suited for prestige cars.

Yes, we provide a 100% Money Back Guarantee that we will sell your price within an agreed price range.

Firstly, we will do our best to use our market insights to ensure the car is not over-priced and your expectations are a match for what is likely to sell.

By having a great ad listing for your car, along with professional photography and a concierge service, your car will present at it’s best and this helps to ensure you get the most interest and best offers from prospective buyers.

Selling a car on consignment with a dealer can be a good option for some vehicles (e.g. rare prestige cars), however due to the overheads of having expensive real estate and fancy dealerships, they need to charge a large commission in order to be profitable.

As Summon is an online business, we pass these cost savings onto our customers. Typical commissions for consignment car sales are 10% + listing fees, compared to only 6% with Summon.

Dealerships might argue that prospective car buyers find their next car by walking around car dealerships - and so giving your car this “real estate” exposure is important. In reality, most car research is done online well before the buyer leaves the house - and they will then visit a dealership (or private seller) to inspect a specific car they are interested in.

Unlike a consignment sale, the other big benefit is that you can keep using your car while it’s being advertised for sale. We only need the car on occasion to photograph the car and to handle the test-drives.

We have some criteria for the cars we are able to accept and sell on your behalf, these include (but are not limited to);

• The car value must be over $50,000
• The car must be in good, saleable condition
• The car must be your own personal car to sell
• The car must be registered and roadworthy
• The car must have insurance cover, and we may require a copy of the insurance policy
• The car must not have been reported as stolen

If you would like to check if your car is eligible, please click on Sell Your Car and give us some information about the car and we'll be in touch.

Yes, we can help provide you with advice on the best way to pay off your loan after you sell the car and receive funds, and in some cases we can do this for you.

Right now our focus is on prestige cars, and although we realise that everybody's definition of this will be slightly different, we chose to make $50,000 our lower limit.

If you have a car that is valued at less than $50,000 and that you would like to sell with us, please contact us at hello@summon.com.au and we'll see how we might be able to help.

Yes! If you want to sell your prestige car privately, we have a downloadable PDF guide and checklist which we hope can help you.

Guide to Selling a car privately

Summon is taking many hygiene precautions to keep our customers, our prospective buyers and our team safe. This includes disinfecting touch surfaces in the cars before and after test-drives.

We are also encouraging "virtual test-drives" with buyers using live video apps such as FaceTime or Zoom.

Summon offers a Click & Collect or home delivery option for buyers of our customer cars. How the service operates depends on the location of the seller, and of the buyer.

For more information please see this article, or get in touch so we can tailor our service to your location.