How To Prepare Your Car For Sale

At some point, you’re going to sell your car. I have a lot of experience selling vehicles, and I know what people expect from cars, and to sell your car quicker, I’ll show you how to prepare your car for sale.

Even though doing some of these things before selling your vehicle is obvious, most people either forget to do some of them or don’t think these things matter much.

Most of these tips aren’t expensive, which is the article’s goal. You don’t need to fix every little thing when selling your car, and it’s not profitable. But some basic things shall be done.

Detail Your Car

Most people judge at first sight, and you can’t change that. That’s why your car should be spotless both inside and out. Otherwise, a potential buyer can lower the price or not be interested in your vehicle.

Furthermore, dirty cars give buyers the assumption that you neglected the whole vehicle, not only its look (engine, oil changes, etc.).

Here are a few tips I can give you:

• Deep clean car interior. You can deep clean your car interior with a little effort and a few hours of free time. Clean seats, carpets, and a dashboard increase the overall impression of your vehicle, and the buyer will know you maintained your car correctly. When you finish everything, don’t forget to put a lovely scent inside the car.
• Wash and wax your car. A thorough washing of the vehicle and spraying it with some quick wax only takes an hour or two at max, but it can increase the chances of selling your vehicle quickly and for a better price. Furthermore, when you just wash and wax the car, it’ll look fantastic for taking photos (which I’ll be talking about in just a moment).
• Restore faded plastic on the car exterior. Bumpers often have some plastic parts that tend to fade with time. Buy a budget-friendly plastic restorer and restore all plastic parts. It takes 5-10 minutes to do this step.
• Apply tire dressing. When you apply tire dressing, car tires will look much newer even if they’re already old and require replacement.

You can do all of these for less than $50, which will increase the overall price and the chance of selling your vehicle quickly. It’s a worthy investment for any car, especially if you’re trying to sell an expensive vehicle.

Check The Vehicle and Fix Minor Issues

Most people don’t want to fix minor issues when selling their car, and it’s a big mistake. Those minor issues will allow people to bargain a lot, and you’ll lose much more money than the initial cost of the fix.

Here’s the list of the things you should check and fix:

• All fluids (coolant, brake fluid, servo pump fluid)
• Engine oil and transmission oil
• Replace burned-out bulbs and fuses
• Check the freon level in the car’s AC system
• Check the condition of the air filter and quickly dust it out

Furthermore, the most common thing people bargain about is paint scratches. If your car has them, try polishing that out. Most scratches are light (clear coat scratches), and fixing them yourself is quick and cheap. However, if your car has scratches all over the paint, you might want to pay some car detailer to remove them or accept the fact that you will get a little less money.

Read more: Auto Body Repair Tutorials

This advice applies to all other minor issues with your car. If something costs you $100 to fix, not fixing that will reduce the price of your car by at least $120-150.

Of course, you won’t repair every little thing on your car; you need to make some money, not lose it, but fixing some obvious defects on your vehicle should be done.

Take High-Quality Photos of Your Vehicle

There’s nothing worse than publishing an ad with extremely bad vehicle photos. It can reject some potential buyers, but it can also make them contact you all the time, requiring more images of your vehicle, which will take up much of your worthy time.

Suppose you have an iPhone; fantastic! They all take excellent images. If not, borrow a flagship smartphone from your friends and family and thoroughly take shots of the car’s interior and exterior. Mostly, ten photos will be enough, and there’s no need to upload 20-30 images of your vehicle; that’ll look a bit bland.

If you’re selling an expensive vehicle ($20,000+), paying someone to do a professional shooting is a worthy investment since it’ll attract more clicks to your ads and, in the end, more potential buyers.

A quick tip: take photos of your car just after you’ve washed it. That way, it’ll look the best, and the paint will have that deep gloss and shine.

Write an In-Depth Ad and Research Average Prices

You don’t want uninterested people to call you just to check some info about your car, such as the price, overall condition, registration, etc. It’s important that you have all that info well-explained in your ad. That way, only highly interested people will call you, and you’ll have less banter about everything.

Read more: Tips For Writing Used Car Ads That Sell

A crucial thing you should do is to research the market of used vehicles to check the average prices for your type of car. It only takes a few minutes to check some ad networks and find similar cars to yours. Then, consider the overall condition of your vehicle, mileage, engine, etc., and come up with a price you’ll be happy with. Don’t forget to leave some space for bargaining – so both you and the buyer are satisfied with the final price.

You can also go to a few dealerships, but they’ll often lowball you, and you won’t be able to get much money for the car.

Here’s what a high-quality ad should contain:

• Quick overview of the vehicle and the price
• Year, make, and model (also the engine size and HP)
• History of car services (minor services, timing belt, transmission oil change, some other fixes you’ve done on the vehicle)
• Mileage (extremely important)
• Vehicle equipment: mention everything, such as seat heating, automatic lights, sensors, camera, infotainment system, etc.
• Car gas consumption (which is, unfortunately, very important nowadays with wild gas prices)

The worst thing you can do is publish an ad like this: “2023 1500 Chevy Silverado LT for Sale, contact this number: XXX”. Don’t be that guy, it’s repelling, and it’ll only attract some kids and uninterested buyers. Be thorough and write a good ad.

Lastly, you want to prepare all the documentation for your vehicle: insurance, registration papers, car manuals, service history, receipts from mechanics, and anything else you think is important. I also suggest you prepare the bill of sale, so you don’t have to bother about that a lot when the buyer comes.

Final Thoughts

Selling your car isn’t hard; as you can see, it takes only a few steps to properly prepare the car for sale. Always try selling the car yourself instead of going to a dealership that’ll give you only ca. 80% of the car’s realistic value.

I hope the tips above will help you, and I wish you quick and happy selling!