6 Modifications You Should Remove Before You Sell Your Car
If you really love your car there’s a chance you’ve added a few things to it while you’ve owned it. Making your car your own is part of the fun when you own a car you’re proud to show off. Some modifications may add value to your car when it comes time to sell it but others are best removed before you sell.
Just like remodeling a home or painting walls back to a neutral color before you sell, removing some modifications, you may have done will make your care more appealing to buyers. Even if you love the mod yourself, a buyer that hasn’t owned the car yet could have entirely different tastes or plans on how they’re going to use the car.
If you’re getting ready to sell your car and wondering what to get rid of to make your car more marketable you can find a lot of advice online. The salespeople at buy here pay here car lots gave us some great advice and tips to help you with that. With that in mind, here are six modifications you should remove before you sell your car.
1. Dark Tinted Windows
New buyers are going to be worried about auto window tinting if they’re concerned it may not be legal. Depending on the state or town there are laws about how dark windows can be and most buyers already know about those laws. They may not know how dark is too dark so if they see your windows are tinted they may choose to pass on buying instead of risking it.
You can have the tint removed pretty easily and it will increase your chances of selling your car more than you might realize. When you’re getting ready to sell your car this is a mod you’ll definitely want to remove. It doesn’t add to the car’s value and as much as you might love the tinted windows, most potential buyers are going to see it as a negative thing.
2. Exhaust Modifications
A loud exhaust is something some car enthusiasts love but it’s unlikely to appeal to the average car buyer. When you’re trying to sell your car this is another thing the average buyer is going to be worried about when it comes to the car being street legal. A lot of towns have noise ordinances that prohibit loud exhaust mods on cars.
As much as you love how your exhaust modification looks and sounds it’s just not a benefit to the car’s resale value in the slightest. With a lot of car brands touting their especially quiet rides (think of the Prius), this modification is not one the public is extremely interested in. It’s best to restore to stock exhaust and sell the modification separately.
3. Head Or Tail Light Upgrades
A lot of car owners love their headlight upgrades but it ends up being another thing the average buyer isn’t going to find attractive. If your car didn’t come with high-intensity lights installed by the manufacturer there’s possibly a reason. Your headlights may not have ever been meant to handle those types of lights, to begin with.
Another issue comes up when you’ve modified the headlights (or tail lights) to different shapes or sizes. Buyers don’t want to have to wonder if their lights are going to get them pulled over so if they’re testing your car out and see that the headlights look like floodlights they’re more likely to find a different car to buy. Again, it’s best to just go back to what’s stock or at least understand that you can’t expect to get more for the car just because of those upgrades.
4. Underbody Lights
This is similar to the issues buyers are going to have with the other modifications you’ve read about so far. Lights that go under the body of your car and light up the undercarriage do look cool but they’re not going to appeal to buyers. Once again you’re going to run into the issue of them wondering if the lights are legal or not.
Although most places have laws that say only red or blue rotating lights are illegal it’s likely the average buyer isn’t going to know that. They’re just going to be worried about anything that would make them more likely to draw unwanted attention or hassle while trying to get somewhere. If you have underbody lights on your car, remove them before trying to sell it.
5. Rims Or Aftermarket Wheels In General
This isn’t one that’s going to make buyers worry about legality but it’s often a modification that sellers will want more money for. Rims are expensive and a lot of times people mistake that as a way to think the car itself is worth more because of the costs involved with the aftermarket wheels they have installed.
The problem is that how the wheels look is pretty subjective. Some buyers may love how the rims look but a lot of buyers just want to have the stock wheels on their car. The look of the upgraded aftermarket wheels isn’t going to have a mass appeal which will limit the people you can market your car to. It’s best to remove them and sell them separately to get your full money’s worth on the aftermarket wheels you’ve invested in.
6. Purely Aesthetic Modifications
This is going to include any chrome or body kits you may have had installed to modify how the car looks. Anything that’s just for the look and not involved in how the car runs is something you should remove before you try to sell it. Once again these are subjective upgrades that aren’t going to appeal to most buyers.
If you love how the car looks that’s great but you have to remember it’s not going to be your car anymore. To appeal to the largest amount of possible buyers you’ll have to remove the aesthetic upgrades even if you love everything about them. Unless you have a buyer waiting to buy the car because of how it looks, any aesthetic upgrade is just not going to help you get the car sold.
Conclusion
Selling your car can take some time but you don’t need to make the process more complicated than it has to be. It’s understandable to want to get some money back for the investments in modifications but removing and selling them separately is the better option.
The average buyer is going to be far more interested in a car that looks like every other car out there than something that’s been modified for your specific tastes. You can always start the process over again and modify your new car back to the look you love. Good luck and happy selling!