Tips On Selling Your Car

Selling your vehicle? Follow these tips to help ensure a smooth sales process:

Decide how you want to sell your car. These days there are many ways to sell your car. First, you can decide either to trade it into the dealership or to sell it yourself. While selling it to the dealership can be more convenient, you can usually expect to sell it for at least a couple thousand dollars more if you sell it yourself. This article will discuss this option.

When you have made the decision to sell your car yourself, think about the market. Is your car a sports car and/or convertible? If so, these type of cars usually sell best in the summer, and often to people in higher economic categories. Is your car a family car? If so, market specifically to parents. Where do you market it? Well this leads us to our next category…

Decide where and how you want to advertise, and determine a selling price. You can advertise in the classifieds, online, and/or simply with a well placed, readable for sale sign in your car (don’t forget to make the phone number large and legible). Again, think about your market and where they are most likely to view your advertisement. Make sure you are prepared to field offers from the moment you put the car on the market.

To determine a price, visit sites like kbb.com (Kelley Blue Book) or look in the classifieds for similar cars of a comparable age and condition. If you want to sell quickly, undercut those prices a bit. If you’re open to negotiation, determine a minimum offer you would accept, and don’t go under it.

Prepare your car for sale. It’s important to get your car looking its very best. Clean it thoroughly (think about investing in getting it detailed), and consider fixing any minor maintenance problems it may have. If you’re selling it “as is” and it has some maintenance issues, you may have to drop the price a bit.

Also make sure you have all the car’s records prepared. It is a definite plus to buyers to see a well kept maintenance log complete with receipts and records of things like oil changes and tune ups. You could also purchase a vehicle history report to ensure potential buyers that your car was not in any major wrecks.

Sell it! When setting up a time for a potential buyer to view the car, be aware that they will want to take it on a test drive. Make sure to have a short route planned out, to ask to see the potential buyer’s driver’s license, and to accompany the person on the test drive. Some buyers may also want to have the car inspected by a mechanic. It is up to you how to respond to this request.