1. Provide a service history of your car. This means records of ALL previous work performed. When people buy a used car they want to see the history of the vehicle. If you have a history all the way to the beginning of the vehicle's life it shows you put in an effort keeping the vehicle maintained and you are conscious of resale value. This includes bodywork and paint work as well as accessories installed. A lot of cars are serviced at different shops. usually for the first 4 years of warrenty they are serviced at a dealership but when the warrenty runs out people switch to their local private shop to save money. Either way the records are important.
2. Have the car professionally detailed. Even though this could cost you anywhere from $150- $500 you will see the difference. You can spend money on fixing problems in the car but you won't be able to see the money spent like a detail. A proper detail can make a 10 year old look almost new again. Inside and out. You will always get your money back in the sale of vehicle when it has been properly detailed.
3. Take all your stuff out of the car. When someone comes to view and test drive your car they don t want to see a center console full of paper or sunglasses or whatever. It should look like its ready to be sold just like on a dealer lot. The new owner wants to make it their own. They dont want a memory of it being full of garbage or other peoples personal belongings. It just gives the interior a clean appearence and you have put in an effort to keep the vehicle clean.
4. Show a carfax or accident/ insurance claim history. Do not loose out a sale because someone needed to do extra research on your vehicle. And this also shows people they will not be surprised in the future to find out the car has been in a costly accident.
5. Have the proper repairs done to your vehicle. A vehicle being sold with a check engine light on the dash or a repair that is needed could be worth signifigantly less even if the repair is a cheap fix. Don't loose money on the sale just because you feel you do not have the time to get your car is proper running condition.
6. Use all the free advertising as possible. Craigslist is huge now. Kijiji and other Buy&sells are very popular. The more poeple that know about your car the better chance you have at a sale.
I remember when I traded in my 1991 318is to the dealer for my new 2008 MINI Cooper S. It only had 77000KM on it and previously my Mom owned it, so it was single family ownership. The dealer was so impressed that we had all the service records. I like the point about the detailing. That's the same as curb appeal for your 25 year old house. ;-)
Rixter, you obviously have seen how far the proper paper work goes. Just that paper could be worth thousands of dollars on a luxury car like a BMW. It could also be the difference between making the sale or not. Like you say, even dealers sometimes do not take the time to track down paperwork and instead offer you a lower price on your trade in. It also says you were very serious about maintenance and caring for the vehicle. Detailing your car and having the right paperwork also gives you a lot of bargaining power when you are trading or selling your car. You will always get your money back for the detail even if you are trading the car in because that is an expense the dealer now does not have to pay. Most cars that come in are not clean and usually not detailed but if they are the dealer can just put them straight into the showroom or storage. And with no downtime for the detail it gets the car back up for sale quicker. We all know at the dealer time is money too.
Important tips for selling
ReplyDelete1. Provide a service history of your car. This means records of ALL previous work performed. When people buy a used car they want to see the history of the vehicle. If you have a history all the way to the beginning of the vehicle's life it shows you put in an effort keeping the vehicle maintained and you are conscious of resale value. This includes bodywork and paint work as well as accessories installed. A lot of cars are serviced at different shops. usually for the first 4 years of warrenty they are serviced at a dealership but when the warrenty runs out people switch to their local private shop to save money. Either way the records are important.
2. Have the car professionally detailed. Even though this could cost you anywhere from $150- $500 you will see the difference. You can spend money on fixing problems in the car but you won't be able to see the money spent like a detail. A proper detail can make a 10 year old look almost new again. Inside and out. You will always get your money back in the sale of vehicle when it has been properly detailed.
3. Take all your stuff out of the car. When someone comes to view and test drive your car they don t want to see a center console full of paper or sunglasses or whatever. It should look like its ready to be sold just like on a dealer lot. The new owner wants to make it their own. They dont want a memory of it being full of garbage or other peoples personal belongings. It just gives the interior a clean appearence and you have put in an effort to keep the vehicle clean.
4. Show a carfax or accident/ insurance claim history. Do not loose out a sale because someone needed to do extra research on your vehicle. And this also shows people they will not be surprised in the future to find out the car has been in a costly accident.
5. Have the proper repairs done to your vehicle. A vehicle being sold with a check engine light on the dash or a repair that is needed could be worth signifigantly less even if the repair is a cheap fix. Don't loose money on the sale just because you feel you do not have the time to get your car is proper running condition.
6. Use all the free advertising as possible. Craigslist is huge now. Kijiji and other Buy&sells are very popular. The more poeple that know about your car the better chance you have at a sale.
I remember when I traded in my 1991 318is to the dealer for my new 2008 MINI Cooper S. It only had 77000KM on it and previously my Mom owned it, so it was single family ownership. The dealer was so impressed that we had all the service records. I like the point about the detailing. That's the same as curb appeal for your 25 year old house. ;-)
ReplyDeleteRixter,
ReplyDeleteyou obviously have seen how far the proper paper work goes. Just that paper could be worth thousands of dollars on a luxury car like a BMW. It could also be the difference between making the sale or not. Like you say, even dealers sometimes do not take the time to track down paperwork and instead offer you a lower price on your trade in. It also says you were very serious about maintenance and caring for the vehicle. Detailing your car and having the right paperwork also gives you a lot of bargaining power when you are trading or selling your car. You will always get your money back for the detail even if you are trading the car in because that is an expense the dealer now does not have to pay. Most cars that come in are not clean and usually not detailed but if they are the dealer can just put them straight into the showroom or storage. And with no downtime for the detail it gets the car back up for sale quicker. We all know at the dealer time is money too.