How to get the best price for your car

There's an awful lot more to selling a car than people think. If it was easy to get a good price for your ca, then everyone would be dealing in them and become rich. Getting the best price involves good preparation and good advertising. Here a a few tips on successful selling.

The preparation

An old adage states "failing to prepare is preparing to fail". Nowhere is this more true than selling cars. Whether you're selling a cheap budget car or a new auto, you need to put some work in to make it appealing to your buyers. The first thing you need to address is cleaning. If you want to clean you car properly, inside and out, then you should set aside at least half a day and more likely a full one. Wash and polish the bodywork, making sure you include areas like the door and boot shuts. Clean the wheels thoroughly and use a tyre dressing solution (this can also be used on other rubber and black plastic around the car). If your car has wheel trims, and these are tatty or missing, replace them with a cheap set. Vacuum the interior, making sure you get into all the little nooks and crannies like the air vents, down the sides of the seats etc. Spray cloth seats with fabric freshener and empty the ashtrays! Collect together all the vehicle paperwork. You want to have the MOT (and any old ones), registration, bills and service records ready for a potential buyer to look at.

Advertising

If you want the best price for your car, then don't sell it to traders who say things like "we will buy your car for cash". By all means, use them to gain an idea of the lowest price you can expect. Online car brokers who offer free quotes and car rates are another good source for this information. Compare your car to others on sites like Autotrader and eBay to see what price privately sold vehicles make and pitch yours at this level. Advertising doesn't have to cost a fortune. Start with websites which don't charge for their advertisements (Pistonheads.com, Vehicletrader.co.uk and Auto4you.co.uk are examples, but there are many more). Many weekly car papers (classic car weekly is one) offer free advertisements, so use them to your advantage. Place cards on supermarket free sales boards. Finally, place well worded advertisements, playing on all the best features of your car, on sites like eBay and Autotrader. This will cost you money but these two, in particular, are primary destination sites for car buyers. So, you need to have a presence there if you want the best price.