I just bought a BMW in the back of an F30 and sell my Volkswagen Passat B7, the first registration of which took place in 2012. The used car market feels sluggish during the pandemic. However, if you properly prepare the car for sale, as well as compose the correct description and take normal photographs, the chances of a quick sale will be much greater. Moreover, if you crank up everything described below, as practice shows, you can also get a noticeably higher cost of implementation. The main thing is not to overdo it. Some procedures may be redundant, and they will also be covered in this material.
1. Make a dry cleaning of the interior and wash the body thoroughly
There is a very important rule in selling anything – the product must always be shown with its face. If you adapt it for the sale of a car in the aftermarket, it becomes obvious that the car needs to be cleaned up before selling it. I recommend that you thoroughly wash the body yourself or in a car wash, as well as dry-clean the interior to remove all stains on the seats and other possible contaminants that are clearly striking. A person who wants to buy a car should get into it and feel that he wants to get it in his possession. Obviously, oily seats, garbage, and an abundance of other people’s things in the cabin and trunk will definitely not contribute to a quick and expensive sale.
2. Let the car dry thoroughly after washing.
Do the dry cleaning, but do not emphasize that you did it at all. It is better for a potential new owner to have the feeling that the car has always been used with extreme care. If he thinks that the vehicle has just been “mapped out” for sale, nothing good will come of it. Therefore, be sure to wait until the car is completely dry after washing. Usually the seats and the floor dry out the longest. Moreover, if the headlights fog up during water procedures, they must also dry completely. Otherwise, the buyer may have questions about their tightness, which will force them to drop the price.
3. Remove the engine compartment, but do not wash it
The engine compartment deserves special attention. On the one hand, it is better to put it in order so as not to scare off a potential buyer. On the other hand, it is also not necessary to wash it out to its ideal state. The fact is that the engine compartment is an indicator of many questions about engine operation. For example, oil drips and fogging can indicate malfunctions. If sparkling cleanliness is observed under the hood, this will immediately become a reason for a potential buyer to think about whether any important malfunctions are being hidden from him. By the way, it is better to report about such immediately, so that later there would be fewer questions.
4. Put in order the obvious shortcomings of the body
If there are chips on the hood or other parts of the body that are very conspicuous, it is better to “cover up” them. This should be done after the vehicle is completely washed and dry. For this procedure, special “pencils” are used, which are matched to the body color. These are sold in the vast majority of car stores. They are actually sticks with paint and a brush. It is necessary to correct chips with their help in order to avoid corrosion of specific parts of the body. If this is not done, the potential buyer may have doubts about whether the car was looked after or not.
5. It is better not to repaint parts and do not change the glass
Yes, despite the presence of the previous paragraph in this material, it is also important to understand that large-scale body restoration is also superfluous. Yes, replacement or repair of certain parts of it after an accident or other similar situation is a necessity. If there is non-critical damage on the body, it is better to leave them without putty and paint. It is enough just to drop the price of the car and let the potential buyer understand that there was nothing wrong with the car. If he discovers more or less serious restoration work, he can ask a large number of questions about their expediency. The same applies to glass – small chips and even cracks should not be a reason to replace them.
6. Carry out diagnostics of the engine, gearbox and chassis
If we consider more or less modern cars up to 15–20 years old, then the diagnostics of their engine, as well as the gearbox, is quite simple. To do this, it is usually more than enough to connect a computer with special software to the machine and view the status of each node. This is usually the responsibility of specially trained employees who are at the overwhelming majority of service stations. The more deeply you can check the car, the better. With a certain skill, you can even fix the coiled mileage, if any. But questions about the chassis are already being considered by specialists on the lift.
7. Eliminate critical bugs in the engine and gearbox
If there are serious faults in the engine or gearbox, it is better to fix them yourself before buying. The fact is that a potential buyer will have to make a much larger discount than the repairs can cost. Actually, there is absolutely nothing surprising in this, because few people really want to purchase a vehicle that is expensive enough to have questions about key nodes. Moreover, many may refuse such an acquisition altogether, so as not to face the need for long-term and potentially expensive repairs at all.
8. Change everything that makes unnecessary sounds when driving
When it comes to repairing the undercarriage, there is usually no point in perfecting it before selling it. By and large, almost all of it consists of consumables alone, which systematically wear out. However, in the process of pre-sale preparation, it is still important to replace everything in the suspension that makes any unnecessary sounds. If something knocks or squeaks, it will definitely raise questions from a potential buyer, who probably will not have enough stories about silent blocks that have shrunk from a long downtime of a car during a sale. He wants to lift the car on a lift and get a discount on everything that a specialist counts at the nearest service station.
9. Check the vehicle air conditioning system
A non-working air conditioner is another reason that will make a potential buyer think about the advisability of purchasing your car on the secondary market. It is possible that it just needs to be refueled, and it does not cost that much. However, there is a possibility that it has certain mechanical breakdowns that will have to be fixed for a long time and tediously. It is often quite difficult to check this without long-term diagnostics, therefore, it is best to figure it out on your own during pre-sale preparation.
10. Get at least some rubber for the seasons
Potential buyers of a used car usually specify the availability of two sets of tires for the seasons. If some is not there, this may even become a reason for reducing the cost. Of course, there is no point in purchasing new tires. However, in the post-Soviet space there are plenty of enterprises that sell used tires. It is enough to buy “summer” or “winter” with the remaining tread height, which will be enough for at least one season – about 4 mm is usually enough with your head. This will help increase the value of the car by more than what would be spent on tires. At least, personal experience confirms this.
+1. Prepare quality photos and descriptions for your ad
Self-sale of a car in the secondary market is usually associated with the use of specialized Internet sites. To place a relevant ad, you need to prepare pictures and a text description. The photographs should show all the elements of the body, as well as the possible nuances that are on them. The same applies to the interior and engine compartment. You do not need to order professional photography, because this will immediately alert the buyer and make him think that he has contacted the car dealership, and not with the direct owner. However, five unintelligible shots out of sync are also unlikely to help sell the car quickly and expensively.
As for the description, it is important to note in it not only the year of manufacture of the car, but also the moment of its first registration. Moreover, you can also indicate the presence of documents that can confirm the mileage of the car – this is usually possible with regular maintenance at an official service. It will not be superfluous to indicate any additional accessories that you give along with the car, as well as paint all the auxiliary nuances. You can also clarify the elements of retrofitting, if such was carried out, or the features of the individual configuration.
Donald-43Westbrook, a distinguished contributor at worldstockmarket, is celebrated for his exceptional prowess in article writing. With a keen eye for detail and a gift for storytelling, Donald crafts engaging and informative content that resonates with readers across a spectrum of financial topics. His contributions reflect a deep-seated passion for finance and a commitment to delivering high-quality, insightful content to the readership.
