When selling a used car, it’s only natural to want to get the highest price possible for it. However, simply asking for that price and expecting to get it is not really effective. You have to be proactive when putting your car up for sale. This means taking the appropriate steps to make sure your car will actually fetch the highest price.
You don’t have to take too much time or spend a lot of money to get the car in pristine condition. It’s just necessary to make a few adjustments and help to put the car in the best possible light to ensure that a potential buyer doesn’t have a reason to bargain down. Or, even worse, walk away from the sale.
In this article, I will go over a few ideas on how to make sure that you get your asking price.
1 – Get rid of rust
Rust can happen on a car that is older than a few years. It doesn’t mean that there is anything wrong with it besides it just being annoying to look at. However, a potential buyer seeing rust on a car will wonder if it hasn’t been taking care of. And this neglect may signal to them that there are other problems that are so visible.
Taking measures to use some rust converter to get rid of any spots that may have appeared will go a long way toward making sure that you aren’t giving somebody a reason to bargain the price down.
It can be done at home without needing to pay a professional to take care of it. Unless of course the rust is widespread in which case you may wan tto bring it to an autobody professional.
2 – Repair dents and scratches
When your car has a small dent here and there you may be able to still get a fair price for your car. With a little help from some dent repair tools, you may be able to take care of the problem and not have to worry about what kind of offers you’ll get.
The same goes for scratches. Don’t leave them be and hope the buyer doesn’t notice. There are plenty of scratch repair kits on the market that are easy to use.
If your car is on the new side and it has a big dent then it probably makes sense to bring it to a shop to be repaired professionally. It should pay for itself in the price you get.
3 – Tidy it up
I don’t just mean to pick up any papers, receipts or cups that have accumulated in the car since you’ve had it. I mean a proper tidying up is in order. Your car should look and smell nice when somebody takes it for a ride.
The tyres should all be washed and coated with a sort of wax to make them look new. The interior should be vacuumed and shampooed and all of the windows should be completely free of any smudges or streaks.
