More and more people want a new car, or at least something newer than the one they already drive. But this requires money, money that can be obtained if we sell our current car. 

How much money does our car worth?

Surely we want to obtain a very good price for our car! Okay, but how much could I earn for my car?

To sell a car with the best price, you have to ask yourself a few things. If you look at the online ads for used vehicles, you may find the same car as yours, with the same engine, identical year of manufacture, and similar equipment, at extremely different prices: even with differences of many thousands of dollars between them.

But what is the difference between a 3500 $ car and a 6000  $ car, apparently identical? Where does my car fit in?

The first impression of the car

The first impression of the car sells best. Not so much the pictures in the ad, where all the cars look like new, but in reality, where is different. In vain do you have magazine pictures on a car if the client comes and finds it full of scratches and bends.

The condition of a car as a whole, on the exterior, matters most. What I am referring to is that it should not have scratches, blows, bends, exfoliations of the paint, traces of rust, cracked windscreen, frosted headlights, scratched rims, etc. If overall the car transmits a clean and neat image, our price will be closer to our goal, as we found on the market the upper price threshold.

How maintained is the car interior?

The same is true for the interior. If we have the driver’s seat worn, the leather on the steering wheel is worn, the gear shifter dull, the upholstery is full of stains, dirty mats, the ceiling dirty, if it smells like mold or if we see broken ornaments, door faces loosen, extremely worn buttons and armrest, and so on. far, we have to lower our car price.

Under what condition is the engine of the car? Does it work smooth?

When you lift the hood, some customers want to see everything dry, no leaks, no traces of oil, no dirt and no wet containers. On the other side, some customers want to see a dirty engine, full of dust, because that is the best way to see if the engine has any leaks.

Check the battery, it must not have traces of acid leakage, the expansion vessel must be clean with transparent coolant and so on. If the engine is a clean one, the future buyer might expect that the engine could have hidden problems. But it also means that it works well and that the owner has taken care of it.

Engine sound at idle should be: smooth, round, without shaking, without vibration. If your engine looks and works exactly that way, then you should raise the price a bit.

Do I lie or am I honest about my car?

Unfortunately, most used car dealers and car sellers around the world are not sincere. I mean some of them lie regarding several aspects of the car. They could lie about the last revision, that they barely changed the timing etc. When in fact, if you check it in a specialized service, you find out that it is full of faults.

So, before you put a car for sale you have to choose which way to take it: do I lie that I have a car with some non-existent qualities or am I honest? If I lie, I can get a better price for my car, as long as I don’t try to sell my car to someone who knows a little bit about cars. But I also could brake the law and have problems.

And if I’m being honest, I might run out of buyers. It is the same with accidents: to say or not that the car was hit and repaired? Maybe not, you could break the law for sure and get into bigger problems.

Ideally, if you are an honest person, and the car does not have big problems, it will surely sell better. If you start to think about what to be honest and what not to be honest about, the price will already drop. People are no longer naive and can always come up with a specialist who will understand any lie.

In conclusion, it is not a good idea to be insincere about your car, you could start at a higher price initially, but expect it to drop.

What special features does my car have?

To set the best price for your car, you have to do a market study: what equipment has the most expensive similar car? But the cheapest one? Then you know the price range for your car. For example, from the beginning, if you do not have air conditioning in the car, set the lowest possible price, because today nobody buys a car without the AC system. Special features include alloy wheels, automatic climate, leather upholstery or xenon headlights. If you have these, you can aim for the upper price threshold.

Diesel engines vs petrol, hybrid or electric engine?

The price of diesel cars has dropped dramatically in recent years in the used market. Because it is a problematic engine, which most do not know how to take care of, with an expensive particulate filter that needs replacing, but also there are many engines with a bad reputation, many cities want to prohibit the access of diesel cars. Even though many still want this engine, diesel engines lost ground to the advantage of those on petrol and LPG, hybrid and electric. So, if your engine is diesel, that doesn’t mean it’s more desirable, as it once was, hybrid and electric cars gained ground pretty fast, so it is better to have this in mind.

What reduces the price of my car?

Errors on board. If you want to sell a car make sure there is no error code on the board, otherwise you will stay with the car for a long time. As well as if you have worn tires, problems with joints and beats that are heard while driving, engine leaks, steering wheel shaking at high speeds or braking, stains on the upholstery.

All of these things will make most clients leave or negotiate a ridiculous price. So, either you fix them or you start from the beginning with the idea that you will get little money for your car.

What increases the price of a used car?

The automatic transmission is an increasingly sought-after feature because drivers have acquired the taste of the advantages it offers. As well as a clean and tidy exterior, lack of interior wear, a service book with history, leather upholstery, another set of winter tires, etc. There are several advantages that you can use to get a better price.

In the end, it all comes down to one thing: to get a fair price for your car. In vain you ask for a certain amount of money on the car if there are still similar cars on the market. A price requested by someone does not mean that it is the sale price. If someone asks for a car the price of 10,000 $ it doesn’t mean that the car worth that much.

The correct and real price is the one with which it is sold. And to get to it you have to think about exactly what you are selling, but also how much you want to wait to get that sum.

If you do not rush to sell your car, you can try with a price resulting from an average made between the above categories: if your car is good from all points of view, you will ask the maximum price, if it has a lot of faults, then you will have to drop the price accordingly. At least that’s how you got a starting point. Then, one week after your ad is on the net, you could drop the price with 100-200$ and so on until the customers call you.

This a sign that you have come to a price for your car closer to reality. The market is oversaturated by offers, so if you want to get rid of your car better do it by using your head.