Tips for selling your used car

Selling your used car involves more than just putting an advertisement in the newspaper, a used-car portal or posting a notice in the nearest convenience store. If you want to get the best price for your used car, there are a few things you need to do.

Repair Or Replace Minor Items
Put yourself in the shoes of a prospective buyer. What minor items that are either broken or faulty would cause a few protests from a prospective buyer? If you are selling an expensive used car, the "investment" spent to replace such small items can be recovered a few times over through a better selling price. Apart from tightening up all rattling parts, some of the items that you should consider replacing or fixing are:

1.Cracked windscreen
2.Faulty radio/CD player
3.Broken headlights or signal lights
4.Cracked or torn upholstery
5.Plastic decorative strips
6.Windscreen wipers with rubber peeling off

Wash And Polish It
Many prospective buyers are impressed or turned off by a car's appearance. So give your used car a good wash and wax followed by a vacuum. If necessary, deodorise the inside of the car to get rid of any odour. Don't forget that the boot and the engine are infamous places for giving prospective buyers a few yelps. Clean the engine if necessary especially if leaking gaskets have left oil traces here and there. If necessary top up the brake fluid and water level in the battery so as not to give an impression of neglect.

Place Your Advertisement
There are many ways of advertising, a few of which are free. If you are not in a rush to sell, you can just display a "For Sale" sign on top ofthe car's roof (or wherever) with your phone number. Another way to advertise free is post a notice in the nearest convenience store. If you plan to advertise in the Classifieds of a newspaper or used-car portal, be sure to state the type, model, year, mileage, asking price, phone number, and best contact hours. Plus selling points should also be included such as "road tax valid for 10 months" or "turbo installed 3 months ago" or "driven only by lady". By listing your asking price, you can save much time by avoiding bargain hunters. Avoid gimmicks such as giving a vague price, for example, RM4X,000.

Be Prepared To Deal With Offers
Be mentally prepared that prospective buyers will try to slice off at least five to ten percent of your asking price; at the same time, many will also pretend to be shocked at minor faults in the car. Also, have the following documents ready to show to prospective buyers: car registration, service book, receipts of parts replaced or repaired.

Take down the prospective buyer's phone number if the offer price is below your asking price so that you can call him or her should you change your mind later. If a prospective buy wants to take the car for a spin, make sure you tag along. On rare instances, conmen have merely driven off with the sellers' cars! Finally, may the best price be yours.

/end

Published by Monsoon Books, Singapore. Sold in Malaysia at Kinokuniya, Popular Book Store, Borders and MPH nationwide. An e-book edition is also available. Please check out monsoonbooks.com.sg.

/end