You must find a realistic price to attract buyers. You can start by consulting a refernce buying guide eg Parkers Guide or What Car? and they should help you find the right asking price for your vehicle.
The following factors are taken into account:
Vehicle Make and Model
Condition
Mileage
Vehicle extra features
Number of Owners
Current Prices from Dealers and Traders.
2 .
Preparing Your Vehicle
Here's a few things worth remembering:
• Private buyers will scrutinize your vehicle so be prepared.
• Get a mechanics report to assess its true condition and fix anything you can yourself
• Your prospective buyers may bring an expert or know enough to glean a good assessment of your vehicle so honesty here pays.
Roadworthy and Legal Make sure that your vehicle runs fine and that everything works inside and out.
Paperwork Make sure it's all there and all legal.
Vehicle Exterior Wash car and wheels thoroughly. Polish Bodywork. Repairs small scratches and dents if possible. Polish all glass and headlights. Wax/Dress your vehicles tyres.
Vehicle Interior Vacuum interior and shampoo if necessary. Wash floot mats. Clean interior storage areas including glovebox etc. Check spare tyre, jack and any tools in boot. Clean boot.
Vehicle Engine Clean engine with a degresant and cloth. If steam cleaning, leave to expert. Check oil with dipstick and top up if needed. Check Transmission fluid and top up if needed. Check Power Steering Fluid and top up if needed. Check Brake fluid and top up if needed. Check Water/washer fluid and top up if needed.
3 .
Pricing Your Vehicle
To help you decide on your ‘asking price’, look at the following factors, these are crucial to determining your asking price.
• Make and Model - be exact as there’s price variation within models.
• Age - depreciation of course
• Condition - excellent, good, fair. Be honest.
• Mileage - Normal, above average or below average. Average is 12,000 a year.
• Extras - Things like metallic paint, alloy wheels, leather seats etc.
• Price - This varies with dealers, traders, part exchange and a private sale.
4 .
Factors which may affect asking price are:
• Service History - Full, some or none.
• Engine Size - economical or gas guzzler?
• Owners - in general, the fewer the better.
• Colour - certain colours will always remain popular.
• Existing problems - these may be mechanical, electrical or cosmetic.
5 .
Get your paperwork in order
The most important documents in selling your vehicle include
1. V5 Document.
2. Tax Disc.
3. MOT certificates (unless under 3 years old).
4. Stamped Service History.
5. Receipts, Bills and Reports as evidence of Maintainence.
Any additional documents, for example
if the vehicle was imported
if the vehicle was rebuilt
if the vehicle was modified
any changes to vehicle colour
should be presented to the prospective buyer.
Finally, if you really want to impress a buyer, you can always HPi the vehicle and include that report as well showing your vehicle is safe to buy.
