8 Great Ways to Get More Money for Your Used Car

Selling your used car in today's market should be a snap - I will reveal eight great ways to bump up the selling price on your car.

The Fast List - 8 great ways to increase your selling price.

1. Check against current market prices.
2. Re-paint your vehicle.
3. Repair minor annoyances.
4. Clean out the interior.
5. Get that "New car smell" or "Apple Pie" car scent.
6. Hire a professional car detailer to clean for you.
7. Sell the parts individually, then sell for scrap metal.
8. Don't sell to scrap metal haulers!

The Detailed List - here are the details on the points listed above:

Current Market Prices - you can find these in many places. Ebay offers an automobile section that covers the nation, Thrifty Nickel offers a free weekly magazine and Auto Trader offers the most comprehensive local listing of what is available. You can walk into any Publix or Kroger and see both of these on the magazine racks. Other market prices are listed on the actual vehicles themselves as neighbors and community members advertise their own cars/vans for sale.

If your vehicle has been smacked numerous times and has peeling, cracked, or flaky paint, then you might want to have someone professional re-paint the exterior. You should only consider this IF you have a very expensive vehicle or if your vehicle receives offers in the $100 or $500 range. Consider the age, too. If the car/van was born before you were, then consider the scrap metals dealer or a specialty market designed for that car/van. Used BMWs, for example, have to be in absolutely terrible shape to receive a bad offer - we're talking axles on blocks, broken-out windows, etc. Personally, I would only order a re-paint if taking the vehicle into a dealer or if I want to get rid of extensive outer wear that might include rust.

Repairing minor things that are annoying, such as a rubbing bumper or a small leak in the window sealing that has water jetting into the car during a rain storm is a good idea - most buyers purchase with the consumer's mindset and not with the investor's mindset. What I mean is this: Buyers often look for maximun convenience and they will pay thousands of dollars more for minor conveniences. Most buyers don't go for the barrel-scraper deals and bring along the pet mechanic in the family (brother, cousin, buddy, etc.) to help them inspect. So if you have a tap-tap-tap going on in the engine, have the car inspected so you can determine whether the nerve-wracking sound can be cheaply fixed. If not, try to sell and consider the scrap-metal dealers or consider selling the parts out individually.

Clean out the interior. If you open the car and it is filled with all of last week's Chinese take-out containers and a flood of crumbs sashays across the seats as you drive, nobody is going to offer you the top dollar for that car! Reserve a day off and head to a car cleaning station with a box of plastic bags and rubber gloves. Also bring along an apple box or two from your local Publix or Kroger to store the stuff you want to keep from the car. Then clean out all of the trash while sorting out the items you want to keep into the apple box(es). After that, start on the crumbs and small particles with a car vacuum. Then you can use wipes like Armor All for car interior surfaces. Take glass cleaner and clean off interior window surfaces. If the carpeting is really dirty, spray-on carpet cleaner (after testing it in a small hard-to-see area) to try to remove stains and dirt. The interior of a car is one of the biggest selling points - and you have to be ready to release the car ASAP - buyers don't want to wait a week for you to clean out the car. Also - cleaning out the inside of the car will allow you to inspect it for valuables, such as a misplaced $100 bill tucked away somewhere.

Get that "New car smell" or "Apple Pie" car scent. No car buyer ever wants to get a car that smells of kids - stale crumbs, aged spilt milk, wet dog, lost diapers... you get the idea. From personal experience, families with small children can sometimes offer for sale the nastiest cars ever. Seasoned real estate agents often advise sellers of expensive houses to add in pleasant scents, so you might want to consider doing so as well. New Car Smell is often found in the car care center at most large grocery stores.

Hire a professional car detailer to clean for you. Believe it or not, the best workers who work at the car washers are all recruited by local car dealers to clean and detail their inventory. All you have to do is go to one of the local car washing businesses and ask for one of their best cleaners. Each laborer you add decreases the time taken, but adds to the cost. You can expect to take up to two hours waiting if the station is busy. If you need the work done faster, offer $50 and you will have a clean car within the hour with one of the top people on the job. A professional car cleaner who is good at what he or she does often cleans surfaces that the owner will miss.

Sell the parts individually, then sell for scrap metal. If, at last gasp, you still cannot sell the car for more than a few hundred dollars, consider selling your car out by the individual part. A window might be worth $100-200 while the starter might sell for $150 to $300, depending on the model. All you have to do is go to a local parts dealer and see what their parts go for, then chop your price by a third or a half. You can offer your parts to a local shop, engine builder, car mechanic, or on the Ebay Stores market. Even the seats can go out the door. Also - if you want to sell the whole car, an auto repair shop that specializes in accident repair can sometimes offer you a much better price than a used car dealer seeking a trade-in. A car that literally had no front end garnered $500.

Don't sell to scrap metal haulers! If they're offering you $100 to haul away your used car, then they will be making $400 in profits. One of these people actually admitted this to the author. So weigh out your car in your head and calculate for .15 to .30 per pound in scrap metal pricing... a 1,500 lb. car can sell for $225 to $450 in scrap metal.

The above-listed tips have been taken from the author's personal experience with both buying and selling cars.

Source:
Amy Barnes (personal experience)