Car Buying Advice

Choosing a car:
In this section

• Trading in
• How to sell a used car
• Get more for your old car
• Maximizing curb appeal

Next section:
  Financing

How to sell a used car

Selling it yourself means more effort & money

Selling your current vehicle on your own will get you a higher price than trading it in. You can always expect to get more than the wholesale price, and unless the vehicle is in big demand, buyers should expect to pay less than the retail price. But selling your car yourself takes a lot more work than just driving to the dealership for a trade-in. You’ll have to go through the hassle of advertising, taking phone calls, and showing the car.


Set a competitive price

You should have a good idea of what the retail and local asking prices are for your vehicle. If you checked to see what a local dealer would offer on a straight-up sale, you should have plenty of information to price your car reasonably. Remember, it’s always smart to price your vehicle just a little bit higher than what you are willing to take for it. That way, the buyer can negotiate for a slightly lower price and feel good about it. Don’t be greedy, though. You could scare off potential buyers who don’t think they have a chance to negotiate.


Advertise effectively

There are many ways to advertise your car. Some are more effective than others, and cost can vary from free to quite expensive. Don’t feel limited by the suggestions you see here. Use your imagination and go with what you think will work.

• Word of mouth is very effective. Tell your friends, relatives, colleagues, and anyone else you know that you have a car for sale. If your network of contacts is big enough, you might be surprised at how much interest you generate in your vehicle. And it’s free.
  
  
• Online classified ads are quickly becoming the most effective way to advertise cars. Cars.com, which operates in partnership with MSN Auto (autos.msn.com) and Kelley Blue Book, offers several ad packages ranging from $20 to $55. The lower price is for a two-week ad accompanied by a stock manufacturer photo of your model. To post photos of your personal vehicle, you need to upgrade to a 30-day ad for $40, but with free renewals. AutoTrader.com has ad packages that range from $25 to $75 (including photos of your own car), and will post your ad on several other Web sites, including AOL, Edmunds.com, Netscape, and Yahoo Autos.
  
  
• Daily newspaper ads can work but aren’t as effective as they used to be. Some newspapers will give you both a print and online ad for one price. Rates can run about $30 to $40 for a week or two, although some major metropolitan papers charge more.
  
  
• Ads in weekly shoppers and free newspapers can work, but they may have a lot of competition in attracting readers’ attention.
  
  
• There’s always the traditional way: Just put a “For Sale” sign in the window of your vehicle with your phone number and a few other details, such as model year and mileage.
  

Showing your car

Once you’ve placed your ads, make sure you keep your car’s specifications, mileage, and other particulars near your phone. Interested callers will want to come to see the vehicle, so have your schedule ready so you can set a day and time. That said, don’t be surprised if some callers never show up. No-shows are one of the frustrating aspects of selling your own car.

When you do show the car, answer all questions honestly. Be prepared to provide service receipts and to accompany the buyer on a test drive and to an independent mechanic.


The pre-purchase inspection

Just about any savvy buyer will want to have your car inspected by a mechanic before the sale takes place. If the buyer is a friend or relative, there should be little risk in allowing them to take the car for an inspection. If the potential buyer is a total stranger, however, you’ll probably want to drive the car to the shop yourself. It shouldn’t take more than an hour.


Know what paperwork you need to have with you

The paperwork requirements for selling a car vary from state to state. In some, transferring ownership of a vehicle to another person is as simple as entering the odometer reading, sale price, and your signature on the back of the certificate of title. In others, you must fill out official title-transfer forms. Contact your state’s DMV to see what you should do.

If there’s an outstanding loan on your car, you and the buyer will have to go to your lender and make sure the lender gets its money before you get what’s left. And a bill of sale is often required by the buyer for sales-tax purposes. You can buy a form at any office supply store.


Wrapping up the details

Buying a new vehicle is an exciting experience, but not getting the full value for your current car can leave a bad taste in your mouth. By knowing its true value, spending a little time making it look its best, and by sticking to your price during negotiations, you can get its full value, whether you trade it in or sell it yourself. And this will only add to your overall satisfaction with your newer vehicle.

Investing in selling Does it make sense to invest time and money in making a used car look really good? To find out, Consumer Reports started with a 1995 Subaru Legacy sedan. For five years and 92,000 miles the Legacy had been a family car—and showed it. Although well maintained, it looked a little shabby. The body had numerous superficial scratches. A small dent in the driver's door was painfully obvious every time you reached for the door handle. A dime-sized "star" marred the windshield. Inside, the carpets and upholstery were sound but dirty. A child safety seat had left a long rust-colored stain on a rear seat. Price guides and local classifieds gave us an inkling of what the car was worth. It looked like the retail price—what you would expect to pay from a dealer—was more than $10,500. But the wholesale price—what a dealer would pay—was closer to $5,000. Without making any improvements to the car, we took it to some dealers and asked what they'd buy it for. A Toyota dealer declined to make an offer. A multibrand dealer offered $5,500 without looking at the car. One Subaru dealer offered $6,000 after a lengthy inspection. A second Subaru dealer offered $6,700. Then we went to work. A windshield-repair specialist charged $50 to fix the windshield, shrinking the blemish to pinhead size. A mechanic put us in touch with a specialist in "paintless dent repair." This type of a service, which is sometimes franchised under such names as "Dent Doctor" or "DentPro," uses special tools to massage out small dents from the inside. Removing our door dent cost $50 and was a nearly flawless repair. We used a carpet-cleaning spray ($6) on the seats. It did a good job. We took the front floor mats to a carpet-cleaning service ($15). We cleaned the battery and terminals with diluted baking soda and sprayed the battery with a clear sealer we bought at an auto-parts store. Then we had a body shop buff and touch up the exterior. For $200 the car came out gleaming, with the remaining body scratches barely noticeable. After investing $321, the car looked better than it had in years. We took the Legacy to a couple more Subaru dealers. The first offer, $5,065, was the lowest yet. But the second post-spiff-up offer was better: $8,000. One clear lesson: It pays to shop around. That and our $321 investment increased what we could make by selling the Legacy by at least $1,300, and possibly as much as nearly $3,000. And it certainly felt better to show a car that was in apple-pie order.