Car Repair: Tips for Selling Your Car

If you’re ready to sell your old car and upgrade to a new one you have probably already looked at the going rate for your particular car based on the Kelly Blue Book value. You’re probably also already aware that if you really want to get top dollar for your car, you may need to do some of those repairs that you put off doing before. While you may be willing to live with a cracked windshield or a faulty heater, those little car repairs left undone, can keep your car from selling in a very competitive and sluggish car market.

When you’re trying to decide what repair jobs you can skip and what ones you are absolutely going to have to get done, you should look at your car from the perspective of a potential buyer. If you own the car out right and you don’t want to put money into car repairs, the likely hood that a buyer will pay for the car and then put that money into repairs is even more minuet.

The first impression of you car will be cosmetic. You may not be able to repaint a car with a worn out paint job and repair every dent and scratch, but you can vacuum the car’s interior and shampoo the seats so they present nicely. Many consumers will judge the mechanical condition of a car based on the cosmetic condition of the car. After all if you can’t bother to pick up the trash and keep the interior clean, you probably didn’t bother to change the oil or rotate the tires either. Hopefully if you care about the appearance of your car it is a good indicator that you care about how it runs also.

Even if your not prepared to do the needed repairs yourself it’s a good idea to take the car to a mechanic for a once over. If you know what repairs your car will need down the road, it may be a selling point to potential buyers on a budget. You might also be surprised to discover that your car is in better condition than you originally thought. All of this information will come in handy when its time to show your car and the first question most buyers will ask is about the mechanical condition of the car.

So if you’re ready to sell your old car, make sure you know what car repairs need to be done and what they will cost so you can either do them yourself or calculate them into the selling price of the car.