When selling a car, you want the cheapest, most efficient process. You want genuine buyers coming over to check out the car and taking it away. The reality is that the process can be quite frustrating, so you need to go through certain steps in a fairly comprehensive way in order to ensure you get the best chance of selling your car the way you want it sold.
In this article, we will take a look at how you can prepare to sell your car, write the advert, and complete everything you need to complete, and meet the buyer.
One of the first decisions you need to make is whether you want to trade your car in for another car or sell privately. Selling privately will make you a little extra money, and will nearly always take a fair bit more time. When selling privately, you will need to take some time to get the car clean, have meetings, and do test drives.
If it’s a good car, well-priced, you may have a fairly smooth process. If you aren’t willing to go through the process, then a trade sale will be much easier. All you have to do is set a price that you agree with the trader and then hand over the keys. You need to make the decision as to whether it’s worth the time for a bit of extra money.
Getting Ready to Sell Privately
If you’ve decided that you want to sell privately, then there are some things that you need to do and it’ll take some work.
People aren’t going to buy a car if it’s smelly, dirty or doesn’t look well-kept. You can either take the car for a valet or do the job yourself. Take a look at the areas that don’t always get attention, such as the engine bay, boot, door and bonnet opening areas. Have a good vacuum and clean up the dashboard and other hard surfaces of the car. Work on the chrome of the wheels and any other areas of the car, and clean the windows inside, as well as out.
Make sure that all the engine fluids are topped up, including the window washers, radiators, power steering and automatic transition. Pump up the tires and get them to the correct pressure. If you have time, and it is worth the effort, do an oil change as well, so that you know you’ve done all you can to get the car going to the new owner in great condition.
Get all the receipts together for the work you’ve done over the years so that you’ll have a clear history for the car. Make sure all payments are up-to-date for the car and get a notice of disposable form from the NZTA transaction centre. You can also get these forms from VTNZ, VINZ or any local post office.
Writing Advert That Sells, and Tells the Story
You need to be honest and transparent in the adverts you write about cars. If you say that the car is in superb condition, then that’s what people will expect when they come to view the car.
It’s one thing getting people to come and view the car, it’s another to have people drive away happy with their purchase. In addition, if you overplay the state of the car, then the buyer may wonder if there is anything else that you haven’t told them.
There are certain important things that you need to include when it comes to your car, with mileage being one of the key ones. You need to include the mileage, as it’s something that people would want to see. If you want to sell your car with high mileage, and it has genuinely been well cared for, then communicate this clearly and downplay the mileage, but make sure people are aware before they come.
Don’t use too many abbreviations in your adverts, as people may well be searching for full words, and will, therefore, expect to see them and you may filter out your car from certain searches.
When pricing your car, take a look at what similar cars are going for in your area. If you make the price too high, no one will be interested, if you make it too low, you might as well have gone to a dealer and done a trade-in.
Bear in mind that you won’t be the only person that thinks your car was worth more than it actually is, so get a realistic view of the market before putting the price on the car.
A Checklist to Help You Advertise
When selling, you need to have the following information.
- The price you are selling the car for
- The mileage of the car
- The make and model of the car
- The digital photos you have taken of your car
- Registration, expiry date and the engine number
- A notice of the disposable form
- And in most cases, a credit card in order to make the sale of the car through a car advert online.
Appointments and Meeting Buyers
When you are actually selling the car, you need to use some common sense. If you are taking the buyer on a test drive, then you need to know whether your insurance or their insurance will cover them on the test drive. Plan out a route that they can take so they can test the car through the different types of road, and come back easily.
You may want to go with them in the car to point out any features, such as the indicators, air-conditioning and so forth. Make sure that you see their licenses before they move into the car to drive it, as you need to make sure everything is legit.
It’s always a good idea for there to be a third-party inspection of a car during a sales process, so if they ask for that, then it’s a good buying signal, and if they are willing to pay for it, then it’s an excellent idea.
If they choose to buy and haven’t got all the cash on them, then set a fair deposit price and make sure you have all the money before you release the vehicle. Write them a receipt for any deposit, or the full amount if you have taken it, with the receipt including details for both buyer and seller, names, addresses and signatures, the details of the car, what all the payments were for, the mileage of the car and the date of the transaction.
Add your details to the notice of disposal forms and complete the online process. The buyer will get in touch with the NZTA to do a notice of acquisition online or by post. If they are doing a bank transfer to make the payment, make sure you have checked that the funds have arrived before you release the vehicle.
If you’ve never sold a car, it can be quite a stressful process. But if you follow the steps above, it’s likely to go smoothly.
