One of the very first things that potential auction buyers of used and nearly new cars do is to check that prospective vehicle’s service history. So it is crucial that if you are considering selling your car through an auction – which can help it attract an even better price – that you offer as much of its history as possible.

Selling your car at auction is much like selling your house. You wouldn’t leave the kids’ toys and dirty dishes all over your house for potential buyers to see; you make your house as attractive as possible for when someone comes through the door. And the same goes for potential buyers of your car – you must make it look as attractive as possible. After all, it’s a crowded used car market out there and only the best cars sell for the right price in these kinds of market conditions. That’s great for the buyers who get the best choice of the best cars, but harder on the sellers who have the hard sell to do.

Selling your car with a full and up to date service history is arguably the very best way of getting the very best price for your car. If a buyer is convinced that you have not been too tight when it comes to keeping your car’s service history on track, then that’s half of the sales battle won.

If you have kept the service history in tip top condition, then make sure you shout about it when it comes to selling the car. Expensive service jobs like a cam belt change or a full set of fresh tyres are always important to buyers, as are other quite expensive consumable items like a full exhaust system, a set of brake discs and pads and a new clutch kit. A potential buyer will look at what has been done to a car and what needs to be done to keep it in good running order, and then work out how that potential outlay – or hopefully lack of outlay – will affect the price that they are willing to pay for your car.

A big stack of all of the old MOT certificates are also very useful to confirm that the car has indeed only covered the mileage that it is displaying on the dashboard, and hasn’t had its mileage wound back – a process called ‘clocking’. Clocked cars are all too common these days, so if you can prove that your car isn’t one of these potential money pits then all the better.

Other points of interest for potential buyers of used cars are an owner that’s very enthusiastic about their car – someone that cleans it themselves and even pops a nice shiny coat of wax on it from time to time. The more likely a seller is to do things like carefully detail their car once a week, the more likely they are to take care of it when it comes to servicing time as well. Stands to reason, really.

Finally, if you are having a little trouble selling your car initially, why not get it serviced with fresh oil and oil filter for example, just so you can shout about this recent service work when you refresh the car’s advert. The less time and money a potential buyer has to spend on keeping a next car in good order, the more likely they are to buy your car.