How to prepare your car for sale
Preparing your car
for selling
Exterior
Simply washing your car is a good start. If the engine is extremely greasy, you should consider going to a self-serve car wash and spraying the engine with a degreaser, then rinsing with a high pressure hose. Do not do this at home as the toxic waste from your engine can get washed down the storm drain. Most self-serve car washes are required to separate the oil before disposing of waste water. Be careful when you spray the engine so you don't damage it or knock any loose wires off. If your car has a distributor cap and rotor, make sure you cover them with a plastic bag so they don't get wet. You will have a tough time getting your car started if you get them wet.
Spend some time making sure you get the dirt off the whole car, the bumpers, fender wells, running boards, under running boards, grill, inside wheels, around door handles, gas filler door and all glass.
The easiest way to get your car looking clean is to take it to an automatic car wash. Splurge...get the full works with the triple wax job. Who knows, you might even decide to keep your car after you see it clean.
Once your car is clean, get out some rags and brushes and scrub and shine any trouble spots.
Body Work
The big question is how much body work and exterior should you do on your car. Unless the damage is really bad and will reduce the selling price by more than $1,000, you're probably better off to sell the car as is.
All cars get minor dents and scratches...buyers should expect it. One thing you should do is have the windshield replaced before selling if it is cracked. If the windshield has a small chip or two, you can have them repaired rather than replacing the whole windshield. Since most car insurance covers glass, it makes sense to use that coverage that you pay for anyway.
Interior
Let's face it, the interior of the car is probably more important than the exterior since that's the part you see closely when you're driving - however, the exterior is the first impression a potential buyer will get of your car.
The interior may be much harder to clean than the exterior, especially if you have small children. Start cleaning your car with a thorough removal of all trash, then a vacuum. The vacuums at self-service car washes are much better than most home vacs. Empty out all ashtrays/trash recepticles and clean out the glove box.
Next, get an old towel or wash cloth, get it moist and wipe out all drink holders and all those little nooks and cranies that your double mocha with whip cream spills into. Wipe dry with a clean towel.
I recommend you clean the carpet with a home carpet cleaner, available at grocery stores and equipment rental shops. If you have owned the car for a few years and haven't ever had the carpet cleaned, you'll be shocked at how much dirt comes out.
Finally, wash all windows and mirrors, inside and out with glass cleaner. Make sure you get the windshield around the spot where the rearview mirror attaches.
If the interior of your car smells for some reason, you might want to consider buying a half pound or so of fresh coffee beans. Grind the beans and leave them in an open tupperware container for a week. I recently bought a car that had an air freshener smell that bugged me...the coffee beans took care of the smell in no time.
If you smoked in the car, there isn't too much you can do about the smell. You can try to mask it with air freshener but it will be very obvious to most non-smokers. Make sure you take all ashtrays out of the car and soak them in a bucket of warm soapy water and then scrub any remaining ashes out.
Exterior
Simply washing your car is a good start. If the engine is extremely greasy, you should consider going to a self-serve car wash and spraying the engine with a degreaser, then rinsing with a high pressure hose. Do not do this at home as the toxic waste from your engine can get washed down the storm drain. Most self-serve car washes are required to separate the oil before disposing of waste water. Be careful when you spray the engine so you don't damage it or knock any loose wires off. If your car has a distributor cap and rotor, make sure you cover them with a plastic bag so they don't get wet. You will have a tough time getting your car started if you get them wet.
Spend some time making sure you get the dirt off the whole car, the bumpers, fender wells, running boards, under running boards, grill, inside wheels, around door handles, gas filler door and all glass.
The easiest way to get your car looking clean is to take it to an automatic car wash. Splurge...get the full works with the triple wax job. Who knows, you might even decide to keep your car after you see it clean.
Once your car is clean, get out some rags and brushes and scrub and shine any trouble spots.
Body Work
The big question is how much body work and exterior should you do on your car. Unless the damage is really bad and will reduce the selling price by more than $1,000, you're probably better off to sell the car as is.
All cars get minor dents and scratches...buyers should expect it. One thing you should do is have the windshield replaced before selling if it is cracked. If the windshield has a small chip or two, you can have them repaired rather than replacing the whole windshield. Since most car insurance covers glass, it makes sense to use that coverage that you pay for anyway.
Interior
Let's face it, the interior of the car is probably more important than the exterior since that's the part you see closely when you're driving - however, the exterior is the first impression a potential buyer will get of your car.
The interior may be much harder to clean than the exterior, especially if you have small children. Start cleaning your car with a thorough removal of all trash, then a vacuum. The vacuums at self-service car washes are much better than most home vacs. Empty out all ashtrays/trash recepticles and clean out the glove box.
Next, get an old towel or wash cloth, get it moist and wipe out all drink holders and all those little nooks and cranies that your double mocha with whip cream spills into. Wipe dry with a clean towel.
I recommend you clean the carpet with a home carpet cleaner, available at grocery stores and equipment rental shops. If you have owned the car for a few years and haven't ever had the carpet cleaned, you'll be shocked at how much dirt comes out.
Finally, wash all windows and mirrors, inside and out with glass cleaner. Make sure you get the windshield around the spot where the rearview mirror attaches.
If the interior of your car smells for some reason, you might want to consider buying a half pound or so of fresh coffee beans. Grind the beans and leave them in an open tupperware container for a week. I recently bought a car that had an air freshener smell that bugged me...the coffee beans took care of the smell in no time.
If you smoked in the car, there isn't too much you can do about the smell. You can try to mask it with air freshener but it will be very obvious to most non-smokers. Make sure you take all ashtrays out of the car and soak them in a bucket of warm soapy water and then scrub any remaining ashes out.
