If your plan is to purchase a brand new ride, you can’t go wrong with selling your old wheels to raise some of the money with which to buy it with. There was a time, a few decades back, when the appropriate place to get cash for your car was either in the classified section of the newspaper, or the Buy Sell and Exchange paper.
Of course, as we all know, the internet puts paid to that practice. People still advertise their used cars in papers, but they are fools. However, the fact that online selling is now the norm, and in general selling online is more likely to lead to success, that doesn’t guarantee that one will have less trouble selling there than they would have if they had done it old school, leaving the vehicle on the lawn with the price scrawled on A3 paper, sellotaped to the inside of the rear window.
If you are one of the poor souls who want to sell your car for cash, but have more trouble in the new digital environment than you used to in RL, here are some handy hints dealing with the key areas you need to be aware of when thinking to yourself “I am going to sell my car online”. Those areas are: good vehicle description, correct picture taking practice for great photos of the vehicle, and how to go about researching the value of automobiles of a similar make and model.
What lifestyle or target demographic was your car built with in mind? If it’s a family car, you can use words that emphasize how handy it is for families. If it’s a sports car, you can talk using language that will appeal to middle aged men experiencing mid-life crisis.
Have all the records pertaining to maintenance history at hand, as it will show that the vehicle has been well maintained, which is what you’d want from a car that you were about to buy because it would be less likely to have problems.
Brag about any and all upgrades that you have, like an expensive stereo with deep sub woofers, and parts that have been replaced with high grade versions of themselves. New tyres, new battery, new anything, talk about all of it.
Not taking any pictures at all is inexcusable in this day and age. Digital cameras have been ubiquitous for over a decade now, thanks to cell phone technology, and with modern day smart phones they’re better than ever.
Make sure the vehicle is in a clean and tidy environment with no people or distracting objects like children’s toys or garden tools lying about. People are partial to shallow aesthetics, whether they admit to it or not, so it is important to make everything clean and tidy.
This also pertains to the vehicle itself. Wash it well. Wash it until you have sore arms. Or take it to the car wash, whichever suits you.
Take the photo in broad daylight and in a spot that isn’t crowded with shadow throwing objects that will visually clutter the image.
Google the make and model of your vehicle with your county and any other words you can think of, like sell, used, value, car for sale, etc. We are currently in the age of the information highway, so this will be the easiest step. Good luck!
