Getting your Car Ready to Sell
Amusing your Car

Before you start thinking about setting a price or advertising, your first step should be to make a complete assessment of your car. You need to make an inventory of both its selling points and its weak points.

Step 1
Using the forms on the next pages that we developed for you to use when evaluating a used car, put yourself in the position of the buyer and make a cold, detached assessment. See your car for what it really is. The purpose of this exercise is twofold:

First, it will give you an opportunity to look for those features that can be used as sales points. In other words, it will help you identify those features and aspects of the car that may appeal to potential buyers. Second, you should know your car's problems and shortcomings so that (1) you won't be surprised when a prospect points them out; and (2) you can make a decision as to whether or not you want to make a pre-sales investment in some repair and reconditioning work.

Step 2
As you can appreciate, one of the keys to successful selling is trust. And one way to establish that trust is to be able to present the potential buyer with a third-party assessment of your car's mechanical condition. What we suggest is that you use the Mechanic's Evaluation Checklist (see next page) that we introduced in "About Buying Used Cars" and have a mechanic go over the car, estimate the cost of the repairs, and then sign the evaluation sheet and attach his business card.