The process of selling a used car is a lengthy and stressful affair. Most of the people want to avoid the hassles of selling a car on their own. Regardless of the method that you follow to sell your car, it is important to know the true worth of your vehicle before you enter into any negotiations over its price. Undervaluing your car would mean you are losing some cash while overvaluing can make it tough for you to sell the vehicle.
Understand car values:
Apparently, there are three different values that you can get for your used car.
- Trade-in price: Trade-in price, sometimes called the wholesale price, is usually the lowest amount you could be offered for the vehicle. This is the value that you will get when you trade in your used car at a dealership. Since dealerships have more knowledge and experience of buying and selling vehicles, they will always outsmart you unless you are a car expert.
- Private party value: This is the value that individual buyers and sellers negotiate. It is often more than what a dealership offers, but it involves extra efforts.
- Retail price: The retail value is the value that dealers hope to get when they sell your car to the buyer. This value can be higher than the trade-in or the private party value.
Why is it important to know the value of your car?
Knowing the worth of your vehicle not only provides you with an expected price, but it also gives you some edge in negotiations. This is because you already know the market value of the vehicle. If you have determined the value of your car, you can be patient and wait for the right deal without losing any money.
Knowing the value of your car is important even if you are not selling it. Your car is an asset, and if you have an emergency, you already know how much money you should get when selling off this asset. The market values for cars are constantly fluctuating. But, there are a few methods that you can use to know the worth of your vehicle at any point.
Check out dealerships:
You can get a rough idea about your car’s value by contacting local dealers. Take a look at their prices and see how much similar cars are being sold for. Even if a dealer doesn’t have the same model in stock, they have access to a massive database of vehicles. This is where you can find prices for identical vehicles.
You can also get an estimate price from the dealer in case you are to trade in your car. Dealers often sell vehicles to private sellers for more money as they offer maintenance and warranties. So, if you’re using dealer valuation to find the value of your car, you may not actually get the price which the dealer is listing.
Research similar cars:
Another way to find the worth of your car is by performing an online search. Check websites like eBay Motors and Craigslist auto to see the prices of similar vehicles. The completed listings section of different websites are resources to find numerous vehicles. Based on these you can determine the value of your car.
However, it is important to search for cars whose model and condition are virtually identical to yours. This tells you what people are willing to pay for similar cars in the market. After determining the worth of your vehicle, you are almost ready to sell it for the desired price.
Evaluate your car on major sites
The easiest way to find out the true value of your vehicle is by using the online car valuation services which claim that we buy any car. For this, you can refer to the Kelley Blue Book, Edmunds, or WeBuyCarsToday.
A number of car valuation websites have been designed that offer free car valuations by leveraging the unlimited power of the internet. These websites take into account the make, model, mileage, and certain other factors to give you the worth of your car. Most of these websites require information about the car owner and the vehicle in question to determine your car’s worth.
With the services offered by these websites, the knowledge of car valuation is no more limited to the industry insiders alone. These online services help car sellers avoid the lengthy analysis of dealers who often come up with unfair prices.
Kelley, for example, calculates the value of a car based on its initial price, the market conditions, and a number of other factors. However, they don’t analyse all used car sales. This means that the KBB value may have a close resemblance to what you might pay at a car dealership for a used car.
WeBuyCarsToday, on the other hand, provides free and instant car valuations. The process requires you to enter your car’s registration number and information about the owner of the vehicle. It also requires car’s mileage, postal code, and your email address to provide you a free online valuation of your car. All the data remains secure as privacy is given a high priority.
Factors affecting the value of your car:
Various factors affect the worth of your car. The most obvious of them is the condition of the vehicle. Wear and tear, scratches and minor damages can reduce the value of a vehicle by hundreds. Keep the receipts from the car services. This is because a full service history shows that the car is taken care of and regularly checked by professionals.
Any modifications to a vehicle will also have an impact on the car’s worth. Most buyers want cars that are unmodified because of the insurance implications of modified cars.
Besides, minor factors like the colour, sales venue and season can also affect the value of a vehicle. Make sure you take all these factors into account before calculating the value of your vehicle.
Michelle Joe
Michelle Joe is a blogger by choice. She loves to discover the world around her. She likes to share her discoveries, experiences, and express herself through her blogs. You can find her on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook