Motors Quickly prepping a car for sale, any tips?

I am quickly prepping my 2003 Mazda 6 for attempting to sell it over the weekend. (Meaning I don't want to mess with all the paperwork, so I'm going to sell it to our local Carmax, which usually pays higher than KBB trade-in value.)

KBB for trade in is about $12,125 and I owe 10,136, which leaves me with little more than $2,000 extra.

I'm hoping that by doing a quick cleaning and making it look all purdy the appraisers might be willing to bump that a little closer to $13 or $14. (I know $14 is reaching, but a man can dream, can't he?)

(They are selling a similar car for about $16k, so I'm hoping that might make it possible for me to get a little more for it.)

Private party sale is estimated around $14k, so I may try to do the whole private party sale thing, but I don't like the amount of paperwork and legal responsibility involved.

I don't have the time for a full leather conditioning and clay bar treatment, but I am planning on having the local car wash do their thing (includes basic vacuuming machine waxing, window washing, and towel-drying) but I'm also going to see if they will clean the engine compartment. I hear cleaning the engine compartment can actually increase the resale value of your car.

Are there any other nice tips to increasing the resale value?

 

make sure that there are no visible leaks what so ever..

 

Good tip. Shouldn't be a problem since the car is in great shape, but I'll do a thorough walk around just to be sure. (Maybe I'll lay down some paper-towels under the car for a few hours to see if anything is making it to the ground after I peek under the hood.)

It appears as though my car wash guys do not do the engine compartment cleaning, so I'll probably do that myself first, then have them clean it. If anyone has a 2003 Mazda 6s Manual that wouldn't mind taking a photo and highlighting the parts I need to cover, I'd be appreciative

(words like "distributor" are lost on this auto newbie)

 

Give the bodywork a good clean and polish - fill any chips in with a kit, and take any scratches off too.

Whatever you do, don't steam-clean the engine bay - that's the classic sign of trying to hide leaks and oil-spills.

Make sure the interior's clean, and make sure it smells nice (no dog-smell, cigarettes etc).

 

Unless you are buying a concours car

I would say

- wash > chamois > polish the outside
- hoover out the inside

And maybe buy a magic tree to get it smelling nice

 

Go to town on cleaning the glass, give the alloys a good clean and use some tyre sheen on all the outer sidewalls. Possibly some back to black on all exterior plastics (excluding door handles as most back to black products are a little greasy to the touch).

 

I think that's an exceptional circumstance to car-buying.

 

sounds like you have done your homework.

i do used car apprasials at work.

steaming the engine bay is not a bad thing. if you bring in a spotless car, inside and out, it shows you have taken care of it very well. make sure that the oil has been changed very recently, it indicates excellent maintenance.

usually we grade things like appearance, mechanical, and the such. if its an 03 i wouldnt expect anything mechanically to be wrong with it. matching tires with 75%+ tread are a good seller. maintenance records if you have any. if you have had it serviced at a dealer you can get a printout of all work performmed.

if you go out and get an oil change and a new state inspection sticker slapped on, it can mean up to $500 more in trade in value in some cases.

dress well also. if you are going to negotiate on price, you have a better change in a nice dress shirt and slacks than in jeans and a tshirt.

EDIT: does NM even have a state inspection?

 

Well, the appraisal came out to $12000 even...

When they did the Kelly Bluebook they didn't include the premium sound or cd changer which is why I think it wasn't closer to $12500.

Kind of a bummer, but still better than just giving the car back to the dealership. Thanks for the tips though guys!

 

Do you mean for emissions, or for the whole car?

Some counties (OneSeventeen's) do emissions inspections when registering or re-registering the vehicle, others (mine) don't.

I'm not aware of any county in this state that does a full vehicle inspection when selling a used vehicle.