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Put yourself in the shoes of a professional car dealer: Generate enough publicity and prepare a sales pitch. |
How to organise the successful sale of your car on the second hand market? Here are 10 tips on how to sell your car fast without losing too much money and without falling victim to a scam.
01/02/2007
1. Setting a competitive car sales price (and a minimum car sales price)
On the auto-i-dat website (in german) you can obtain a free evaluation of your vehicle. You will find the "Auto-i Eintauschpreis" ("Auto-i exchange price") and the minimum price for the model: "Preistoleranz Privat an Privat" ("Price tolerance for a private sale").
Another method consists on visiting the paying classified ad websites car4you.ch and autoscout24.ch and comparing your car with the second hand cars put on sale.
If you see a car similar to yours (same model, same year, similar mileage, similar options), choose a sales price slightly lower so as to have a competitive advantage.
Substract approximately 500.- francs from that sales price to get your minimum price (under which you will refuse to go).
You can also choose to sell your car at a fixed price. However you will have a bigger chance of selling your car if you accept to be flexible during the negociations.
2. Preparing the car for the sale
The car's appearance is very important for a sale.
Here is a list of the different jobs to do:
- Do the necessary small maintenance jobs.
- Top up all the fluids.
- Wash the exterior of the car: water, polish, wax. It has got to shine.
- Wash the interior of the car: vacuum, wipe the plastic surfaces with adapted cleaning products.
- Wash the tyres and rims.
- Wash all the surfaces made of glass, inside and out: windscreen, mirrors...
- Replace used bulbs and fuses.
3. Gathering all the car's documents and bills
Regroup all of the car's documents:
- The car's official documents:
The car's licence, the anti-pollution logbook, official modification permissions (tuning)...
- The bills:
Bills referencing oil changes (services and maintenance logbook), repair bills...
If you know that you got something repaired but have lost the bill just add a small hand-written note so as to give a complete assessment of the car's state.
- All the extra documents:
Warranties on parts or work done on the car that are still valid (Ex: Soundsystem, Battery...), TCS technical survey...
...and put them all together in a small folder or plastic sleeve.
In this way potential buyers will realise that the car is in good condition and that you really mean business.
4. Generating a sufficient amount of publicity
Define a strategy so as to be able to sell your car as quickly as possible.
The best stategy consists in an ad combination: Internet and newspapers.
For the Internet ads, we would of course recommend you start by creating a free ad on HappyAds.ch.
We would then advise you to create ads on quality free ad websites. There are a lot of them available.
In our opinion it isn't really worth it creating expensive ads on paying Internet websites with 50'000 cars on offer as visitors to those sites will have 49'999 chances of finding a different car to yours.
For your press ads, give priority to local newspapers.
If you are really in a hurry to sell your car, extend your publicity campaign to the big regional newspapers.
If your car doesn't sell, do not immediately put the price down. If the price corresponds to market prices try to extend your publicity coverage.
Do not forget to mention your car to people around you. Who knows with a bit of luck your neighbour could be interested.
5. Creating quality classified ads
The better quality the ads you create, the better chances you will have of selling your car.
As all the ads you will create will have approximately the same format we will explain how to create a free ad on HappyAds.ch. You will then be able to apply the same rules to other web or press ads:
- Title:
Your ad's title is very important as it can help buyers find your ad on Google. Always create a title with the make (Ex: VW), model (Ex: Golf) and spec (Ex: VR6 2.8). All together: "VW Golf VR6 2.8". On HappyAds.ch the make and model fields are compulsory but make sure to add the correct car spec. If you use our car ad homologation number creation system the correct make, model and spec will be added automatically.
- Photo(s):
Add at least one quality photograph of your car. On HappyAds.ch you can add 4 photographs maximum make the most of this opportunity. The size of the photos is free but they must be of a 4:3 format this is the same format as the old tv sets. If you don't have a digital camera you can take the photos with a traditional camera and ask for the photos to be transferred onto CD when you get them developed. If your photos are in paper format you can scan them (if you don't have a scanner you can send them to us).
- Technical Data:
Try to add as much technical data as possible. If you don't know enough about it ask someone to help you.
- State of the car:
When you add the state of the car (very good, good, average, bad) please try to be objective.
- Description:
The description should be used to sell the car, don't repeat the make and model or the options list (if this data is already present in the ad). Explain what you liked in the car. Give its advantages. Try to put yourself in the place of a buyer, what could convince someone to buy the car?
A few examples: "very economical car", "one single owner", "new MP3 player under warranty", "car always parked in a garage" ...
6. Showing the car off to potential buyers
When buyers phone be ready to answer their questions.
If they want to see the car set an appointment near to where the car is parked or if you are apprehensive set an appointment in a town center. If you are a woman inform your family and friends about what you are going to do or ask a friend to come with you.
If the buyer wants to go on a test drive check her/his driving licence.
Let the buyer drive but give the instructions on where to go.
Choose a town-countryside-motorway combination that gives a good idea of how the car feels.
During the testdrive talk about the car, emphasise its plus points. Make the most of your captive audience.
If the buyer is interested and wants you to hold the car accept a deposit but agree beforehand on a time limit for the deposit.
7. Having the car inspected by a mechanic
If the buyer is keen you can accept for the car to be checked by an independant expert for example by an expert from the TCS.
Agree beforehand on the sharing of the costs:
For example if the buyer pays for the car's examination the seller agrees to lower the sales price by the amount of work to be done or for half of the work to be done.
Another agreement could be that the seller pays for the car's inspection but does not lower the car's sale price.
8. Finding an agreement on the price
You have got your sales price and your minimum price (see part 1).
Unless the buyer asked for the car to be inspected and an agreement was reached (see part 7) do not easily accept to lower your sales price and never accept to go under your minimum price.
If the buyer points out a scratch on the paintwork explain that it is part of the normal wear and tear for cars of that age.
The more buyers you will meet the more confident you will become in dealing with this part of the transaction.
A good sales pitch will help you save money.
If you feel that your sale price is right for the market and that you are not in a hurry to sell stay firm, don't let the buyer dictate the terms of the transaction.
9. Finalising the sale
Ask for the payment to be made in cash.
If the customer really insists in paying by check don't transfer the ownership of the car until the check has cleared.
WARNING: If the payment seems in any way suspicious (For example: buyer sending a check for a higher value than the price asked) or if the buyer wants to pay through Western Union, there are 99,9% chances of it being a scam.
Once the transaction has been done both the seller and the buyer should keep a contract with the following elements: date, description of object sold, price, seller's handwritten signature, buyer's handwritten signature.
No special format is required for the contract, it can therefore be entirely handwritten. There are however standard contracts available for free on the Internet:
Model contract for the sale of a car
10. Cancelling the insurance contract
Once the vehicle's licence has been transferred to the new owner immediately send a registered letter to your insurance company asking for the contract to be cancelled.
The insurance company will have to pay back any surplus amount they received starting from the day you deposited your number plates.
Some insurance companies take up to 6 months to pay back the money they owe you so the sooner you start the process the quicker you will get your money back. |
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