6 things to remember when selling your car
Selling your car can be a quick and easy process if you go about it the right way.
In order to ensure that you get the best possible price or profit for the sale of your vehicle, there are certain steps and processes to follow.
GumtreeSA suggests the following 6 things to keep in mind when selling your car:
- Brand
Owning a popular car with a high brand value is half the battle won. Moving a Japanese, German or Korean car from a mainstream brand is easy as values and popularity remain relatively high. Resale is harder if your car is a niche brand or model with lower sales volumes – one that has become notorious for poor build quality, high parts prices, shocking safety credentials or a very small dealer footprint.
- Body type
Practical vehicles – four-door hatches, sedans, crossovers and double cab bakkies – are most popular and therefore have a big market but “their prices are often streamlined due to saturation” says Head of Automotive for Gumtree SA, Jeff Osborne. Convertibles, coupes, sports cars and outright performance cars have a potentially smaller audience to appeal to in the used market but resale values often outstrip the mainstream choices.
- Engine
Large gas guzzlers are out, while small, eco-friendly petrol or diesel engines are very much in vogue. For buyers on a budget, it has everything to do with running costs.
- Gearbox
With increasing traffic congestion, automatic gearboxes are finding favour. Modern boxes are quick-shifting, often have a controllable sports setting, an optional manual function and keep the engine tuning at the speed where it optimally produces its power. It’s a win-win all-round!
- Accessories
Contrary to popular belief, the factory extras added onto a car when it was brand new mean little come resale time, especially if the accessory is of a very sophisticated electronic nature. The potential for expensive maintenance costs for these add-ons down the line is bigger. Broad-based ‘blue book’ used vehicle values are calculated purely by averages for that car in terms of sales volumes, popularity and stock availability. Those costly extras are not part of that calculation.
- Colour
In South Africa, white and silver are the easiest to resell. In Europe, the converse is true – darker colours are favoured over lighter ones. Buyer preference revolves around white, silver/grey, black/blue, red, and shades of yellow, brown and green.
Osborne says that Gumtree enables users to narrow their search very simply through a set of filters like a specific brand, model or colour. He adds that the site has both individual sellers and dealerships offering over 10 000 vehicles for sale.
Source: GumtreeSA