How to value my vehicle before reselling it?

Selling your car well also means presenting it in its best light. To enhance your vehicle without ruining yourself, there is a very simple concept: car staging.

It’s a fact: when you buy a new car, as soon as it leaves the dealership, it has already lost 15 to 20% of its residual value! So, to avoid losing too much money when you resell your vehicle, make sure it looks its best. How do you do that? It’s quite simple! Put yourself in the shoes of a buyer and ask yourself if you would buy a poorly maintained, dirty, scratched, and dented vehicle? Of course not! However, if the maintenance of a vehicle is done over time, by scrupulously following the manufacturer’s recommendations, its interior and exterior aesthetic condition depends entirely on you. And there is no need to spend a lot of money for that.

 

Minimal but essential investments

Inside, the poor condition of the seats and plastics, or even a stubborn smell of tobacco, can considerably depreciate the value of a used car. Vacuum cleaners and plastic renovators are indispensable allies. If your seats and carpets have suffered a bit from the ravages of time, don’t hesitate to invest in covers. This is a simple notion of perceived quality, which is much more positive than damaged seats or carpets with holes! For tobacco odors, there’s also an effective, low-cost grandmother’s recipe: sprinkle baking soda on the fabric parts of the interior, let it sit for half an hour, then vacuum it up. Then spray a mixture of water and essential oils to sanitize the air.

On the outside, beyond the wash, some minor body damage can play spoilsport. Shallow scratches can be reduced with a little elbow grease for buffing and a good polish, but dents sometimes require the intervention of a specialist. Just know that it is not necessary to have your entire bodywork redone. A spot repair will do the trick, and, for about a hundred euros, your body will be as good as new! This will increase your chances of selling your vehicle without too much negotiation, and at a lower cost. Especially since 300 euros spent on detailing can increase the value of your vehicle by 900 euros!