How to Get Top Dollar For Your Car Whether Selling Private Party or Trading It In

Wondering how to get top dollar for your car? If you have a car to sell and want to get the most you can out of the sale, there are a few things you can do. Some of them might seem fairly obvious but they're all solid tips for making sure your used car makes the best impression on a buyer, whether you're selling it to a private party, trading it in, or selling it to a dealership.

1. Clean and detail your vehicle. Nobody wants to buy a car filled with fast food wrappers or with muddy floor mats. Do what you can to help your vehicle make a great first impression. Spend a little time cleaning the interior and making sure the exterior is grime-free.
2. Remove bumper stickers and any other personalized items. You want your vehicle to appeal to everyone and for any potential buyer to be able to see themselves driving your car. If their politics differ from yours and you have a tailgate covered in political messages, they're far more likely to walk away.
3. Gather up your paperwork. Make sure you have all the papers you need to complete the sale ready to go. Know where your title is located. If you have a loan on the vehicle it's probably at the bank. You'll want to make the transaction as smooth as possible whether you're selling private party or to a dealership.
4. Repair what you can. If your check engine light is on and it's a simple and cheap fix like adding a quart of oil go ahead and get those quick and easy repairs taken care of. A check engine light of squealing brakes are red flags to buyers but if the fix is cheap, it's worth the money and effort to make them go away.
5. But don't go overboard. If it's something a little more major, like you need four new tires or a major engine repair, the added value the repair will bring to your sale likely won't cover the repair bill. But do get an estimate on what the repairs will cost and be armed with that information and have the estimate available for any potential buyer when it comes time to negotiate. Even if you're trading your car into a dealer, knowing what the repairs will cost before they start deducting those repairs from the amount they're willing to give you on your trade-in is a wise move.
6. Know your car's value. Get a valuation from a trusted source like Kelly Blue Book or Edmunds. Be honest with yourself about the condition of your vehicle and be willing to price your car accordingly. And if a prospective buyer tries to get you to fill out an online form and pay for a vehicle report from a website you've never heard of - it's most likely a scam. They're either phishing for your financial information or trying to get you to pay for a report when they have no intention of buying your car.

There are also a few tips that are perhaps a little less obvious when it comes to selling your used car. Things you may not have thought of but that could end up saving you a whole lot of time, effort, and money in the long run.

Most of us don't have used cars to sell all that often so the process can be difficult and confusing to navigate.

To top that off, buying and selling a used car is a transaction that often requires the exchange of tens of thousands of dollars. So it's often a transaction targeted by scammers and thieves trying to con you out of your money.

So our biggest tip for selling your used car is to know your options for selling and make the right choice between selling private party and selling to a dealership.

The biggest advantage to selling private party is you'll likely get more money for your vehicle. Dealerships are buying your used car in order to resell it and make a profit. They offer you convenience and a safe and easy way to handle the transaction in exchange but if you're only goal is to get as much money out of your used car as you can, you'll want to sell private party.

That said, the dealership will make the transaction easy and save you a ton of time and money by allowing you to skip the lengthy process of a private party sale.

Add up the time and money you'll spend taking pictures of your car, creating and paying for an online ad, responding to calls, texts, and emails about your car, dealing with scammers, scheduling test drives, meeting with potential buyers, taking paperwork to the bank, and you will quickly realize the process is often more trouble than it's worth.

Selling to a dealership is often as easy as driving in and signing a few documents. You can be on your way with a check in hand in less than an hour.

Plus – and this is a big plus – if you're trading in and buying a new car from the dealership, there can be significant tax benefits to trading your car into the dealership.

In many states – including Utah – you'll pay sales tax on your new car purchase. And when you take 6.75% and multiply it by the cost of a new car, your sales tax bill can rapidly climb to thousands of dollars.

But you can lower that tax burden if you trade in your car. You are taxed on the total purchase price and if your trade-in lowers that purchase price, it also lowers your sales tax.

If you sell your car to a private party and then go buy a new car from a dealership, you'll completely miss out on that sales tax advantage.

So if you're buying a $50,000 car from a dealership and you already sold your used car to a private party you'd pay $3,375 in state and local sales tax here in St. George.

BUT! If you trade in your used car and the dealership gives you $30,000 for your used car, and you then only pay $20,000 for the new car after your trade-in discount is applied, you'll only pay $1,350 in sales tax. That's over $2,000 less you're paying in taxes!

So if you didn't make more than $2,000 more than the dealership offered you on your used car, you actually LOST money selling private party!

It can pay to do your research and invest a little time and effort into the process of selling your used car here in St. George, Utah, or anywhere else for that matter.

If you need help and want the quickest, easiest, and quite possibly the most profitable way to sell your used car, head down to any Stephen Wade dealership. We'll be happy to help you out and show you why You've Got It Made at Stephen Wade.