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Preparing your Car for Sale
Experts reckon that just by cleaning your car, you can add £100s to its value; a day's effort will be time well spent, and it shouldn’t cost the earth.
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Outside
Your first step should be to clean off all the road grime, using a good-quality car shampoo. NEVER use washing-up liquid, as it actually helps promote rust, unlike car products, which keep it at bay. Work from the roof down, rinse off well, and dry with a chamois leather.
Now you need to deal with the details:
- Stone chips are unsightly, can rust if not attended to, and usually put buyers off. Repair them with a touch-up stick. These are not expensive and they can dramatically improve your car’s performance
- Wheels caked in brake dust look awful. On alloys, if it's particularly stubborn, buy an alloy wheel cleaner and treat them. If you've got wheel trims, consider replacing them - especially if they've been kerbed. Damaged alloys can be repaired too, but this is more expensive
- Missing trim or badges stand out like a sore thumb to used buyers, so buy replacements. Breaker's yards offer a cheap source of parts
- Clean less obvious parts such as sills, wheel arches and the inner panel of doors; this will impress buyers, and helps create a 'well looked-after' image
A good polish will create that 'new car' shine so many used buyers are looking for. Don't worry if paint residue appears on the cloth; this is just a layer of 'dead paint' you're removing - there'll still be plenty left on the car!
Inside
Cleaning the interior requires a little more hard work. Starting with the vacuum is always best - treat carpets, seats, dusty crevices and the dashboard itself.
- Use low-gloss cleaner on dashboards – don’t use household polish
- Clean the windows after the dashboard with a glass cleaner or damp chamois
- Replace any non-standard parts, such as racy gear knobs or alloy pedal covers. They won't impress buyers, who'll think your car has been thrashed. Standard is always best
- Holes, usually from mobile phone holders, can be filled in by specialists. They can also repair any damage to dashboards or door trims, and it doesn't cost the earth, either
- Avoid dousing the car in air freshener, unless you have smoked in it - in which case, buy an odour neutraliser. Spray the ashtray too, after giving it a good clean
Lift tatty old mats out; the clean carpets underneath will look much more attractive.
Mechanicals
Car buyers love looking under the bonnet, even if they haven't got a clue what they're looking for. You should therefore make sure they like what they see.
- Steam-cleaning is much-loved by car dealers, but can arouse suspicion; are you trying to hide oil leaks? By all means clean the engine bay, but don't go overboard. Don't bother with older cars, though, as steam-cleaners can sometimes damage fragile parts or connections
- Oil changes are cheap, and clean oil looks far better than sludgy treacle. Make sure the oil level is correct too
- Fill all water and coolant bottles up, maybe using a sweet-smelling windscreen washer?
- Tidy up generally; attach alarm wiring correctly, clean out leaves from air intakes, and generally make the engine bay appear cared-for
After making your car gleam, you'll be ready to word your car advert correctly.
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