How to Sell a Car to a Dealership: 5 Tips to Maximize Your Profit
How to Sell a Car to a Dealership: 5 Tips to Maximize Your Profit
Posted on August 11, 2023
We all know the basics of selling a car to a dealership. Clean it, tidy up the bodywork, and make it look as presentable as possible. But that’s only a part of what you can do to either increase the offer or make it more likely to get such an offer.
We asked our auto loans team to find a few insider tricks that can be used when selling a car to a dealership. This is what they came up with.
Depersonalize the Car
Depersonalizing means removing any trace of you as the former owner. The intent is to make the car look as saleable as possible right away so future buyer can look at it and immediately imagine themselves driving it rather than the previous owner.
Depersonalizing means removing bumper stickers, furry dice and any customizations or accessories you added during your time with it.
Return the car to stock condition and a dealer is much more likely to buy it.
Separate Emotions When Selling Your Car
Now you have removed any physical reminder of you as the previous owner, you now need to remove yourself psychologically as the previous owner in order to value it accurately.
We all get emotionally attached to our cars, which can color our opinion of their condition and value. Removing yourself from the equation makes it much easier to set a realistic value and accept a realistic offer.
Don’t Negotiate Over Email
When you sell your car to a dealership, most of the work will be done in the dealership. We want a quick deal as much as you so will do everything we can to make the offer and get it signed and sealed quickly.
Some dealers won’t do the deal there and then but will continue over email. Don’t buy into this as it generally doesn’t go well. People are braver over email and don’t always deal fairly, so try to get the deal done while you’re sitting face to face.
Don't Get Worked up Over Mileage
If you drive a high mileage car, don’t automatically assume it isn’t worth anything or won’t be sellable, as it isn’t true. Some cars can do a quarter million kilometers without breaking a sweat, while others can barely make 100,000.
Know your car and know its capabilities so you don’t get sold short.
Give The Dealer Little Work to do For The Best Offer
The main reason a dealer cannot pay the market rate is that reconditioning a car ready for resale costs time and money. The closer you can get the car to that level, the more the dealer can afford to offer.
Fix broken bulbs and cracked lights, make sure tires are in good condition, repair dents and scratches, and do what you can to improve the condition of your car without spending too much money.
Even if it doesn’t improve the offer, it should improve the likelihood of getting one.