Everyone loves the idea of selling your car privately for more money than the dealer offered. But many do not adequately weigh up the costs involved in achieving this higher price tag.
All too often, you could spend months trying to sell your vehicle privately, only to decide it’s too hard or taking too long, and return to the dealer to find out due to time taken and kilometres driven, their vehicle is now worth less money. Some that persist with selling their car privately incur so many unexpected costs, that the higher selling price does not result in more money in their pocket.
While selling your car privately can very often be a smart financial decision, it is important to have a proper understanding of the costs involved before investing too much time or money in selling your car privately.
While websites such as Carsales make the advertising aspect of selling your car much easier, there can be significant costs involved in getting your car into acceptable condition for sale.
Certificate of Roadworthy
Before advertising your vehicle as for sale, or even determining a selling price, it is highly recommended to take your vehicle to a mechanic and find out the costs to get a roadworthy certificate written out. In order to sell a vehicle to almost anyone other than a Licenced Motor Car Trader (LMCT), a registered vehicle in Victoria must have a current roadworthy certificate at the time of sale.
Depending on the age and kilometres of your vehicle, a roadworthy certificate can easily cost over $1000. The majority of vehicles could cost at least $500 to be in roadworthy certificate condition. A roadworthy check is not the same as a regular vehicle service, and can be much more expensive than your regular scheduled service.
The costs involved in receiving a roadworthy certificate for your car can be a nasty and unexpected cost for many trying to sell their vehicle. Just because you drive your vehicle every day without issue does not protect you from high roadworthy certificate costs. To further increase the costs of a roadworthy, a roadworthy certificate is only valid for 30 days. Those that do not sell your vehicle in the first month will be required to return your car to your mechanic to write out a new roadworthy certificate.
Just because a vehicle is in roadworthy condition, does not mean it is in a condition that customers will accept, especially with a higher price tag. Many of the potential buyers of your car will be very aware of any interior/exterior marks or damage and will often want them repaired. While buyers’ expectations will vary significantly depending on the person, damage to either the body or paint of a vehicle can be very expensive to fix.
Repairing damage to vehicle
Long scratches, dents, scrapes, hail damage and stone chips in the paint are very common (and often not the fault of the driver) while owning a vehicle. However these marks can significantly lower the value of your car, or result in hundreds of dollars in extra expenses to repair.
Many cars will also require a thorough cleaning or detail in order to look appealing to potential buyers and maximise the value of the car. A full detail can cost over $250 in most places.
Many of the people that use online purchasing services seem to take the view that in order to not get taken advantage of or “ripped off”, they need to receive more than what is being offered. It is rare to find a customer that is happy with the quality of the vehicle for the sale price listed.
Depending on the vehicle, this can often include the fixing of marks on the exterior or interior, or the payment of a full years registration. If none of these apply, many may want a discount on the listed price. Some customers will demand a combination of something being fixed/paid for, on top of a reduction in the price.
The inconveniences of selling your car privately
While these expenses can be a strong deterrent, a majority of the bad experiences had by people trying to sell their car privately are related to the sale of the car taking up their free time.
As the majority of vehicle purchasers cannot take time out of their workday to inspect a vehicle, the majority of potential buyers will want to look at the vehicle after hours or during the weekend. As many of these inspections are on short notice, it can be very difficult to plan your free time without interruptions or delays to plans made. Scheduling meetings for vehicle inspections, especially when the potential buyer then does not show up, is one of the main reasons many people prefer the much easier process of wholesaling their vehicle to a dealer.
Alongside the time requirements, dealing with potential buyers and their expectations can be an arduous task. Many of the customers who use services like Carsales can often be wildly unrealistic about what condition the vehicle should be in for what they are spending, especially if this is one of the first vehicles they are looking at.
A combination of scheduling inspections during your free time and the buyer’s unrealistic expectations can lead to many customers feeling they have had their time wasted multiple times throughout the sale process.
Ensuring your expectations of the time and monetary costs involved in selling your car privately are accurate will help you determine the value in selling the vehicle compared to wholesaling it.