Preparing to Sell Your Old Car

It’s time to sell my old car. I’ve had it since Mar 2016 and it’s helped me get through a whole lot of adventures, from Big Bear to Santa Barbara and all around West Los Angeles. But now it’s time to pass it on.

I got a brand new Kia Soul (thanks Dad!), so I don’t need a second car and I certainly don’t need to pay for car insurance on a car I don’t really use anymore.

Anyway, I looked around for the Best Advice on How to Sell Your Old Car, and considering the pandemic changes some rules, I thought I’d share what I found.

Clean out Your Vehicle

Pull out all of your stuff in the glove compartment, arm rest, cup holder, ash tray, cubbies, dirt in the seats, trash, check the floors, the trunk, don’t forget your clickers for the garage.

Vacuum and detail as best you can. Wash the car and windows. Don’t forget to clean the inside of the windows, too.

Wax and buff, if you can.

Air it out and add air freshener.

If it’s really smelly add baking soda on the seat and carpet, leave it overnight and vacuum it the next day.

Condition your rubber trim with a silicone based cleaner if you want to get real detailed.

Consider spraying a light mist to clean off & degrease the engine. You’re not hiding anything, but the small little detail shows that you care.

Remember to clean the rims and tires too.

Fix Any Small Issues Yourself

Fixing dinks or scratches isn’t really worth it on an old car unless you can do it yourself and you know what you are doing. Mine is pretty solid in good condition, so I don’t even have to worry about it.

But you should be able to easily top off fluids if you have any bottles around or can spare $10-$15. Oil, transmission fluid, washer fluid, radiator fluid.

Replace any burnt out lights you can figure out how to get to. If you have to disconnect the battery, that’s pretty easy. But if you have to remove the battery, remember to dissolve any acid first. (AAA mechanic told me to make a solution of water with 2 tbsp baking soda in a water 16oz bottle.)

I didn’t know to do that, and chipped away acid with screwdriver and hammer. When I reconnected the battery my efforts had messed up the connection and my car kept losing power because it couldn’t charge right. I probably only needed to replace the connection, but I ended up replacing the battery and finding out later it was unnecessary. It’s all good now and a new battery, too.

Aftermarket Modifications

Some things (like anything under the hood) unless you really want to carry it over and keep it, they just come with the car “as-is” and you just need to let people know if you remember what you changed.

Other things like stereo upgrades, people might not necessarily care about, so if you leave it, don’t expect to get paid more for it. The value of it probably won’t mean as much to them as it did for you.

It’s best to keep the car as close to factory made as you can without spending too much – again, only if you know what you’re doing.

Living in California – Smog check

“If you’re selling your car, you must provide a valid certificate indicating that the car passes smog. These certificates become invalid 90 days after the test is completed. However, if your car was made prior to 1975 then it does not require smog to register, so, in short yes you probably will need to smog but again, it depends.”

https://instamotor.com/sell-car/smog/smog-your-car-before-selling-it-in-california

Well, I didn’t know that. That’s another unexpected expense.

Collect Any Extras

I have 3 keys to the car, so I’ll turn those over. If you have the owners manual and accessories that came with it, that’s good stuff to included with it as well.

Gather Important Documents

So in California I need to get a smog check, I’ll have to present that paperwork. Let the buyer know the smog is only good for 90 days after issued. If you just smog checked it within 90 days then you don’t have to do it

But also I need to have the pink state title of the car. If you got it from the DMV, it should have the Certificate of Title and and separate form attached to it which is “Release of Liability & Notice of Transfer”. Send that in within 5 days. If the buyer gets in a car accident or collects tickets or violations after they buy it from you, this is proof that you’re not responsible.

The Certificate of Title also doubles as a bill of sell because it has the name & address of both buyer and seller, the seller’s signature, VIN, make, model, year, sell date and price paid.

Provide service records and mention all the maintenance you put into the vehicle. Stay safe from identity theft, though, and black out any credit card info and anything you don’t want public that’s on your maintenance receipts.

If you happen to have any warranties left on the car, include that documentation too. Like I had a new transmission put in for Christmas and the mechanic said it had a 2-year warranty on the car, so I’ll include that.

Resources:

https://www.cars.com/articles/video-how-to-prep-your-car-to-sell-it-for-the-best-price-1420690173636/

https://www.cars.com/articles/what-affects-my-cars-value-1420680457955/

https://www.dmv.org/buy-sell/selling-your-car/selling-online.php