Let’s say you have an extra vehicle or one you don’t need anymore. You hop online, search “sell my car,” and hope the first thing that pops up will work. You might get lucky and find the right buyer in one try, or you might end up with someone trying to scam you out of your vehicle. That’s why you should sell your car to a dealership that you can trust.
Here at Ruge’s Subaru, we buy and sell vehicles every day, so we have a tremendous amount of experience with it and make sure the process is as simple and hassle-free as possible. But even with all of our know-how, there are still some factors we cannot control that can make your life simpler. Here are five tips you should keep in mind to make selling your vehicle to us even easier for you.
1. Get an Estimate
The last thing you want when you bring a vehicle to us is to be surprised or blindsided by the offer we make you. To avoid that kind of surprise, use the convenient tools we have on our website to get an estimate for your vehicle. It only takes a few minutes, and it provides you with a realistic sense of what your car is worth. Remember to be honest about the information you provide, especially when it comes to the condition of your vehicle. Getting an estimate that doesn’t reflect the condition of your car isn’t much help for you.
Once you have this information, you should have a realistic sense of what your vehicle is worth before you bring it to us. That way, once we inspect your car and make you an offer for it, the numbers should be pretty close or even perfectly match. This means there are no surprises, and you can accept our offer knowing that it is fair and accurate for your vehicle. When someone tries to haggle for much more money than their car is worth, the selling process can drag on for a long time or even come to an unsatisfactory conclusion for everyone involved. This isn’t what we ever want when helping our customers.
2. Clean Your Car Inside and Out
When you bring your vehicle to us to sell, pretend it’s on a first date or at a job interview. You want it to look its best and make a great first impression. We can’t overstate this enough, and you’d be surprised how often people fail to consider this when selling us a vehicle. Give your car a good cleaning inside and out to ensure it looks as good as possible, because this can impact the offer we make for your vehicle. You don’t even have to exhaust yourself cleaning your vehicle. Going through a good car wash should be more than enough to make the exterior look its best.
The interior might take a bit more work, but it’s absolutely vital. Clean everything out of your car, especially garbage like fast food bags and wrappers, lost snacks from kids, and anything else. Look between and under the seats, and check your glove compartment and other storage, along with the trunk or rear of your vehicle. Be thorough and remove everything that doesn’t go with the car. This is also a great way to find phone chargers and other things you might forget. The last thing you want is to realize you left a wallet in your vehicle after selling it to us.
3. Make Sure You Have All of Your Paperwork
Arguably more important than giving your vehicle a good cleaning is ensuring you have all the paperwork you need for your vehicle. This includes documents that came with your car when it was sold as new, especially the owner’s manual. That can be easy to overlook, but it does make a difference, and we’ll look for it when inspecting your vehicle before making you an offer for it. You should also have service records for your car (you’ve been keeping those, right?) to show that it has been maintained properly, since that can have a tremendous impact on the value of your vehicle.
Most importantly, ensure you have your vehicle's registration and title so we can legally buy it from you. We can’t buy a car that you can’t prove you own. If you still have financing for your car, like an auto loan, that’s fine. Just make sure you have the financing paperwork showing the lender that has the title. We can buy your car even if you still owe money on it, but we need to have the right paperwork to make things quick and easy for you. You should also have a driver’s license or other photo ID since we need that information.
4. Choose a Dealership You Can Trust
So far, we’ve focused on bringing your vehicle to us because we want you to have a great experience when selling your car, and we know that we can provide that. If you choose to take your vehicle elsewhere, for any reason, please be sure to sell it to someone that you can trust to treat you well. Private buyers might offer you more money, but that opens you up to a lot of potential scams and other criminal risks. The last thing you want is to be attacked when you meet someone to sell your vehicle or scammed out of your ride. It’s always best to sell to a dealership you can trust to make things simple and handle everything. That is precisely what you will find with us here at Ruge’s Subaru.
5. Bring Your Vehicle, Ready to Sell
Finally, remember that when you bring your vehicle to us, we’ll inspect it and then make you an offer for your car right then and there. We are not looking to trick you in any way, which is why we are going to make you a fair offer to keep it simple for you. Some people expect the sales process to be a lot more drawn out, and can be surprised at how straightforward we make it. So when you bring your vehicle to us, it’s best if you are ready to sell it in the moment.
This is why we’ve mentioned all the previous tips, like cleaning it, having your paperwork together, and getting an estimate before bringing your vehicle to us. With this in mind, make sure you have a way to get home after selling us your vehicle. You might be surprised how often someone sells us a car and then has to wait for a friend to pick them up because they thought the process would be much more complicated than we make it. Of course, if you’re looking to buy a new or used vehicle, you can always use your current ride as a trade-in rather than selling it to us, and we’ll help you find something you’ll love driving.
We Make Selling Your Car Quick and Easy
Selling your vehicle doesn’t need to be a ton of work or a huge headache. It should never be an overwhelming hassle or open you up to being scammed by people who want to harm you. We’re here to make the process as simple and easy for you as possible, so you can focus on what matters most to you. If you still have questions about what to do before selling us your car, you can always call us, and we’ll be happy to help you with everything you need. We will also take care of all of the paperwork and other information you need after selling your car, keeping things simple throughout every step. No matter what you need, we’re here to help and make selling your car easy.