How far should you go?
▶ As I’ve mentioned before in these pages and elsewhere, the secret to successful car selling is ‘adding value’. This can be in terms of improving the car compared to its condition when purchased, or providing a more customer-focused purchasing environment with things like better inspection facilities and insured test-drives, neither of which are on offer at auction.
With the former, however, you do always need to keep in mind the bottom line, and while a professional trader will want a car to leave in as good a condition as possible, any improvement that costs money needs to take into account that the overall aim of trading is to sell for more than you pay, and every penny spent comes off the profit. In other words, out of your pocket.
Some things you should do. As a general guide, anything mechanical that a customer will need to pay out for immediately should be done before you sell. As well as being good practice professionally, this is sensible commercially. If, for example, the timing belt needs changing (and some fleets are actually extremely adept at timing disposal for just before something like this), a customer will expect the sale price to reflect that. In other words, they’ll expect what the change will cost them to be deducted from the price.
You, though, as a trader, will have more contacts than them, so can probably get it done for less. So do it, as effectively the cost to you is less. There’s an additional issue here; if they buy the car but don’t bother changing the belt, and three months later it breaks, whose door do you think they’ll be knocking on, and expect to pay for the repair?
I also usually put 12 months MOT on a car that’s being sold, unless it’s a real cheapy. Though a new MOT does NOT guarantee roadworthiness, customers like it. It also provides you with a fixed start-point, and evidence that certain safety standards were met at the time of test.
I’d also take a look at brake disc and pad condition, and if the pads are getting low, it’s probably better to pop a new set in now, even though technically brake pads are almost certainly a normal wear and tear/routine renewal issue.
But there’s absolutely no point in, for example, having a full service carried out now if it’s not actually due; that won’t make your car worth more by as much as it costs. Alloy wheel refurbishment is another area where care is needed; yes, nice wheels make a car look better, and on a £5-6000 car with profit margins to match, £200 to refurb a rough set of wheels might be worthwhile. But be sensible – are the wheels REALLY bad enough to justify £200 off your profit margin? And you should certainly think twice (at least) if it’s a £2-3000 car on which you’re only earning £500 anyway.
And finally, please don’t pay more for anything than you actually have to; if a discount is available or negotiable, take it! Every fiver saved is a fiver gained in extra profit, and over a year all those fivers soon mount up!