The 14 Step Guide to Selling Your Truck
Selling a truck can be a traumatic experience. Our vehicles tend to be the center of our everyday lives — it’s how we get to work every day or perform that work once we are there; it’s how we feed and entertain ourselves and our families; and it is, in many ways, an extension of ourselves and our personalities. Your truck is the way the world first sees you, so getting rid of it can be trying.
Despite this, there may come a time that you must consider getting a new ride. It may be that your current truck has grown unreliable, or that you wish for a model with a longer bed, more cab space, or better fuel economy. It may be that you have just grown bored and are looking for something new and exciting. Whatever your reasons may be, we have devised an outline for you to consult to make your truck-selling process painless.
14 Steps to Take When Selling Your Truck
1. Know the Market
It has been said that the first step to any worthwhile project is research. This is especially true for truck sales. If you live in an area where nearly everyone has a Ford F150, for example, not many people will take it seriously if you simply put a “For Sale” sign on yours and park it in your driveway. It is important to understand the demand for your truck in your area and the average price it sells for locally.
Online guides, such as Kelley Blue Book and Cars.com, can be useful for figuring out what your vehicle’s local worth is. Location can affect the price of a vehicle; a truck can be worth more than a thousand dollars in an area of high demand. Research can help to determine how you should sell your truck. The choice between selling your vehicle online, via a classified ad or directly to a dealer, can make a significant difference in the final selling price and the amount of time your vehicle is on the market.
2. Figure Out Your Truck’s Worth
A mistake many would-be sellers make is not knowing the true value of their truck. Pricing the truck too high would scare off potential buyers, while pricing the truck too low would not only steal money from the sale but would suggest flaws and condition issues with the vehicle that may not exist. A good first step toward selling a vehicle is having a trusted mechanic do a comprehensive check on the truck’s systems and structure. Having this done will make it easier to appraise the vehicle’s condition.
Once you know your truck’s condition, you can plug the information into various online calculators to determine your vehicle’s local worth. Among the best known are Kelley Blue Book, NADAGuides, and Autotrader.com.
3. Price Your Truck Competitively
Once you have your private seller truck’s worth, the next step is to determine if you will get a better deal selling to a dealership or trading in. Many of the websites listed above offer instant cash or dealership offers. Another option is to take your truck to a local dealership and have them inform you of their trade-in offer. Should you choose this option, be clear to the dealership that you are only considering options at this time and are not interested in making a deal right then.
Typically, trade-ins will draw less value, according to Consumer Reports, than selling privately. However, the selling process for a trade-in is quicker and simpler than what it would be if you sold it yourself and, for most states, the value of the trade-in can be deducted from a new car price for the sake of determining sales tax.
4. Gather Up the Paperwork
Regardless of whether you choose to sell privately or trade-in, it is important to gather all of the vehicle’s documentation. This includes the original window sticker (if you still have it), the original sales documents, the vehicle manuals, the vehicle’s maintenance receipts or a statement of service visits from your regular mechanic or dealership, and any documentation for after-market upgrades you added to the vehicle.
Additionally, security and key codes, if applicable, should be included in the documents. Having this available not only shows the potential buyer that you took good care of your truck, but it also helps to provide specifications for the truck’s features, which can up the resale value.
5. Improve Your Truck’s “Curb Appeal”
This would be the time to make improvements to the truck that will increase the vehicle’s resale value. This includes fixing cracks and chips on the windshield, replacing your headlights and taillights’ lenses and bulbs, checking the brakes, and removing dents and scratches. Additionally, the tires should be checked for poor for uneven tread. Then the vehicle should be washed and detailed — inside and out — and cleared of any debris. If you have after-market parts installed you do not wish to sell, this would be the time to replace them with the original manufacturer-provided equipment.
A few hundred dollars in repairs can potentially add thousands to the resale value. However, as dealers can usually do body work at a price lower than can be managed in the private market, you should avoid the trap of committing to major repairs; they are unlikely to be profitable in a resale situation.
6. Adding to Your Truck’s Resale Value
Adding extras to your truck now will help to improve its attractiveness to sellers. One option is to install back-up cameras. Besides a rear camera — which can help with parking situations — you can also add front and side cameras that would greatly improve visibility for larger rigs. A great place to find such gear is Camera-source.com, one of the largest suppliers of backup cameras.
Other options include an after-market security system, upgraded speakers, and a new in-dash stereo. These features can help to make an older vehicle feel newer.
7. Choose Where to Advertise Your Truck
Knowing where to advertise your truck can make all the difference in the success of your sale. For example, you can post your ad at eBay Motors, where you can either opt for an auction-like or a fixed-price sale. Cars.com allows for comparison of up to four offers, whileAutotrader.com can utilize television and radio campaigns to sell your vehicle at no additional cost to you. Craigslist lets you post ads for free, Kelley Blue Book does instant offers, and Beepi offers inspections to get accurate pricing for the vehicles posted on its website and promises to buy the car at the price they quote if it doesn’t sell in 30 days.
The choice between picking one of these services or choosing to use a print ad can be the most important choice you make, as it will affect the caliber and number of potential buyers you will see. It is important to take care in making this choice and not to rush.
See the rest of our 14 tips on the Camera Source blog here: The 14 Step Guide to Selling Your Truck