You may remember how much you paid for your car years ago – even if you can’t remember the exact year – but how much can you hope to sell it for today?
Hopefully by the time you finish reading this article, you will have a pretty good idea.
The easiest way to figure out what your car is worth is to pretend you’re buying the same car. Go to online classifieds sites and just search for your car. You’ll get a rough idea of the value range – top and bottom.
The used car market is changing rapidly, with new car inventory increasing and used car prices dropping by the week, but the basic principles still apply.
If you want to sell your car, click here and get a quick quote.
Your car will be worth about the average of what’s available. Note that just because Joe Bloggs advertised his Holden ute for $50,000 – when the rest of them are around $35,000 – doesn’t mean your car is worth that much. It just means Mr Bloggs is thinking hopefully. Or maybe he’s not actively looking to sell.
Some sellers like to keep baited hooks in the water at all times – in case they catch a fish at their optimistic price.
Note that it can be difficult to find extremely low prices in this value range because these vehicles are best sellers.
Another method – if your car is fully insured – is to call your insurance company and just ask. Note that insurance companies are incentivized to price your car slightly lower than its value.
You can also use third-party tools like this one here. Just go to the showroom of the car you’re thinking of selling, scroll down to the bottom and look for the model year, and you’ll get a rough estimate of the car’s value based on recent sales.
Also, if you want to sell your car, click This and get a quick quote.
You can also get a formal appraisal, but this is expensive and not really necessary – unless you have absolutely no idea what you’re doing, which is the problem this article hopes to solve.
Knowing your car’s value is the first step to pricing it for sale.
Variables that affect car resale value
Make and model.
Unfortunately, some brands – and even models – hold their value better than others. You may have saved money by buying a Holden Captiva instead of a Toyota RAV4 five years ago, but now that it’s time to sell it, it’s best not to compare used car values to current ones. Unless you want to cry.
Car type.
Are you selling a double-cab pickup or a mid-size SUV in Australia? You’re in a good place. As a general rule, if you’re selling the most popular type of vehicle in Australia, you’ll have an easier time.
Kilometer
The lower the mileage, the better. The average Australian drives around 13,000km a year, so if your car is five years old and has done around 65,000km, you’re pretty much right.
If you’re thinking about selling your car and it has close to 60,000 miles on it, seriously consider selling it before it reaches that milestone. A car with 59,000 miles on it will be a little easier to sell than a car with 60,000 miles on it.
However, there are vehicles where mileage is not as important – 200,000km is low for an old Toyota LandCruiser. And there are cases where higher mileage is not an issue – such as if the vehicle has spent most of its time commuting between Sydney and Canberra. (Freeway driving is considered less expensive than city driving.)
Additionally, service history is still more important.
Location
Unless it’s a very rare car, it’s going to be much easier to sell your car in a major urban center than a small, remote town because one might have four million people and the other 5,000. There are some exceptions – a farm pickup will sell better in a rural area.
Service history
In theory, a car with 150,000km on the clock with a full service history should be worth more than a car with 75,000km on the clock and no service history.
A full service history – meaning you’ve had your car serviced at the manufacturer’s recommended intervals, at an authorized service center – will greatly benefit your car’s resale value.
Remaining warranty and fixed price service agreement
If you buy a new car and it comes with a seven-year warranty – and you sell it after four years – the remaining warranty period is very attractive to the buyer. This also applies to any remaining fixed-price services that come with the new car.
Status
Taking care of your car is worth it. If it is in good condition inside and out, with no damage or blemishes, it will naturally be worth more.
Transmission process
Australians are lazy, so automatics hold their value better than manuals. Unless it’s a sports car, and some models can even be considered more desirable as automatics than manuals, like Porsches equipped with PDK.
Color and decoration
Conservative colors like white and gray hold their value better than bright, flashy colors like fluorescent green. A silver car will appeal to more people than a colored car. That’s why you see so many white and silver cars on the road.
The same is true of the interior – you might like the leopard-print seat covers and flames when you first buy the car, but sadly few others do.
Again, there’s a reason most people opt for black trim: it has the broadest resale appeal. The opposite can be true for sports cars, where light colors can be more highly valued than dark ones.
Optional accessories and aftermarket accessories
If you chose to have a sunroof fitted when you bought your new car, highlight this in any advertising as it means you can price the car a little higher.
The same is true if you’re driving your Hilux and it has an expensive, high-quality front bumper fitted with a branded LED strip – or any other aftermarket accessory the new owner wants to install (which you paid for, brand new).
Note that if you are selling a sports car, it is often better to sell the spare parts separately and re-install the original parts (like wheels or exhausts).
Registration
Just added 12 months of rego to your car? Add it to the price (and definitely advertise it). Sometimes, adding a little rego is beneficial because it increases the perception of value.
NSW, Victoria, SA, ACT and Tasmania offer three-month registration; while WA, Queensland and NT offer one-month registration. It’s definitely better than not registering – unregistered cars are worth much less than registered ones.
Available items
If you’ve just spent money on four new tyres, a new clutch, new brakes and new windscreen wipers – or just paid for a major service – this will increase the value of the car.
Trafficability Documentation
In Victoria, a vehicle must be sold with a Roadworthy Certificate (RWC) – but this can be arranged by either the seller or the buyer. If you are the seller and do not provide a roadworthy certificate for the vehicle, its value will be lower as the buyer assumes the risk of mechanical repairs to an unregistered vehicle.
The story is similar in Queensland and the ACT (if the car is more than six years old). No other state or territory requires proof of roadworthiness to process a private sale.
If you live in Victoria, Queensland or the ACT, you should obtain a roadworthy certificate before selling your car – and provide it when selling it. Note that in Victoria, the RWC is only valid for 30 days. In Queensland, the equivalent ‘safety certificate’ is valid for two months or 2000km, whichever comes first.
Accident history
If your car has been damaged but repaired, its value will be much lower than a car that has never been in an accident, even if it is rebuilt in better condition than when it was new.
People are afraid of collision repair services because there are so many scam collision repairmen who rush the job – and don’t repair the car properly.
Number of owners
The fewer owners, the better. If you have owned your car for 20 years since it was new and you are the sole owner, your car will be worth more than if it had multiple unknown owners.
Smoke
If you smoke in your car – and you can smell it – it will reduce the value of your car quite a bit. Plus, smoking is bad for your health and very expensive, so you shouldn’t do it. Listen to your mother.
If you want to sell your car, click This and get a quick quote.
