Sell My Car

Why Sell Your Car to a Dealership?

Selling your car to a dealership may not be your only option when you need to minimize the vehicles in your driveway or garage since you could choose to sell it through a private sale. However, if you are looking for the quickest, easiest, and most stress-free option, selling your car, truck, or SUV to a dealership is the way you want to go. Some people prefer to sell on their own primarily because they think they will make more money that way, and honestly, technically, they could. However, after the sale, when they look at the money in hand from selling their vehicle, they don’t calculate and subtract the time and energy they put into selling it, which means they may have taken a loss by selling privately. Don’t you think your time is worth something?

Alongside the time spent on prepping, listing, advertising, and showing your vehicle to sell on your own, you may also be putting yourself and your family at risk. Part of selling your vehicle yourself requires strangers to come to your home to look at their potential purchase and possibly test drive it. No matter how much research you do online to try and see what kind of person the potential buyer may be, you never really know who may be coming to your property. That's why, if you are going to sell privately, always meet at a public location. When weighing your options for selling your used car, truck, or SUV, keep the security risks in mind also because that few extra thousand dollars you might get selling on your own may not be worth the risk of someone potentially stealing or damaging your car without buying it.

What Do You Need to Do Before You Sell Your Car?

If you decide to sell your used car to a dealership, there will be minimal effort needed on your part, including preparing your vehicle. This, of course, is one of the many benefits of selling to a dealer. We handle the dirty work for you. But if you prefer to spend your spare time prepping your vehicle to be sold so you can possibly make a few extra dollars with a private sale, here are a few of the essential things you will need to do to ensure you get what your car is worth.

The first and most obvious task for you when preparing your car, truck, or SUV for sale is to give it a deep cleaning. The presentation of your vehicle will help seal the deal for you. You wouldn’t want to buy a used car with the previous owner’s leftover lunch under the seats or their dog’s winter coat scattered throughout the back seat, nor would you want to buy a truck that looked like it just finished a run on a mud trail. Thus, making sure you don’t show your vehicle to potential buyers in a condition you wouldn’t want to buy is important.

Before you dive into a full detailing, you need to clean out all of your belongings. This is recommended before any car sale, whether you decide to sell privately or to a dealer, and entails more than just removing personal items. You will need to erase any physical and digital footprint from the vehicle. Clear any digital information and remove any paperwork not needed for the sale that has your personal information on it. This includes clearing the navigation system and canceling any subscriptions you may have, like satellite radio.

If you decide to save yourself money by detailing your vehicle yourself, you should take the opportunity to inspect it to see if there are any minor repairs or things like new floor mats that you could invest in to make your car more valuable. To determine what your vehicle is worth, you can look into sites like Kelley Blue Book to see what it is valued at based on what model it is, its age, and its mileage and condition. You will also want to research the market to see what other models like yours are selling for. Knowing your target audience, whom you will be selling to, and what time of year your vehicle is most likely to sell in are crucial.

Once your vehicle is presentable and reconditioned so that you can get what your car, truck, or SUV is valued at, if not more depending on the market, next on your list of preparation tasks is to list and advertise it. This is where most of your time and energy will be spent. The days when selling your vehicle parked on the front lawn with a for-sale sign on it are pretty much over. Sure, you may get lucky and have a few interested parties take a look at it, especially if you live on a well-trafficked road, but most private sales need to be listed somewhere to reach a large audience of potential buyers. Social media is a great place to reach your target buyers, especially with a variety of marketing groups you can join and post items and vehicles for sale.

However, while you can go the private sale route, this creates a lot of hassles that you probably don't want to deal with. If you sell your car to us, all you need to do is ensure that your vehicle has all of the keys and equipment that came with it to get the best price. You don't even have to worry about doing a lot of maintenance because we can take care of a lot of that for cheaper than you would be able to. Just clean it up to give us the best impression of it, and we will give you the best offer we can for your vehicle.

What Paperwork Do You Need?

Depending on the state you reside in will determine what paperwork is required for you to sell your car, truck, or SUV. When you sell to our dealership, we handle most of the paperwork for you. All we need for you to gather for us is the vehicle’s title. Although having any transferable active warranty paperwork from your vehicle is helpful, we should be able to pull up the records in our system. Other than that, we will obtain any required paperwork and will just need your signature a few times over.

Now, if you want to sell the vehicle yourself, unfortunately, you’ll be in charge of all of the paperwork for your buyer. So, hopefully, you enjoy doing paperwork. On top of the title, you may be required to have proof of emissions and safety inspections, a bill of sale, and paperwork to report the sale to the state. Other useful documents that would entice a potential buyer and possibly make your car more valuable include the warranty paperwork, the vehicle’s history report like one from CARFAX, and maintenance records to prove how well you cared for the vehicle. It sounds like fun, right?

If You’re Ready to Sell, Here’s Why You Should Sell to Us

Here at Parkway Chevrolet, we are more than just a one-stop shop for your automotive needs, selling and maintaining both new and used vehicles to our neighbors and friends in and around Tomball and the Houston area. We are here to help you as much as we can. We value you and your needs as a person, not just as a customer. To our team, you are part of our extended family, and we will treat you as such.

Even when you are just looking to sell your used car without buying another, our mission will still be to put you first. We treat our customers as we like to be treated: with courtesy and respect while upholding your values and our own. All of your experiences with Parkway Chevrolet should be pleasant and stress-free. Since we want what is best for you, if you decide to sell to us, we will make sure you don’t lose out on time or money. Trust us to make selling your car worth it. Let us buy your vehicle today.