How to Prepare Your Used Car Before Selling

with Barbara Terry

Transcript: How to Prepare Your Used Car Before Selling

Hi, I'm Barbara Terry for About.com Autos. Whether you sell your car on your own, or trade it in at a dealership for a new one, you will want to prepare it in order to get the most money out of it.

Clean the Car

Wash your car thoroughly to make sure you get all of the dirt off of it. Wash your windshield and all the other glass features, inside and out. Fill in all the small scratches.

Prep the Car's Tires and Wheel

Now let's do tires and wheels. In order to get a great shiny look on your tire, you'll want to pick out your favorite tire dressing, wipe it on really good. For wheels, make sure you get into all those little slots and crevices very well. And get all that break dust off your wheels. You can actually spend about 5 minutes on them and make them look brand new.

Polish the Used Car's Interior

Then apply a non-greasy conditioner to your dashboard very thoroughly and all the other vynl components inside your car, including the console. If you have a leather interior, make sure to apply a good leather conditioner to all of the leather inside your car.

Check the Car's Fluids

Now let's pop the hood and check the fluids. Let's check the oil, the transmission fluid, the radiator coolant, the break fluid, power steering fluid, and windshield washer fluid to get those dead bugs off the windshield.

Make Minor Repairs to the Used Car

Last, if there are some small, inexpensive repairs that you can do on your own, or have done, I strongly encourage you to do so. I had a saying in the car business that I used to live by: Spend 50 dollars and get 500 more.

Thanks for watching. To learn more, visit us on the Web at autos.about.com.

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