How to Sell Your Used Car at The Right Time and Get Maximum Returns

You might think that buying a new car is only what requires strategic thinking and right timing, but, with the demand for used cars constantly rising, you also need to carefully plan out and make decisions before you put out your car for sale. There are a number of factors that you need to consider and be mindful of. 

How profitable the sale of your car turns out depends on things like the mileage and the condition of your car whether you have it paid off or have a positive equity and the market demand for your vehicle. We will guide you through all the important things you need to know about how to sell used cars.

This question can be answered depending on your current situation, and here too a lot of factors play a role. However, it is advisable to not wait for the very last moment and sell your car when you absolutely need to, you should do it before that because putting your used car for sale, paperwork, negotiating with buyers and getting a satisfactory price are time taking processes and if rushed can lead to settling for less and losing out on potential benefits. Optimal time for selling your car is also determined by seasons, usually across the country spring and summer are good times for selling your car as demand tends to be high during this period. 

A car should be useful to you. When you feel like it’s becoming a burden and regular breakdowns and repair costs are getting a blow at your budget, it is a good indication that you need to bid your car a farewell. 

Following the global COVID-19 crisis, supply chain problems have caused shortage of automobiles thereby causing the prices to go up substantially. This situation has been further exacerbated by the Russia-Ukraine crisis. 

In the shortage of new production, the demand for used cars has seen an upsurge and their prices have been affected as well. Amidst this, you might be wondering whether car prices are going down anytime soon, and when? According to economic analysts, chip shortage and inflation in the market needs to cool down for car prices to drop. While this is probable for the used car industry by October 2022 and has kind of already begun, for new cars it is unlikely to go down in 2022 at all, as suppliers continue to be racked with problems other than high input costs, for instance higher non-commodity cost on things like diesel, freight, shipping etc., 

Earlier used cars were a good option for buyers looking to save some money and also let them bypass new car depreciation which could be upto 20% as soon as the vehicle got out of the showroom. But recent analysis of the used car price trends have shown an upward trajectory with the prices peaking around February 2022 at $25,500. After this, the prices retained their elevated levels for a while and have started going down recently. It is primarily the supply chain disruptions that have caused such a hike in the prices of both used and new cars. 

In 2022, Americans are spending more on cars than ever.  The average cost of a new car has jumped from just $39,000 in 2020, to more than $48,000 in 2022 and the price of new cars and trucks has seen an increase of around 11.4% this year. 

The main cause behind this hike is shortage of parts, particularly microchips. Economists have claimed that chip-shortage is the single biggest factor responsible for this inflationary rise in car prices. This has inadvertently caused an overall shortage of cars in the markets and customers have to pay thousands of dollars over the MSRP. 

Some tips for selling your vehicle at a good price and without any major hassles, you need to follow certain tips. You also need to keep an eye on the used car price trends and put it up for sale at the right time. Maintaining and keeping all documents ready is the first and the most important step, especially if you haven’t paid off the entire cost of your car, the transfer of ownership should be very clear. Subsequently, you need to make a good first impression and showcase your vehicle in the best light, after which you should set a selling price. 

You might think that any shortcomings should be kept hidden but it is advisable to be transparent in presenting the condition of your used car as covering things up can cause your credibility to go down.

Before you set out to buy a new vehicle, you need to ask yourself questions like, are car prices dropping now? And if not, then you need to be patient and wait for the opportune time. It is usually advisable to expand your search to a broad geographical area to ensure a broader range of options. You should also be careful not to rush or be hasty while making decisions and spread the car-searching process over a fair amount of time, about two weeks or so, and contact a lot of dealerships as well.

Besides asking how to sell used cars, you might be wondering how long does it exactly take to sell a used car? The answer varies depending on the method that you may adopt. Usually, you might resort to listing the vehicle yourself. This can turn out to be a bit time consuming as it will include building a listing online, preparing your vehicle for sale, taking pictures, setting a price and doing research regarding its true value. 

After this begins your contact and negotiations with potential buyers and you might have to take time out of your schedule to set meet-ups and test drives etc., Overall this process can go on for weeks or even a month or two.

If you want to sell your used car then you need to make sure you do it at the right place. The easiest way to do it is to offer it as a trade-in at the car dealership that you are going to purchase your new vehicle from. However, it may not get you the best price for your used vehicle. Therefore, you might decide to sell it privately. This can be done by listing your car online; some of the top websites for this purpose include Autotrader, Ebaymotors, CarGurus etc., 

There is also a new method called ICO(Instant cash offer) coming up, which allows you to find instant purchase offers online by providing information like your car’s licence plate number and mileage etc.,

Thus, a thorough analysis of the factors and a general knowledge of the market conditions in general can help you be wise while making decisions when it comes to selling vehicles or even buying new ones.