Selling your car can be quite an arduous task. To get the best price, you should fix any dangerous mechanical faults, compile a good record of its service history and repair any obvious bodywork scrapes. However, arguably the most important job is cleaning.
Cleanliness is the first thing a buyer or a valuation company will notice when they view your car. By leaving it dirty, you’re throwing money down the drain because it suggests to the other party that the vehicle hasn’t been very well looked after – and that opens an opportunity for them to start chipping you down on your asking price.
If you’re about to sell your car, it’s worth using an appraisal tool (like the one you’ll find on the Parkers car valuation site) to get an indication of how much it’s worth in good condition. Then, you can aspire to hit that target (or beat it) by polishing money into your car.
Step one: jet wash and snow foam
This is a surprisingly enjoyable way to clean your car. You can pick up a great pressure washer for less than £150 – then it’s a simple matter of connecting it up to a water source, squeezing the trigger and turbocharging the grime off the paintwork.
Snow foam makes the job even easier. It’s a spray-on pre-wash detergent that helps to soften and loosen any stubborn muck. Just pour the product into a sprayer that fixes to the end of your pressure washer lance, soak your car with suds, and then blast it all off. Job done.
Step two: door jams and drying
Don’t even think about applying any polish until you’ve cleaned the door jams and thoroughly dried the car. There’ll always be a bead of water lurking in a door seal that’ll drip down the paint right as you apply a coat of wax, completely ruining the finish. Then you’ll need to start again.
Get a rag and bucket with some water and car shampoo. Moisten the rag and clean the dust off the inside of the door frames and the treadplates. If you don’t, your buyer or appraiser will notice you’ve cut the corner the second they open the door. Then, dry the entire car with chamois leather.
Step three: polish
Here, there’s an easy way and a hard way. The easy way is to buy a bottle of spray-on car detailer and simply buff it up with a microfibre towel. There are loads of great options on the market from brands like Autobrite, Meguiar’s and Autoglym.
The hard way is to buy some car wax, get a load of old cotton T-shirts and start polishing. Rub the wax on the paint with a clean cotton rag, wait for it to flash off, then rub like mad with another clean cotton rag until you can see your face in the paint.
Step four: interior
Interiors are so often overlooked – but they’re the grimiest place in your car because that’s where the humans sit. Humans that pick their noses, drop fast food on the carpet and tread through dog muck before stepping inside.
Start by giving the carpets and seats a good vacuum. Then, clean the dashboard down with a non-sticky anti-bacterial spray. If you have a leather wheel, find a non-sticky leather cleaner and scrub it until your rag is black with grime. Finally, if you have leather seats, bring them up with a leather cleaner and some leather polish.
Step five: valuation day
Remove any cleaning materials from your car’s cabin or boot and have your service history on standby. If you’re having your car appraised in person, make the assessor a cup of tea and offer them a biscuit to put them in a good mood about their visit.
This next bit applies regardless of whether you’re getting your car valued in person or online. Make sure you’re truthful about its condition to get the most accurate price estimate. Give the correct mileage and tell the assessor (or the website) about any optional extras your car has.
Most valuation tools offer this as an optional service, but we think it’s worth paying a nominal fee for. A low milage car with plenty of optional extras can be worth as much as 30% more than a basic high miler – and knowing you have a gem is half the battle to getting the highest return on sale day.
