Used Car Value: Price It Right to Sell

When it's time to put an older vehicle up for sale, it's important for you to know as much as possible about your used car value to make sure you can negotiate the best sale price, while getting the deal done to get the vehicle off of your hands. Here are some basic guidelines for pricing a used car to sell.

•Price to the blue book value - sites like that Kelley company blue book site will give you a good accurate picture of what your used car is worth. Price at or just below the private party sale price for a good chance at a sale. Cars priced above the blue book value will most likely be a hard sell.

•Price to conditions - the condition of your vehicle's interior and exterior is going to be one of the main factors affecting the sale price. You can address this in one of two ways; fix up the interior or exterior is much as possible, or give the buyer a small discount based on any cosmetic damage, or worn conditions of the exterior or interior of the vehicle.

•Price according to features - all of those newfangled features on a vehicle can add to the sale price, but only if they still work. Again, you can fix some of these features before sale, although in many cases the cost of the work will be more than any gain you will see. Price up the car a little for its useful features, but give buyers a discount for features that no longer function.

•Factor in mileage - this general rule applies to most used car sales. You want to price the vehicle reasonably according to how much mileage the new driver will get out of it. Look at other used cars sold by the same automaker to find out what you can generally expect for an engine with a certain mileage on the odometer.

Take advantage of these basics to get a sale price that you will profit from while effectively getting rid of your used vehicle.