Worth doing
- Find the service history. Logbook, invoices, even a workshop's records retrieved by phone. This moves the number more than anything else on this page.
- Locate both keys. A replacement key and programming on a modern car runs into the hundreds.
- Clean it and empty it. Not a paid detail, just a wash, a vacuum and removing your belongings. A clean car reads as a maintained car.
- Reset and unpair. Remove your phone, saved addresses, garage codes and any connected account from the infotainment system.
- Gather the extras. Cargo blind, tow bar tongue, roof racks, spare key fob, owner's manual, service book.
- Fix a windscreen chip if it is small and cheap. It is a mandatory repair for the buyer and one of the few jobs that costs less than the deduction.
Not worth doing
- New tyres. Dealers buy tyres at trade prices. You will not recover what you paid at retail.
- Paint and panel work. Same logic, at a larger scale. Disclose the damage instead.
- A professional detail. Every dealer redetails to their own standard before it hits the lot.
- A full service just before selling, unless it fills a gap in the logbook. Completing the history has value, a fresh oil change on top of a complete history does not.
- Major mechanical repairs on an older car. You are spending retail money to lift a wholesale price.
How to photograph it properly
Photos are how a buyer prices risk before they see the car. Twelve good ones take ten minutes:
- Four corners, at a slight angle, so every panel is visible
- Straight on front and rear
- Both interiors: front seats and dash, rear seats
- Odometer, with the ignition on so the reading is clear
- Engine bay
- Boot or tray
- Each area of damage, close enough to see the extent
- The service book, open at the last stamp
Shoot in daylight, ideally overcast, with the car clean and dry and nothing parked immediately behind it. Avoid direct midday sun, which hides dents and blows out the paint.
Write the description like a buyer
Include: exact variant and build year, odometer, transmission, service history status, number of keys, factory options, any accessories included, and every known fault. Leave out adjectives. A dealer pricing your car is looking for facts to reduce their uncertainty, and every fact you supply narrows the range they need to price against.