Need Opinions: Used Car Value w/Full Detail

PurpleTowel

PurpleTowel

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Hi all, I'm hoping you can lend some insight and opinion to something that I have been thinking about lately. Let me give you a quick background on what I'm in the middle of.

On Christmas, my wife broke her right foot, and having two cars in our garage with manual transmissions made driving impossible for her. Because her WRX is newer, I flipped my car and quickly bought an automatic 2006 BMW 530xiT wagon for her to drive while she was in a walking boot. Neither of us care for slushboxes, so I knew it would be a short-term rental. The doctor gave her a clean bill of heath this week, so the boot came off and she is learning to use her foot again. The 530xiT will be heading out the door in the next couple of weeks.

The car was pretty decent condition when we bought it for a fair price. The interior was a mess but cleaned up nicely, but as we get out of the Midwest winter grime, I'm starting to see how bad the paint is.

The scratches in the paint are the worst I have ever seen in a high-end car. The hood had been repainted at some point and has a really bad orange peel. The worst part of the finish is that it feels as if there is paint overspray on the entire car. I'm 95% sure it's overspray, as I am sure the car has had some front end work in the past. I think the respray was done on the cheap, and was probably in the vicinity of other cars that were also resprayed outside of a booth.

I clayed the hood of the car this afternoon, with only partial results. It clogged up the claybar pretty quickly and left me wanting for a more aggressive clay to cut the 800 grit finish on this clearcoat. I stopped after I did one pass on the hood, gave it a quick coat of wax and left it, but the whole car is making me twitch (not only the paint, but glass, headlights, tail lights, sunroof, etc). My wife kept telling me to let it go, but it's not how I'm wired.

So... the car will be put up for sale in the next 14 days. I could spend tomorrow pulling the overspray and scratches out of the whole car, polishing and waxing, or I can let it go and leave it to the next owner to ignore or repair.



$24,000 Question: Do you think there is any value in the resale of a used car in taking the time to clay, polish, wax & detail the paint or should I not waste my time? For a $6,000 car, does it make it worth a few hundred more or do most people not care? What would you do?



Looking forward to hearing your feedback.



doug


06_530xiT_010.jpg


06_530xiT_020.jpg


I already took care of the beautiful Auburn Dakota leather interior...
06_530xiT_024.jpg


...And detailed under the hood, because it looked like it had previously lived in the basin of a gravel quarry.
06_530xiT_025.jpg
 
A fresh detail will definitely bring more attention and money to it. I have had numerous customers who had me do a full detail prior to selling or trading in their vehicle. Looks and appearance can make a significant difference in the money they bring.

Make sure and get that engine bay cleaned up good too. People always look under the hood.
 
I agree with Jeremy. It may not allow you to increase your asking price, however it could result in a much faster sale! Clean it up and see what happens!
 
Why not make it the best $6000 car around? You've already answered your question by doing the interior and engine bay, polishing it up won't take to long as you're not going for perfection but cleaning the paint and adding some gloss will add to the overall curb appeal.
 
Agree with the others, the time spent detailing will save time in the long run with a quicker sale.
Back in the 90's I put my beloved 69 VW bus up for sale. It had a cheap paint job and rust under the front windshield but I decided to polish it up anyways and yes it did shine. Everyone who came to look at her mentioned it looked it great shape. First impressions can make a sale.
 
Do you have a polisher?

If yes, then sure use a cleaner wax/AIO and the most aggressive pad you can get away with.

Or use a compound and what ever pad you can get away with, then spray wax or whatever is the easiest "wax" that you have.

Clay it first if you want to spend the time on it.


If no polisher, then no clay no polish. Unless you're just dying dying to try to polish possibly hard paint by hand. If so, then do the same as above. It's just going to take a lot more effort and time.

A good cleaner wax/AIO worked a little by hand can provide acceptable car sale prep results. Leave the scratches be and expect no miracles.
 
Jeremy1976 said:
A fresh detail will definitely bring more attention and money to it. I have had numerous customers who had me do a full detail prior to selling or trading in their vehicle. Looks and appearance can make a significant difference in the money they bring.

Make sure and get that engine bay cleaned up good too. People always look under the hood.
Click to expand...

I will support and say yes it will make a difference.

My brother-in-law had a Scion tC (the year it first came out); this and along with a few others things the car needed...............

It was in rough shape and needed practically a brand new bumper. It was cracked and hanging literally by a thread.

Either way, I did an AIO on the outside and a full interior on the inside to especially freshen up the smell.

I forget how much he was asking for the car.

All I remember was that he was willing to give a little wiggle room for the price. However, because the car looked SO GOOD, the first person that went by to look at it paid cash full asking price.

I also remember telling him, your never going to get full asking price — boy, I was wrong.

Well there you have it — please forgive any grammar, spelling, etc. as it is 5:20am at time of typing this.

Best wishes!




Sent from my iPhone using Autogeekonline mobile app
 
upon3 said:
Hi all, I'm hoping you can lend some insight and opinion to something that I have been thinking about lately. Let me give you a quick background on what I'm in the middle of.

On Christmas, my wife broke her right foot, and having two cars in our garage with manual transmissions made driving impossible for her. Because her WRX is newer, I flipped my car and quickly bought an automatic 2006 BMW 530xiT wagon for her to drive while she was in a walking boot. Neither of us care for slushboxes, so I knew it would be a short-term rental. The doctor gave her a clean bill of heath this week, so the boot came off and she is learning to use her foot again. The 530xiT will be heading out the door in the next couple of weeks.

The car was pretty decent condition when we bought it for a fair price. The interior was a mess but cleaned up nicely, but as we get out of the Midwest winter grime, I'm starting to see how bad the paint is.

The scratches in the paint are the worst I have ever seen in a high-end car. The hood had been repainted at some point and has a really bad orange peel. The worst part of the finish is that it feels as if there is paint overspray on the entire car. I'm 95% sure it's overspray, as I am sure the car has had some front end work in the past. I think the respray was done on the cheap, and was probably in the vicinity of other cars that were also resprayed outside of a booth.

I clayed the hood of the car this afternoon, with only partial results. It clogged up the claybar pretty quickly and left me wanting for a more aggressive clay to cut the 800 grit finish on this clearcoat. I stopped after I did one pass on the hood, gave it a quick coat of wax and left it, but the whole car is making me twitch (not only the paint, but glass, headlights, tail lights, sunroof, etc). My wife kept telling me to let it go, but it's not how I'm wired.

So... the car will be put up for sale in the next 14 days. I could spend tomorrow pulling the overspray and scratches out of the whole car, polishing and waxing, or I can let it go and leave it to the next owner to ignore or repair.



$24,000 Question: Do you think there is any value in the resale of a used car in taking the time to clay, polish, wax & detail the paint or should I not waste my time? For a $6,000 car, does it make it worth a few hundred more or do most people not care? What would you do?



Looking forward to hearing your feedback.



doug


06_530xiT_010.jpg


06_530xiT_020.jpg


I already took care of the beautiful Auburn Dakota leather interior...
06_530xiT_024.jpg


...And detailed under the hood, because it looked like it had previously lived in the basin of a gravel quarry.
06_530xiT_025.jpg
Click to expand...
It does help tremendously..If your interested in doing it hire someone for the task.Or just price the car according to it condition.
 
I meant to say if you're not interested hire someone to do it for you.
 
Dan@TheBuffingMoose said:
I will support and say yes it will make a difference.

My brother-in-law had a Scion tC (the year it first came out); this and along with a few others things the car needed...............

It was in rough shape and needed practically a brand new bumper. It was cracked and hanging literally by a thread.

Either way, I did an AIO on the outside and a full interior on the inside to especially freshen up the smell.

I forget how much he was asking for the car.

All I remember was that he was willing to give a little wiggle room for the price. However, because the car looked SO GOOD, the first person that went by to look at it paid cash full asking price.

I also remember telling him, your never going to get full asking price — boy, I was wrong.

Well there you have it — please forgive any grammar, spelling, etc. as it is 5:20am at time of typing this.

Best wishes!




Sent from my iPhone using Autogeekonline mobile app
Click to expand...
I believe it I seen crazy scenarios from a wholesaler who only bought jettas and boxsters.They were so rough mismatch paint horrible texture, cars that have been bad accidents but with a clean carfax and a lititle tlc he would sell them quickly.price for a car is everything priced right people will buy and don't know enough what to look for or even care.It's the ole mighty dollar and if they can drive a porche thousands less with a warranty they will come.
 
A simple wax or All-in-one cleaner wax would be the way to go. The majority of buyers wouldn't notice or care about all of your time spent claying and correcting the swirls. Looks great so far!
 
Thanks guys, I think you're right. I wanted to be able to justify the work I would be doing to get the car to at least acceptable paint finish. I do have a 6" Griot's orbital choked down to 5" Meguiar's DA pads. I'll finish claying the hood this morning, then run a test of 105/205 on it to see how it looks and feels. I'll leave the glass, headlights and roof for the next owner to work out. I'm going to see how much I can get done while it's nice this weekend, then list it above what I'd like to get for it next week and see where she goes.

I'll keep you posted on the results.



doug
 
At least remove overspray,the nano mitt or nano disc will be effectively quick then spritz it down with some spray wax or even better sonax brilliant shine.
 
I have never used a Nano pad before, so I went and read the listing here in the store. It mentioned removing paint overspray and rail dust. UGH! That's it. The guy that I bought the car from who has owned it for the last 6 years now owns a BMW service shop, no less than 100 feet from a 2-trail freight line. It could honestly be either paint overspray or rail dust, but I'm going to land on rail dust. The really bad scratches in the paint would fall in line with someone using a towel to wipe the ferrous dust off of the car on a regular basis.

Yuck.
 
If it's rail dust hit it with Iron-X, it'll help the claying process.
 
After today, I'm sure it's rail dust. I used a razor blade to scrape the windows clean, and it's definitely ferrous. After a few hours working the hood, it's beyond help. I polished it up as good as I can, but it looks like there are deep sanding marks in the clear coat. I didn't push it any further than I was comfortable, but it's way better than it was. At this point, the car looks 1000% better than when I bought it, so I'm content to leave it where it's at for now.

I did order a Nano disc and the lube from Amazon, so if the weather stays friendly I will wash and decontaminate it and then give it a quick once-over with a good cleaner/wax and be done with it. I'd rather spend more time on the next car that I will keep for a much longer period of time.
 
Hit it with iron X.. Before you use the nano disc.. for a spray on rub in step its gonna take a lot of work off the disc.. also dissolves the ferrous sunk into the clear. where as the claying only shaves the top off by in large..
Its a no brainer step..
 
I picked up 500ml of Iron-X, too. I just can't sell the car in the state that it's in right now. I can at least learn something in this process.
 
I may be chiming in a bit late but....

When it comes to a detail increasing the sale price of a used vehicle, there is a reason used car lots either have an onsite detailer or a few in their back pocket. Clean cars = cared for cars to most.
 
Yes it's worth it.
You may not be able to demand thousands more, but a beautiful, clean vehicle will get a faster sale with much less chance of low balling.

Too bad you are not local. I love wagons and would probably buy it myself. Especially after you put a nice ceramic coating on the perfected paint. :buffing::autowash::thankyousign::dblthumb2:
 
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