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Need opinions: Getting ready to sell truck, should I improve it before I sell?


excell

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I'm getting ready to put my 1999 F250 up on the market. I just don't need a truck this big anymore, and I want to get another truck that fits comfortably in my garage. ;)

 

I currently owe about $2000 more than its "good condition" book value. So I know I'm going to have to eat some negative equity on it. I would like to lessen the blow as much as possible, and I'm considering doing a few things to try and improve the value before I sell. But, being that I don't have a lot of experience selling vehicles, I wonder if these items are worth spending my time and money on. Please tell me if you think these items are worth doing to increase the resale value of the truck:

 

1) Bed condition. The bed does not have a liner, only a rubber "pad" and the bed condition is pretty rough. I can have a new drop-in liner installed for $160.

 

2) Ebrake cable is broken. Not sure the cost here, I would assume a few hundred bucks.

 

3) Truck has a dump-muffler. Sounds good, but no pipes. New exhaust from Jegs is about $300.

 

4) Interior needs a good cleaning. Should I spend the money on having it shampooed and cleaned REALLY well or should I just spend a little time on it myself?

 

5) Passenger-side exhaust manifold leaks until the engine is warmed up. Mildly annoying, but goes away when it's at full temp. Not sure the cost here, but probably expensive and time consuming.

 

Overall the body is in pretty damn good condition and the truck runs great! I just wonder if doing a few of these would return on investment enough to make it worth my while.

 

Thank you for your thoughts. :)

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I would do the bedliner and cleaning. You can't sell a dirty vehicle, first off. It's an auto, so I wouldn't worry about the e-brake cable, and the leaking manifold isn't that big of a deal. With the muffler, I thought you had pipes coming out the sides? At the most, I would take it to an exhaust shop to put pipes on from the mufflers back, just do it cheap.

 

Keep in mind, any money you put into the truck would just be to make it sell easier, it's really not going to get you any more money out of it. Someone is going to buy it, probably for what you want out of it, the only difference is how many people look at it and either decide they want it or they don't.

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With the muffler, I thought you had pipes coming out the sides? At the most, I would take it to an exhaust shop to put pipes on from the mufflers back, just do it cheap.

 

They uhhhh... kinda... rusted off. So I don't think you can really weld new pipes onto it. Maybe Tinman can help me out there...

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I would give it a through cleaning. Wash/wax and a good vacuuming/shampooing. Also, just take it to midas or someplace just to get the exhaust fixxed cheap. Maybe a bed liner too. What about a DIY spray-on bed liner? Keep anything you do cheap.
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DIY spray on liners are shit, and it's not worth the money to have one done just to sell the truck.

 

As for the exhaust, so long as the outlets of the muffler are still there, I'm sure you can find a place that will just do a bolt on setup past that to replace what was there before. Shouldn't be a big deal I would think. Exhaust doesn't have to be welded.

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Almost nothing you can do on a domestic truck can improve its worth by much. Especially the minor repairs and upgrades. Everything for trucks is very cheap. If your gonna trade it in your only gonna get close to the trade in value no matter what you do.

If your selling it to someone yourself then remember that their buying a truck so there either a "truck guy" or someone that needs a truck so they'll either drive it like it is or they'll really mess around with it and make it "their" truck.

 

Evan

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