There are many resources of pricing your car for sale. We have found the Kelley Blue Book website as the best for getting the general idea. Another way is to check the cars for sale classifieds and used car display ads in the daily newspaper. From that research you'll get ideas on what dealers and other private citizens are asking for a car of the same year and make as yours.

Kelley has three or four prices of each used car, based on condition, from excellent to poor. If your car is in bad shape, it's logical that you'll probably have to sell it at the lowest estimated price. If you want to ask a higher price, you should invest some clean-up time and maybe some dollars to improve your car's condition.

We just bought a new car, and took a '93 car in as trade-in. Kelley listed it between $1,000 and $1,500, depending on condition. When the salesman looked the car over and did some fast figuring on the price of the new one, he said he allowed $1,000 because our old car was in bad shape. Considering how auto salesmen manipulate the write-ups on purchases, we're not even sure we got the full $1,000 on the trade-in.

Therefore, my suggestion on selling your used car, even if you're going to replace it with a newer car from a dealer, is to try to do it privately first. Not that dealers are crooked ... ooooh, nooo ... but at least by selling it yourself, you'll get the best possible price.

Learn more about this author, Ted Sherman.
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