Your Civic can go as it sits, changes and all.
The changes that made the Civic yours are the ones somebody working off a photograph cannot see, so they get lumped together and quietly counted against you.
We would rather just ask. What was changed, what came off, and whether the parts that came off are still somewhere in the house.
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What is on it now
You do not have to put it back to standard to sell it
A Civic is a car somebody chooses rather than settles for, and people who choose a car tend to do something to it, usually something small.
It is rarely a project. It is a set of wheels because the originals were fine and dull, a tint that first summer, better mats, a screen that does what the old one would not, a bar, a badge taken off. Every one of them made sense on the day and not one was done with a resale figure in mind. Then it comes time to sell and the whole lot arrives at once as a question you have never had to answer before, which is whether any of it counts against you and whether you ought to spend a weekend undoing it.
Two things are usually true at the same time and they pull in opposite directions. The change that made the car yours is not always one the next owner would have chosen, which is no comment on your taste, it is just how personal a thing it is. And the parts that came off are worth more than people assume. The original wheels stacked behind the shed door, the standard exhaust in the corner, the mats in a bag under the bench. Most of that gets handed over as an afterthought or gets left where it is and thrown out a year later, and neither is what you would pick if anybody had asked you first.
So the position here is a simple one. We ask what was changed, we ask whether the original parts still exist, and neither answer disqualifies the car. If you want it standard before it goes, put it back and say so. If you would rather it went exactly as it sits, that is fine too and it saves you the weekend. What matters is knowing which of those two cars is going to be in the driveway when somebody arrives, because that is the car the number is built on.
Before the visit
What we ask about a Civic that has had work done
Every one of these has two perfectly good answers. The only bad version is the one nobody mentions until the inspector is already standing in the driveway.
- Is it standard, or has something been changed on it?
- Wheels, tint, suspension, exhaust, a screen, a tune, a spoiler, badges taken off. Say what is on it in plain words. It is not a confession. It is the difference between somebody who knows what he is coming out to look at and somebody who finds out in your driveway.
- Are the original parts still in the house?
- This is the question people forget to think about and the one most likely to be worth something to you. Wheels behind the shed door, the standard exhaust, the seats, the badges in a drawer. If they are going with the car, get them into one place before the day so they are actually counted.
- Who did the work, and is there a receipt anywhere?
- Not to prove anything. A receipt usually names the part, and a named part saves everybody standing around guessing at what is fitted. If a mate did it in a driveway, say that instead. It is an entirely ordinary answer and it just means the inspector looks a little closer.
- Is the tint legal where you are?
- We ask it, and we do not answer it for you. If you know, tell us. If you are not sure, say you are not sure, and it goes on the list of things to look at rather than turning up as a surprise later. Nobody expects you to have gone and read the rules.
- Was anything changed and then changed back?
- Worth mentioning, because a car returned to standard is not always wearing the parts it was built with. Second hand originals, a different set of the same wheels, an exhaust that is standard but not the one that came on it. None of that is a problem. It is just easier heard than worked out.
- Does it go as it sits, or does it go back to standard first?
- Either is fine and it is entirely your call. What we need is to know which one you have settled on, because the figure we talk about on the phone is built on the car that will be handed over. Deciding after the inspection is the version that makes everybody do the sums twice.
Standard or not
Three things a changed Civic does not lose
- Work done to it does not put the car in a different queue. A Civic with wheels and a tint on it goes through what a factory standard one goes through. What was done matters only to the extent that it changed the car, and we would far rather see it than read about it.
- The parts in the shed belong to the sale. If the originals are going with the car then they are part of what is being bought, so they are worth putting in one place rather than being remembered halfway through the handover.
- Nothing has to be undone before you ask. You can send the car through exactly as it is today and decide later whether anything comes back off it. Changing your mind costs nothing, so long as we hear about it before somebody drives out to you.
Three questions
What Civic sellers ask about the work they have done
Will the modifications knock money off?
Some might and some will not, and it depends entirely on what was done. A tint or a set of wheels is a different conversation from suspension or a tune. The honest answer is that we would rather look at it than rule on it in advance, and you get told which way it went before anything is signed.
I still have the original wheels in the shed. Do you want them?
Yes, and mention them early. Originals that go with the car are part of what is being bought rather than a favour to us, and the most common way they get lost is that nobody thinks to bring them up until the car has already gone.
Should I put it back to standard before you come?
Only if you want to keep the parts you fitted, or if you were going to do it anyway. It is not worth a weekend just to make the car easier to describe. Tell us which way you are going and the visit gets planned around the car that will actually be there.
Send the Civic as it stands, and tell us what came off it.
Or call us on 03 9000 0075 and talk it through first.