Sell your SUV in Columbus
the trim is most of the number

An SUV is the hardest vehicle to value from a form, because the badge tells you almost nothing. Two 2020 Explorers can be eight thousand dollars apart depending on trim, drivetrain and how the third row has been used. An instant-offer tool sees the badge and the mileage, guesses at the middle, and protects itself on the way down. This page is a fairly complete account of how we actually price one, so that when you get your number none of it is a surprise.

On most vehicles the trim moves the number a little. On a three-row SUV it can move it by the price of a used car. Base to top trim on a full-size SUV is routinely a five-figure spread, and every step in between matters.

Seating configuration changes who buys it. Captain's chairs and a second-row bench suit different families, and in central Ohio one is usually easier to move than the other depending on the model. Neither is better — they're different buyers, and the number reflects which pool your SUV sits in.

Then there are the boxes people forget they ticked. Individually small, collectively significant, and almost never captured by an online form.

Bring the window sticker if you still have it. If you don't, we'll decode the VIN and tell you exactly what your SUV came with. Most owners are surprised by at least one thing on the list, and it's usually in their favour.

AWD carries a genuine premium here that it doesn't carry in a dry-weather state. Central Ohio buyers want it, they pay for it, and it shows up directly in what we can offer.

The other side of that is front-wheel-drive three-rows, which are harder to move locally. It doesn't mean we won't buy yours — it means the number reflects a smaller local buyer pool rather than a worse vehicle, and we'd rather explain that than quietly knock it down and let you wonder.

There's a seasonal element too. SUV demand in Ohio moves with the weather, and the gap between a January number and a June number on the same vehicle is real. If you're not in a hurry it's worth asking us where we are in that cycle — we'll tell you honestly, including when the answer is that waiting won't help.

One more thing worth knowing: the AWD system itself gets checked, not just noted. On a front-wheel-drive-based crossover, the power transfer unit and rear differential are known weak points in salt-belt states, and neglected fluid service turns into an expensive repair for the next owner. If yours has been serviced, that's a credit.

Almost every SUV we look at has carried a family, and almost every owner is more worried about it than they need to be.

Car seat impressions in the second row, scuffed door cards at kid height, marks on the third-row seat backs, a stain in the cargo area, a door ding from a school pickup line — these are normal, they're expected on the year and mileage, and a good detail resolves most of them.

What actually costs money is a different category: a torn seat rather than a stained one, cracked interior trim, a headliner starting to come away, or a permanent smell. Those need parts and labour rather than a cleaner, and that's the line we're looking at.

One piece of practical advice, and we mean it. Don't spend money fixing cosmetics before an appraisal. Ask us first. Owners regularly spend four hundred dollars on something that would have moved the number by a hundred, and we'd rather tell you that than quietly take the benefit.

We check that the third row actually works — that it folds flat, that the release isn't seized, that the powered fold still folds, and that the seat belts retract. On a three-row SUV that mechanism is the entire reason someone is buying it, and a broken one is an expensive fix.

Then there are the parts that quietly disappear over five years of ownership. None are dramatic on their own. Together they add up to more than most sellers expect, and every one of them is cheaper to replace before the appraisal than to lose in the number.

If something is missing, tell us up front. It's a small disclosed deduction, versus a much bigger problem discovered on the lift.

Not an exhaustive list — we buy well outside it — but these come through Caine Road most often and our team knows them best.

Mid-size three-rows are the backbone of this market: Explorer, Highlander, Pilot, Traverse, Telluride, Palisade, Ascent and Atlas. Demand here is strong and consistent, and trim spread on all of them is wide.

Compact crossovers move constantly: RAV4, CR-V, Equinox, Escape, Rogue, Tucson, Forester and CX-5. Values are steadier and the trim spread is narrower, which usually means fewer surprises in the number.

Full-size is where configuration matters most: Tahoe, Suburban, Yukon, Expedition, Sequoia and Grand Wagoneer. On these the package and drivetrain move the number more than the mileage does.

If yours isn't on the list, it changes nothing. It just means we'll ask a couple more questions.

Salt does the same thing to an SUV that it does to everything else here — frame and subframe, brake and fuel lines, rocker panels, and the seams underneath where it collects and sits. We get under every one, because it's the most common reason an Ohio owner is surprised by their number.

Pothole damage matters more on a heavy three-row than on a small car. Bent wheels, worn struts and knocked-out alignment are routine after a Columbus February, and a two-and-a-half tonne vehicle takes it harder.

The rest is the same everywhere: tyres matched or mismatched, brake life against mileage, and whether the fluids have been done on a schedule that fits how the vehicle was used.

It cuts both ways, as always. A well-kept Ohio SUV with a clean underbody is worth real money here precisely because so many aren't.

We buy SUVs across Columbus, Dublin, Westerville, Worthington, Powell, Hilliard, Upper Arlington, Gahanna, Grove City, New Albany, Lewis Center and Delaware.

Four steps. Most of the elapsed time is you deciding, not us working.

No cost at any stage, and no obligation. Plenty of people take the number and think about it for a week.

You don't need all of it to get a number. Bring what you have and we'll tell you what's outstanding rather than turn you away.

The two that most often cost sellers money here are the second key and the cargo cover. Both are worth more than people expect.