It's about time you sell that old car and buy yourself a new one

[Molly]

[Hegamonia]

- "It's about time you sold that old car."

The sentence above could be a reference to either the past or the future.
.
.
To me, if you change that sentence to

- "It's about time you sell that old car."

then it is clear that the car has not been sold yet, but the the speaker thinks it is advisable to do so soon.

So, if I want to emphasize that the person has not sold the car yet but I want him to do so, I find it advisable, the best and perhaps right choice is the second example?
"It's about time you sell that old car ..." I do not know if anyone knows Swedish, but it is from this language that I translated the phrase from and into English. In Swedish the phrase was: "Det är på tiden att du säljer den där gamla bilen och köper en ny."

[Hegamonia]

"It's about time you sold that old car."

The sentence above could be a reference to either the past or the future.
.
.
To me, if you change that sentence to

- "It's about time you sell that old car."

then it is clear that the car has not been sold yet, but the the speaker thinks it is advisable to do so soon.

So, if I want to emphasize that the person has not sold the car yet but I want him to do so, I find it advisable, the best and perhaps right choice is the second example?
"It's about time you sell that old car ..." I do not know if anyone knows Swedish, but it is from this language that I translated the phrase from and into English. In Swedish the phrase was: "Det är på tiden att du säljer den där gamla bilen och köper en ny."

[Molly]

[Hegamonia]

"So what would this refer to?" Do you mean in Swedish?

[Molly]