How to go about selling a used car?

Bumping old thread. I'm wondering if "times they have a changed."

I'm trying to flip a pristine 2010 Cooper Mini w just 47k miles. KBB is like $13k. Dealers offering $8k on trade-in, and I can't believe the gulf is *that* huge. I can find the same car online, with a lot more miles, for $12.5k sold by owner.

I understand them wanting a $2k profit, etc, but $4-5k? Something's just not right. I may try CarMax.

Anyone have experiences in the last couple of years that would update the board's feeling on CarMax?

 

CarMax's price last time I used was about $1.5k lower than my dealership offer so I don't like them as much.

Here's what I did:

KBB - get your range of acceptable values
CarMax - get your baseline (no risk besides them trying to sell you a car and the time it takes)
Autotrader.com - Actually finds dealers that are willing to take your trade in, and you can go and see what they’d really pay. Also think they gave me a price depending on car condition that was higher than both my dealershp trade-in and CarMax. I didn't do it as the tax savings from trade-in made it close enough that I went with an easier option.

I would go to carmax and auto-trader for your negotiation base-line before heading to the dealer you're planning to purchase from. PLEASE realize the tax savings when you trade-in at the time of purchase vs. elsewhere.

See this article:
http://www.realcartips.com/selling/010-states-that-allow-trade-in-tax-credit.shtml

 

Thanks, wizkid. I have checked autotrader and it's also close to what the dealers are offering. Guess I'm probably just stuck at that level.

I'm probably just going to keep the car. It's paid off and with luck it *might* cost less to maintain it than it would to do a new car payment anyway.

 

It never hurts to get car appraised by CarMax.

I'd even look at Craigslist from time to time to understand the car's local value and pull.

 

Carmax's main selling point is that there are no negotiations on the price on either buying and selling so I doubt they will budge. They already have your car in record in their national database so it does not matter if you go to a diff location, they know what the quite is.

I can only suggest that that you look at it this way... If you were to sell this car privately, you have a good chance of getting the numbers you want. But that requires appointments from different people that can be anywhere from one test drive to 30. That will take some resource and time from either you are your parents. You will then have to ask yourself, is it worth it?

 

ill buy the mini and make a sequel to the italian job. where do i send the check?

theron will do my negotiating


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Cargurus is a nice resource to sell your vehicle and search for new or used cars. They can help you appraise as well.

Also dont forget texas direct auto either.

 

My experience and that of people I know is that Craigslist is far superior than Carmax or a trade-in. I've only done it once, and it was about 8 years ago, but I had the following results:

Dealership trade-in: $6k
Carmax: $5.5k
Craigslist: $10k - sold within 24 hours

Any type of direct sale is going to net you far, far more - but you have to make sure not to be scammed. Take only cash or meet the buyer at a bank where they can cut a cashier's check in front of you. In my case, the buyer was financing through a bank, so they had the bank cut the check directly to me.

If you're leaning towards Carmax, at least go get a quote and use the week you have to decide to list it on Craigslist for a higher price and see if anyone bites. If someone does, you made more money. If not, you can still always sell it at Carmax. Getting a Carmax quote is a great idea in general because it tells you the absolute floor price for you and there is no risk - but they also will probably offer you the worst price possible, unless there's something unique about your car that puts it in high demand. The differential between their buy and sell price has to cover not only all their overhead expenses of running dealerships/etc, but also the depreciation between when they buy it and when it might finally re-sell - that could be months or more, so they have to build that into their pricing.

 

Sold a 2006 Maxima(150K miles) for 8K on Craigslist
KBB was for 5K
Dealership 3-4K
Yep.

 

Yeah, I've definitely looked to see how the same car sells on Craigslist.

Contrary to Major's experience, I've heard more bad stories for car sales on Craigslist than good ones. I like the "meet at the bank" idea though.

Overall, I think we're going to just keep the car. (Unless this C. Theron negotiation really comes to pass.)

 

To clarify, I'm only referring to the price you can get. Carmax is certainly an easier/simpler process. So the question is how much extra value you get for the extra hassle of having people come look at your car, make decisions, flake out, etc. Netting an extra $500 is different than netting an extra $5000.

 

Also, if you're looking at trade-ins, there's some extra value there in that it saves you in sales tax. You only pay sales tax on the net cost of the car, so if you're trading in a car for $10k in a state with 10% sales tax, you're really getting an extra $1k in value as compared to Carmax or a direct sale. So when valuing the trade-in option, be sure to consider that.

 

Good luck on the sale. I know texasdirectauto gives pretty good rates, and you can bargain up a grand or so depending on vehicle.

 

Yeah, they have a radio show on 97.5 every Saturday morning. Call in they'll give you a quote over the phone. The show is mildly entertaining too. Mildly.

 

I recently sold a 2009 toyota corolla with 130K miles on it or so to Texas Direct Auto. I think I was able to get them to go up about $600 on it.

I think it was in the range for the KBB price of dealer sell/trade in. I didn't feel like hassling with people and waiting to see who will buy it.

 

Use NADA book, not KBB. Find clean trade then sell it yourself for clean trade +800

 

A combination of NADA and SPV would be good. I'd say find the middle ground between the two for your selling price