I’d like to buy from a private seller, but that means I can’t trade in my current car. My wife really doesn’t want strangers coming to our house just to kick the tires. Any suggestions?
I own a 2013 BMW X5 with 48k miles, in excellent condition. I'm in the NYC area.
I planned for this to be my long term family car, but since I took a job in the city a few years ago, I almost never drive it.
So I'm looking to sell it, but I've never done this before. I read about Carvana and Vroom - their initial quotes were very different.
Should I be using those services? Just going to a random dealer and asking them to buy it? What's the best way to take advantage of the current market situation?
I just sold my wife’s 2017 Camry. Carvana was the lowest bid by over 1000.00. Vroom had a decent offer but I didn’t feel comfortable giving them car and title without payment. Carmax gave us an offer I thought was too good to be true, and ended up selling to them. Took about 90 minutes to appraise and walk out with a check in hand.
We ended up owning the car 37 months, put just under 30K in mileage and got 1100 less than we paid for it. Overall a smooth transaction.
I'm in the Southeast, so your market conditions may be different. In April I sold a Forester which I no longer needed. Received quotes from Carmax, Carvana and Vroom. Carvana was the highest and the sale process was very easy. A dealership most likely will provide a lower quote. Hope this tidbit helps.
FB marketplace sucks. Carmax will not buy anything with an aftermarket intake and carvana’s appraisal came in wayyy too low. Auto trader? CL? Looking to sell a $19k vehicle and feel the market is much softer at that pricing point. Tia
How do I sell my car in the U.S.?
I have the cars title and registration. Do I need to provide the prospective buyer with its VIN too?
How do I prevent them just driving it away and stealing it during a test drive or when they take it for a pre inspection?
The a/c is broken, is it worth fixing it before selling or just telling them it’s broken. (Quote was $1200, car is worth $3k).
First time I’ve ever done this and kinda overwhelmed!
Downsizing to a 1 car household and gonna sell the 2nd. Any pointers on how to sell? I know it’s usually a trade off between sale amount and convenience but idk where the options fall along that spectrum. Thanks!
I am currently paying off a Nissan Altima 2019 sr, I’ve been giving double the amount of payments to finish paying it off faster, I’m already at 5K to pay it off, I wanted to switch it for a better car so I was thinking of selling it because if I go to a dealership they’re gonna give me crumbs for it, what is the best way to sell it?
Currently I’m trying to sell a used car for about $4500. It’s in good shape and am currently selling it for roughly $2000 below it’s suggested resell price. Because I want it gone before the end of the year. Within the first day of posting it online I got bombarded with 10 messages within 2 hours. Thought that it would be relatively smooth sailing.
It’s now been 2 months and the amount of messages I get that lack general intelligence and outstanding laziness blows me away.
“Is this still available?” Now gives me stress to read as 50% of these ghost afterwards.
The incredible low ballers. “Can you do $3500? I can do $3000 cash today”. As if you have any leverage here or that cash in hand would be a tempting offer to drop $1500 off the price.
The last second cancellations have happened 4 times now. IF YOU CANT MAKE IT JUST MESSAGE ME IN ADVANCE.
My favourite are one word replies: “Address? $3000? Trade?” All of these I find so incredibly insulting
Hands down the most infuriating one is people who insist I give them additional details or ask questions about the car that is ALREADY PRESENT IN THE LISTING? “How much is it? What color is it? Any recent maintenance?” Take the two extra seconds to read the listing. I just don’t understand it.
I’ve gotten so annoyed by the whole process I’ve began responding sarcastically to the messages that annoy me. Which is roughly 80-90% of them. I know this won’t help, but it’s the only way to keep my sanity.
Currently have someone looking at it this weekend, but I have no hope it’ll happen lol. Seriously considering just taking it in somewhere, so I can forget about the hassle already.
hey yall, i come from a family of extremely non-car-savvy people and i legitimately have no clue how anything car-related works, so i need some advice explained to me like i’m a kindergartener LOL. i am a smart guy but when it comes to cars i’m like a martian.
so in 2021 i got a brand new Hyundai Venue. I make monthly payments on it. So i don’t really own it yet. The car is perfectly good, but I really want to be someone who goes car-camping, and the Venue is just way too small to do that comfortably. I also am realizing that Hyundais generally have a lot of issues down the line and kinda want to switch to a brand that is less likely to start needing repairs all the time (which is…? Ford? Honda? Toyota?? Subaru? Help 🤲)
So here are my questions:
How do I sell a car that I’m actively making payments on? Like, literally what do I do? Do I call Hyundai and ask if I can sell it back to them ?? Or do I try to sell it privately online to a random person? And if i do the latter, how does that work in terms of the Hyundai payment?
What the hell brand of car should I get? I don’t have a lot of money. I want to go car camping. I would prefer AWD and something with excellent safety ratings. And Apple Carplay would be helpful. Also for context I live somewhere that it never snows and rarely freezes over.
Also while I’m at it, can someone point me in the right direction about HOW to buy a used car? I have literally no clue how to do it safely & without getting scammed. I would love to not lose money lol
TYIA
Looking to sell my '18 Chevy Suburban to a dealership, not necessarily looking to trade-in.
I am looking for various aspects if I were to sell to a dealership:
-Reputation: Want them to be reputable, I hear a lot of horror stories about fly by night places, especially when they go out of business and the liabilities!
-Price: Obviously somewhere that pays the most consistently
-Professionalism: Goes hand in hand with reputation but cannot stand going into a dealer to feel like I am being set up.
-Ease: Ideally looking for something I can get in and out of, without dragging my heels for a whole day at a dealership.
Essentially no bullshit, do not have time for that anymore! I did one google search and a bagillion places showed up, so your recommendations are extremely helpful!
A bit of a background: I have a 2001 Honda Accord Coupe with nearly 180k miles with some minor problems (none that affect the driveability or safety of the car). My boss is relocating out of the country and offered to sell me his car for a pretty good price, but one that is nearly at the top end of what I could spend. This car is good, one that I would enjoy driving, and has FAR less mileage than my current car. It's about time to think about a new car anyway - this one has treated me well for a long time.
Not having a car is not an option for me, so I feel like getting this "new" car while I have a good chance is a wise decision.
To comfortably afford this new car (and pay in cash for it) I'll need to sell my current car. Kelley Blue Book value for my car is just under $2000. I know I couldn't get that sort of money from selling to a used car dealership, but I'm somewhat hesitant to wade through the headache that selling a car on Craigslist could be.
Do any of you have advice/tips/tricks for getting the most money for your cheap used car? I've never sold/bought a car before, so this is all new to me.
Selling a car on Craigslist is not difficult. Get it detailed, take high quality photos and post an add with the details. Price it at least $500 more than you want to sell it for. You'll get some lowball offers from dealers trying to make a quick buck, but eventually a real buyer will call. If there are any existing issues with the car that you know about, give the buyer a list in writing and have him sign a copy. Offer to take the car to his mechanic to have it inspected, but be clear that he will need to pay for it.
Then you head down to the buyer's bank with your pink slip and car keys in hand. Watch the bank issue him a cashier's check in your name, then sign over the pink slip and hand him the keys.
People make this a lot harder than it has to be. It's not much more complicated than selling a guitar or a pair of shoes. Just make sure that the form of payment you take can't bounce and isn't a forged cashiers check. Cash is fine too, but ask to meet at your bank so that you can deposit it immediately.
I once sold a car to CarMax. The price they paid was more than the dealer would give for trade in, but less than the "private sale" bluebook. I wanted to sell it privately, but I didn't have enough time.
I bought it last year but by job has changed and I'm traveling more. I have barely driven the car over the last two months and will barely drive it over the next four, so I want to sell it and get out of the monthly payment and insurance.
I currently owe about $15k and the same model with similar mileage is going for between $14k and $16k. I think I can get toward the upper end of this range.
I can list it on AutoTrader easily enough, but I don't know what else. I'm afraid of getting scammed, and I don't know how to change over the title in a private sale. Are there agencies that will sell my car for me? Any advice, even if it's against my plan, is welcome.
Why I think it's worth $15k? I bought it CPO, all scheduled service was at the dealer (and I kept all receipts), I've added weathertech mats, the tires are less than a year old, I replaced the rear brake pads and will give away the caliper retracting tool with the car. It's basically in the same shape that I bought it.
If I trade it in or CarMax it, I won't get anywhere near what I owe on the car, so a private sale is what I'm looking at as a realistic option.
Thanks, r/cars!
EDIT: 2009 GTI, 2-door. 70,000 miles.
Spend an hour and clean the shit of the car. Look for as many maintenance history receipts, records, w/e you can find and put them in a folder chronologically. Make a good, clean ad, detailing the car, include good photos.
Don't bother talking to anyone who wants to buy the car without seeing it.
Don't take personal checks unless you want to drive to the buyer's bank and cash the check in person or if you don't feel comfortable with that kind of cash, have them make out the money in a cashiers check ( you can pay for that service, should be $25 or something like that).
Here are other options: http://usedcars.about.com/od/sellingonline/a/UsedCarPay.htm
Uh...whats the car? Thats the only way we can help you.
List the car for around $16.8k with an expectation of receiving $15k.
I’m going off to college and I don’t need a car any more. I’m looking for the fastest way to sell my car by next week. Any suggestions?
what companies and/or websites that offer the most for yours car value when selling it? So far the only websites i’ve seen a really good offer for my car is driveway.com because they’re offering 3k more than other companies like carmax, cars.com, carvana, etc. Anybody have any suggestions?
Hello I am new here but not new in the car business at all. I spent a lot of time reading stories of customers about buying a car but I did not saw a single story of somebody giving/asking for advice how to sell their car. In the past 1 and a half year I am the buyer manager here at our dealership and I am on top of the buying department. We are doing things different than most dealers. We do not buy cars from auctions but instead we buy cars as a street purchase. We use multiple paths to do that. During that time I learned a lot more about the purchase process and how similliar/different is from the selling process. However I also learned the right and the wrong things that people are doing when they are selling their cars. So if you are selling your car please read this post. It will be very beneficial for you!
In these difficult and challenging times a lot of people are trying to sell their cars for multiple reasons - they lost a job, they work from home and don`t want to make payments or they don`t need a car anymore. Whatever the reason is they are looking for one thing - to sell it and get the most for it. Now the first question that you have to ask yourself when you are selling your car is -How fast I need the money and how much time I am ready to invest? There are 2 ways to sell your car. The fastest one is to sell it to a dealer or some of the companies that buy used cars as Carvana, CarMax, Vroom etc. The money that you will receive will be less than the retail value but if your car is in good shape the cut will not be that big. The second way is to do it by yourself selling the car on the street. You will probably get more money instead of selling it to a dealer but this process is way more challenging and time consuming. If you choose this way you have to be ready to invest several weeks at least in order to sell the car. Here are the actions that you have to take in order to sell your car privately:
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First and most important - DO NOT BE LAZY! That means that you have to invest a lot of time and efforts to sell your car! If you thing that your car will sell by it self while you are just sitting on the couch you are wrong! The very first thing that you have to do is to clean your car. As a person that works in this business and who is appraising a ton of cars on a monthly basis I am shocked to see cars that are coming in dirty and full with all kind of trash or stains on the seats and the leather. I have been seen everything - masks hanging on the rear view mirror, stains from coffee, blood and God knows what else on the door panels, leather seats, dashboard etc. This is totally unacceptable and disgusting! We are in a pandemic! Make sure that your car is clean inside and outside and throw away all the trash. The other people are not obligated to see it/touch it and get infected with any kind of disease just because you are lazy! After you clean your car spend time to take some good pictures. At least 15-20 pictures! This way your potential buyers will have a way better idea how your car looks like and you will save a ton of time meeting people who will come and see something that is not shown on pictures that they will not like and will run a way. Take a picture of the exterior form all the possible angles, interior from the position of front and rear doors so the seats are perfectly visible, the dashboard while the car is running so people can see the real mileage and if the car has any service lights on it. A picture of the middle console where is the screen of the multimedia, picture of the front tires so people can see how good is the tread, picture of ANY damage on the car. Once you are done with the pictures spend some time to thing about a good description of the car. There is nothing worse than an add with only 2 words on it that I see every day on Craigslist/Facebook and that pisses me off! The description should include everything - what has been done on the car, if the car had any accidents in the past, what needs to be done on the car, how many keys do you have, does the vehicle has a payoff etc. As many information you put in the add lesser the questions will be from possible customers. In order for you to provide a good description my advice is to get your car inspected by a licensed mechanic who will be able to determine what needs to be done asap. You need to do that in order to avoid any surprises with buyers.
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Forget about the words -"I don`t want to waste my time". You are selling your car! It does not matter if you are doing this privately or for living but you have to understand that if you want to get the best offer for your car you have to work for the sale! That means you have to spend time answering phone calls, text messages and emails. You have to invest time to see as many buyers as possible! Do not turn down people who can`t come to your place! Even more - meet them somewhere away from your house! You don`t know what kind of person will come to look at the car. Do it in a public parking or a police station. Even if its necessary to travel 20,30, 40 miles from your home do it! Because you never know if this buyer will not be the one that will outbid seriously every other buyer that you have and will give you the best offer! One of the things that I am hearing when I am contacting sellers is "I don`t want to drive because you are 30 minutes away from me". Completely wrong! Meet every prospect that calls you for the car! Do not ask people how much are they willing to give you for the car or to give you a certain offer before they can even see the car. It is not professional and not good at all. You will push them away from your car! Remember your car is not the only one on the market and you have to convince the buyer to buy it, not him to convince you to sell it because the buyers have other options!
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Said the above - be ready to meet all kind of people. Everybody is trying to avoid tire kickers but this is impossible! Leave your prejudice behind the door of your house and show the car to every possible car buyer. Get ready to get a lot of no shows. Believe or not people are rootless. They are selfish and don`t care that you took time off from work or family to show them the car so they don`t feel obligated to call you when they are not coming in. The other part of the people will show, drive the car and will give you a stupid low offer. Get use to it. It is part of the business. But don`t give an attitude to the next buyer just because the previous one was a complete jerk. The simple statistics shows that only 50% of the appointments that you have will possibly show and 33% of them will be willing to buy your car. So you have 33% chance to close a deal. In order this to happen you will need at least 20 people to contact you, 10 to schedule an appointment, 5 to show so you can sell it to one.
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Price your car appropriate! There are multiple tools on internet that can help you to determine the price of your car and what is a good offer. Make sure to check how many cars as yours are for sale within 50 miles radius, how many of them are sold by dealers, are they certified and make sure that your offer is at least couple thousand dollars bellow the dealers offers and is similar to other private offers! One of the mistakes that people do when they are trying to sell their car is to let the emotions determine the price. This is wrong. Also do not price the car based on what your pay off is! Your car value is not your loan! Its either greater than that or lower than that! In very rare cases is close to it.
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Always allow customers to test drive your car! Make sure that you bring somebody else with you as well for safety. Make a copy of customer`s DL for your protection as well. If something seems to be fishy back out immediately. If a customer wants to test drive the car by it self do not allow it!
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Make sure that the paperwork of the car is up to date and you have the title. If the customer wants to pay with check make sure that you finish the transaction in your bank and ask for cashier`s check. Once the check goes trough you are good. If customer pay with cash again go to the bank together where you can deposit the money. In this case you will know for sure if the bills are real and not fake.
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DO NOT FALL on sob stories. People will come to you trying to get the car for cheap and will use all kind of sob stories to do it.
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Be honest when you are selling your car! Do not hide any damage during the initial call with every buyer nor mechanical issue! Same for accidents or damages! Get a CarFax/Autocheck report. It costs only 40 dollars but will save you a lot of headache! If there is a damage on the carfax and it says moderate/heavy with multiple sides of the car damaged do not downgrade it to "Oh it was only a scratch on the door I don`t know why CarFax says this". People are not stupid. Also they will bring the car to their mechanic and this guy will find what the real damage was so that customer will run away from you and if you are listing your car on Facebook this customer can even comment there and make sure that you never sell the car. The power of the internet is unlimited. Do not underestimate any repairs that need to be done on the car. People are sick of hearing the " It needs a water pump but its a cheap fix - 100 dollars for the part" or "It has a couple minor dents that will cost you $100 dollars to fix if you want" when actually the reality is that the water pump will cost close to 1000 with parts and labor and same for the "minor" dents that will turn to be a nice big 10" dent on your quarter panel with chipped paint that needs hours of body work and a new paint to prevent it from corrosion. Speaking of corrosion make sure that your car is not rusted! If the car has rust ANYWHERE make sure that you state this in your add or when you talk to your buyers.
Those are the steps that people fail to follow when they are selling their cars from my experience. I hope you find this post for useful. If you have any more questions please let me know! Will be glad to answer!
I am looking at selling my vehicle (most likely via FB marketplace) and I want to know the best course of action as a seller. Should I make sure there are all possible improvements made to my car (eg. the car is going to need new tires soon- should I just leave them or invest in a new set?)? How much information should I ask potential buyers? How transparent should I be about any potential issues with the car?
I have never sold a vehicle before so any advice is appreciated!
EDIT: I will be asking any questions surrounding insurance and transferring the title of the vehicle in another subreddit, but thank you to everyone mentioning this!
I have a car listed on Facebook Marketplace. But are there other options you guys like as well?