Where to sell a Roadster?

[mookhead]

My MS is chugging its way through production, so its time to put my little roadster up for adoption

Any advice on where to list? It looks like carguru, ebay, craiglist are where most roadsters a listed. Shift seems lightly attended.

Also, is consignment something I should consider?

edit: of course, I'd list it here too

 

[gregd]

I got mine through Shift. eBay and Craigslist are too sketchy for my taste, especially considering the kind of vehicle the Roadster is. Too many fraud listings to trust the honest ones.

 

[ViviV]

I bought mine through consignment at a Luxury and Exotic Car Dealer. But I looked everywhere including TMC, eBay, AutoTrader, CarGuru, and Shift.

 

[AEdennis]

My MS is chugging its way through production, so its time to put my little roadster up for adoption

Any advice on where to list? It looks like carguru, ebay, craiglist are where most roadsters a listed. Shift seems lightly attended.

Also, is consignment something I should consider?

edit: of course, I'd list it here too

We picked ours up through Tesla as a CPO vehicle...

Trade it in for the Model S?

 

[mookhead]

For what Tesla will give me as trade in, I'd rather keep it

Good advice, thank you all.

 

[AEdennis]

For what Tesla will give me as trade in, I'd rather keep it

Good advice, thank you all.

Talk to those that have gone from Roadster to S and back... @DeedWest comes to mind...

We went CPO Roadster, then S...

 

[tenstringer009]

Anxious to see what you end up listing it for. Green + tan is an awesome combo and I've been debating whether to really get a Model 3 or just go for the Roadster (I'd like to have a convertible in my stable...).

Anyway, GLWS whenever you decide to list it.

 

[gregd]

Anxious to see what you end up listing it for. Green + tan is an awesome combo and I've been debating whether to really get a Model 3 or just go for the Roadster (I'd like to have a convertible in my stable...).

Anyway, GLWS whenever you decide to list it.

For what it's worth, my original plan was to get a M3 in a few years, after I retired and such. But I knew in my heart that I wanted the Roadster, so I had a search tab open in my browser. Every so often, I'd hit "refresh"...

Long story short, the Roadster is sitting in my garage. Very happy I did that.

 

[mookhead]

Over in the lotus forums, there is something called the lotus "bounce", where you sell your lotus after driving it for years, then buy another lotus a year or so later. Then you sell it again, when you remember why you sold in the first place

In my case, I daily drove an Elise for 8 years, sold it, then bought the roadster. It's brought me nothing but joy, but basically I've been driving the same car since 2005 (in terms of dynamics, anyway). The MS will be my 'baseline' car, and I'll add something trackable later. Knowing myself, I'll regret it the instant I hand over the keys, though...

 

[DeedWest]

LOL @AEdennis. You caught me.

I did indeed sell my Roadster, "trip and fall" into a Model S for a great deal, but did not fall in love with it. That's not to say I don't find the Model S to be the greatest car ever made, but my passion is invested heavily in the Roadster and has been for years.

I'll probably get an S as the "practical" car when my life demands that I need a practical car on the side, & something to drive in the rain / with family. Or, to be clearer: after I have my planned 2-3 Roadsters in the garage.

I also wish I were kidding...

 

[NicholasJB]

I was going to post this same question. I've had mine up for sale for two months or so with some interest, but nothing serious yet. I know it's not the optimal time of year to sell and it takes a while to find a buyer in any case, but I'd hate to miss a potential interested party if it can be helped.

I'll add one more place to list the car that I didn't see anyone mention: Cars.com. The listing is free and according to the activity stats I've gotten more views there than I have on Auto Trader.

Has anyone tried Auto Trader Classic? I wasn't about to pay double just to get it listed there as I figured anyone serious would search both AT sites, but I'm starting to wonder if it might have been worthwhile.

 

[ElectricLove]

I've sold my Roadsters (2) via eBay... Didn't get "top-dollar" but did get a lot of exposure across the country; of course both of them ended up in California... I miss them dearly! But I drive a Model S now and need it for hauling stuff around for business...

 

[mookhead]

Fwiw, I listed my car here, cargurus and Craigslist. Over the course of 3 weeks, I got 2 queries from each. The most serious were from here, but it eventually sold to a craigslist buyer.

 

[NicholasJB]

Fwiw, I listed my car here, cargurus and Craigslist. Over the course of 3 weeks, I got 2 queries from each. The most serious were from here, but it eventually sold to a craigslist buyer.

Good suggestion. I just listed my car on Craigslist. It'll be interesting to see if it garners any interest. I wouldn't have expected it to as you usually need to go pretty far outside your area to find a Roadster, making CL too hard to search due to its local nature I would think.

I tried CarGurus based on the comments in this thread too. I'm underwhelmed so far. Traffic is minimal compared to AT and Cars.com, but that may be because of their "instant market value" algorithm. Mine is the cheapest 2.5 listed nationwide on CG, AT, or Cars.com, but CG lists me as $20,000 over market I guess because it lumps 1.5s, 2.0s, and 2.5s together. Very frustrating...

 

[Msjulie]

I wonder if geography plays a part in this - is the greatest concentration on the west coast, both cars and potential buyers?

 

[mookhead]

I had 2 pings from outside CA, but the bulk were from west coast (as was the buyer).

 

[NicholasJB]

I wonder if geography plays a part in this - is the greatest concentration on the west coast, both cars and potential buyers?

I think so. Almost all of the Roadsters that I've seen listed for sale are in California.

So far I've received three responses that were interested in my car. One was through the Tesla Service Center in Cleveland, one was from Virginia, and one was from Washington. So 33% of the responses for my roadster posted for sale in Pittsburgh, PA have been from the west coast!

 

[Kerios]

In the UK, Tesla seem to have a list of individuals interested in procuring a Roadster, irrespective of location. I don't imagine Tesla operate a global sourcing network for them, but might be worth talking with the regional office and seeing if they have idea of potential purchasers elsewhere.