Where to sell you old car now that you are getting an S

[rekoh]

Ok, so the S is ordered.. as I prepare for arrival, I am thinking of how to sell me old car. Ideally I would sell my old car and have the S delivered with 24hours of each other. I could take it to local dealerships that do offer to buy used, even if you are not purchasing from them (I imagine that will yield the lowest value). I could try to do ebay, carsoup, autotrader, cars, etc.com to essential go with an online classified ad, and hope that timing works out with a prospective buyer.

My question: Is there other companies (online?) that will do an appraisal of my old car and then buy it on a pre-determined date for a fair amount of $.

How have others here done it?

 

[jerry33]

My question: Is there other companies (online?) that will do an appraisal of my old car and then buy it on a pre-determined date for a fair amount of $.

How have others here done it?

The last time I traded, I just put a sign in the window and eventually someone purchased it. Of course, I could have just taken the $2000 offered by the dealer--except I told them that I'd rather take it to the junkyard than let them have it for that--so I sold it for $7000. No advertising but the sign in the window.

 

[carrerascott]

eBay really gets a lot of eyes -- sales rarely happen on ebay itself, but you will definitely get interested parties if you price is reasonable to what you are selling. I have 2 cars I'm selling to make room for the S, one is almost sold (buyer saw it on ebay), and the other I am preparing to put on ebay soon.

 

[dbanner]

Ok, so the S is ordered.. as I prepare for arrival, I am thinking of how to sell me old car. Ideally I would sell my old car and have the S delivered with 24hours of each other. I could take it to local dealerships that do offer to buy used, even if you are not purchasing from them (I imagine that will yield the lowest value). I could try to do ebay, carsoup, autotrader, cars, etc.com to essential go with an online classified ad, and hope that timing works out with a prospective buyer.

My question: Is there other companies (online?) that will do an appraisal of my old car and then buy it on a pre-determined date for a fair amount of $.

How have others here done it?

I usually list my cars online with autotrader.com, cars.com or the like. Private sales will yield the highest dollar. I've also sold to carmax with good success in the past. Stay away from stealerships unless you just want to dump it and don't care how much you get for it.

 

[Discoducky]

I'll be selling on Craigslist taking cues from other well written ads and being very cautious

 

[kevincwelch]

I've done it on Craigslist before. Good results. Buy yourself a prepaid cell phone and establish a credible but alternate email address with your name.

 

[Cattledog]

We went to Carmax and sold one of our ICE cars yesterday. The offer was reasonable and done in an hour, all in - inspection, offer, sale. I have had mixed results with private sales. I agree you'll almost always get more money, probably ranging from a little to a lot. A couple times, sales went off without a hitch, but my three most recent experiences did not (about a decade ago).

I had a 1967 Mercedes 230SL that I listed on Ebay. I had it inspected and posted the report in the listing, my mechanic checked it out, detailed. It sold for a good price, the guy drove over from Houston, didn't like something about it, walked. I can't remember why. I just had to then do it all over, took an extra few weeks and the second auction brought something like $500 less. Not a huge issue, but a moderate hassle.

I had VW Golf that I sold private as well, the people we sold it to did not register the car, ended up getting a couple things come to our house that we had to call on and fix - new registration, ticket I think.

Finally, we sold my wife's bachelorette Jeep. At the time it was probably a five year-old car. A co-worker found out we were selling it, loved it, wanted to buy it. BIG mistake. I told him to have it inspected, I told him it was my wife's car (we were recently married) so I knew almost nothing about it, I told him caveat emptor. At any rate, not even a big deal, after a few months it needed new brakes, and he came over to me and said, "I can't believe you sold me a car that needed new brakes". I was flabbergasted. Maybe he just said it to me, maybe to 20 other people I worked with, I don't know. At any rate, I didn't appreciate the implications of the comment, not a great experience.

Pick your poison. At this point in life I'll trade a few dollars (but not a zillion) for time, convenience, and peace of mind.

 

[eelton]

I sold my last car on eBay, and it went fine. My advice is to price the car competitively rather than trying to squeeze every last dollar out of it. In particular, a no-reserve auction will get a lot of attention (you can still set a baseline starting price, maybe 10-20% less than you feel the car is worth).

 

[jerry33]

Pick your poison. At this point in life I'll trade a few dollars (but not a zillion) for time, convenience, and peace of mind.

2.5X was enough to make the decision an easy one for me. And you can avoid the not-registering problem by going to the tax office with the purchaser (assumes the purchaser is local).

 

[bbmertz]

Take a look at this thread for others' trade-in experiences with AutoNation, CarMax, etc.:

Trade-in experience

 

[Trnsl8r]

I usually list my cars online with autotrader.com, cars.com or the like. Private sales will yield the highest dollar. I've also sold to carmax with good success in the past. Stay away from stealerships unless you just want to dump it and don't care how much you get for it.

...or donate it to charity and get a tax deduction.

 

[EarlyAdopter]

Around here there are several consignment places. This is a good middle ground between private party sale and dealership trade-in.

You pay them a fixed fee upon final sale of the car, maybe a small fee up front for photos depending on the consignment lot. They handle all the marketing, test drives, paperwork, registration transfer, loan payoff, and can even offer your buyer financing and trade-in. You approve any offer. Since they don't pay for the inventory they have more incentive to try to get you closer to blue book private party value, though of course they want to move the cars off the lot to get their commission so in practice you'll see somewhat less than private party value but well above dealer trade-in (which is going to just be wholesale).

If you don't mind waiting a few weeks to unload the car and paying for the convenience, it can be a good way to go and what I plan to do once my Model S arrives.

 

[joshuaeven]

My '09 370Z is at a local consignment dealer called Luxe Autohaus. Their cut is 10% plus some upfront cost for detail and wheel repair (curbing is an inevitability in Portland). They have a nice showroom of upscale cars.

 

[rogbmw]

Just sold my BMW on one of the BMW boards to a great guy. Now awaiting our S in a few weeks.

 

[interesting1]

Go to CarMax, get a 7-day quote, then list the car on Craiglist/Autotrader/Cars.com/whatever else you want for CarMax offer + a few thousand or more depending on your specific situation.

 

[Lightning Jeff]

Just thought I'd throw out my experience. I needed to offload my 2010 Jaguar XF Supercharged (48k miles) in preparation for receiving my Model S, as I don't need (and don't want to insure) two performance sedans. I was focused primarily on sale to a service (such as AutoNation) or a dealership, as I didn't want to deal with a private sale.

As usual, Kelly Blue Book, Edmunds and NADA had pretty variable numbers. I would rate the Jag's condition as between average and good/clean - impeccable interior, mechanically perfect, intact glass, but numerous chips and a couple of pretty good door dings, and a pretty badly scraped rear wheel. Going to the online appraisals, I got:

• KBB: $30,051 trade-in; $32,866 private sale
• Edmunds:
  • "Clean": $31,717 trade; $33,915 private
  • "Average": $28,413 trade; $30,460 private
• NADA:
  • "Clean": $35,375 trade
  • "Average": $33,400 trade

My sense is that KBB tends to be high at times, and that NADA is very high, because it's used to assess value for financing purposes. Edmunds generally seems to provide more realistic numbers.

I submitted the Jag to AutoNation, and about a day later received a "certified" offer of $24,100. This seemed very low, so I stopped by a nearby Chrysler dealership where I've done quite a bit of business in the past and asked them if they had any interest in it. Response: "Not at all." :biggrin: Took the longer drive over to the Jag dealership where I bought the car, and within a few minutes had an offer of $28k. With very minimal haggling, I got them to $30k (which had been my goal going in, figuring it was about halfway between the Edmunds Clean and Average numbers). I sold the Jag on the spot for $6k more than AutoNation offered.

Moral: While it's worth getting an offer from AutoNation and maybe others, if you're looking to avoid a private sale (or maybe still owe money on your "trade-in"), I highly recommend taking it to some dealerships. The 90 minutes or so I spent doing that was well worth the effort.

 

[yobigd20]

I sold mine on craigslist in less than 48 hours after I posted it. Posted it on a Friday. Sold it that Sunday. I listed it at the fair value for trade-in on KBB. Wanted to get rid of it. Couldn't get anything higher from any dealers. Buyer brought cash and that worked just fine with me.

 

[Sousaphil]

I just sold my Prius on Craigslist. I posted it Wednesday afternoon. Within two hours I scheduled two appointments for the following day. Yesterday I sold it for $5K more than the dealers were offering.

In the ad, I mentioned that I was "getting a Tesla and selling this car so I never have to pump gas again". That generated a ton of interest. Feel free to steal the line


Now my only problem is I had to get a weekly rental because I never thought my car would sell that fast.

Next week I'm going from a 4cylinder Chevy P.O.S. rental to a Tesla Model S. Now that's a performance delta.

 

[yobigd20]

Next week I'm going from a 4cylinder Chevy P.O.S. rental to a Tesla Model S. Now that's a performance delta.

I didn't think mine would go so fast either. I've been playing musical cars with my family. I did just buy my wife a brand new 2013 Ford Flex SL in November but she uses that to drive the kids around so I can't take that from her to commute daily. Fortunately my parents live next door so I have 4 other cars total to juggle around.

Most of the time I'm stuck with my mom's P.O.S. 4cylinder 2000 saturn with a broken AC, tires that don't hold air and constantly deflate back to 17psi, wipers that don't wipe, windows that are so dirty that when they are actually "clean" it's still hard to see through, 2 different 'service engine' warning lights plus a 'security'warning light (I guess the 2 different service engine lights are for "service soon" and "SERVICE NOW!!"), an electrical short that flickers all the internal lighting in the car on and off, and the worst is a busted catalytic converter and exhaust. It sounds like someone cut the entire exhaust off. Clearly she needs to get rid of that car. It's SOOOOO embarrassing to drive. I wear a hoodie and crouch down when I drive it. I considering renting in the meantime but it's free sooo kinda hard to pay for something I don't exactly need. (though I didn't certainly didn't use that rationale when I opted for a loaded performance 85kWh, haha). I'll be going from that to an Performance 85kWh lol. So yes, that's a huge performance delta too.

 

[ElSupreme]

Next week I'm going from a 4cylinder Chevy P.O.S. rental to a Tesla Model S. Now that's a performance delta.

I sold my car way too early. I borrowed my friends 16 year old Dodge Dakota pickup for 3 weeks (of driving). VW GTI to old Dodge Dakota to Model S. What a rollercoaster ride.

I personally cleared all my fault codes in my car. I had a tool but I am sure a competent shop will do this for you for $100 or so. Then sold it to CarMax, at night, in the rain, on a Sunday, an hour before they closed. My car came back 100% perfect in their little report. It was within $500 of the KBB private sell price for the actual condition the car was in.

I sold the car right off.