How do I sell a car?
Found a few threads on buying cars and I'm reading though them. Looking for advice on how to sell one.
- Should I?
I've got a GM vehicle that's just under 10 years ago, but I don't like it. It's got so many more tiny things wrong with it than my previous cars (20 year old corolla, driven into the ground; 15 year old caravan, totalled; 30 years old Buick that gave up the ghost).....I feel like I already got the "best" years out of this GM vehicle and it's all going to be downhills from here. Am I being irrational and should I just keep driving it until it's irreparable, even if the repairs feel more and more frequent and surprising? Essentially I don't have any confidence in this vehicle and I would like to get rid of it and try again with a Honda or Toyota.
- How?
If I'm selling it, how do I lose less money doing so? Dealerships feel like snake pits to me. Craigslist/Kijiji/Facebook? Do locations matter? Can I sell a car to a dealership in a different province?
Ive sold about 40 of my own.
Edit: For Canadian car pricing, VMRCanada.com is easiest to use and pretty accurate (and free), autotrader.ca is skewed towards dealer pricing but not bad, Cargurus.ca is helpful, and Canadian Black Book is most accurate but is subscription only now. If you have a friend at a dealership sometimes they will just give you the 'black book' price. Your car will likely be in between the 'fair' and 'good' pricing.
Gonna print this out and use it as a checklist if I don't end up just driving it into a dealership. Thank you
You also gave good advice about proper buying etiquette here too, double thanks
To be honest I've bought two cars and sold one where I/the seller opened with an offer, said they'll stick to the price if everything checks out OK, asked whatever questions before going, and then picked it up with zero issues. Cleanest and best buying experiences I've had, but that was with enthusiast cars where people were more open to talking about the history.
Agreed, if someone has a hard limit I'd prefer they communicate that before taking my time for a test drive. But then I'm pretty firm on price in person if we've set an expectation ahead of time. I also take someone more seriously if they have questions ahead of time because it demonstrates they're doing research and seriously considering the vehicle.
The flip side is if I someone messages just asking to see the vehicle... well sure but I'm going to be less flexible with my schedule. Chances are they'll show up, drive it and hope I accept a lower offer in person.
I've bought/sold 7 vehicles on craigslist. I've never had a bad experience but it does feel like the wild west. As a pretty "big" guy I feel safe and people are less likely to bully me. I would recommend caution, meet at a police station or have your own bodyguard around.
The easiest way to get rid of a car is to trade in it. Zero hassle. You walk into a dealership, you say "I want that one" (it can be pre-owned, I've never bought new) and they "estimate your trade-in value", and you get that discounted off your purchase price. Takes zero time, takes zero effort. You'll get ripped off, but ... it's done.
The other way I've sold cars is via Craigslist, or Marketplace, or Kijiji, depending on your location. Take lots of pics. Good pics. Put effort into your ad. Find out what prices are out there, do some research, and post it. It's pretty easy, but Marketplace is a nightmare of "is it available?" It's probably a nicer experience if you have a good vehicle. If you have a generic GM you might find lots of annoying buyers. I sold a dresser that nearly drove me to insanity; this is why I give away my cars for trade-in value.
Detailing / cleaning the car very well will help. List the issues honestly, and when you sell, you can meet at police stations if you're scared of being car-jacked. One thing is to be patient; you can sell the most bizarre, niche vehicle, but that means finding the single person in the country that wants it, maybe. This can be hard when you're selling your daily driver.
I believe you can sell a car to anyone, but you'll sell it IN your province. Like you'll have a bill of sale for your province, e.g. BC, because you'll do a registration transfer or something at an insurance place. The new owner can take that to Alberta for example, and get the car registered. Not your problem. You definitely want to get documentation saying you sold it. Call your insurer or registry so that you're clear what the official method is. Don't just "give the car away" for cash. You don't want it associated with your name in any way!
I don't think any of my post was useful, tbh, but best of luck :) I love buying cars, haha.
Oh dear....that sounds obvious now that you put it down on text but...... So it's not like selling trinkets on Craigslist. :/ it sounds dumb but that was very helpful ........ I vaguely recall some kind of paperwork when I bought that Buick for $900 but it was so long ago and just the one time I can see myself forgetting entirely.
I guess it does come down to how much I don't want to get ripped off and how much my stress is worth
[Edit: found sample quote prices on Clutch and Canadian car max style sites. Wish we had CarMax]
What model is it? That isn't very high mileage. If it runs and only has minor issues it will likely sell private party for much more than 3k with some patience.
Spend a lot of time on Craigslist, and make a spreadsheet of the ads you see, at what mileage, price, condition, etc. It really won't take you long to get an absolutely rock-solid sense of what your car is worth. Look in nearby cities if you're not seeing enough ads.
You aren't going to get ripped off in a private sale, but the effort can be ... a lot. Keep in mind you can just go to a dealer, e.g. find a nice pre-owned Honda you want, go to that dealer, and ask them for their trade-in value. They'll take it yours out back, and give you a quote. For free. You tell them ok I need to think about it.
I did that with my truck, their price was laughably bad, and I said damn that sucks and left.
I’m in the US so things may be a little different from Canada.
Yes, you should probably sell a car that is close to 10 years or 100k miles especially if isnt a well maintained dependable vehicle (ie. Honda Civic).
Selling you a private party gets you more money but is more of a hassle. You can get a sense of the cars value using online tools like Kelley blue book. If you chose to do a trade in, make sure to negotiate the price of the “new” car separately from the trade in. You’ll need an idea of what each is worth and will have to get avoid the confounding tactics the dealers use to wear you down.
There’s a “middle ground” between trade in and private party, which is the larger used car companies like CarMax and Carvanna. It has all of the convenience and usually pays a little more than a straight trade in to a dealership. They also help by giving you an estimated value you can work with. And you can also chose to just sell the car to them (and buy from someone else).
I haven’t sold private party in a long time, but I’d imagine there are a lot of scams out there akin to a seller paying with a check that will bounce (or a check that is larger than your asking and having you send back the difference via wire transfer). Be skeptical of anything that feels odd.
Always meet in person, ask for ID (take a picture) and make the transfer at a bank with the teller. Sign a bill of sale and the pink slip (title), make sure you mail out the sale portion of the title to the DMV to remove custody of the vehicle within 7 days. Remove the car from your insurance.
Question re: 100k -- should I not even be looking at used vehiclea above 100k mileage then?
Note to self 100k miles = 160k km, and mine is at 66500 miles.
Sorry, yeah I meant 100k miles. 66.5k miles is still generally okay in my experience. Could probably get another 2-3 years out of it. You could consider taking it to a reputable mechanic to get a general inspection, that way you could see if there are any major repairs in the horizon.
Great advice in this thread. I'll just chime in with my quick recommendation:
Find a Carmax near you and ask for a quote on your car. Takes like 15-30 mins and they'll give you an offer good for the next week. In my experience, they usually offer WAY more than regular dealerships. You don't have to take that offer though, but at least now you have a floor. You can try to sell it for more to an independent party (via craigslist or fb marketplace or whatever other marketplace you like). Or if you're in a hurry and/or your car is falling apart and you're worried that it might not last much longer than that extra week, you can take the offer and rest assured knowing you didn't get completely ripped off.
That's really good and I wish we had that kinda thing here. We have similar apps (?) But probably not as good
Oh if you're talking about Carmax, they're a used car dealership. You might be thinking of Carvana which is similar but more online and app-based. And not to be confused with Carfax which is a company that provides info on used cars that you are looking to buy. I can see how it would be confusing...
But yeah, my recommendation is to find a Carmax near you and then get a base price from them. The others probably do a similar thing, but I have not personally used them so can't vouch for them like I can with Carmax.
I've bought and sold about eight cars in the past decade, seven bought/sold private and one through a dealer. Apologies as this is all a US perspective, but:
You can always throw it at Canada Drives or dealers in your area to see what they'd give you; maybe inventory sucks and they're desperate. But since this isn't a newer car, IMO do not sell it to a dealership unless you're going to significantly benefit from any tax incentives or you're absolutely desperate to have uninterrupted car access. Yes, it's an NPC GM shitbox - I'm looking at a 2014 Traverse as an example. In the US a dealer will give you a $1500 offer or whatever saying it'll go to auction, and you can probably get at least $4000 on that private. They'll run you around as long as they can unless you plan on buying from them, and even then if you trade in for a car they have then they'll do whatever they can to double-dip on the value of both cars. You'll find someone who will give you more privately, and I guarantee the couple of hours of derpy Facebook Marketplace conversations are worth it for the at least $1000 extra you'd make, if not way more. Take the extra you make off the private sale and put that towards the new car; don't trust a dealer to do that for you. Only time I ever sold to a dealer was to Carmax on a 2 y/o CX-5 that I had financing on; the offer made sense and I figured it was way easier for them to figure that out than a private seller.
I find KBB US has been useless in values, and when I ran my CX-5 I got shitty offers plus dealer email and call spam for months. Look on FBM/CL/KJJ at other listings for the same model and make a little spreadsheet linking miles and price to clean examples you find, then place your price around what the trend line tells you. As u/time_and_tildes mentioned a good detail really helps make a car pop in an ad. Get around 4-6 external shots, a good view of the interior, the back with the trunk empty and open, and a shot behind the wheel with the dash showing the mileage if you can. (I believe something about that last one helps people imagine driving it, but that's pure speculation...) Anyway, then you post it and prepare for the "Hi, is this available?" "$1000" "does it come with blinker fluid" onslaught. After doing this dozens of times I bluntly don't give rude or people with poor communication the time of day, buying or selling. Eventually someone will come through.
Keep your floor in mind when someone comes to look at it, and be flexible if you're not desperate, but don't be afraid to walk away from prospective deals if you seem to have interest in the car.
The last time I asked a dealership how much they would buy my car for they told me they would give me $500 for it. I could have easily gotten $2000 for it but sold it for a discount because I wanted to get rid of the hassle of storing it securely.
Haha yeah I remember back in 2000s one dealership offered to pay recycling fees on my caravan. When someone ran into it some years later we got paid $6000.
Lol @ marketplace - it's such a wild place....
Since you mentioned Canada Drives, I tried that one and a few others like Clutch - the quotes are all over the place but it'll give me a better floor than whatever the dealer's going to offer :)
Many thanks
Any advice on how much dealership prices could move? Or use the same thing and reverse search quotes and that's fairly accurate?
They'll typically only budge a bit (like a couple hundred dollars) to make the customers feel like they got their deal. It's their bread and butter, unfortunately they're gonna do whatever they can to make as much as they can on both ends. Anchor both the offer and the trade-in value early based on your research so the couple hundred they want to knock off or tack on don't hurt as much. Again, you won't have to deal with them on half of that if you sell private. Walk wherever you don't like the terms, and feel like you can waste their time - theirs is money, but yours is whatever you want it to cost.
That's good to know. If it's only couple hundred and start from the premise of mine to lose, then I don't want to step into their building and talk to them at all. Entire experience just feels ick. So glad there's no haggle online platforms now.