Selling your car, what method do you use?

[DaveyF]

I'm trying to sell the wife's '05 Honda Odyssey right now. Put ad on Craigslist and the usual tire kickers and other assorted characters have shown up... No luck.
Any good experiences selling a used vehicle, what system or method have you used
Car Max an option if you want a fair price

 

[cjfrbw]

I used to have really good luck selling several used cars in the Auto Trader publications and cragslist.
It seems that in the last six years or so, as the con artists and scammers have really come out of the woodwork and infested the internet, that it has become harder to sell that way because you have to sift through so many bogus, cretinish cons to get the few people who want a car.
Economics seems to play a part, there have been times when low mileage used cars and new cars have been competitive in price.
My last car, a 1995 Infiniti Q45, was very difficult to sell online compared to my many successful earlier sales. I had to keep posting it periodically every couple of months, it accumulated an additional 30,000 miles, then finally one person came over and paid cash for it for cheap just before I was considering donating it, but it did have over 125K miles at that time.

 

[flez007]

Dave, I usually end-up selling my cars to relatives or friends at the same price that the car shop taks it to make some profit, after all these years I haveba standing line out thete

 

[DaveyF]

Interestingly the wife's car is in great shape and with low miles. We need a different vehicle, which is why we are selling. Used to be that Craigslist was a great source for selling used cars, now I have no clue, as the comment that cjfrbw seems to be the standard on the web now.
Fernando, Selling to a relative isn't an option unfortunately..

 

[cjfrbw]

Bear in mind the sad corollary that in large urban areas, you should be very careful where you display your cars to potential buyers, as craigslist has been the venue for harder core muggers to lure prey to areas where they can be robbed and even murdered.

 

[amirm]

Last car I sold personally was a Honda and it was through putting a sign up on the bulletin board at the health club! Got top dollar for it and only 2-3 interested calls about it. Another alternative is to advertise at work. While I worked at Microsoft, that was pretty effective.

These days, I turn it in to the dealership as you get a refund on your sales tax relative to the new car you are buying (not every state does it this way though). Once you include that, the difference between selling it yourself and trading it in is not that large.

That said, Honda is usually pretty easy to sell, especially the minivan. So I would try some of the options above if they fit your situation.

 

[DaveyF]

Amir, tell me more about the incentive in WA regarding the sales tax on trade-in. Here in Calif, the state is basically broke, BUT i would think that this is a good idea for the local car industry.

 

[amirm]

Here is the way it works. Let's say you want to buy a new car for $30K and your trade is worth $10K. In WA and in FL (two places I have lived which have this law), if you turn in your car to the dealer, you only pay sales tax on the difference which in our case would be 8% * 20K. In that sense, you are saving 8% * 10K or $800 in taxes for the new car. So you would have to sell the trade in for $10,800 to break even with what the dealer gives you.

The only cars I sold myself were when I lived in CA since they didn't provide the above incentive. In both FL and WA as noted, you can do that and given the hassle of selling a car yourself, that is enough to entice one to just trade it in and be done with it.

 

[DaveyF]

Amir, sometimes i don't know why I live in Calif...
This is the first time I have heard of an incentive like that, BUT it seems to make great sense
and I would do exactly the same as you did,if I lived in a state that offered this incentive.
BTW, Here in my area of S.Calif the sales tax is 8.75% and the locals are trying to increase that asap. Even with the high sales tax, they are still broke--go figure!

 

[Gregadd]

Amir, sometimes i don't know why I live in Calif...

I don't live there, but they sing songs about the pretty girls and lack of rain.

 

[DaveyF]

Greg, oddly this year in S.Calif...NOT much sun, BUT plenty of sunshine tax

 

[amirm]

Well, if I lived in La Jolla, CA, I would know why I live there and pay the high taxes . I lived in San Diego for short 9 months and really enjoyed it. Areas of La Jolla with view of the water are incredible.

When I lived in Bay Area and paid my huge mortgage payments, I would tell out of towners that half of my mortgage payment paid for the weather!

But I hear you about strange weather this year. My other business partner is in LA and it has been strange to fly there from Seattle and find the weather just as cool if not colder this summer (sans the heatwave last week).