• Welcome to OGBoards 10.0, keep in mind that we will be making LOTS of changes to smooth out the experience here and make it as close as possible functionally to the old software, but feel free to drop suggestions or requests in the Tech Support subforum!

Selling a used car

T

thatguy2016

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 8, 2017
Messages
10,910
Reaction score
3,919
I have very little experience buying/selling used cars - my life experience has been to buy new cars and drive them forever.

Right now, with my son graduating college, we are potentially selling a used car with a decent Kelley Blue Book value (KBB says it's worth $11k), and helping him purchase a new car.

My tentative strategy is the same it's been for every beater I've ever sold, which is:

1. Take it to CarMax and get a quote
2. Take that quote to the new dealer and use as leverage for trade-in value

Any thoughts on what I should expect Carmax/dealer to offer as a percentage of KBB value? I understand used cars may be at a historical high point in value right now.

Thanks for any insight.
 
thatguy2016 said:
I have very little experience buying/selling used cars - my life experience has been to buy new cars and drive them forever.

Right now, with my son graduating college, we are potentially selling a used car with a decent Kelley Blue Book value (KBB says it's worth $11k), and helping him purchase a new car.

My tentative strategy is the same it's been for every beater I've ever sold, which is:

1. Take it to CarMax and get a quote
2. Take that quote to the new dealer and use as leverage for trade-in value

Any thoughts on what I should expect Carmax/dealer to offer as a percentage of KBB value? I understand used cars may be at a historical high point in value right now.

Thanks for any insight.
Click to expand...

I would let the dealer give you a trade-in quote before you share the Carmax value on the chance they might come in higher. I'd also strongly recommend getting it detailed before you take it in for appraisal.
 
leftcoastdeac said:
I would let the dealer give you a trade-in quote before you share the Carmax value on the chance they might come in higher. I'd also strongly recommend getting it detailed before you take it in for appraisal.
Click to expand...

I would agree with this
 
at 11k of value, you might be able to get an extra $3-4k by selling it yourself. Definitely worth putting an ad online and seeing if you get any interest - use the "private party" price on KBB and remember that you're in a sellers market. I have done this a couple of times and it's not that hard, and you can definitely take the profit that the dealer is otherwise getting.

And get it detailed before showing it.
 
leftcoastdeac said:
I would let the dealer give you a trade-in quote before you share the Carmax value on the chance they might come in higher. I'd also strongly recommend getting it detailed before you take it in for appraisal.
Click to expand...

I did this when I bought my last car. Got the dealer to come up a lot because I was ready to walk (didn’t NEED a new car at the time).

Now our most recent car purchase I just sold the old car to car max since we weren’t trading it in. I tried taking it to dealers but if you’re not buying from them they low ball you. Car max beat them.
 
DeacDiggler said:
at 11k of value, you might be able to get an extra $3-4k by selling it yourself. Definitely worth putting an ad online and seeing if you get any interest - use the "private party" price on KBB and remember that you're in a sellers market. I have done this a couple of times and it's not that hard, and you can definitely take the profit that the dealer is otherwise getting.

And get it detailed before showing it.
Click to expand...

This is what I do, too. It is not that much work, or inconvenience for money saved.

When advice from the pro's is always sell your own car, get your own financing arranged before car shopping. Dealerships have two ways to make money off you: in the new car price (and financing), and in the trade-in. To get the best deal, you need to remove these opportunities from them.
 
from my cousin, ex car dealer: i don't think having it detailed matters for shit. Unless there are crazy stains everywhere they can detail it themselves and are more likely to just send it to auction. They already know the value. I'd certainly clean it but def not pay someone to detail it.
 
Cars are so suburban. You people are awful.
 
Carvana offered me 70% more than the dealer. Check them out
 
RattlerDeac said:
Carvana offered me 70% more than the dealer. Check them out
Click to expand...

Yeah definitely look at Carvana. We got offered $17k on a trade-in from the dealership, got a Carvana offer at $21k, then got the dealership to match it and add their $1k bonus incentive they were doing for trade-ins a month ago. Granted it was for a Forester which has in high demand on the used car market, but the Carvana offer was significantly higher than Carmax which is what we used for leverage last time we considered doing a trade-in.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top