Most success with selling a vehicle

[Artfuldodger]

I recently purchased a 2011 Acadia with a bit more mileage (136k), but in excellent ++ condition. Not sure what you have yours listed for, but I paid $6600 cash for it knowing that the previous owner had kept it serviced regularly and that it also had quality newer tires on it (like 5k). Pic below.

The car it replaced had zero serious offers from "Autotrader" in a month and one serious buyer from having a FS sign in the window in the driveway. Wife put it in FB thingy and we got 50 messages in 48hrs and I sold it to the first caller for 100% asking price, cash.


View attachment 940887

Wow, that was a really good price.

 

[Artfuldodger]

Lol. That's his

Oh, OK. He didn't say he had tried Craigslist yet.

I'd probably leave it at that price for week at least.

 

[mattech]

I saw a few on Craigs list. Doesn't appear to be a popular vehicle. The one's I saw, one in Forsyth, and a few in other cities were listed for $10,500.

I like NADA better as that is what my credit union uses. I would also agree with Miguel that on most vehicles the trade in cost is more reasonable in real life.
That is unless it is a more popular SUV like a 4runner. Then you'll more than likely get the private seller price.

I would think more people use Craig's list than any other listing. Autotrader is popular though as well.

Most of the private sellers on Craigslist are used car dealers. They drive the car to a nice neighborhood and take a photo. Maybe you could put in your add that you are in fact a private seller.

Here is one in Forsyth to compare;

https://macon.craigslist.org/cto/d/2011-gmc-acadia/6678207655.html

That is my ad. Lol

 

[mattech]

Oh, OK. He didn't say he had tried Craigslist yet.

I'd probably leave it at that price for week at least.

I didn't until last night after I opened this thread

 

[model88_308]

Ours is similar.


View attachment 940888

Looks better in silver....lol. Plus it would match my other two vehicles which are both silver...

Best of luck selling!!

 

[NOYDB]

You love it. That's why you bought it. Others might not think as highly of it. A car dealer putting the car in a parking lot with a sign is known as "kerbstoning it". Be aware that is your competition.

 

[mark-7mag]

It’s tough to sell vehicles like that on your own. There are too many similar choices out there. When someone sees those miles, even though that’s not a lot of miles, they think they should be able to buy it for a lot less. I always say “ a vehicles is worth what someone is willing to give you for it “.

 

[Artfuldodger]

You love it. That's why you bought it. Others might not think as highly of it. A car dealer putting the car in a parking lot with a sign is known as "kerbstoning it". Be aware that is your competition.

Weird but I always look at the background of the pictures of the car I'm buying. I like to see what the guys yard and house looks like. I try to get a feel on the owner to see if he was responsible to do the maintenance on it. Check out how clean their garage is and how well manicured their yard is.

You can kinda go from the pictures and from talking to the seller as well.
The neighborhood, house vs apartment, sellers occupation, etc.

I've seen some dealers take pictures in front of a house in a nice neighborhood as well.

 

[transfixer]

The trick to figuring out dealers on CL is if the car is parked in a parking lot out by itself, or on a street by itself, its a dealer, no tag on car, or pictures taken where you can't see the bumper, its likely a dealer, if its in a yard with other cars , or driveway with other cars its likely an individual, if the interior pictures of the car reveal no personal items its likely a dealer,

First question to always ask, " How long have you owned the car ? " if they say not long, move on to the next one as a rule. IF they've owned it a while and are simply upgrading, or downgrading , then its likely a decent vehicle, if they've only owned it a few months and now want to sell it there is probably a reason, beware!

 

[Wycliff]

Carmax

 

[NOYDB]

Take the car for trade in. Let the professionals tell you what the price would be. The general manager has done it for years, and monitors the market daily. Then you will know how to price it and when you get a good offer.

Of course if you encounter a real salesman you may drive home with a new vehicle.

 

[poohbear]

Look at Carvanna I sold 2011 Camaro to them and it was real simple just post online the details and they will write back a offer and if you accept they will show with a rollback and a check and deal is done. And I may add they give a real decent offer too. And I don't have to deal with tire kickers and joy riders.

 

[Artfuldodger]

Look at Carvanna I sold 2011 Camaro to them and it was real simple just post online the details and they will write back a offer and if you accept they will show with a rollback and a check and deal is done. And I may add they give a real decent offer too. And I don't have to deal with tire kickers and joy riders.

One could at least get an offer from them to compare the owner's selling price against.

Like Carvanna, Carmax will give you a price for buying your car if you drive it to them.

 

[Artfuldodger]

Take the car for trade in. Let the professionals tell you what the price would be. The general manager has done it for years, and monitors the market daily. Then you will know how to price it and when you get a good offer.

Of course if you encounter a real salesman you may drive home with a new vehicle.

Do the dealerships actually give you a fair trade in price? I've always been told they don't and that's why people go through the hassle of selling it themselves.

I've bought a lot of used cars from dealerships but never traded one in. I do see a few advantages when buying a used car from a dealership. I'm talking about a dealer that has a garage and sells new cars as well.

They will usually repair minor things if you bargain that in the buying price. Dealers do all the paperwork for you. Then again they try to get about $300.00 for doing this.

 

[Artfuldodger]

Take the car for trade in. Let the professionals tell you what the price would be. The general manager has done it for years, and monitors the market daily. Then you will know how to price it and when you get a good offer.

Of course if you encounter a real salesman you may drive home with a new vehicle.

I didn't know they would do that until you had already started negotiating buying something. So they will give you a trade-in price even before you start looking to buy?
I guess you could say "I'm looking to buy a new car, what can you give me for this one?

Even if I was going to trade something in I wouldn't want the dealer to know it until we settled on the price of what I was buying. I wouldn't want to negotiate both prices at the same time.

I think dealers like to buy your car at a wholesale price and sell you another, even used car, at a retail price.

 

[mark-7mag]

I think dealers like to buy your car at a wholesale price and sell you another, even used car, at a retail price.

You don't say ? Is that how they make money ?

 

[Artfuldodger]

You don't say ? Is that how they make money ?

I do understand that but I'm not willing to accept a wholesale offer for my trade-in and expect to pay a retail price for a new vehicle.

We can go retail-retail or wholesale-wholesale but not wholesale-retail.
Maybe that's why I never trade anything in.

 

[NE GA Pappy]

I do understand that but I'm not willing to accept a wholesale offer for my trade-in and expect to pay a retail price for a new vehicle.

We can go retail-retail or wholesale-wholesale but not wholesale-retail.
Maybe that's why I never trade anything in.

Prolly so.

Why do dealers do that? You would think they actually have to pay someone to look the car over, fix the minor stuff, and detail it out. Then pay the overhead of having a brick and motar business.

They are in business to make money. If they don't, they don't stay in business long.
Think on that for a little while.


having said all that, I never trade on in unless the manufacturers are offering big $$ if you do. The last time I traded in a 95 Ford Taurus. The dealer allowed me $800 for it ( a fair price for a car with 150k in 2014) and then Ford gave me another $2500 off the truck (after I had negotiated my best price with the dealer)

I love to trade them in like that.

Oh yeah... I bought the Taurus back for my son to have a daily beater to drive to work for $900.

 

[model88_308]

On the last car I bought from a dealer (Car max) I brought a car I'd owned for over 8 yrs to check on trading in. I did some research online and decided on the lowest price I would accept as a trade. I test drove the couple cars I was interested in while they looked at my car. Their offer to me as a trade in was for $1500 more than my minimum and the fact that I traded instead of buying and then selling saved me $600 on sales tax.

 

[NE GA Pappy]

yep, that tax is a killer, ain't it?