Author Topic: Recommended Platform To Sell A Used Car?  (Read 3790 times)

cool7hand

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Recommended Platform To Sell A Used Car?
« on: January 03, 2022, 07:30:56 AM »
Hey Mustachians!

We're in the post-FIRE process of going down to one car and selling the second. Based on a successful experience in 2016, we decided to use Autotrader. After two weeks, all we've had are responses from scammers or car dealerships. We thought that we should check in with this community to see if there's a better way to sell our car.

What online platform have others used to sell a car successfully? Please share your suggestions.

Thanks!

Morning Glory

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Re: Recommended Platform To Sell A Used Car?
« Reply #1 on: January 03, 2022, 07:33:35 AM »
I sold three cars and a tractor on Facebook marketplace last summer.  I had a few people who lowballed me or didn't show up, but the process was easy.

SailingOnASmallSailboat

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Re: Recommended Platform To Sell A Used Car?
« Reply #2 on: January 03, 2022, 07:42:28 AM »
We've sold 2 cars through word of mouth (posted on Facebook when we were ready to sell) and one via eBay. Bought 2 cars via Craigslist.

MasterStache

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Re: Recommended Platform To Sell A Used Car?
« Reply #3 on: January 05, 2022, 06:30:01 AM »
Try Carvana. Bad experience buying a car through them but sold 2 cars (one for more than we purchased it for) using Carvana. Super easy process. You can actually get a quote online and only takes a few minutes.  Just for fun I looked up what they would give us for my wife's Volt and they offered $6K more than what we paid. I realize car prices have skyrocketed but wow!!

chemistk

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Re: Recommended Platform To Sell A Used Car?
« Reply #4 on: January 05, 2022, 08:23:32 AM »
If you want top dollar, many individual buyers aren't looking at AutoTrader - you are probably better off listing it on FB Marketplace and/or Craigslist. Because of how hot the used market is, you're going to be getting a lot of junk inquiries regardless of where you list, though. The dealerships are pretty keen on trying to keep cars on the lot (even if they're used), so I'd imagine they're going to be the ones who hound you the most.

If you want a no-nonsense sale you'd do well by the previous recommendation for Carvana or you could also look at CarMax.

GreenSheep

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Re: Recommended Platform To Sell A Used Car?
« Reply #5 on: January 05, 2022, 09:54:09 AM »
If you want a no-nonsense sale you'd do well by the previous recommendation for Carvana or you could also look at CarMax.

I would second CarMax as a quick, easy, painless way to offload a car and get a reasonable price for it. I've done it twice. If I remember correctly, you can enter your car's information on their website and get a quote (sometimes... for one of my vehicles, it said I needed to take it in for them to physically look at it), and then you have a week or something like that to decide. Then you just show up and let them look it over and do some paperwork. It took half an hour or so last time I did it, about a year ago, and that was without having a quote from their website in advance.

RWD

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Re: Recommended Platform To Sell A Used Car?
« Reply #6 on: January 05, 2022, 10:19:19 AM »
At the very least you should get quotes from Carvana, Vroom, and/or CarMax to get a sense of the minimum you could settle for. Depending on these instant offers you may decide it isn't worth the hassle to try and get a little more via private party sale.

Sandi_k

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Re: Recommended Platform To Sell A Used Car?
« Reply #7 on: January 05, 2022, 11:03:09 AM »
I used Craigslist for my last two sales. The key is to NOT give a phone number - email only.

You can weed the scammers out VERY quickly that way.

For the truly interested, you can set one day as the sale day: "I am meeting with potential buyers starting at 10 am on Sunday. Cash only. What time would you like to be here?"

In both instances, a family came to see the car: one family looking for their older parent, and in the second instance, a daughter heading off to college.

I sold to the first person both times. Minimal hassle.

Keys to a quick sale: clean and detail it first. Gather all your maintenance documents. Take 8-10 pics, all four sides, interior and exterior. Advertise it as NON smoker car, clean title, maintenance records available, and if you're the first or second owner, note that as well.

cool7hand

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Re: Recommended Platform To Sell A Used Car?
« Reply #8 on: January 10, 2022, 09:05:11 AM »
Thanks everyone!

August26th

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Re: Recommended Platform To Sell A Used Car?
« Reply #9 on: January 19, 2022, 03:03:26 PM »
So how’d you end up selling it? Curious as to the platform that worked best for you.

cool7hand

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Re: Recommended Platform To Sell A Used Car?
« Reply #10 on: January 20, 2022, 09:57:48 AM »
Not sold yet. I got a refund from Autotrader. I'm now trying Craigslist.

iluvzbeach

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Re: Recommended Platform To Sell A Used Car?
« Reply #11 on: January 20, 2022, 10:55:10 AM »
I used Craigslist for my last two sales. The key is to NOT give a phone number - email only.

You can weed the scammers out VERY quickly that way.

For the truly interested, you can set one day as the sale day: "I am meeting with potential buyers starting at 10 am on Sunday. Cash only. What time would you like to be here?"

In both instances, a family came to see the car: one family looking for their older parent, and in the second instance, a daughter heading off to college.

I sold to the first person both times. Minimal hassle.

Keys to a quick sale: clean and detail it first. Gather all your maintenance documents. Take 8-10 pics, all four sides, interior and exterior. Advertise it as NON smoker car, clean title, maintenance records available, and if you're the first or second owner, note that as well.

The above is excellent advice. We’ve sold two cars in the past 18 months using a nearly identical process. In both instances we posted on FB Marketplace and Craigslist and both times it sold through Craigslist, and in less than 24 hours from the time the ad was posted. We’d follow this same process again, if we were looking to sell.

cool7hand

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Re: Recommended Platform To Sell A Used Car?
« Reply #12 on: February 28, 2022, 07:17:44 AM »
To close this loop, today we're selling our second car. While we got some traction on Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist, we had to wade through a lot of inquiries from people looking for a steal or, worse, scammers. The people looking for a steal try to lowball you via spam messages and then disappear when we don't play that game, while the scammers look to trick you out of electronic transfer information following promises of immediate payment of the asking price. We ended up having success as the result of an email to friends asking if anyone knew someone who might be interested. An old friend responded with interest, and today we're selling her family our second car from pre-FIRE.

Car Jack

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Re: Recommended Platform To Sell A Used Car?
« Reply #13 on: March 01, 2022, 11:48:34 AM »
I have sold at least a dozen cars on craigslist.  Zero luck with failbook marketplace, although hundreds of responses.

On Craigslist, my last 2 lines  are:

**Include a phone number so I know you're not a scammer**

**Yes, it is still available**

People do leave phone numbers and I can check if they're local.  I have had people who have moved local but still have outside the area phone number tell me that they live here but their area code is where they came from.

When selling my son's Nissan 350Z, I put it on craigslist and my son put it on failbook.  I had about 8 responses.  Some low ballers.  Several looking to come see it.  First one who came to see it bought it.  On failbook, my son literally had a hundred responses. Listed for $8k, which at the time was more than fair.  Got responses with offers of like $1500 plus an X box and 25 Captain America comic books.  Not a single failbook clown came to look.

Always get a quote from Car Max.  At least do an online one.  You will find that clicking over 100k miles has a huge impact.  I priced our 13 Crosstrek at 94k miles and it came back at $6800.  Then again at 108k miles. $2800 about 6 months later.  These were in person at the dealer.

snic

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Re: Recommended Platform To Sell A Used Car?
« Reply #14 on: March 15, 2022, 09:44:05 PM »
I recently sold a 19 year old car by posting ads on Autotrader, Craigslist, and Facebook marketplace. In the CL ad I included a link to the Autotrader listing because Autotrader includes a free Carfax report clickable from the listing. I did get a handful of scammers but it was pretty obvious who these were. It took a few weeks, but the car did have an off-putting cosmetic issue (big scratch on one side) and I wasn't going to budge from the KBB value. I showed it to 4 or 5 people and finally sold it to someone who contacted me through CL. For a bit of patience, I got more than 3 times what the dealers were offering me.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!