Author Topic: What would you do if you were me? - Newish Car edition  (Read 4932 times)

CheapskateWife

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What would you do if you were me? - Newish Car edition
« on: May 13, 2014, 02:36:16 PM »
OK, lets start with this...I have a sucky job that pays great but is slowly killing my soul.  Due to circumstances beyond our control (RE market, Army assignments, blah blah) I work 64 miles from my home where I live with my handsome husband.  I am quitting my job effective 6 June and am going home to find work. 

Because of this job, we got a 2012 VW GTI, which currently has 21K miles on it, bought it from the dealership, seemed like the most responsible thing to do at the time, but things have changed (see above) and now I want to give it back.  My husband and I will be colocated very soon and I no longer need the brand new car.

We still owe $21K ($485 monthly) on it and got offered 18,250 for the dealership to take it back over in June when I quit my job.   We have two other semi-reliable cars and my dear husband is a passable mechanic.  Work is 10 miles from home for him and he would be fine with riding his bike if his car broke down.  I'm unemployed for the summer but I have a bike and a hook-em-up for the little one.  Summer, here we come!

We are supremely motivated to destroy the yoke of debt in our lives, and are seriously considering handing over the keys to the dealership and paying the upside-down difference to walk away.   We don't consider the car an asset in our net worth calculations, so paying 3K to say goodbye to $21K in debt sounds/feels like a good move to us

But what do you say MMM community?

Anybody have any luck selling a car this costly on the private market?  If so, how would I go about advertising it effectively?

Thegoblinchief

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Re: What would you do if you were me? - Newish Car edition
« Reply #1 on: May 13, 2014, 02:53:12 PM »
First off, get an offer from CarMax if there's one nearby. 99% chance it will best the dealer.

Others on here have had good luck selling on the private market, usually Craigslist or Autotrader, even with vehicles in this range. But you have the hassle of a lien being on your car, and most buyers will be closing using a loan of their own. Your decision whether it's worth it or not.

SDREMNGR

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Re: What would you do if you were me? - Newish Car edition
« Reply #2 on: May 13, 2014, 03:02:03 PM »
Most people compare shop more for a pack of diapers than they would for large ticket items.  Don't be one of them.

Definitely shop the car around to a few local dealers including CarMax to get a baseline for what you can get.  Use this as the bare minimum what you can get for the car.  Compare with Edmunds true value and other website values.

Try to sell it on Craigslist, AutoTrader, Yahoo Auto, etc.  List it on several different places.  Chances are, you will be able to get at least a thousand over what you are offered at the dealer.  If you had to spend 1 hours a day for a month to sell your car, that's still $1000/30 = $33.33/hr pay.  And it usually takes no more than 10 hours of showings and making ads to sell your car.

forward

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Re: What would you do if you were me? - Newish Car edition
« Reply #3 on: May 13, 2014, 03:54:52 PM »

I will echo what the others had to say and add; give yourself a month to shop it around and sell it, Carmax, private etc., it will probably only take you 2-3 weeks.  You are driving it now so once you are done driving it, detail it yourself completely, make it look nice.  I believe people are interested in the TDI's and we are seeing an increase in diesel sales in the US.  You should be able to get more going this route.  If you can't then go with the dealer, don't sit on it too long because it is a depreciating asset.   You want to be sure to get rid of it before the 2015's hit the market.

feelingroovy

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Re: What would you do if you were me? - Newish Car edition
« Reply #4 on: May 13, 2014, 04:54:15 PM »
We did this a year ago.  Luckily, the dealer offered more than we owed, so we walked away with about $1500.

We detailed it.  We posted on Craigslist.  It was a very popular car in this area and we never got even a single phone call in over a month, even though we were asking about $2k below blue book.

The dealer we bought it from saw our craigslist ad and offered us $17k.  Blue book was about $22k.  We called a few reputable used car places (closest car max is 4 hours away) and both offered us $18,500.  We took it and moved on.

Based on that experience, I would say it's hard to sell cars above $12-15k on craigslist.  YMMV.

CheapskateWife

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Re: What would you do if you were me? - Newish Car edition
« Reply #5 on: May 13, 2014, 06:16:21 PM »
Excellent points all!  We had considered shopping around our offer, but I hadn't thought of CarMax...we have the added benefit of being able to compare dealers in a military community against a large city where I work and we should be able to get a good feel...

Going to list it this weekend on USAA's car match website after hubby gives it some love and cleans it up pretty, and will do Craigslist and any other freebies you can recommend.

The perspective on the extra time spent is excellent, but I have to offset it against the next payment rolling around during that 30 day period and keeping it insured (just like when you are selling a house I suppose).

Now that I know that no one here thinks we are bat-poop crazy for thinking like this, I am ready to attack this debt with gusto!  If I don't have it sold by the 15th of June, will take the best dealer offer I can get!  Thank you all for your insight!

CarDude

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Re: What would you do if you were me? - Newish Car edition
« Reply #6 on: May 13, 2014, 06:22:38 PM »
^ Go get 'em! And don't be afraid to take your time when cross-shopping, as others have noted.

Home Stretch

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Re: What would you do if you were me? - Newish Car edition
« Reply #7 on: May 13, 2014, 11:21:13 PM »
FWIW, I just sold my used gas guzzler on CL for $9500. The offer I got from the dealer I got my new (used) car from was $6000. So, $3500 would have been left on the table had I not been patient enough to wait 2 weeks to sell the car.

Two tips for CL specifically:

1. Write a good ad! Nobody wants to see blurry photos of your car in the dark or a description that leaves a million questions. Cast a wide net and take the best offer.

2. Price the car to sell! Yes, you can price it high with hopes to negotiate but I priced mine at a completely fair amount and I found my buyer the same day I posted it. Well worth not stressing over negotiations in my book.

Good luck!

P.S. The GTI is a desirable car for a lot of younger drivers and I don't think it would be hard at all to market it to the Craigslist crowd.

P.P.S. If you sell the car to an individual you will be left with your old license plate. In my state at least, upon return of the old plate and bill of sale, I was eligible for a pro-rated property tax refund for the rest of the year since I had already paid taxes for all of 2014. For a $20k car that would be substantial.
« Last Edit: May 13, 2014, 11:27:42 PM by Not Dave Ramsey »

CheapskateWife

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Re: What would you do if you were me? - Newish Car edition
« Reply #8 on: May 18, 2014, 07:58:39 AM »
After reading the most excellent advice on this site (thank you MMM forum!), I now have 3 bids from local dealers, ranging from 17K to 19K.  Carmax was the lowest bid, interestingly enough.  But I am glad I went to get the appraisal, because its making me pay attention to what is already on the lots I am approaching for bids

Now we are up and running on USAA and CL, and we are just waiting to see about some nibbles from private buyers.  We might hang on to it a bit longer than I originally expected, just to see if we can't minimize our "under-waterness".

It will just feel really good to delete that debt from our Liability column and then start maxing out our Student Loan payment.  We will be consumer debt free by Thanksgiving...how appropriate!

All that will be left is the conundrum over whether to accellerate mortage or put more into investments.  Or mabye both...

SDREMNGR

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Re: What would you do if you were me? - Newish Car edition
« Reply #9 on: May 18, 2014, 08:59:43 AM »
Definitely consider auto trader too.  Not free but worth it.  Also pay for carfax and provide the report in ad.  Does a lot for used car sales.

CheapskateWife

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Re: What would you do if you were me? - Newish Car edition
« Reply #10 on: May 18, 2014, 09:29:55 AM »
Definitely consider auto trader too.  Not free but worth it.  Also pay for carfax and provide the report in ad.  Does a lot for used car sales.

Awesome advice!  Thank you so much!