How should I sell my car?

teekadog

Active member
I need to sell my 2001 Camry to fund a much needed bigger car. I'm not sure of the best way to do that. I gave it a good cleaning, inside and out, and have forbid the kids in it :p . For about a week I had it sitting at the end of our cul-de-sac so passing traffic (which admittedly is not much-- we live in a small no-outlet neighborhood) could see it. I had signs with basic info, including the asking price I was firm on ($7,000). I got 3 calls, and none have panned out. One wasn't very serious, but I found some new playmates for the kids out of it :D , and I think the other 2 calls were scared off by the mileage. It's got almost 85,300 miles on it, but they are mostly highway, and the car's in great shape. We live in too small a town for a local craigslist forum, but I posted it on the craigslist for the biggest nearby town, and got one email, which is all I have on the line right now. Thing is we'd have to drive it 3 hours to that town for the couple to look at it, and once down there, if we don't sell it we may as well take it to Carmax, and I KNOW they're not going to like the mileage on it (we took it to them a year ago, almost 10,000 less miles, and they offered us $7,500, but we held onto the car). My other option is that there's a dealership 4 hours from us that is trying to bait us by saying they'd give us $6,500 for trade-in. Yeah, right, I so don't believe them.

Kelley Blue Book says it's worth almost $7,300. I was asking $7,000 to just cut out the negotiating, but I now realize that's not the way to go, because people WANT the satisfaction of talking me down, and I'd happily let them talk me down to $7,000 :rolleyes: . I'm hesitant to pay for any ad placement, because money is so valuable to us right now. But would it really make it worth it? And if I do place an ad, where should it be? Just a print ad in the local paper? Go whole hog and buy a "money-back guarantee" ad from cars.com?

I know lots of people here have bought and sold used cars privately, so I'd really love any input. Thanks!
 
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southpawboston

New member
i'd try cars.com. last time i sold a car privately (2003) it cost about $20 for a cars.com ad. it may have gone up since then. even if it has, i/d go that route since you will get more hits online than through the local paper.

how do you know the dealership is trying a bait and switch? can you get them to commit to that trade-in offer via email (so you have a printed record)?
 

amyg530

Active member
well i was gonna suggest craigslist but i see thats not an option, just like there is freecycle on yahoo groups, some cities will have a similar group but instead of free its to sell stuff, you could search and see if they have one for your area (although read the rules and make sure its ok to post cars on there)
if thats not available i'd try a newspaper add first probably to run on the weekend
 

teekadog

Active member
I'm really tempted to do cars.com or some other online sight, but I think it might be... how to put this delicately... out of my town's league? (We're somewhat rural.) I bought some window paint to put our ph# on the car while dh drives it around town for work, and I think I might try a newspaper ad, if the price is right. I'm sick of getting calls that don't pan out, but that's the name of the game, huh? I'm just in a really sticky place-- people either want to spend a couple thousand less on a really used car, or they want a much nicer, newer used car-- I'm in the middle ground.

Southpaw, even if I could get it in writing that the dealership would give me $6,500 for the car (and they'd have to be crazy to put that in writing), that really comes up against me in further negotiations. They'd be asking at least a $1,000 more than other dealerships that don't know I'm going to use a trade-in, because they know they're taking a hit on the trade-in.
 

Morganthe

New member
If you're military, you can always place it on the base/post Lemon Lot. I've always had good luck with those.

If not, local ad in the paper or auto trader should do something for you. What will also help -- set up a free website with pictures and information that you can list the address in the advert.
That way those of us who appreciate instant gratificaton can see it immediately :thumbsup: It doesn't cost much to run ads usually about $5 per week if you use the miniumum space.

Definitely list the price with wiggle room. EVERYONE likes to haggle. :) It's part of the fun ;)
 

teekadog

Active member
I just called the paper and apparently they're trying out something new, so they have a special this week where they'll list my car in the paper AND on cars.com for a decent price. We'll give that a shot.

Unfortunately that means my dh will have to place the ad, as he drives the car we're selling... and I forgot to tell him what to put down as the asking price :eek:
 

teekadog

Active member
So dh placed the ad Wednesday afternoon, asking $7,250. By dinnertime Thursday we had sold the car for $7,000 cash. Pretty sweet. Made me a believer in newspaper classifieds. Thanks for your help.
 

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