Thread: Anyone ever try to privately sell a car?

Originally Posted by Lappy!

Ooops. How do you unsend a PM on here?

Funny, I wouldn't have pegged you for a man that mows your lawn

Make sure if you park it somewhere with a for sale on it that it is parked on private property. A lot cities have municipal codes forbidding selling a car on a public street. Meeting at the popo station is a very good idea for any test drives that you may give especially if you're advertising on Craigs List.....

Don't know what part of the Bay are you are in, or how close to Stockton you are, but I have used Carfaire a few times(down here in OC), CarFaire.com - San Joaquin Delta College. It's cheap and convenient. Takes the hassle out of advertising and is pretty convenient to arrange test drives(lots of people around.) I've sold 2 cars using them, both times it took less than 3 weeks.

A friend of mine used to sell cars for a living. He was a taught a trick he'd use when inspecting a trade in. He'd find some sort of flaw, like a scratch on the body, inspect it for an extended period of time, and soon enough, most customers would start gushing about what happened that caused the scratch along with every other thing that was wrong with the car.

Don't fall for that. Tell them anything they obviously need to know about the car, answer any questions they ask honestly, but don't over disclose. A smart car buyer is going to get an inspection anyway.

Auto Trader (you gotta spend money to make money) works well and you can always go to carmax but you are gonna get a low offer.

Originally Posted by SirJW

Auto Trader (you gotta spend money to make money) works well and you can always go to carmax but you are gonna get a low offer.

I don't know about that. We got a pretty good offer for my car from Carmax. The check engine light came on with my car (it was 10+ years old and had about 100,000 miles on it), took it in, it was gonna need a new catalytic converter plus some other things and it was going to be over $2000 in repairs. Not a good idea to spend that much on a car that old. So my dad said he would take the car to Carmax and see what they'd offer. Then there was the car miracle. Washed and cleaned out the car and everything before taking it to Carmax and the check engine light miraculously turned off. My dad drove that thing to Carmax so fast after that. They ended up offering Blue Book value.

Originally Posted by Dana

I don't know about that. We got a pretty good offer for my car from Carmax. The check engine light came on with my car (it was 10+ years old and had about 100,000 miles on it), took it in, it was gonna need a new catalytic converter plus some other things and it was going to be over $2000 in repairs. Not a good idea to spend that much on a car that old. So my dad said he would take the car to Carmax and see what they'd offer. Then there was the car miracle. Washed and cleaned out the car and everything before taking it to Carmax and the check engine light miraculously turned off. My dad drove that thing to Carmax so fast after that. They ended up offering Blue Book value.

Sweet, what type of car? Mine was a Saab so they have low value to start.

Originally Posted by SirJW

Sweet, what type of car? Mine was a Saab so they have low value to start.

It was a Mitsubishi Gallant.

you were really lucky, I've not heard of many success stories selling mitsubishi's.

So far still working on the friends and family angle to be sure that nobody gets upset at needing a cheap car. Starting some online stuff. Appearantly someone would like to come photograph my car for help in an insurance case and is offering me $100 for the opportunity to do so. Sorry bub.