Better value on trade-in from dealer or CarMax?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've sold all of the cars that I previously owned and it was never really that much of a pain. There is a such a demand for used cars that it only really takes a day. I told folks to show up on a Saturday and sold the car to the one that offered me the most money. It really only takes about a day. It's not a big deal. My last car sold for 3K more than what Carmax offered me.

OP here. Thanks to everyone for your replies! To the posters who suggest selling your car, I thought about that but the logistics of it seem really daunting to me. We do have two vehicles, but we have 3 kids and use both cars every day, so it seems like unless the car sold easily in a day on Saturday and we then went to the dealership on Sunday, there would be a week between selling and buying, which would not work for us. The cost of renting a car for a week wouldn't negate the extra $ from selling to a private party rather than a dealership/carmax, but it would add a whole lot of hassle. For those who sold their cars themselves, did you use Craigslist or another site?

[Anonymous]

I used Craigslist.

[Anonymous]

I used craigslist - wapo was a waste of money and autotrader prioritizes ads by dealers first so it gets lost.. i made a lot more money on my own- do a search on edmunds.com for private sale vs retail of used and see if you want to "give that away" to a dealer or carmax. Also- it helps to know if your used vehicle is in demand since there is a shortage of new so used prices have gone up quite a bit..

[Anonymous]

CARMAX!! Was offered 1500 more for my car there!

[Anonymous]

Dealer. Carmax dropped 4k off the value of my trade because my bumper was replaced from the smallest of fender benders.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've sold all of the cars that I previously owned and it was never really that much of a pain. There is a such a demand for used cars that it only really takes a day. I told folks to show up on a Saturday and sold the car to the one that offered me the most money. It really only takes about a day. It's not a big deal. My last car sold for 3K more than what Carmax offered me.

I agree, especially now a days with Craigslist. I've sold cars in the past where you actually have to post the classified ad, etc.

Just ask the buyer to bring a cashier's check. All very easy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've sold all of the cars that I previously owned and it was never really that much of a pain. There is a such a demand for used cars that it only really takes a day. I told folks to show up on a Saturday and sold the car to the one that offered me the most money. It really only takes about a day. It's not a big deal. My last car sold for 3K more than what Carmax offered me.

OP here. Thanks to everyone for your replies! To the posters who suggest selling your car, I thought about that but the logistics of it seem really daunting to me. We do have two vehicles, but we have 3 kids and use both cars every day, so it seems like unless the car sold easily in a day on Saturday and we then went to the dealership on Sunday, there would be a week between selling and buying, which would not work for us. The cost of renting a car for a week wouldn't negate the extra $ from selling to a private party rather than a dealership/carmax, but it would add a whole lot of hassle. For those who sold their cars themselves, did you use Craigslist or another site?

Can you afford to buy the new car first? That's what we did. And, then sold the old one.

From what I hear, there's a huge demand for used cars right now, and a 2007 isn't that old. Might be worth the trouble if you've got a bit of extra time!

[Anonymous]

If you do sell on Craigslist you could have the buyer put down a deposit one weekend and then complete the sale the next weekend. That would give you time to buy another car.

[Anonymous]

We didn't try Carmax, but when we bought our Sienna last year DH went to at least three Toyota dealerships to see what they would give us on our trade. One was a couple thousand better. I think he did it over the phone to narrow it down first.

Not sure if this is the case everywhere, but if we had sold our old vehicle then bought the van, we would have had to pay sales tax on the entire purchase price. With the trade, we only had to pay tax on the difference. So that plus the hassle cancelled out any benefit to selling on our own.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've sold all of the cars that I previously owned and it was never really that much of a pain. There is a such a demand for used cars that it only really takes a day. I told folks to show up on a Saturday and sold the car to the one that offered me the most money. It really only takes about a day. It's not a big deal. My last car sold for 3K more than what Carmax offered me.

OP here. Thanks to everyone for your replies! To the posters who suggest selling your car, I thought about that but the logistics of it seem really daunting to me. We do have two vehicles, but we have 3 kids and use both cars every day, so it seems like unless the car sold easily in a day on Saturday and we then went to the dealership on Sunday, there would be a week between selling and buying, which would not work for us. The cost of renting a car for a week wouldn't negate the extra $ from selling to a private party rather than a dealership/carmax, but it would add a whole lot of hassle. For those who sold their cars themselves, did you use Craigslist or another site?

Can you afford to buy the new car first? That's what we did. And, then sold the old one.

From what I hear, there's a huge demand for used cars right now, and a 2007 isn't that old. Might be worth the trouble if you've got a bit of extra time!

OP here. Yeah, we could do this ... we are using the value of our 2007 car as our down payment, but we can front that money and replace it when we sell the old car. Is it really that fast and easy to sell on CL? I had no idea that there was so much demand for used cars. Couple of questions:

1) from the time you post it, how long does it typically take to sell?

2) what kinds of cars have PPs sold so quickly, and for what price range? (I am hoping to get $9.5 or$10k).

3) what do I need to know about the process? cashier's check, obviously, but how does signing over title work?

It's probably at least worth a try to sell it on our own if the difference is $2-3k.