Anonymous wrote:hello,
We will be moving overseas during the Summer.
Any tips on how where to sell our car fast? Take it back to dealer? Carmax?
thanks!

Craigslist

thanks PP. Wow, big difference between the two offers.

Carmax or Carvana are fast and easy. Carmax offered us $8500 for a Toyota minivan with nearly 100K miles, Carvana offered us $12.5 for the same car (and we were very honest about its condition in the form).

Depends on the type of car and condition. I sold my car for way more than retail on an auction site. But I had a lot of expensive options on the car and the condition was excellent. It’s a lot of prep work up front sort of like listing and staging a house. If you aren’t up for that type of work than a car max or carvana will be quick and easy.

Anonymous wrote:Get offers from Driveway and ALGONation. Take your best offer to a local dealership or two to see if they will beat it.

They won’t. Don’t even bother with a dealer.

Anonymous wrote:Thank you everyone. What is your experience/ what have you heard? Do they pay you fair price?

We had a good experience with algo

Get offers from Driveway and ALGONation. Take your best offer to a local dealership or two to see if they will beat it.

Carmax and Carvana are the easiest. You get a low offer because you are essentially paying the price for convenience. As other PPs have said, you go to Carmax, they will give you a quote and you can take the deal and walk out with a check or consider it for up to 7 days. Carvana, same but they will come pick up the car. Both will give you a low offer.

You get better offers from car dealerships if you are going to trade-in for a newer car. They will up the value of the trade-in as long as it doesn't completely cut out their profit margin on the new car. They use the value of the trade-in as a carrot to seal the deal on the new car.

The best offer is to list on places like Craig's List or on services like Next Door or FB Marketplace. If you cut out the middle man and sell directly to a buyer, you'll get the best deal and closest to the value of the car because there's one less hand to try and make a profit off the dealing. That said, it is the least convenient. You have to list it, answer questions from potential buyers, make arrangements to meet buyers, do your due diligence in checking out potential buyers, etc. Lots more risk and responsibility when doing it this way, but you'll get the best deal.

I personally drive cars until they are pretty old and not worth as much. So I then either just do Carmax to get cash or donate to a charity that will give me the market value of the car as a tax write-off (last one I donated to Vehicles for Change).

We followed DH to car max and he was in and out of there with check in hand within 45 minutes.

Used cars are in high demand right now car dealers are basically begging for them. Carmax usually offers less than even trade in value why just give your car away?

Start by going to KBB.com and get the trade in value AND private party sale value of your vehicle. Don’t deal with the hassle of listing and trying to sell it privately, not worth it especially now when you can get probably close to same price by taking it to a dealer.

Get a number in your head of what you will accept for your car based on the value (usually something between the trade in value and private party sale value. Go to 3 or so local dealerships for competing quotes and let them know you want to SELL, not TRADE IN your car to them. Let them appraise it and let them know you will not accept less than xx amount. Let them know you are willing to walk and you will be taking it to other dealers for appraisal. If your car is in good condition, they will beg you to sell your car to them.

I just did this with my suv a year ago. I sold it to the first dealer I stepped foot in the used car sales manager first lowballed me by $2000 but wouldn’t let me leave out until he met my number.

OP here - thanks All!

Go to CarMax now and get a quote. You will have a ball park.

Next post it on your community listserve - I am looking for a used car for my college student and there is nothing out there. See if someone in the neighborhood will be willing to wait until you are ready to leave.

Good luck

Used car prices are through the roof right now, I think you're going to walk away with a reasonable cut. Not the full value of the car by any means, but it won't be a miserly amount.