New 2009 2010 BMW Z4 - ZPOST
BMW Garage BMW Meets Register Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read


Go Back   New 2009 2010 BMW Z4 - ZPOST > BIMMERPOST Universal Forums > General Automotive (non-BMW) Talk + Photos/Videos

Post Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
      05-09-2023, 10:54 AM   #1
infinitekidM2C
Major General
infinitekidM2C's Avatar
United_States
4186
Rep
5,727
Posts

Drives: 2019 M2 Competition
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Orange County, CA

iTrader: (4)

Garage List
Best way to sell car these days

What's the best way (speed and value) to sell a car these days? I havent done it in a few years and this isn't a BMW which i would normally sell through the forum.

It's a 2016 Land Rover Discovery Sport. Great shape, about 60k miles.

I'm wondering these days which is the most effective way to sell as i need to replace before it starts tanking. Selling websites like Autotrader? Sell to a buyer company like Carmax. Trade in? I know it will vary but wondered if anyone has relatively concrete opinion.
Appreciate 0
      05-09-2023, 11:00 AM   #2
Alfisti
Brigadier General
6453
Rep
3,009
Posts

Drives: 2008 Saab 9-3 Combi
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: Toronto, Canada

iTrader: (0)

What's the tax situation re. trade in in CA?
Appreciate 0
      05-09-2023, 11:08 AM   #3
BMWCCA1
BMW Owner Since 1971
2236
Rep
1,393
Posts

Drives: 1964 700 Sport Cabriolet
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: Central Virginia

iTrader: (2)

Garage List
2013 BMW 128i  [10.00]
Carvana and Carmax have been paying near-retail for nice used cars for the past several years. The bloom my be off that rose now, but certainly worth a try and will give you a baseline if you try to sell it yourself.

If you've ever felt you were being scammed as a buyer, just wait until you try being the seller!
Appreciate 2
      05-09-2023, 11:10 AM   #4
infinitekidM2C
Major General
infinitekidM2C's Avatar
United_States
4186
Rep
5,727
Posts

Drives: 2019 M2 Competition
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Orange County, CA

iTrader: (4)

Garage List
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alfisti View Post
What's the tax situation re. trade in in CA?
I had to look it up. Basically worst case scenario. Trading in has no effect on taxes for the new car purchase.
Appreciate 0
      05-09-2023, 11:19 AM   #5
pshep138
Private First Class
pshep138's Avatar
United_States
177
Rep
112
Posts

Drives: 2020 M4 Competition
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: Omaha

iTrader: (0)

Garage List
2020 BMW M4 ZCP  [10.00]
2015 Audi S4  [5.00]
Quote:
Originally Posted by BMWCCA1 View Post
Carvana and Carmax have been paying near-retail for nice used cars for the past several years. The bloom my be off that rose now, but certainly worth a try and will give you a baseline if you try to sell it yourself.

If you've ever felt you were being scammed as a buyer, just wait until you try being the seller!
They might be better for something like OP's car, but Carmax and Carvana are very hit-and-miss as far as values go.

When I bought my M4 in April, I had a 2015 S4 I wanted to trade. The dealer I bought the M4 from was out of state, and told me they didn't accept trades from out of state. So I got values from Carmax and Carvana to see if I could unload my S4 quickly and painlessly.

Carmax offered me something like $14,500 and I Carvana was $16,850. Both insanely light. I work for a dealer, so I know how the game goes, but it was a $20k - $21k car on trade pretty easily.

I posted it for sale on my IG story and had a deposit on it the same day for an agreed upon $25k sale, and had contingent offers at $26k and $26.5k all from private party buyers. $25k guy ended up coming through and picked the car up about a week later.

tl;dr Carmax / Carvana can really miss the mark on some cars, and seem to pay through the nose on others.
Appreciate 3
      05-09-2023, 01:50 PM   #6
BMWCCA1
BMW Owner Since 1971
2236
Rep
1,393
Posts

Drives: 1964 700 Sport Cabriolet
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: Central Virginia

iTrader: (2)

Garage List
2013 BMW 128i  [10.00]
Quote:
Originally Posted by pshep138 View Post
They might be better for something like OP's car, but Carmax and Carvana are very hit-and-miss as far as values go.
Which was exactly the question I was answering.

If you have a junker you want to get rid of (and for me that means any RR), then don't make such an ordeal out of it and take the best wholesale offer. The OP did not strike me as someone in "the business" or someone who really needed the aggravation of selling himself. If nothing else, Carvana and Carfax will give him a baseline for any private sale he might negotiate.

Wonderful about how astute you were in your sale. I'm sure if I asked you, you'd tell me you are far from average, just like your car. The OP wanted a quick transaction on a car that the average Joe would likely need to finance. Just dump it.
Appreciate 0
      05-09-2023, 02:34 PM   #7
diablo2112
2024 M440i GC (G26)
278
Rep
511
Posts

Drives: 2024 M440i Gran Coupe
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: USA

iTrader: (3)

There’s 3 things you want when selling: quick, no work, and high sales price.

Now, here’s the thing: pick 1. Can’t get all 3.

quick: trade it in or sell to Carvana, etc.

no work: just stop making payments. Eventually, someone will come and pick up your car.

high price: advertise everywhere, screen buyers, show car, finally find your whale and luxuriate in your riches.
Appreciate 5
      05-09-2023, 02:53 PM   #8
chassis
Colonel
chassis's Avatar
6374
Rep
2,283
Posts

Drives: 9Y0 Cayenne S
Join Date: Mar 2019
Location: Einbahnstraße

iTrader: (0)

Garage List
Quote:
Originally Posted by infinitekidM2C View Post
What's the best way (speed and value) to sell a car these days? I havent done it in a few years and this isn't a BMW which i would normally sell through the forum.

It's a 2016 Land Rover Discovery Sport. Great shape, about 60k miles.

I'm wondering these days which is the most effective way to sell as i need to replace before it starts tanking. Selling websites like Autotrader? Sell to a buyer company like Carmax. Trade in? I know it will vary but wondered if anyone has relatively concrete opinion.
Submit several "sell your car now" requests, and follow up on the responses you receive. The automated email offer is a lowball, if you take the car to the local dealer that backed the offer, you will get a better price. Do your homework on retail asking prices on Cargurus.

I sold a 4 yr old 100k mile Mercedes this way and it worked for me. Fast and painless transaction with a fair price. I drove to the car dealer and left with a check in my hand. We did one round of back and forth and agreed on a price.

I left a few thou$ on the table but didn't have to deal with tire kickers and counterparty risk.
Appreciate 1
      05-09-2023, 03:04 PM   #9
diirk
Second Lieutenant
diirk's Avatar
1030
Rep
256
Posts

Drives: 2023 X3MC BGM
Join Date: Mar 2023
Location: Utah

iTrader: (0)

Garage List
We just sold/traded-in my wife's 18 GLA45.
I checked on a few buy-it-now offers through various major sites and also Carvana and Carmax. I also spoke to the dealer we were ordering the replacement through. Carvana was the highest by about $1k. Carmax was next and the dealer was willing to match their price as a credit towards our purchase. No taxable income on our end and minimal hassle. We may have left a little cash on the table, but more than made up for it on taxes and ease of transaction.
__________________
23 X3MC BGM. MSS. H&R 12mm spacers
20 4Runner
18 Cayman GTS
15 Beetle Vert
Appreciate 3
Llarry14495.50
chassis6373.50
      05-09-2023, 04:55 PM   #10
Humdizzle
Brigadier General
6024
Rep
3,610
Posts

Drives: GT3 + M2c
Join Date: Oct 2016
Location: Missouri

iTrader: (0)

depends on your state

MO is pretty good. you can sell your car private party and use the tax credit within 180 days. doesn't matter if you sell or buy in state or out of state.

can pretty much just flip cars without paying much sales tax.
they still get you on property tax though.

have a dedicated beater car so you never have to do a dealer trade in on your nice car and get lowballed.
__________________

2018 Porsche GT3 6MT
2021 M2C DCT
Previous: Ferrari 458 | R35 GTR | F80 M3 | E46 M3 | E36 M3 | Scion FRS
Appreciate 0
      05-09-2023, 04:59 PM   #11
infinitekidM2C
Major General
infinitekidM2C's Avatar
United_States
4186
Rep
5,727
Posts

Drives: 2019 M2 Competition
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Orange County, CA

iTrader: (4)

Garage List
Quote:
Originally Posted by Humdizzle View Post
depends on your state

MO is pretty good. you can sell your car private party and use the tax credit within 180 days. doesn't matter if you sell or buy in state or out of state.

can pretty much just flip cars without paying much sales tax.
they still get you on property tax though.

have a dedicated beater car so you never have to do a dealer trade in on your nice car and get lowballed.
yeah we have a beater, always nice to have. so we're not in a rush, but want to go down the right avenues to get a reasonable price without much hassle
Appreciate 0
      05-10-2023, 11:56 AM   #12
pshep138
Private First Class
pshep138's Avatar
United_States
177
Rep
112
Posts

Drives: 2020 M4 Competition
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: Omaha

iTrader: (0)

Garage List
2020 BMW M4 ZCP  [10.00]
2015 Audi S4  [5.00]
Quote:
Originally Posted by BMWCCA1 View Post
Which was exactly the question I was answering.

If you have a junker you want to get rid of (and for me that means any RR), then don't make such an ordeal out of it and take the best wholesale offer. The OP did not strike me as someone in "the business" or someone who really needed the aggravation of selling himself. If nothing else, Carvana and Carfax will give him a baseline for any private sale he might negotiate.

Wonderful about how astute you were in your sale. I'm sure if I asked you, you'd tell me you are far from average, just like your car. The OP wanted a quick transaction on a car that the average Joe would likely need to finance. Just dump it.
Seems like a hostile response. I was simply clarifying for anyone who is going to read this thread and think, "Gee, BMWCCA1 said Carvana offers strong money, I'm going to try it!"

No offense was intended, I was just offering some additional insight based on personal experience.
Appreciate 0
      05-13-2023, 10:00 AM   #13
keg97
Second Lieutenant
155
Rep
281
Posts

Drives: BMW X5 & X7
Join Date: Jul 2018
Location: Virginia Beach, VA

iTrader: (0)

I was getting low trade in prices from dealers on our 17 Escalade ESV with 160K miles so I threw it up on Craigslist for an obnoxiously high price. I had a full price certified check in my hand within 24 hours. Perhaps I caught lighting in a bottle, but it was worth it to me.
Appreciate 2
chassis6373.50
      05-13-2023, 12:33 PM   #14
Llarry
///M driver
Llarry's Avatar
14496
Rep
486
Posts

Drives: 2022 M3 6-speed
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Oregon

iTrader: (0)

Garage List
I had an interesting experience with Carvana. "Yeah we'll give you a halfway decent offer on your 2014 BMW X3 35i" so I jumped through some hoops in submitting registration, title, driver license copies, etc, and they said "Fine, just drive it to SoCal" which is 500+ miles away. What?! I went Carmax for a couple of grand less, if memory serves.
__________________
'22 G80 M3 6-sp Portimao Blue/Tartufo

Last edited by Llarry; 05-13-2023 at 09:20 PM..
Appreciate 0
      05-13-2023, 03:25 PM   #15
diablo2112
2024 M440i GC (G26)
278
Rep
511
Posts

Drives: 2024 M440i Gran Coupe
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: USA

iTrader: (3)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Llarry View Post
I had an interesting experience with Carvana. "Yeah we'll give you a halfway decent offer on your 2025 BMW X3 35i" so I jumped through some hoops in submitting registration, title, driver license copies, etc, and they said "Fine, just drive it to SoCal" which is 500+ miles away. What?! I went Carmax for a couple of grand less, if memory serves.
2025?
Appreciate 1
      05-13-2023, 09:20 PM   #16
Llarry
///M driver
Llarry's Avatar
14496
Rep
486
Posts

Drives: 2022 M3 6-speed
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Oregon

iTrader: (0)

Garage List
Quote:
Originally Posted by diablo2112 View Post
2025?
Oops - 2014. Had it been a MY2025, it would've been worth far, far more back then.
__________________
'22 G80 M3 6-sp Portimao Blue/Tartufo
Appreciate 0
      05-14-2023, 01:10 PM   #17
dreamingat30fps
Lieutenant Colonel
United_States
5256
Rep
1,904
Posts

Drives: Miata, Cayenne, Model 3, F350
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: South Florida & NC

iTrader: (1)

Depends what you consider a hassle. To me selling it privately is a hassle. Having to list it, deal with all the tire kickers and stupid questions, having to show it etc. So if you don't want to go that route then not too many options.

Personally I always do all the online quotes first as there is practically zero effort involved in those. Then I do carmax since I still have to take it in. Then I do some others that want to see the car also like wepaythemax and some other place right across from carmax. Then I take the highest one to the dealer where I plan to buy the next car and see if they can match or how close they can get. If it makes sense tax wise (doesn't seem to matter in your case) I will sell to dealer or sell to whoever gave the highest offer. I have sold cars to carvana, vroom, carmax and dealers and never had an issue.

If you want the most money then it will require more work and you will have to sell private, maybe one of the auctions sites, but don't have any experience with those.
Appreciate 2
chassis6373.50
PcarFan932.00
      05-14-2023, 08:40 PM   #18
Alfisti
Brigadier General
6453
Rep
3,009
Posts

Drives: 2008 Saab 9-3 Combi
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: Toronto, Canada

iTrader: (0)

Am i the only one that finds selling privately really not that much of a problem?
Appreciate 2
NickyC17356.00
keg97154.50
      05-14-2023, 09:51 PM   #19
PcarFan
Baned
PcarFan's Avatar
932
Rep
64
Posts

Drives: BMW
Join Date: Mar 2023
Location: Neck of the woods

iTrader: (0)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Alfisti View Post
Am i the only one that finds selling privately really not that much of a problem?
It all depends on how much patience you have to deal with dreamers.

I sold a Ford F-150 many years ago without any problems. A guy and his wife came to see the truck, he made me a reasonable offer and it was sold.

About 4 or 5 years ago I posted a Porsche for sale in the auto trader and in a couple other online car sites, and I had nothing but dreamers and tire kickers coming by for joy rides.
I even had a guy come by with his wife that was in a wheelchair trying to see if the wheelchair would fit in the frunk. That guy couldn`t even drive manual properly. He drove like a maniac, stalled the car a couple of times and was slipping the clutch at almost every gear. When he was leaving he even put a dent in my wife`s car opening his car door for his wife. That was enough for me. That same week I traded the car in for a lot less than what I could`ve gotten selling it private.
Appreciate 0
      05-14-2023, 10:45 PM   #20
dreamingat30fps
Lieutenant Colonel
United_States
5256
Rep
1,904
Posts

Drives: Miata, Cayenne, Model 3, F350
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: South Florida & NC

iTrader: (1)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Alfisti View Post
Am i the only one that finds selling privately really not that much of a problem?
I can barely even stand selling regular household items like couches and tables and what not. Now maybe I'm not skilled in the art of selling shit privately, but damn it's a pita. I mean sure sometimes I'll post something and get a real buyer pretty quickly, but that's like maybe 5% of the time. The rest of the time is countless messages of people asking stupid questions like is it available then never responding when you say yes or people making offers for half the asking price. Or just no interest then you have to keep renewing or refreshing the listings so they keep showing up for people.

Plus ultimately how much more are you getting? Because the few times I've tried listing cars for $1-$2k more than the trade in offers I get... I don't even get any biters. Especially now days with everyone looking online for cars. I rarely see private sale cars listed on autotrader, cargurus etc. It's probably also very location dependent. I'm sure in some places people are more likely to buy from a private seller than a dealer and it depends on the car, like enthusiast cars vs regular cars etc.
Appreciate 0
      05-15-2023, 09:57 AM   #21
Theruleslawyer
Captain
Theruleslawyer's Avatar
United_States
997
Rep
819
Posts

Drives: 2019 m4
Join Date: Apr 2022
Location: Chicagoland

iTrader: (0)

Depends on the car.

An enthusiast car you might be best off on one of the auction sites- BAT, cars and bids, etc. You don't have to deal with the tire kickers. If you're patient the forums of buy/sell groups on facebook.

For cheaper NPC cars- Facebook marketplace. I got 50x the response there than I did off autotrader last time I sold a car. If you have anything remotely special that makes it more valuable than an average example those "deal indicators" on the major sites de-rank your car.

More expensive NPC cars are the issue. They probably won't attract as many joy riders. Still the money becomes an issue. It'll nearly always mean a loan and that makes payment more of a hassle. I'm not sure they would do well on auction. Maybe a more general site like ebay motors would be okay. Set the reserve to what ever carmax will give you for it after fees.
Appreciate 0
      05-15-2023, 10:33 AM   #22
NickyC
Lieutenant General
NickyC's Avatar
17356
Rep
10,602
Posts

Drives: M4 CS. Former G82, x2 F82, F80
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Jacked out of my mind

iTrader: (23)

Over the past three years I’ve had far better luck trading in at a BMW dealer than I’ve had with Carmax. Carmax offered me laughably low totals for my cars, on both occasions the employee even apologized and said to go elsewhere. Of course my cars had mods on them, and I think Carmax despises any vehicle which isn’t 100% stock. I don’t think I’ll ever bother going back there.

Private sale is most $$$, but of course can take some time. The tire kicking is pretty brutal, but I’ve found a private sale to be more rewarding as I’ve met nice people and obviously made more money in the end.
Appreciate 2
Post Reply

Bookmarks

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off



All times are GMT -5. The time now is 03:28 AM.




zpost
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
1Addicts.com, BIMMERPOST.com, E90Post.com, F30Post.com, M3Post.com, ZPost.com, 5Post.com, 6Post.com, 7Post.com, XBimmers.com logo and trademark are properties of BIMMERPOST