Advice on selling car

[SwingKing]

I know there are some people here with experience in the car business, so I thought I'd ask something I've been pondering with respect to selling my minivan.

I've got a '99 Ford Windstar, worth about $3-5k and it is time to get rid of it. I've spent about $1200 in repairs over the last 3 months and I'm thinking this is just the start. The problem is that coming home tonight, I started noticing a slight grinding feel from the brakes at low speed. I suspect this means new brakes and probably rotors as well.

The question is: how much should you fix before trying to trade in a car? Would it be better to fix it myself and hope to get the money back in the trade in or leave it for the dealer to fix and take a lower price? How much work do you put into fixing up a car before trying to get rid of it?

-- Ken

[Jeffrey Schronce]

If you want a new car then I would trade it in to the dealer as is. Selling on private market I would fix the brakes. Trading in you are looking at around $3,000, private market $4,000 assuming average miles and condition. The big dealer I worked for in college didn't even drive trade in vehicles, particularly those they would be selling to wholesalers. Your vehicle will be sold to wholesaler since it can not be financed due to age.

[Russianwolf]

if you have a Carmax bear you, you can have them give you a price, so you csn compsre to other dealers. They wil buy the car outright (not trade) if you want.

[scorrpio]

Picture yourself as a potential buyer. If there are things about the car that would turn you off if you were getting it for personal driving, the private sale is not likely to go well. If you can fix it fairly easily, it might be worth it. Someone looking to buy a used car for driving is not seeking to make a selling profit, but is interested in a car that works. When I was selling my previous car, it was a little beat up - a few dents here and there - but all mechanicals were good. A car like that is prime for a private sale. I put mine on craigslist, and sold it for only $100 below my original asking price in less than a week. I only did a general maintenance before selling.

If mechanicals look like they'll need heavy investment, private is generally less attractive. People will come, try the car, say 'no thanks' and leave - or they'll be offering you ridiculous prices.

Trying to sell the car to a used car dealer is BAD. These guys want a resale profit, and they can gauge pretty well how much they'll need to put into the car to 'make it marketable' - and they'll tell you a twice larger sum. And they also have an idea of how much they can sell it for - and they'll tell you half of that.

Finally, trade in. This is also iffy, but probably the best option if car has a lot of issues. Between new car price, financing, and trade in, dealer will try to maximize his gain. Best keep them in the dark as much as possible if you are getting your financing elsewhere or paying cash. Far as the rest of it - the trade-in they offer greatly depends on how well you bargain for the new car.

[crokett]

If you want to sell it private sale, fix the brakes or have them fixed.
Are the brakes disk or drum? If disk you can do those pretty easily yourself with no special tools required. You will save about 2hrs labor doing it yourself, plus whatever % your mechanic marks the parts up for.

[Jim Boyd]

if you have a Carmax bear you, you can have them give you a price, so you csn compsre to other dealers. They wil buy the car outright (not trade) if you want.

If you are wanting to get a new car I would go this route also. When I was selling new cars, the trade-in was never what book value stated. EVER! I did have several folks who had been to Carmax first and when they found out what they would get in trade with us, they would go back to Carmax and sell it to them. Then come back to us and buy a new Ford

[SwingKing]

Thanks for all the advice, guys. I took it by the dealer last night, and Jeffrey was right, they didn't even bother to drive it. Of course, Jim was right as well. The offer was no where near the book value.

Given the difference between the trade-in and private sale value, I'm thinking now that I'll fix the brakes, detail it, and try to sell it myself. I'm not much of a salesman, but having some extra cash for new tools is a good motivator.

I am also going to run it by Carmax this weekend. My backup plan is that if I can't sell it myself in 2-3 weeks, I'll just sell it to Carmax to get rid of it.

Thanks for the advice and moral support. One of the things I really like about this place is all the friendly people who can set you straight when you need help.

-- Ken

[SHADOWFOX]

Last year, I was in the same situation as you except the damage on my car a '95 Honda Accord was merely cosmetic because there was a dent on the driver side rear panel but the mileage is at the 60K range. To get it repaired would cost me $500.00 and since we were shopping for a new car, I figured I could just trade it in and be done with the old car. Well after negotiating the price of the Honda Pilot that we wanted, I told the dealership about the car that I wanted to trade in and they said that no matter what the condition we only pay $2,000.00 for the Honda Accord '95.. I said to myelf I could probably get more selling this car privately.

Went on the bandwagon and posted the car on ebay and honestly described the condition of the car along with the dent and took about 30 pictures of the car for the potential buyers to see and welcomed them to check out the car in person. I also indicated that the car will be sold as is and there are no warranties and all of the receipts on oil changes and maintenance are available. The buyer actually test drove the car before bidding on the auction. When the auction ended the final price was a little under $8,000.00 and the buyer paid cash for it the same day the auction ended and picked up the car the same day.

Make sure that you set your auction not to allow bids from zero feedback bidders becasue a lot of car dealerships have people working full time to screw up private car auctions to drive potential buyers away.

[Jeffrey Schronce]

$8000 . . . . that is absolutely crazy! Hope you filled the tank for him! LOL!

[JSCOOK]

WOW ... talk about holding their resale value!

[Rand]

www.edmunds.com or kbb.com will give you an idea of what the vehicle is worth as a trade in or on the private market. It tends to run a little on the low side in my area so double checking it against the classified ads is a good idea. In the meantime fix the brakes and sell it yourself. You will always get come out ahead moneywise dealing with private buyers and sellers than dealers.
Q. What's the difference between a car dealer and a catfish?

A. One is a scum sucking bottom feeder and the other is a fish.