The old “there’s two kinds of people” thing is something I’ve never been nuts about. Still, I do think it’s appropriate when it comes to buying a new car and whether to sell the current car oneself or trade it in at the dealership (and we’re talking “normal” daily drivers here, not collector cars or creampuffs). Surprisingly, I used to be staunchly in one camp but have now crossed over to the other.
Years ago, trading a car in was absolutely never an option I’d choose. I knew I’d be getting ripped off by the dealer, and even if I made just an extra hundred bucks selling a car myself by putting an ad in a local paper (yes, I’m that old), it was worth the hassle. That way, I didn’t feel like I was leaving money on the table. Back in the day, it wasn’t a huge hassle. I’d get a few calls, a couple of people would take a look at that car, and one would pay close to what I wanted for it. Hell, I would have been embarrassed to even tell other car guys that I traded my old vehicle; that was for people with more money than sense in my book.
Today, that isn’t the case for me. I buy cars used and keep them forever – at least ten years, and only sell them when they have some kind of issue that I don’t feel like resolving. The value when I’m done with them is so low, and the amount I’m paying for the replacement car seems so astronomically high that any difference between trading in and selling myself won’t be much. Besides, I have Mercedes Streeter to pay trade-in value for my old ride and not complain when the cooling system blows up (it did).
Most other buyers would yell and scream that I sold them a rust bucket when they start to dig into the rockers (I had no idea it was that rotten), but Mercedes has never tried to get me blocked from Craigslist or sent threatening texts. You’d be surprised how many purchasers of a $1,500 example of what once was a $52,000 new car expect perfection, or else.
Worse than lousy buyers is the fact that the internet has turned the selling environment into a cesspool. Maybe our own Stephen Gossin or Ms. Streeter can deal with dozens of IS IT AVAILABLE replies, but the worst part is potential buyers who know from the web what I’ll get for my car in trade and think offering that amount or less IN CASH will make me want to hand them the title. Tell me why I’d do that and not just call Carvana.
I’ve also wasted Lord knows how many evenings waiting for no-shows or people who drive the car at wide open throttle and “will come back, but please hold it.” I don’t have the time, and the few hundred bucks (at best) I might make from a private sale isn’t worth it. The bigger issue is when trying to privately sell cars worth Actual Money. Most people do not have $15,000 or $20,000 in cash sitting around, so trying to privately sell some late-model car can be an even bigger exercise in frustration as prospects try to secure credit union loans or similar crap.
I must admit to feeling like a chump when I first traded in a car a few decades ago. Actually, it was sold to Carmax, a way to get rid of a car that didn’t even exist decades ago.
Still, what a liberating feeling; hand over the keys, walk away, and nobody is going to call or text me with YOU SOLD ME A LEMON I WANT A REFUND or subject me to the worse nightmares that Mercedes Streeter has had (hint: do not leave your plates on the car). I’ve never looked back; I’m simply paying for a service to avoid a task I don’t want to do myself, like painting my house. I still die inside a bit every time, though, and know that 22-year-old me would think I’m a loser. Still, 22-year-old me would think I’m a loser regardless; I probably do have more money than sense than I did then.
How about you? Are you still braving the interwebs of half-price lowballers and people asking IS 300ZX A FOUR DOOR, or will you battle it out in the sales cubicle for your next whip? Let me know and I WILL GIVE U $1000 CASH FOR UR CAR.
Top graphic images: Facebook; DepositPhotos.com
I usually trade for many of the reasons stated here. Recently the dealer made an insultingly low offer. I didn’t want the hassle for a FB ad, so I found someone who did sales as a side-gig. He listed the car, vetted the potential buyers, and set up the meeting with the buyer for me. It was $500 well spent.
Trade that damn thing in! Kbb wholesale value is what I’m getting and know what it is before I step inside the dealer so I’m not going in with high expectations.
Zero desire to deal with Facebook marketplace buyers. I can get a few hundred to a few thousands more but not with my sanity.
How do you get the wholesale value? I just tried, and only got trade-in and private party numbers.
Trade in is wholesale. That’s about what the car will go for at an auction.
With how high taxes are in WA, and the fact that trade-ins discount the taxable sale, means you need to do at least 12% better on the private market to break even financially, and frankly the headaches dealing with private sellers are worth at least another 8%, so the bare minimum is like 20% over trade in. No one is willing to pay that, so there’s really no point to not just trade in used cars here.
Same here in IL. I would draw the line at 3K in the trade/sell relationship. If the trade is worth more than 3K, trade it. Less than 3K, private party. On the lower end of the market the dealer will offer almost nothing because there’s no margin in it for them (see: $500 trade value). Over 3K the tax savings and the selling headache make it worth it.
Also, as pointed out in the article, not many people have more than 3-5K in cash laying around. No, I don’t want your cashiers check. I want CASH.
Why? Cashier’s checks are issued by the banks themselves, using the bank’s own funds, so they don’t bounce.
Whereas if you are getting cash, you have to worry about counterfeit bills.
If it isn’t counterfeit
There have been a lot of counterfeit cashier’s checks in our area. They have been good enough the bank manager thought they were legit, until they bounced.
I’m far more educated in detecting counterfeit bills than counterfeit checks. Anyone with a few bucks can buy the paper cashiers checks are printed on and a printer- print checks from whatever bank and account they want.
Wire transfers are also acceptable.
Cashier’s checks can still be cancelled before they are cashed, or counterfit, or created using stolen credentials. They are basically no better than a check these days unfortunately.
In my twenties, I traded in my car as at the time, I simply did not know how to sell my car myself and was too introverted to deal with strangers (I know, pathetic – this was in the late 90s/early 2000s so also cut me some slack on ‘just google it’).
However, experience is a great teacher, and I got burned at a dealership badly enough on a trade in (oh and on the new vehicle purchase) that my next few vehicles, I got things sorted out in my squirrelly head and sold them myself.
Here’s the thing though, I came to hate the experience of trying to sell and buy a car so much that I am now firmly in the camp of drive it till the wheels fall off and the car rots around you. Dealing with a guy insisting I take his shitbox Dodge Ramcharger as a trade instead of cash for my Ranger just about broke me. My last time selling a vehicle was a 2008 Corolla to a coworker (yeah I know, I make my own problems) and when my current cars finally need to be replaced, I will absolutely just see what Carvana will give me for it. I’m about to turn 50 and I while I never liked dealing with people to being with, I REALLY don’t like it now.
TL;DR “Team Trade-In!”
How old does Carvana buy cars?
Great Question – I have a 2015 Frontier, it’s currently 2026 in the Year of Our Lord and it has 112k miles on it, at the rate I drive I’ll probably get rid of it in 2039, so I’ll check back in with them then assuming they are still around and we’ll find out (insert silly face emoji here lol)
I’m firmly Team Trade-in for the exact reasons you’re giving. Dealerships may be bad enough, but dealing (no pun intended) with the psychos who would buy my used cars is out of the question. Hell is other people.
Ah, I have found my people!
Now you know why car sales people are the way they are
I have sold a LOT of cars over the years – roughly 45 at this time. I have traded in exactly ONE. I traded my ’16 M235i for my ’17 GTI Sport because the BMW was worth rather more than the GTI cost, so I paid $0 in sales tax on the sale. The VW dealer gave me the full Dieselgate “please, please, please buy something from us” discount, and as they had a sister BMW store that was salivating at the prospect of a 19K mile slicktop, 6spd stick M235i they gave me ALL the money for it. And I had gotten a killer discount on that car too, between the dealer and Euro Delivery prices. Lots of equity in it.
Otherwise, I have mainly sold cars to friends, fellow car club members, or CarMax (both Fiats) or Carvana(GTI and MB E350 a couple weeks ago). A couple were sold for scrap after parting them out. I usually have a waiting list for my cars. The one for my 328! is about 10 deep currently, LOL. Out of all those cars, I can really only think of one where I just posted it to Uncle Henry’s (back when it was an actual weekly print magazine) and some random person bought it – ’89 Volvo 745 Turbo.
I have neither time nor patience for dealing with random Internet idiots. As proven some years ago when I decided the IKEA kitchen island I bought was a bit too big for the space. I posted it on Craigslist for 1/2 retail, unused, assembled, and 2hrs closer than IKEA (at the time I didn’t know that I could have just returned it). And some idjit argued with me about the price. When I sell something, it’s priced to move, and I do NOT negotiate. Take it or leave it. This guys must have been a lightyear down the spectrum because he was like a dog with a bone. I found it just amusing enough to keep up the text conversation for an evening.
Speaking of the 328! wagon – finally moving it to Florida. Just arrived at Auburn U. from my place in Maine to do a work gig for a couple days, then another 500 miles home on Friday. A delightful 1300 miles or so in the old girl over the past three days, About what I put on her the last two years combined, LOL.
Live in Maryland where it makes most sense for tax purposes to trade
I prefer to trade in old cars that have lots of problems mainly because I don’t want to deal with retail buyers who suddenly get amnesia when the POS car that I told them was a POS before they bought it turns out to be an actual POS and they think I should pay for some repair after they bought it.
This.
I sold a very old pos jeep scrambler and over 6 month later the guy wanted his money back because the frame split from rust. That was not me. I sold it at is.
I usually trade them in, or the wrecker hauls them away because they’ve been totaled.
I bought a car from a dealer once, but he was a friend of the family and that was more than 50 years ago. All my other cars have been bought or bartered from friends and relatives. I tend to keep them until if I am lucky I can give them away.
Btw, A TR3 suitable to build a kit car on and a 1963 Mercedes 220 SE parked outside for 30 years are up for grabs.
I don’t have patience for the crazy. I’ll take the lesser amount, and the tax benefit and just trade that sucker in. Sanity and time have a value.
The exception was when I sold my ’71 Coupe deVille. It wasn’t for sale, and I was out with it shooting a music video, when some rando drives by and says the “Nice car, how much?” I threw back a number about $10K over what I paid for it, and he says give me your number.
Thought nothing of it, he phones a couple days later and says he has to have it, he’ll be by later in the week, but don’t sell it. My dude, it was never for sale to begin with, so sure, call me when you have the cash.
Two more days pass, he calls, and asks if he can come by with a buddy and take a look. They show up, he confirms the price, and I agree. Off he goes to his buddy’s car, and comes back with stacks of $100’s.
So we’re standing in my garage in suburbia, and he asks “Do you have a bill counter?” What in my white suburban ass makes you think that I have a bill counter handy goes through my head, but what comes out is, no, I do not.
“No worries, I brought mine.” We proceed to plug said bill counter into the garage outlet and count out $25K in bills, perched on top of a garbage bin.
Rest of the transaction was seamless. Definitely worth the story.
Office Depot sells counterfeit bill detection pens. Just FYI.
I was on the other end of a transaction like that but we went to a bank and they counted the bills.
We had a terrible rusted out Honda Civic, and my wife and I were having a heated discussion about replacing it. She said something like “well what should we get?” As a Volvo 740 turbo wagon drove by. I said that I liked those but they are really hard to find. The light turned red and she ran out into the street and told the driver she wanted to buy the car. He said he would only take cash, so we went into a bank and I gave him the cash there.
What an amazing story! Your wife is a keeper.
Unfortunately sometimes her lack of impulse control and getting what she wants immediately didn’t work out so well. Of course it was great when we were dating, bought me a toothbrush on the first date.
I would say he was laundering drug money
Who doesn’t have a bill counter handy? just asking
The bank cleared all the bills when I deposited it. No worries, and I’m sure the cash came from recreational discretionary off-market purchases.
‘The old “there’s two kinds of people” thing is something I’ve never been nuts about.’ And the other kind of people seem to be fine with it.
There are those who can extrapolate from incomplete data.
Two kinds of people those that suck and me
When I buy a car, there are two possible fates:
I keep it forever
I keep it far longer than any sane person would as it degrades into a pile of rust and unreliability, then it scrapped
Trading in or selling are foreign concepts to me
Aren’t both of those the same thing?
Daily drivers that are subject the harsh Midwestern winters are the ones that succumb to the elements and need eventual replacement
The toys, which never see road salt, those I expect to last
I think that was the joke
Absolutely agree 100% A+++++ would buy again
I’ve only sold or traded in a handful of vehicles. Most of mine I keep so long that something structural collapses due to rust so I have to limp it to the metal scrapyard if I can.
The last time I tried trading my truck in the stealership told me they’d give me a minimum of $500 for it as long as it ran and drove the 200 miles it took me to get it there. So I drove it there, title in hand, and when I git there they said, sorry – we can’t give you anything for it but we’ll take it off your hands for free.
I almost said screw it and walked away from the truck I was buying, but it had taken me 6 months to find that one and my trade-in was so rusty that it wasn’t going to make it through the rest of the winter. So I told them no way was I letting them have it for free but that I would leave it in their lot for a few days until I could come and haul it back. I ended getting a good deal from a local UHaul place for a $50 day-rate where I could pick it up the night before and drop it off the next night after closing hours and still only have to pay the $50. So I hooked it up to my GMC Envoy, drove it the 200 miles down there and the 200 miles back home, dropped off my old truck, and returned the UHaul.
I ended up selling the rusty truck for $500 the next week.
And they wonder why we call them Stealerships.
I learned the hard way a couple of times not to trust a verbal offer from a dealer. If they’re not going to take the title at the time of offer, they’ll say anything, then disavow it when the time comes.
Same situation here. I tend to own cars for a very long time. By the time they’re done, it’s usually by some kind of issue that I really don’t want to have to explain to someone. Most recent example is our 2008 Grand Cherokee. We bought it in 2011 with about 48k on it and rode it to almost 270k. We’d still be driving it if it wasn’t for a laundry list of things needed to pass PA inspection, including frame patches. Around here, that’s a death knell for a car, but I didn’t want to junk it because it ran, shifted, and drove fine otherwise. I took it to (ulp) WeBuyAnyCar last April and they gave me $700 for it as-is. They told me that it was going to a “red light” auction, which apparently means “there’s things wrong with it”. I’d rather handle it that way than going back and forth with someone. The extra $100 or so isn’t worth the hassle.
True if selling but I bought my last vehicle from a dealer and we bargained down to how much gas he’d put in it
I used to only sell private party, now I only trade in – and it’s entirely because I can’t tolerate the Facebook short message / low baller crowds.
I’ll post at the top of the ad “If you see this ad the item is available. Please DO NOT short message me asking if it’s available.”
“Hi, is this available?”
No, I sold it weeks ago and haven’t removed it because I wanted to see you get excited then use your disappointment to nourish my soul.
“Do you want help selling?”
Absolutely! I charge ${difference between what I want and trade in +500} to repost the ad. Thanks so much!!
“I’ll give you $12.86 CAN plus a gum wrapper for your car! Let me know when and where to pick it up.”
Here’s what you can do with your gum wrapper . . .
“Ur an @$$%{|£! I make a legitimate offer and you treat me like that?”
{Responds in a way that thoroughly earns a temporary FB Marketplace ban}.
I hate the way facebook has monopolized the private car and bike market. I don’t have facebook so if I want to inquire about a bike or car, I have to go through my in laws. I miss the old days with the newspaper adds and the corners of parking lots where people would park up the cars they were selling for you to look over…..
Even Craigslist was better than Facebook. You’d get the same time-wasters and no-shows you’d see from an ad in the papers, but Facebook somehow seems to have lowered the bar.
Craigslist is basically a ghost town in my locale, car ads are limited to dealer auto-posts.
I’ve done both and it’s highly situational. My 2000 Saab, being an enthusiast car, sold on Marketplace in a day and it was easy. My 2016 Mini needed 4k in work and I didn’t want to make that someone else’s problem considering I knew there were no shops around. I sold it to Autonation for a pretty fair price considering what I paid and the work it needed. They then proceeded to do none of that work… and the next buyer a state over got slapped with a massive bill. But now that’s Autonation’s fault not mine.
I’ve done both. If I’m concerned about something with the car and it being trouble for a buyer, I’ll typically trade it in. If it’s a good car with no known major problems, I don’t have a problem selling it to a private party. I don’t want to be deceitful with a private party, so I’m typically engineer level detailed about things, which doesn’t make it easy to sell sometimes. It’s also still an odd experience to me to exchange a title for a brown paper bag full of cash, especially when it’s more than a couple thousand dollars.
I tend to keep cars for 8-10 years so it kind of depends on if I want the hassle of trying to sell it myself or if the dealership gives me a somewhat decent offer. It depends on the demand for the car too.
If you have an existing loan on the car, it can be a real pain to sell private party too.
It really depends. If it is a high demand vehicle and not tired BHPH fodder, then private party can be quick and painless. Sold a family member’s 7-yo RAV4 in 24hrs private party to the first person who contacted me, for the full KBB value. Piece of cake. Traded our own Camry to the dealer because they accepted my counteroffer of near-private party value. Piece of cake.
Wading through the low-ballers and the flakes and the freaks to sell a depreciated subcompact that no one wants for a thousand more than a dealer would offer on trade-in? No thanks, I have other things to do with that time.
“You’d be surprised how many purchasers of a $1,500 example of what once was a $52,000 new car expect perfection, or else.”
I just look at people like that and ask them “Are you really that dumb? You think you can get a flawless $50,000 car for $1500? Get the fuck outta here…”
“ dozens of IS IT AVAILABLE replies, but the worst part is potential buyers who know from the web what I’ll get for my car in trade and think offering that amount or less IN CASH will make me want to hand them the title.”
My response is I just ask them when they want to come see the car. If they give me a lowball offer, then I’ll get sarcastic and tell them that my car is out of their budget and provide them a link to another car (usually the worst rusted out POS I can find) and tell them “here is something more within your budget”… LOL
“I’ve also wasted Lord knows how many evenings waiting for no-shows or people who drive the car at wide open throttle “
I just have the meet location near my house. And I do stuff around the house so it isn’t any great inconvenience to me if they don’t show up. And I don’t mind if someone drives a car at wide open throttle. That’s how I usually drive my cars anyway. Of course it isn’t a problem because I’ve never sold a truly powerful car.
““will come back, but please hold it.””
My response: I’ll hold it if you give me a $500 deposit. Shuts that shit down pretty fast.
“Still, what a liberating feeling; hand over the keys, walk away, and nobody is going to call or text me with YOU SOLD ME A LEMON I WANT A REFUND”
That’s why you make up a sales contract that explicity states that that the sale is ‘as-is’, there is no warranty, NO RETURNS AND NO REFUNDS… ALL SALES ARE FINAL. And I’ll even include things like “Seller acknowledges x and y issues”
And both the buyer and seller signs and dates it and each side gets a copy.
“How about you?”
Aside from cars that have been written off by insurance, I’ve always sold cars on my own except I think in one instance.
I always used to do a bill of sale, even one I typed out myself, and it always included “AS IS, WHERE IS, HOW IS, no warranty expressed or implied” on it. I’d have them countersign and give them one if they wanted.
Thankfully I never had anyone come back on me.
I had one person come back… it was a 1987 Honda Civic Wagovan I sold for just $50 due to severe rust.
The girl who bought it was a very nice young girl who was naive and didn’t listen… at first.
I told the girl that due to the rust, it will either be cheap or expensive to get on the road depending on whether she does the bodywork needed herself or not.
What does she do? She takes it to her mechanic and asks him to do the work… got an obscenely high quote.
And apparently she asked her boyfriend if he could do the bodywork and I’m guessing he probably said something like ‘No’ or “are you fucking kidding me”
So she calls me and I had to explain it to her AGAIN.
And I told her “and I only charged you $50 for it. It’s not like you’re out much money.”
I subsequently saw an ad where she was trying to sell it for $75… LOL
I could have scrapped it for a bit more money, but I wanted it to go to someone who had the time to fix the rust and get it back on the road… OR have it go to someone who would use the parts to keep another wagovan on the road.
Depends.
enthusiast car or in good condition: direct sale
wore out, time to go: trade-in
If the car is toast then the marginal amount I’d get over dealer trade-in isn’t worth the hassle.
And not for nuthin, I’d feel like a piece of crap selling a car so wore out I’m no longer willing to maintain it to someone who needs a car and can only afford beater prices.
I have never traded a car in, I also rarely sell them. but I have traded one recently for a Motorcycle. Normally I just pass them on to family that needs something not worth much but sure appreciates having a ride.
I also tend to gravitate towards weird and collectible stuff, so the ones I would actually part with generally are the daily beaters.
I guess we did trade in a hand me down Focus since I knew the DCT in those were junk.
I sold my old Honda motorcycle this summer on Marketplace and it went well. Guy came from 90 miles away, paid asking price cash and rode it away. Now I need to sell wife’s 2013 MKX. (We just bought a new Honda Pilot.) Dealer offered 3K for it, I’m sure I can get at least double that selling it.
I almost always sell. When it came time to get rid of my basketcase 2022 Grand Cherokee Trail Hawk though I opted to to trade it in.
That piece of shit had so many obvious things wrong with it selling to a private party would have been tough if not impossible without chopping many thousands off the Blue Book value. It’s dashboard had several lights on. Some key systems refused to stay active. And the air suspension creaked and groaned louder than basically any other vehicle I had driven, ever. It was still under warranty and the dealer couldn’t fix any of the issues without them popping up again in a few weeks. Even replacing the entire head unit and all the air suspension didn’t fix it. It was a lemon through and through.
When a Chevy dealer offered me enough to pay it off I bit. Could not get that pile out of my life fast enough. It sat on their lot for almost 4 months before disappearing. I bet it went to auction.
2022? Not 2002 or 2012, but 2022?
Yep. As in 4 years old. Problems started after 6 months of ownership.
holy hell (!!)
Couldn’t get a buyback?
It’s a Jeep Thing 🙁
I wouldn’t understand
Never again!
I find the dashboard lights are usually just a bulb issue. Remove the bulb no problem