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’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.
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 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.
‘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.
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
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.
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…..
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.
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 (!!)
It’s a Jeep Thing 🙁
I wouldn’t understand
Never again!