Selling used vehicle advice. What company or Ap did you use. Tips. Who to avoid and why.

[O’Majestic1’slightnigF150]

Hello Smart people. I was fortunate to pick up my new Lightning on day 462 since reserving. 8/30/22. Dealer would not discuss trade till we were at “closing” and then did not offer what I believe my trade is worth. Of course. That’s fine, kinda expected it. Now I need some help. I don’t want to deal with individuals coming to my home, rural, dogs, cows, not home all the time…. I’ve seen in threads people using Driveway, CarGurus and others but wanted to start a topic pulling all the good and bad in one place. Of course I will take all your advice! Thanks in advance.
O’Majestic1 or OM1

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[FlasherZ]

I avoid FB Marketplace like the plague because it's filled with a bunch of scammers, people who offer two green beans and an onion in exchange for a $50k vehicle, and other assorted nasties. But I did put it up to my friends, made it shareable. Didn't really get any bites (had a couple interested).

In the end, I took advantage of Illinois' sales tax credit for trade-in. Turns out the best deal came from my dealer giving me the KBB trade-in value, and then on top of it I got credit for the sales tax difference.

So this meant I got an additional 6.25% on top of the trade-in value, which got me pretty close to the private-party value without the hassle.

(In Illinois, sales tax credit for trade-in is limited to the dealer that you buy the new car from, you can't sell the old vehicle to one dealer then claim the credit against a purchase on another dealer.)

 

[Theo1000]

I recommend carmax. You won't get 100% of value. They offered me 98% of what I thought it was worth. But the paperwork is quick and easy. They give you a free offer in less than an hour that is good for a week.

I have also sold to Vroom recently and also Craigslist. You do get a bunch of scammers on Craigslist but you can make them out and shoo them away.

I did find a reasonable private seller who really needed a vehicle and we worked it out.

 

[djteotancolis]

Carvana is good as well. Their algorithm is messed up sometimes and gives you a higher value. I got 2K more than I would have gotten at a dealership

 

[AdmiralYamo]

I'm in illiois as well, I thought they only credit you 10k of the cars value in sales tax credit now?

 

[maverick92]

Carvana and Vroom have worked out well for me in the past.

 

[Tmack7]

Shift was best for me. Offered 25% more than any of the others. Algorithm differences. May work better, may not. I’d would check multiple. It was an easy transaction with shift though.

 

[RTanton]

Hello Smart people. I was fortunate to pick up my new Lightning on day 462 since reserving. 8/30/22. Dealer would not discuss trade till we were at “closing” and then did not offer what I believe my trade is worth. Of course. That’s fine, kinda expected it. Now I need some help. I don’t want to deal with individuals coming to my home, rural, dogs, cows, not home all the time…. I’ve seen in threads people using Driveway, CarGurus and others but wanted to start a topic pulling all the good and bad in one place. Of course I will take all your advice! Thanks in advance.
O’Majestic1 or OM1

 

[LSP]

Hello Smart people. I was fortunate to pick up my new Lightning on day 462 since reserving. 8/30/22. Dealer would not discuss trade till we were at “closing” and then did not offer what I believe my trade is worth. Of course. That’s fine, kinda expected it. Now I need some help. I don’t want to deal with individuals coming to my home, rural, dogs, cows, not home all the time…. I’ve seen in threads people using Driveway, CarGurus and others but wanted to start a topic pulling all the good and bad in one place. Of course I will take all your advice! Thanks in advance.
O’Majestic1 or OM1

I am in Southern California and I compared Carmax, Carvana, and Car Gurus. Car Gurus offered $500 more than either of the other two. They came and picked up our Subaru at the house and the funds were in my bank the next day. I would recommend shopping all three of those.

 

[RTanton]

We tried almost all of those mentioned. Ford dealer offered 12K and Hyundai(brand we sold) 14K. the two highest offers were CarMax at 17K and AutoNation at 18.5K. AutoNation made it a quick and easy transaction.

 

[FlasherZ]

I'm in illiois as well, I thought they only credit you 10k of the cars value in sales tax credit now?

It was changed back January of this year.

 

[SteelTerp87]

Shift was best for me. Offered 25% more than any of the others. Algorithm differences. May work better, may not. I’d would check multiple. It was an easy transaction with shift though.

Dang, I got all excited but Shift doesn't operate in MD

 

[kab]

Shift was best for me. Offered 25% more than any of the others. Algorithm differences. May work better, may not. I’d would check multiple. It was an easy transaction with shift though.

I just wanted to point out for others that Shift currently only serves California, Oregon, Washington, and Texas.

 

[2000Firehawk]

Carmax, Carvana, Vroom, CarGurus (which is really CarOffers), AutoNation, Driveway. I've sold cars through all of them but Vroom and Driveway. Almost all will do an online eval and offer, but Carmax you can take your car to a location as well if close by. I've sold a lot of cars myself and for friends/family and I would say typically the pricing (highest to lowest) goes this way:

Driveway
CarGurus - if a desirable model like a hybrid, etc. More on this in a second.
Carvana
Vroom
AutoNation
Carmax

AutoNation can be a pain because they make an offer, but then want you to go to a dealership and seems to be a lot of wiggle room to change the price after they "verify" the car. That is the main reason I haven't used them so far.

Carmax is the standard bearer and I've sold lots of cars there over the years, but they aren't as generous as they were in the past. Lots of articles on why that is, but I think the real reason is that the others (Carvana, Vroom, Driveway) are overpaying to gain market share right now. Carmax also charges a fee (maybe $250?) if I remember correctly and the others don't do that.

CarGurus/CarOffers operates in a similar way to Carvana and Carmax in that they pay more because ultimately they will likely be able to offer the vehicle nationally; however, it works a bit differently. CarGurus gives you an online offer and if you accept they send you a packet of paperwork to fill out and a pickup date (same as many). The difference is that the pickup is done by a local network dealer (not Carvana or Carmax corporate) and the pickup dealer has 48 hours to either take the car into their inventory via right of first refusal (at some price unknown to you) or turn it over to CarGurus who makes it available to other dealers in the network across the nation. In my case, I sold a 2021 Rav4 Prime with 12K miles back in late spring. It was a hot market for the car everywhere. The local dealer clearly turned down the offer and about two weeks later my car showed up in Seattle (I'm in the Baltimore area) for a massive markup. I will say that there was absolutely zero checking of the car when they picked it up. Just took a pic of the vin which loads to an app. Wait a minute or two and CarGurus generates the purchase doc and you e-sign. Off they go.

With all of these though, check your prices and check often. They don't always make sense and they will go up on occasion for no apparent reason. In the case of my Rav4, CarGurus offered me 10% more than anyone else at that particular moment for that particular car and some of the other offers were pretty crazy. It made giving up the trade tax benefit an easy decision. Funny enough, I had a more premium version of that same car with 1K miles on it at the time and they offered me less than for the car with 12K miles on it. Algorithms are fun!!

 

[kab]

Dang, I got all excited but Shift doesn't operate in MD

Looks like we were both discovering Shift was no good for us here in Maryland at the same time haha

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