easiest way to sell existing vehicle

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sephiro499

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One of the big stumbling blocks is selling my existing vehicle then buying a van. If it isn't through a dealership that accepts trades, this complicates matters. It seems from my online searches there are much better deals if you buy from an owner as opposed to a dealership. I've been searching on autotrader and craigslist excursively.

I've tried to sell a car before and it was a huge pain in the ass with people wasting my time, endless negotiation (even when I price it more than fair).
 
Easiest is to price it crazily low and say first person to show up with $500 cash gets it. If you want a decent price, I generally go with a very detailed ad on craigslist. Post good pictures and describe what is right and wrong with it. When people call and try to negotiate I tell them I won't talk price unless they come look at the car first. Those people who lowball immediately on the first phone call just drain me emotionally and never actually follow through anyway - they either don't show up, show up then try to lowball even further, or test drive then are never heard from again.

People actually looking to buy a specific car will see it first before trying to haggle.
 
I've sold numerous vehicles (and other items) on Craig's List and have had little troubles in doing so. My most recent one sold in 90 minutes from ad posted to cash in hand. The one prior was less than 24 hours from ad posted to cash in hand.

The trick is for YOU to be as thorough as possible in your ad. Do not leave anything to be questioned by the potential buyer. Tons of pictures and lots of words in a well formatted post. Good spelling, grammar, and layout all help people understand that you are a serious person not to be trifled with. I also post a FIRM (and fair) price and state it outright that it is not negotiable. You can always lower your price after a few days.

I always end my ads with the following;
Your email must include your phone number or I do not reply
If you ask me a question that is already answered here, I will ignore you
If you can see this ad, the item is still available


The above weeds out the idiots and spammers real quick. If you do not get any replies then you at least did not waste your time on the idiots and spammers.
 
I have an 08 Hyundai Sonata and I want a conversion van. Bob mentions to always have the van checked by a good mechanic. How do I do that? If I'm driving 60 miles to look at a van I'm not going to know anyone in that area.

The other issue is the extra money I would receive from the sale of my existing car. Money for the van would come from my SSA account and I can't put cash from my car sale into my ssa account.

Due to very high debt-to-income ratio I don't want to have extra money laying around nor have to explain it when I go chapter 7. The SSA money is exempt.

Can't continue to pay on this debt by the first of next year. That's why I was looking for a dealership though I'm coming up rather empty on conversion van searches at dealerships. They've got plenty of minivans though.
 
Google maps or the yellow pages will list mechanics. While you may not know if them personally, you will at least ensure yourself that you are not getting into a vehicle that was from a flood or something of that sort.

All the finance-talk is over my pay grade, sorry. I have a checking account and a pocket. I don't deal in anything more complicated than those.
 
Van-Tramp said:
Google maps or the yellow pages will list mechanics. While you may not know if them personally, you will at least ensure yourself that you are not getting into a vehicle that was from a flood or something of that sort.

All the finance-talk is over my pay grade, sorry. I have a checking account and a pocket. I don't deal in anything more complicated than those.

I agree with you, any mechanic is better than no mechanic. I will take that approach.
 
sephiro499 said:
One of the big stumbling blocks is selling my existing vehicle then buying a van. If it isn't through a dealership that accepts trades, this complicates matters. It seems from my online searches there are much better deals if you buy from an owner as opposed to a dealership. I've been searching on autotrader and craigslist excursively.

I would suggest that you also begin searching on Ebay. You can limit the search to within a certain radius of your zip code.

Read their buyer protection plan. While it doesn't cover EVERYTHING, it does provide protection against a few things you might not have thought of - such as buying a van and then discovering, when you go to register it, that there was an undisclosed lien on it, or it was reported stolen, or something.

Regards
John
 
I have looked on ebay but there just isnt' much in my area (western, NC 28602).
 
Carmax gives a written 7 day offer. I have sold one late model vehicle this way and, on others that I ended up trading, their offers were very fair.

No affiliation ......
 
Go talk to your local mechanic and strategize. Everyone gets bored and mechanics like to hear of ideas. One might give you a flat rate to inspect anything within one hour drive one way from you. Money well spent.
 
sephiro499 said:
The other issue is the extra money I would receive from the sale of my existing car. Money for the van would come from my SSA account and I can't put cash from my car sale into my ssa account.

I'm confused...

why can't you use the cash from the sale of the car toward the purchase of the van??? Use the SSA account for the balance.



btw.....slow down!!

if you're serious about finding a van, then be patient!! You can't push the energy of the universe.

If it's right...one will show up.
 
Patrick46 said:
if you're serious about finding a van, then be patient!! You can't push the energy of the universe.

If it's right...one will show up.

If I use the money from the sale of my car I then have no car and no way to get around.
 
Patrick46 said:
perhaps......the van?????

If I sell my car and acquire money from that sale, I am now without a car. And also without any transportation to acquire a new vehicle. Chicken before the egg sort of problem.
 
Patrick, he can't buy the van until he sells the car and your (very good) advice to him was to take his time finding the van, it would come to him.

As we all know, good deals on vans go fast so waiting till it comes to you means he will have to call the seller and ask him to hold it while he sells his car. Not going to happen!

It really is tricky! Finding a dealer that will trade straight across is a great solution although a dealer will charge more for the same van and pay him less on his car.

One possibility is to run a "For Trade" add on Craiglist. Who knows, maybe the exact right thing will fall into your lap! It worked for one of our members, bindi. He traded a RV straight across for a van and they were both happy with the deal
Bob
 
We have facebook groups here that are basically like yardsale/craigslist ads, and I was really shocked at how many people want to straight trade for vehicles (or with a little 'boot'..aka cash added to the trade). So that might be an option.
 
akrvbob said:
One possibility is to run a "For Trade" add on Craiglist. Who knows, maybe the exact right thing will fall into your lap! It worked for one of our members, bindi. He traded a RV straight across for a van and they were both happy with the deal
Bob

Yes that is what I'm doing right now. I bought some upholstery cleaner and wax for my car. Once I check the weather schedule I'm going to clean the car to an illustrious shine then take photos on craigslist in a 'trade for' scenario.

I may be willing to, at some point, either buy what I want with the ssa money or go to a dealer. It all depends on how long I'm willing to tolerate living here. With the difficult of my current situation it's hard to be patient.

I just saw an 04 e250 conversion (at a dealer, online) with 100k miles for 8,800. Once you add all the fees and taxes it's more like 10k and the trade in value on my car is around 5k.
 
This is how I plan on making a living on the road. Inspecting used cars. I did some test runs while I'm still in my house and the response was overwhelming. I saw one guy in NYC doing adds on Craigs for $80 car inception and decided to try. I posted my add in rural area and had 6 inspections on one Saturday. Been wrenching on cars for 22 years and will show up with my wife who has her check list and I have mine. 220 point inspection. I bring jack, car computer, snake through video camera, compression gauge , flashlight, mirrors and go through the car for about 40 minutes. I did this few weekends and the money was really nice working 6 hours on Saturdays. Enough to travel and make a nice living working one day a week. All you need is plan ahead knowing which town your in next week and start placing adds. BUYING USED CAR, TAKE MECHANIC WITH

The people I did inspections for were extremely happy and started to refer me to others. I pulled the plug on this business as it was just the test. I still work full time and want my weekends free. But when we hit the road, the inspections will pay for everything.

There are always opportunities.
 
Planet - care to share that checklist? Promise to keep out of your state. Lol.
 
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