We care well for our cars. Really well. So well that it is hard for the used car market to understand and appropriately value our vehicles.
When I sold my last car, I had to wait about 3 weeks until someone would even see it. Why? Because I set a high asking price for a car of that age and mileage. And guess what? That car sold to the first person who saw it--and at near the asking price!
I'm creating this thread as a sort of record of my experience—from beginning to end--so others can benefit from it. I haven't seen any threads like it here.
The situation is this:
My wife is bored with her mint, low mileage 2001 Civic. She has agreed to learn stick shift (yippee!), and we will take delivery on a 2004 MINI Cooper S in September. Meanwhile, the Civic needs to be sold.
The dealer offered us “wholesale” for the car as a trade-in—what a joke! So we are selling it privately. Here are my steps
1. Two weeks ago, I borrowed some money from savings and paid off the loan. The title is now in our hands. This makes for a much easier transaction.
2. I began detailing the car to concours standards about the same time. New hubcaps were purchased on eBay (curb rash), wheel wells cleaned with wheels removed, undercarriage cleaned using jack stands…you get the idea. Only flaws are some door dings…after much deliberation I’ve decided NOT to repair them. Repair would only add to the asking price, and I’d rather the new buyer make the decision about spending money to repair such tiny defects. The car is now ready for sale.
3. Purchased a CarFax record for the car. Came out clean, as expected. To my delight, they even provide a public URL where anyone can view the record for free! I had no idea.
4. I priced the car. I took the “Black Book” retail number and subtracted $1,000. This is a high price, but we are in no hurry and as you know a buyer will only haggle down, not up. Hopefully when they see how mint the car is the price can stay pretty firm.
5. I took lots of pictures and posted them to a web site. You can check it out at
http://home.comcast.net/~charlesgor...Civic/civic.htm (Please don’t take this thread in any way as an advertisement; I can remove this link if anyone accuses me of that. I just think this is a nice example of what you can do)
6. I put an ad up in cars.com. Pretty easy to use. I opted for the "premium" service for $45, which includes 9 pictures. Unfortunately the pictures are pretty small, but at least it makes the listing stand out a bit better. You can see it here:
http://www.cars.com/search/used/cc/...n&src=&cid=null
7. Here is the sales history:
8/25: Listed on Cars.com for $13,350 ($55 for ad)
8/28: Price lowered to $12,990
9/1: Price lowered to $12,690, Ad placed on Craigslist.com (free)
9/1: Built a web page for the car
9/1: Craigslist ad gets an email inquiry, bottom feeder
9/3: Call responding to cars.com, says will see on weekend
9/4: Price lowered to $12,490
9/6: 9/3 caller sees car, drives it, likes it, but apparently not interested (didn't make an offer). I think it was a tire kicker.
9/9: Ad placed on Autotrader.com for $12,490 ($70 for ad)
9/12: Still no calls. Price lowered to $12,390.
9/15: Still no calls. Price lowered to $12,290.
9/18: Call responding to AutoTrader.com ad, wants to see
9/19: Yesterday's caller comes, loves car, agrees to purchase. Problem is we're going on a week vacation. Buyer says to call on return, perfect for him as he needs time to get the money anyway. I ask for $100 to remove my ads, he doesn't have it. I tell him I will keep the ads up but will call him first when he gets back.
9/20: Call from unknown source asks about car. I tell him the car is probably sold, take his number.
9/28: Back from vacation. Original buyer tells me he may have lost his job (yeah, right? Actually I sort of believe him), tells me to wait a day for details. I do.
9/29: Definitely a no-go on this buyer. I call the 9/20 guy; he already bought a car.
9/30: Price lowered to $12,190. Now I am getting cynical. This price is beyond fair, well under $1,000 less than dealers.
10/1: Caller says he is interested, would like to see on the weekend. I never find out where he found the ad.
10/4: 10/1 caller comes out to look/drive car. Has a color printout of my web page! Light rain is kind of a shame because it hides the try paint quality, but with Aquapel on the windows and a full Klasse/P21S treatment it is beading the water wonderfully. Test drive is good, buyer makes a lowball offer of about $1,000 less than asking. I tell him that $12k is a take-it-or-leave-it price (a reduction from my $12,190 advertised). He counters with a printout of a Blue Book which shows something like $11,560. I explain that the car is the best cared for he will find in the area, and basically thank him for his time. To my surprise, the deal is clinched on that! Buyer will call in a couple days for final arrangements.
10/6: Buyer contacts me, would like to close deal soon except I insist on a cashier's check. I do some homework on him anyway, checking out address, phone number, etc.
10/8: My wife and I deliver the car in the evening. Buyer goes over car with a flashlight, comments about how clean it is ("has this even been driven in the winter?")
10/15: Check clears. End of story. See post-sale remarks below.
Postscript: Ironically, I have kept the ads going in Autotrader.com and Cars.com (at $12,190) but have gotten NO CALLS! I was thinking of lowering the price on the ads to different levels to see what happens, but that's not really fair to people and would be too strange if the new owner found out.
How to sell an Autopian car
I will NEVER trade a car in again, EVER.
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