[XutvJet]

I bought my 2018 M2 last November and parted out my paid off 2016 M235 6MT with 78K miles to stock throughout December. I waivered on selling private or selling to someone like Carvana or Carmax.

My reluctance to selling private party is a lot of things:

1) It is very difficult to sell $20K+ cars private party these days as loans are expensive and most people don't have the money to buy without dealing with a dealer.

2) For me to be comfortable with the transaction, I'd need the buyer to meet me at my bank and do the wire and let me verify the funds are there. Not many buyers are open to jumping through those hoops.

3) There are so many crafty scammers out there now. You've got to be careful.

4) If you don't own the car outright, selling privately can be a royal pain in the butt and turns off lots of potential buyers. I've always sold cars that I own, but have lots of friends that had nightmares selling their cars or buying them that still had notes.


I decided I wanted to make around $24K on M235 by selling my car and mods. I decided to get offers from Carmax and Carvana. Carvana offered me $20,500 and Carmax $19,000. I decided Carvana's offer was decent and took it. I drove their local store, they did a 10 minute inspection, and handed me a check and that was that. I then sold parts and made $2,500 and still have a few parts left so I should get close to $24K.

When I got my 2016 M235, I tried to sell my mint and payed off 2012 WRX hatch on Cars.com, Autotrader, etc. What a fiasco. So many tire kickers, traders, and scammers over the course of 2 months. I went to Carmax and they offered me $20,300 vs the $22,300 I was asking online (would have taken $21,500). I took Carmax's offer and pushed the easy button.