[JerseyM3]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

I'd take anything over $50K and just live with the loss, why change cars anyway?

Yeah I am thinking closer to seeing what a trade-in would be or the sell to a dealer as my best option.
I've never sold a car to an individual before so I don't have that experience to go by. You all make good points here regarding the sales tax. Btw, I do have the title but with a lein on it for a payoff. Probably looking best as a dealer trade/sell.

[tturedraider]

Originally Posted by JerseyM3

Yeah I am thinking closer to seeing what a trade-in would be or the sell to a dealer as my best option.
I've never sold a car to an individual before so I don't have that experience to go by. You all make good points here regarding the sales tax. Btw, I do have the title but with a lein on it for a payoff. Probably looking best as a dealer trade/sell.

Are you sure you have the actual title and not a non-negotiable duplicate? Texas issues the owner a non-negotiable duplicate title, but the actual title is sent to the lien holder. I’ve never heard of a lien holder not retaining possession of the title.

[flybigjet]

FWIW, I've been trying to sell my wife's hardtop Miata

It's got everything-- a retractable hardtop, a sports package (LSD & Bilstein suspension), upgraded paint, outstanding mechanical and physical condition, ceramic coat, PPF, extra goodies (trunk liner, cloth & rubber floor mats, etc.), low miles, clean title and garage kept. And? It's a great time of year to sell. And you'd think the tariff madness would help.

I've posted it up here, on ADV, Bimmerfest, MiataNet, my work forum, CL & FB.

Nothing.

Crickets.

Well, except scammers. Lots and lots of scammers.

That's it.

So, as much as it pains me, unless someone takes it at a fire-sale price in the next week, it's going to the dealer that gave me the best price for it. I'll lose about $1500-2000 from private sale to the dealer, but what can you do? I'm now paying insurance on the Miata and the Boxster as well as making payments on the loan I got to cover until the Miata sold. And, I'll need the garage space when the Boxster comes home in a few weeks.

My time has *some* value, and constantly doing ads, checking ads, dealing with spammers, etc..... I'm done.

I was able to negotiate with several dealers-- the pricing was all over the map, but eventually I got one close to what I wanted. Not happy with the final price, but... less unhappy?

R.

[Alfisti]

It is a soft market right now.

[Socal_R8]

I've always had good luck selling privately. it is pretty easy if you price it correctly...

Always meet at credit union or bank to complete transactions to make it secure for everyone.

recently we decided to trade my wifes Bronco Sport for a big Bronco and I used KBB.com
to get value, they also have a thing where you can submit it for dealers to make you offers...ended up getting really good offer from local Nissan dealership and took the deal and flew to AZ the next day to buy the Bronco I found out there.

[JerseyM3]

Originally Posted by tturedraider

Are you sure you have the actual title and not a non-negotiable duplicate? Texas issues the owner a non-negotiable duplicate title, but the actual title is sent to the lien holder. I’ve never heard of a lien holder not retaining possession of the title.

No it's the original title. It has a lein written at the bottom

[tturedraider]

Originally Posted by JerseyM3

No it's the original title. It has a lein written at the bottom

Interesting. As I mentioned, I’ve never heard of the lien holder not retaining the title. Not a secure situation for the lien holder.

[JerseyM3]

Originally Posted by tturedraider

Interesting. As I mentioned, I’ve never heard of the lien holder not retaining the title. Not a secure situation for the lien holder.

It's NJ lol. NY is the same btw. I can't transfer the title at a DMV office with a lein on it without a payoff letter from the lein holder. But I am given the title.

[JerseyM3]

I guess as I'm working thru all of your replies the more I am thinking it's less hassle just selling to a dealer or weighing in the tax delta on a trade.

[flybigjet]

For a data point: CarMax just offered me what I would have taken for a private sale. They increased their offer by $1k from their previous offer.

On a Sunday.

Go figure.

I have *no* idea how they can pay so much at a dealer cost, but I'll willingly take their money!

R.

[JerseyM3]

Originally Posted by flybigjet

For a data point: CarMax just offered me what I would have taken for a private sale. They increased their offer by $1k from their previous offer.

On a Sunday.

Go figure.

I have *no* idea how they can pay so much at a dealer cost, but I'll willingly take their money!

R.

Same with carvana. They took my wife's old Cherokee with 57k miles on it and wrote a check for 16,8k meanwhile the dealer wanted to give her 9k on a trade.

[JerseyM3]

So a quick update... I have someone driving in from western PA to potentially purchase my 22' RS3. My set price is $58k. I am working this thru Keysavvy. Fingers crossed this all goes well.

[oem.plus_440gc]

Sold my 2019 440i privately in the fall of 2024. Definitely took some time and patience, but i ended up with nearly $10k over what was offered to me by a local car place to buy it (competitor to CarMax/etc).

I would have considered my car's spec somewhat uncommon, however a big box store won't care and just punch in the year/make/mileage and give you an offer without caring about specs.

However, if you're looking to sell your silver base honda accord of which there are a million of and the value between private and big-box/trade-in is negligible, its not worth the hassle.

[QUiKSR20]

Ive sold multiple cars myself, Just sold my 2018 x3 in 3 days... These are the tricks ive learned over the last 20 years.

1 - Detail the car / clean it as best as you can in and out.
2 - Pics / Pics / Pics ( Just like bring a trailer, the more info the better )
3 - Full Video walkthrough.. I dont sell a car without one.
4 - Provide all the maint records you have
5 - This is a big one... Search Autotemptest and price it right!! ( they search across all the major sites ).
6 - List it all over ( Craigslist / Marketplace / Cars.com / Autotrader.com / Forums ) etc.

This will get you the best of both worlds...

More money than a trade in while also not getting it past by in a field of cars priced the same..

I price my cars lower than any comparable's I can find online but also alot more than trade in value.

Ive been told by sellers I could give a master class in presentation on used cars lol, Its all about balance and doing a little work.

Selling a car yourself does not have to be that bad.

[flybigjet]

Originally Posted by QUiKSR20

Ive sold multiple cars myself, Just sold my 2018 x3 in 3 days... These are the tricks ive learned over the last 20 years.

1 - Detail the car / clean it as best as you can in and out.
2 - Pics / Pics / Pics ( Just like bring a trailer, the more info the better )
3 - Full Video walkthrough.. I dont sell a car without one.
4 - Provide all the maint records you have
5 - This is a big one... Search Autotemptest and price it right!! ( they search across all the major sites ).
6 - List it all over ( Craigslist / Marketplace / Cars.com / Autotrader.com / Forums ) etc.

This will get you the best of both worlds...

More money than a trade in while also not getting it past by in a field of cars priced the same..

I price my cars lower than any comparable's I can find online but also alot more than trade in value.

Ive been told by sellers I could give a master class in presentation on used cars lol, Its all about balance and doing a little work.

Selling a car yourself does not have to be that bad.

I did every single one of these bullet points and got nothing but crickets.

Well, except for the VIN scammers and the couple of guys who wanted me to sell it to them on the lowball so they could flip it to a dealer.

Yeah, talk about entitlement.

R.

[tturedraider]

Originally Posted by QUiKSR20

Ive sold multiple cars myself, Just sold my 2018 x3 in 3 days... These are the tricks ive learned over the last 20 years.

1 - Detail the car / clean it as best as you can in and out.
2 - Pics / Pics / Pics ( Just like bring a trailer, the more info the better )
3 - Full Video walkthrough.. I dont sell a car without one.
4 - Provide all the maint records you have
5 - This is a big one... Search Autotemptest and price it right!! ( they search across all the major sites ).
6 - List it all over ( Craigslist / Marketplace / Cars.com / Autotrader.com / Forums ) etc.

This will get you the best of both worlds...

More money than a trade in while also not getting it past by in a field of cars priced the same..

I price my cars lower than any comparable's I can find online but also alot more than trade in value.

Ive been told by sellers I could give a master class in presentation on used cars lol, Its all about balance and doing a little work.

Selling a car yourself does not have to be that bad.

You hit the nail on the head!!! Especially #5!!!!! That’s the reason you sold in three days!!! I wish more Bimmerposters would believe this.

Originally Posted by flybigjet

I did every single one of these bullet points and got nothing but crickets.

Well, except for the VIN scammers and the couple of guys who wanted me to sell it to them on the lowball so they could flip it to a dealer.

Yeah, talk about entitlement.

R.

Even though the post above yours is the best post in this thread, unfortunately your experience is not surprising in today’s world.

[afadeev]

Originally Posted by JerseyM3

So I am currently waiting for delivery of my 2025 M3, which is due at some point in May. I will be selling my "gently used" 2022 Audi RS3 that is bone stock. Low miles. Great condition.
My question for those of you who've sold a car before, either thru a dealer or private individual, what was your experience? What do you recommend? Any pitfalls to look out for?

Step 1. Get a clean title in your hands. Payoff the loan if you must, else closing the transaction will get much trickier, and will scare off many legitimate buyers.
Step 2. Have the car detailed (yourself or pay someone), take lots of interior/exterior pics. Scrub geo-location metadata from the pics.
Step 3. Get disposable Google Phone/voice # and email address.
Step 4. Pay to list the car for sale on a few national sites (your pick - lots of options: Craigslist, Facebook, BringaTrailer, car.com) and on for-sale sections of car-guy forums (for free).
Step 5. Get ready to screen a LOT of inquiries from scammers and fraudsters. If you list the car at a reasonable price point, you will still get ~10-20% legitimate buyer inquires. If you over-price the car, the legitimate inquires will drop to 1-2% of total.

Originally Posted by JerseyM3

I have a few online quotes from local dealers in NJ but I probably could do somewhat better privately but I don't know if the few extra bucks is worth the potential headaches dealing with people who don't know what they are buying, shady, etc? If you did sell, how'd it go?

See above.
Price it to sell, and give private sale channel a 2-4 week tryout.
If it doesn't pan out, you can always go back to a CarMax or the dealer. A low-ball from the dealer may be worth it if the sales tax savings offset is included in the comparison.

HTH,
a

[QUiKSR20]

Originally Posted by flybigjet

I did every single one of these bullet points and got nothing but crickets.

Well, except for the VIN scammers and the couple of guys who wanted me to sell it to them on the lowball so they could flip it to a dealer.

Yeah, talk about entitlement.

R.

Ugh is it priced to sell? Its also harder to sell a used German car for alot of money ive learned.. People know these things turn into money pits and if you have a ton of cash you can just buy/lease new.

Where is the ad for us to see ( pics / video walk-around )?

Best of luck.

Originally Posted by tturedraider

You hit the nail on the head!!! Especially #5!!!!! That’s the reason you sold in three days!!! I wish more Bimmerposters would believe this.

Even though the post above yours is the best post in this thread, unfortunately your experience is not surprising in today’s world.

Every 2018 / 2019 x3 with 75-95k miles was priced around 19-20k so I listed mine for 17k OBO and when I got low ball offers
I pointed them to the list of cars and showed that mine was still the cheapest. I offered them to find one cheaper and send me
the link. ( rebuilt title cars dont count ).

Thats how you get it done, Show them they cannot find one cheaper. Yes I could of sold it for 19-21k and It also could of taken 6 months to sell.
Its a compromise.. I didnt wanna take a 12k dealer trade in although I would get a tax cut and I also didnt want it for sale for 6 months.

[flybigjet]

Originally Posted by QUiKSR20

Ugh is it priced to sell? Its also harder to sell a used German car for alot of money ive learned.. People know these things turn into money pits and if you have a ton of cash you can just buy/lease new.

Where is the ad for us to see ( pics / video walk-around )?

Best of luck.

It was my wife's 2019 hard-top Miata. I made a good faith effort for a bit over two weeks then gave up as I really needed to get rid of it.

I sold it to CarMax for the same (bottom end) price that I would have sold it to a private party for, so that's the route I went.

R.

[QUiKSR20]

Originally Posted by flybigjet

It was my wife's 2019 hard-top Miata. I made a good faith effort for a bit over two weeks then gave up as I really needed to get rid of it.

I sold it to CarMax for the same (bottom end) price that I would have sold it to a private party for, so that's the route I went.

R.

Gotcha, Those are cool cars the Miata RF... True drivers car!

[JerseyM3]

Originally Posted by afadeev

Step 1. Get a clean title in your hands. Payoff the loan if you must, else closing the transaction will get much trickier, and will scare off many legitimate buyers.
Step 2. Have the car detailed (yourself or pay someone), take lots of interior/exterior pics. Scrub geo-location metadata from the pics.
Step 3. Get disposable Google Phone/voice # and email address.
Step 4. Pay to list the car for sale on a few national sites (your pick - lots of options: Craigslist, Facebook, BringaTrailer, car.com) and on for-sale sections of car-guy forums (for free).
Step 5. Get ready to screen a LOT of inquiries from scammers and fraudsters. If you list the car at a reasonable price point, you will still get ~10-20% legitimate buyer inquires. If you over-price the car, the legitimate inquires will drop to 1-2% of total.



See above.
Price it to sell, and give private sale channel a 2-4 week tryout.
If it doesn't pan out, you can always go back to a CarMax or the dealer. A low-ball from the dealer may be worth it if the sales tax savings offset is included in the comparison.

HTH,
a

Thanks. I am going thru Keysavvy which will handle my payoff and other transactions between me and the buyer. The buyer reached out to me via audi Forums and we made a verbal deal on price. I definitely priced it to sell based on a national search and KBB ranges. Let's see what happens. Appreciate everyone's input.

[JerseyM3]

Originally Posted by QUiKSR20

Ugh is it priced to sell? Its also harder to sell a used German car for alot of money ive learned.. People know these things turn into money pits and if you have a ton of cash you can just buy/lease new.

Where is the ad for us to see ( pics / video walk-around )?

Best of luck.



Every 2018 / 2019 x3 with 75-95k miles was priced around 19-20k so I listed mine for 17k OBO and when I got low ball offers
I pointed them to the list of cars and showed that mine was still the cheapest. I offered them to find one cheaper and send me
the link. ( rebuilt title cars dont count ).

Thats how you get it done, Show them they cannot find one cheaper. Yes I could of sold it for 19-21k and It also could of taken 6 months to sell.
Its a compromise.. I didnt wanna take a 12k dealer trade in although I would get a tax cut and I also didnt want it for sale for 6 months.

exactly. I did a search for my car in the buyers area and sent them the info. Showed them the range from KBB and I priced my car $2k-$3k BELOW what dealers are asking and on the lower range of KBB. I need to sell as my M3 is due at the end of May so wasn't hip with farting around with the nonsense.