[JerseyM3]

Originally Posted by BlkGS

Honestly I think that's a pretty fair offer for a 3 year old German car that has a newer generation out that got a lot more priase than the old one...

Well not when there's same year RS3s with more miles going for 60k on some of these same sites. Yeah there's a 2025 facelift RS3 out for orders but dealers are tagging a 5 to 15% price increase on top of MSRP for basically the same car sans a tweaked rear diff.

[eliphil]

I sold my Audi to car max in 22 they gave me 10k more then dealer offered , easy transaction. When I went to sell my 22 m550 this past fall they low balled the offer. I am really on the fence about selling privately, so many scammers and dishonest people. I’m still pondering what do w my M550 almost sold it to a forum member I trusted but received several pm’s that were new to the forum that didn’t feel right.

[Mech Spec]

Plugging in the car without knowing every specific option, you should be getting 56-59k trade in.

Just tell the dealer you want KBB trade in. Doubt you'll get more than that though.

Some dealers are much better to work with. The most recent car I traded in they beat all comps from carmax etc. without ever seeing the vehicle.

[JerseyM3]

It is a really all over the place with Carvana. I did get a $54k offer from a private local dealer with just plugging in my car and specs into their online appraisal form. Obviously would like as much as possible which is why I've asked about Private buyers. I have one person on the Audi forums interested but will see. I was told try the Facebook marketplace but not too confident I'll get serious buyers.

[Alfisti]

Originally Posted by JerseyM3

Yeah its for some reason they don't want to deal with euro cars and SUVs. For example, my nephew bought a 21 Honda accord low mileage from carvana for 26k. He resold it back to them with 12k more miles for 24,600. My RS3 is a 22, 13k miles, not a scratch. No damage, 9 year ceramic coat, interior is pristine... offered me 42k. MSRP is 68k. Come on man.

Zero hassle $42K? That's not bad man. That's under 40% depreciation in 3 years and they need to flip it for a profit so seems more than fair to me. You're out of warranty on a German sports car, you'll get more selling direct but need to weigh up the hassle factor.

If the car is in the shape you say it is and you want hassle free, i'd seriously consider Bring A Trailor.

[JerseyM3]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

Zero hassle $42K? That's not bad man. That's under 40% depreciation in 3 years and they need to flip it for a profit so seems more than fair to me. You're out of warranty on a German sports car, you'll get more selling direct but need to weigh up the hassle factor.

If the car is in the shape you say it is and you want hassle free, i'd seriously consider Bring A Trailor.

Yeah I would consider BAT if I wasn't getting offers in the 50's at local dealers here. I am just waiting for my M3 and maybe the volatility in the car market due to the tariffs increases the value by the time I'm ready to sell which is not for another month or so.

[flybigjet]

I'm in the process of selling my wife's Miata.

Pretty much CL is all scammers. Various techniques, but in the end they all say "I'll come look at the car, but only after you send me a VIN verification from (insert their sketchy website here) because CarFax isn't good enough, costs too much, etc."

Basically, the websites are set up to steal your credit card number.

A lot of them are .vin websites-- which actually have to do with the wine industry.

I posted the VIN on the ad and said "Have at it-- if you buy the car, I'll reimburse the cost of the CarFax, but I'm NOT using your sketch website."

They'll grumble, try to gaslight you, guilt you, and make you feel like you're making a huge mistake and letting a sale walk away.

Too bad. Move along.

R.

[BruinMan]

Congrats on the M3.
I wouldn’t waste time with a private sale; plus you would need to meet at the bank since you don’t have a title in hand. Best would be a trade in and use a tax credit on your new purchase. We don’t have this in California; a tax credit. If the dealer won’t give you a good offer, sale your car to CarMax or Carvana. Try https://jsautohaus.com/sell-your-car that is a NJ dealership; maybe he could buy and help you with a sales tax credit with some paperwork for the BMW dealership.

[tturedraider]

Originally Posted by jkoral

Not sure if OP's RS3 has a loan, but someone on here had a good experience with www.keysavvy.com.

Unlike traditional escrow services, KeySavvy is a licensed dealership with real-time access to DMV services that make buying and selling cars worry-free.

Everything I've seen has been positive (rennlist, reddit, etc). I plan to use them next time I sell a car (loan or not, even the payment exchange appears easier).

Originally Posted by elliswyatt

Very interesting and reasonably priced service. Thanks for the tip.

Originally Posted by JerseyM3

Thanks. Yes i have a payoff. Appreciate the note.

A little fyi on using a service that is a licensed dealer. Some states have preferential sales tax treatment for private party sales. Unbelievably to me, tax happy Illinois is one of those states. However, using a licensed dealer like this would almost certainly cause the transaction to be considered a dealer sale and would negate the preferential private party sales tax treatment. Before AutoTrader bought out the company (I can’t remember its name) I was going to use an escrow service back at the beginning of 2023, but Illinois would have classified the sale as a dealer sale and my buyer would have lost the favorable tax treatment.

[JerseyM3]

Originally Posted by BruinMan

Congrats on the M3.
I wouldn’t waste time with a private sale; plus you would need to meet at the bank since you don’t have a title in hand. Best would be a trade in and use a tax credit on your new purchase. We don’t have this in California; a tax credit. If the dealer won’t give you a good offer, sale your car to CarMax or Carvana. Try https://jsautohaus.com/sell-your-car that is a NJ dealership; maybe he could buy and help you with a sales tax credit with some paperwork for the BMW dealership.

Thanks. As I mentioned before carmax and carvana don't price euro Cara that well. Funny you mentioned J&S, they are one of the dealers who's quoted me $53k. They seem decent. I know someone who bought from them when they were strictly a Mitzu dealer. Now they've blown up. Lots of exotics and M cars there.

[eliphil]

I just went on car max carvana and j and s they were all very similar value for my m550

[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.

[Alfisti]

All this complication does my head in. List ..... sell.

Speaking of, Op you've had offers in the 50's from dealers? That seems more than fair IMHO.

[JerseyM3]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

All this complication does my head in. List ..... sell.

Speaking of, Op you've had offers in the 50's from dealers? That seems more than fair IMHO.

Totally. I think 54k is a very fair offer for a dealer buy. However, if there's more to be made than why not, right? I'm not being greedy and I'll tell you why.. I take and took VERY good care of the RS3. Believe me or not, I can count on one hand how many times I've had it throttle to the floor. It got washed almost weekly, barely a scratch, interior is pristine, serviced at Audi only, with records, and has a 9 year ceramic coating. No mods other than a JB4, which I may include in the sale. I really think you'd be hard pressed to find someone else's RS3 in as good of shape. All that said I'm considering selling privately because I think this deserves retail market pricing.

[Mech Spec]

Originally Posted by JerseyM3

Totally. I think 54k is a very fair offer for a dealer buy. However, if there's more to be made than why not, right? I'm not being greedy and I'll tell you why.. I take and took VERY good care of the RS3. Believe me or not, I can count on one hand how many times I've had it throttle to the floor. It got washed almost weekly, barely a scratch, interior is pristine, serviced at Audi only, with records, and has a 9 year ceramic coating. No mods other than a JB4, which I may include in the sale. I really think you'd be hard pressed to find someone else's RS3 in as good of shape. All that said I'm considering selling privately because I think this deserves retail market pricing.

You get the sales tax offset in NJ for trade in so you would need to get a hefty premium in the private market to make it worth it.

You'll need to get 57.5 or more to beat that 54 offer. I always felt that I needed to beat the sales tax breakeven by at least 2k for it to be worth the hassle of selling, which would be 59.5k.

[tturedraider]

Originally Posted by JerseyM3

Totally. I think 54k is a very fair offer for a dealer buy. However, if there's more to be made than why not, right? I'm not being greedy and I'll tell you why.. I take and took VERY good care of the RS3. Believe me or not, I can count on one hand how many times I've had it throttle to the floor. It got washed almost weekly, barely a scratch, interior is pristine, serviced at Audi only, with records, and has a 9 year ceramic coating. No mods other than a JB4, which I may include in the sale. I really think you'd be hard pressed to find someone else's RS3 in as good of shape. All that said I'm considering selling privately because I think this deserves retail market pricing.

Two things. As was mentioned, selling high value cars privately can be a big challenge. At that price point most buyers are going to need to finance. If you try to sell while you are still financed and your buyer is going to finance you are going to have more than an uphill climb. You’re going to have a mountain.

You mention deserving retail market pricing. If you have in mind selling at something close to dealer retail price you are in for a disappointment. Private party sales do not happen at dealer retail prices. They happen at private party prices. People buy from private sellers because they are looking to save money.

Run the value here. Edmund’s is generally very on point. There may occasionally be some options they don’t account for and you can adjust the price if that’s the case, but your selling price will end up being very close to what you find on Edmund’s. Go all the way to the end to the Edmund’s valuation. Don’t get hung up on the lowball offers that will come up before the get to the end. https://www.edmunds.com/appraisal/

I agree with Mech Spec. If you have a dealer trade in offer at $54k, taking into account the tax savings benefit you need to sell for $59,500 to make a private sale worthwhile.

[Alfisti]

Originally Posted by JerseyM3

Totally. I think 54k is a very fair offer for a dealer buy. However, if there's more to be made than why not, right? I'm not being greedy and I'll tell you why.. I take and took VERY good care of the RS3. Believe me or not, I can count on one hand how many times I've had it throttle to the floor. It got washed almost weekly, barely a scratch, interior is pristine, serviced at Audi only, with records, and has a 9 year ceramic coating. No mods other than a JB4, which I may include in the sale. I really think you'd be hard pressed to find someone else's RS3 in as good of shape. All that said I'm considering selling privately because I think this deserves retail market pricing.

Sadly no one cares, it's miles, model year, clean carfax and maybe spec. Otherwise you are banking on a hard core car guy so will need to go private.

[tturedraider]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

Sadly no one cares, it's miles, model year, clean carfax and maybe spec. Otherwise you are banking on a hard core car guy so will need to go private.

And be prepared to wait……a very long time!!

[XutvJet]

Originally Posted by tturedraider

And be prepared to wait……a very long time!!

Exactly this!!! Plus this guy is making payments. eekkk.

[Alfisti]

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

[JerseyM3]

Originally Posted by Mech Spec

You get the sales tax offset in NJ for trade in so you would need to get a hefty premium in the private market to make it worth it.

You'll need to get 57.5 or more to beat that 54 offer. I always felt that I needed to beat the sales tax breakeven by at least 2k for it to be worth the hassle of selling, which would be 59.5k.

Completely agree, which is why I am considering the private sale side of things.

[JerseyM3]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

Sadly no one cares, it's miles, model year, clean carfax and maybe spec. Otherwise you are banking on a hard core car guy so will need to go private.

All valid points. And I think I meet all.