I've had my car up for sale since March and I've got no serious inquiries about it. I've lowered the price from 17k to now 15.5 and still nothing! Am i asking too much or what? Is anyone else having trouble getting rid of their car? Other than NAM where have you had success selling you car? I'm about to break down and just trade the darn thing in, but I'd much rather see it go to a happy home instead of sitting out at a dealer lot.

Any tips would be appreciated.

 

Tell us more about the car you're trying to sell. We had good luck and no stress selling a superduty p/u to Carmax. Got more than trade...slightly less than kbb private party but didn't have to deal with test-drives, tire-kickers, payment fraud, etc. Worth a shot...

 

My car is an 06 MCS w/ 49k on it. Cold Weather, Sport, and Premium packages.

I didn't know that Carmax flat out bought cars, I just thought they were more like a dealer. I'm just sick of answering 1000 questions and sending pictures only to have the people stop communicating with me out of the blue. I understand that people would like to know more about the car and I'm okay with it, but at least they could have the decency to tell me that they either lost interest or something else.

 

Carmax does and I was shocked. I had a limited edition F-250 with low miles and in excellent condition. I had my mind set on a price and never thought they'd offer that. I took it out there to avoid the tire-kickers and there's so much bank fraud that even bank checks take 10 days to clear. I was shocked when they offered me $2 grand over my minimum price...and they give you one week to decide if you'll take their offer or not. Give them a try. It was pretty stress-free.

 

yeah carmax is not bad, they estimate your car, give you a price thats good for a week, and if you change your mind no big deal.
most people are looking to get a deal, so if you are not looking to bargain, no go.
i was selling a car with roughly 30k of mods on it, and barely got 15k. so thats a free car with 15k of mods, go figure. it was all german imported parts too, no ebay chinese stuff either.
so if you are willing to go lower people will talk..
on the other hand, i tried the "this is my lowest price, so dont call me trying to lowball". seems like people completely ignore that, so give yourself some room to play.
i bet if you lower it to 8k it will sell within hours of posting hehe jk

 

Well, I'm not even getting any lowballers... that's what is confusing to me. I mean, I wasn't set on the 17 or 16k but the lower and lower I go the less I'm willing to work with people (obviously).

KBB good condition is at $17,600 and even fair condition is $16,055 so I'm even lower than KBB right now.

 

oh gotya then.
well just hang in there then, or take some super nice pics and good description (also when posting in places like craigslist, you can upload your pictures trough tinypic.com and then paste the HTML cose that they give you in the body of the description, this then shows full sized pictures in the ad). that might help

 

sold my 08 Ram Quad Cab w/Hemi on Craigslist last week.... on the second day

 

At the time I bought my '06 MCS in December, '02 MCS's were going as low as $8.5K, and '03 MCS's were dipping below $10K. I picked up mine with 40K miles for $16.1K, fully loaded. NADA and KBB had the blue book around $20K. But the dealership pulls out this little black book that's the state's version and said they go by that. That was ~$18K.

During my searches, I saw some '06 MCS's around D.C. going for as low as $14.5K. But I also realized they were probably beaten to death from the beltway.

Your best bet is to study everyone else's prices, including local auto traders and Craig's List. I don't know anyone that sold their MINI using Carmax, but their proposition sounds reasonable. I think they get a good following because of their national searchable database. You never know... someone may have been looking for the very one you're selling.

Have patience and enjoy your MINI until that time comes.

 

Big driver is that it has gotten harder the get private party or home equity financing. That limits you to those that have the cash laying about and the economy just hasn't gotten there yet aspecially at the "north of $10k" price point. JMTC

 

It's dead. Ive got a 1970 Mercedes with 70k on the clock and full paperwork for half of what it's worth and no ones bit

 

I think it depends on a number of things including how much of a hurry you are in, and whether you care a private party or a dealer posing as a private party buys it. There are a LOT of MINIs for sale all in the same price range. Out here in SoCal, you can find used MINIs on dealer lots in the range of $12K to $16K. I wanted a quick sale so I priced it at $10,500, which turned out to be $4K more than the dealer offered me and less than the rest of the Private party sales. Was it worth more than $10K? In my mind YES!! But is the market there? I sold it on Craigslist. Be forewarned that as soon as you post it on Craigslist you will get bombarded with calls from people offering to help you sell your car for a $500 up front fee. Don't fall for these scams.

 

Good info, OctaneGuy. I think I've heard of that scam problem from other friends trying to sell stuff on there.

 

Yea, I've had the car on Craigslist since March. I can't tell you how many times I get the stupid automated calls saying that they can sell my car for a set amount of money. Honestly, I'm just getting fed up.

On my way to CarMax to see what they will offer.

 

Good Luck! Let us know how it turns out for you.

 

I see you are Cincinnati. Since Memorial Day it seems the consumer market in all kinds of big ticket items has just dried up. People are looking, but not buying. Just have to endure the market conditions.

 

Well, they offered me $12,500 for my car at Carmax. Not what I was hoping for to say the least. Add to that, on the way home a truck on the other side of the highway spit out a rock and smashed my windscreen. Now there is about a half inch chip in it.

The waiting game continues I guess.

 

You are willing to sell it for $15,500 and you won't take $12,500 from CarMax?? If you had a serious private party offer, you should expect them to "TRY" to negotiate it down $500-$1000..so $14,500. I'd take the $12,500 from CarMax and be done with it.

Your car isn't appreciating sitting there waiting for a buyer, lol. Btw, you can fix the windshield for $10 using a DIY kit and my writeup or get a new one for under $400. That'll be more out of pocket expense before you sell it though..otherwise for sure, a private party buyer will try to knock your price down even further, not just for the cost, but the hassles involved in getting it fixed!

Just my 2 cents.

Richard