<p>Back to the original question–we’ve had good experiences with CarMax (in one case actually got more than we expected). It is really quick and easy. It can’t hurt to get a quote from them–provides a good reasonableness check for the car’s value if nothing else.</p>
<p>I can echo, though, that I know several kids who have sold their cars by posting on fb. Often their friends are familiar with the car and might know someone who is in the market.</p>
<p>We’ve sold a couple of cars lately and had the most success with craigslist. Auto trader was practically useless.</p>
<p>Make sure in advance you know what to do and are prepared for when buyer whips out cash to buy your car. Have documents like title and a bill of sale ready to go and know how to fill them in correctly. If you need a notary to acknowledge signatures–have a notary lined up. Don’t forget to take license tag off vehicle. Good luck!</p>
<p>We’ve sold a couple of cars to CarMax. True, you can probably get more if you sell it on your own, but between the time that you have to spend dealing with calls, test drives, etc. it didn’t seem worth it. Also, a bigger concern - was having total strangers coming to our house or meeting up with them. So while we could have gotten more $, it is amazingly easy and trouble-free to sell to CarMax. And as others said - even if you choose to go another way, take it there first. Their price is good for a week, I believe - if you can’t do better on your own, go back and take their offer. Good luck!</p>
<p>You can also go to other dealers who sell used cars and may get more for your used vehicle than you would with CarMax.</p>
<p>oops, didn’t notice before that there is a loan in place. you may be upside down and owe more than car is worth. Unless lightning strikes with a quick private sale, or unless you walk into a dealer and give them the car and some cash…chances are you won’t unload car in one week.</p>
<p>
Axelrod:
Why do you say that? I’d expect most of the cars are covered by an insurance policy and most of them will be ‘totaled’ by the insurance company which generally results in a ‘salvage’ title. Does it work differently in NY/NJ?</p>
<p>there are so many totalled cars in NY/NJ now, that the insurance companies are leaving them sit if possible, as there’s no place to put them. My neighbor’s Sienna had a tree crush the back and pierce through the dahsboard at 2pm the day of the storm and it’s still in her driveway and she already has the insurance proceeds</p>
<p>If she owes pretty much what the car is worth, it is likely to see it she will have to pay off some of the loan. A private sale will get her more money then you would get from carmax or selling it to a dealer, but it is likely she still will owe money.</p>
<p>The only exception might be if she had a hot car that was in short supply, like the company introduced that car as a new model and demand outstripped supply and people are looking for late model used cars, but that is pretty rare. Her car is a relatively popular car but they aren’t exactly in short supply either. Even with the need for used cars in the Sandy region, which will boost prices a bit, it is unlikely to make people to want to buy a car at the full NADA blue book value, demand isn’t that high. Even private buyers know what the blue book value of the car is, it is very easy to find them now, so it is unlikely a private buyer would go for it. </p>
<p>A rough rule of thumb I use is that a private buyer will normally buy a used car priced about 10% less then the book value (so if it worth 20k, they will want it for 18), you might be able to get 500 bucks more then that, but not much else (again, depends on the car and how much the buyer wants it, and how many are out there). The NADA price represents generally what a used car dealer would sell it for, not what you can get as a private sale. </p>
<p>If she has to make a quick sale, it may be easiest, rather then negotiating with people, to take the car max price, she will eat some of the loan no matter who buys it, and the hassle may not be worth saving 500 or 1000 bucks on what needs to be paid back.</p>
<p>Re: #27</p>
<p>Cars declared a total loss by insurance should have salvage titles, but there are some title-washing scams involving states with loose title and registration laws, or where the salvage title indication on the title paper is not obvious.</p>
<p>Just saw an article in the paper over the weekend about a place,CarLotz, that sells by consignment. Three locations in Virginia and I might look into it to get rid of one of my cars after the holidays. I would imagine there are these types of businesses in other states.</p>
<p>In Rockville, MD, check out membercars.com . Great business that is sort of like Costco for cars. They may be able to give you a good price.</p>
<p>ucbalumnus:
I know there will always be some scammers and dishonest people but I thought the other poster was implying that none of the cars would be considered salvage hence my question about whether NY/NJ treated cars totaled by insurance differently than the norm.</p>
<p>
Sevmom:
I sold a car once that way - i.e. under consigment at a used car lot. It was about a 7 y/o car with over 100K miles on it. It made selling the car very easy and I ended up with much more than I would have with a trade-in (I’ve never actually done a trade-in because what they offer for the used car is always ridiculously low after taking the new car purchase out of the equation). Basically I told them what I wanted for the car, somewhere around bluebook low retail price, not trade-in price, the dealer agreed that it was reasonable, and then they sold it after a couple of weeks. I don’t know what they sold it for and don’t care - that was their profit. They can typically get more money for a vehicle than a private sale because they can offer financing and they gave a warranty on the car. Before accepting it they put it through a multi-point inspection and had me pay to get it up to speed or I could have fixed it myself. I do almost all the maintenance on my cars myself and the couple of items they called out were legit. Their price to fix it was low enough that I had them fix it.</p>
<p>I was so satisfied with that sale that I recommended it to a friend who won a new car at a grocery store. He didn’t really want the car but there was no cash option, he had to take the car. He went to the dealer to select the car (within the giveaway’s parameters) and asked the dealer if he could just have cash instead. The dealer said my friend would have to receive the car but then could immediately sell it back to the dealer with no miles having been put on it but the money the dealer offered was so low that it was ridiculous - i.e. thousands lower than the sale price for a car that wouldn’t even be driven. The dealer justified it by saying he’d have to sell it as a used car rather than new even though no miles were put on it (this was a car with no special warranty for the original purchaser). So, my friend took the car, drove it for 6 months or a year, and then sold it at the consignment place I used. He was satisfied with that as well.</p>
<p>This consignment place wasn’t a little corner used car lot. It was a larger place with its own larger garage/mechanical repairs, and had been in business for years. However, after about another couple of years I read that the owner was in trouble, being sued by people, and went out of business. The problem is he had a cash flow problem and there were some cars sold on consignment where the owners hadn’t been reimbursed yet since the money was being used to pay other bills. It wasn’t an outright scam, the owner just had financial issues and got in over his head, but nevertheless some people were left without their cars or their money for them. The article indicated he said he still planned to reimburse them but I don’t know if that ever happened or not.</p>
<p>So, while selling the car on consignment can be an easy and quick way to sell a car at a higher price than a trade-in price, there’s an exposure if the consignment place goes out of business or is dishonest.</p>
<p>Thanks for the heads up,GladGradDad, I may check it out though because at this point, I just want the car sold as easily as possible. H has sold a couple of our old cars in the past in the paper but that has always made me uneasy(the calls, meeting strangers,etc.). It’s an old car and not worth all that much but H may decide to try to sell it himself anyway.Here’s the article. [New</a> business gives one more way to sell a car | HamptonRoads.com | PilotOnline.com](<a href=“http://www.hamptonroads.com/2012/12/new-business-gives-one-more-way-sell-car]New”>http://www.hamptonroads.com/2012/12/new-business-gives-one-more-way-sell-car)</p>
<p>Just make sure to let prospective buyers know that you don’t know whether or not the car floats----because it’s never been in a flood.</p>
<p>We sold a car to CarMax–it sure was easy.</p>
<p>We sold a car to CarMax too. It was easy and thought we got a fair price for it.</p>
<p>OP here–Still haven’t sold the car. It is in near perfect condition. My D has mostly been the only person in the car–certainly no pets and no kids. I am parking it in front of my office during the day with for sale signs on it. I figured it would get more exposure there than in the garage at home, plus my office is not far from the high school. It is also listed on Craigslist. The loan payoff is $15000. CarMax offered $11000. We just are not in a position to ‘eat’ $4000. We have it listed for $14,900 and will go a little lower, so we will still be losing money. </p>
<p>When my 94-year-old grandmother died a few years ago, my dad was left to try to sell her 1980 Olds 88 (definitely looked like a grandma car.) He parked it on a small consignment lot and had tons of calls on it. One guy wanted it so badly he begged my dad not to sell it before he could come the next day with the money. He sold that 27-year-old car for nearly $4000. I guess I just don’t understand which cars are appealing to buyers.</p>
<p>Has any thought been given to just keeping the car until she returns?</p>
<p>I sold a car to Carmax. Super easy. We thought they overpaid us. The whole exchange took about an hour. They took care of the title and transfer. Easiest sale ever. We’ll absolutely go there again when we are ready to replace our next car.</p>