Hopefully my new car will be here the end of next month as it is due to be built next week. I need to sell my current car and have priced it with several of the online sites like Carvana, CarMax, Driveway, We Buy Any Car, and as a trade in. As expected, the trade in was the lowest price by $2K, CarMax and Carvana were the same, and Driveway was 25% more.
I do not want to try to sell it myself as I am not willing to have strangers come to my home and test drive with them. When my husband passed away, my son and I sold his car with Carvana and it was a very simple process. While the greed in me says go with Driveway, I haven’t heard great things about getting payment from them. They also left 4 voice messages in 2 days which I find annoying; one reason why I only left the home number! Carvana handed me a check before they even picked the car up, once they verified it in person; I went straight to the bank with it!
The value may change by the time my new car gets here, but assuming it is about the same, my gut is go with Carvana. Has anyone used Driveway, or any other companies I might have missed? This is a 13 year old SUV, so nothing special; it has a very small oil leak that may be about $1K+ to fix, an AC issue that is livable, and a driver’s seat that blows a fuse when the electric seat is moved; otherwise I would have offered it to my nephew’s twins who just turned 16.
In selling my old car, I obtained an offer from Carmax good for a few weeks. Posting on
Craigslist, I had a little interest-it was stick shift, so a specific and small audience was excited about it. But my two interested parties fell through due to a tiny spot of rust and they lowballed my asking price. So I returned to Carmax, and happily took their offer. So easy!
No help on Driveway, just a vote for Carvana. We’ve sold two cars to them as have our kids, and we’d be happy to do so again. They made it easy and their price beat anything we could get locally.
@snowball - best thing I ever did was sell my car to Carvana - I’d not be tempted by even 25% more with a company that was pushy - because that 25% could actually be how they get you to commit and then pull the rug. Go with who you’ve worked with before. The quote from Carvana is good for 30 days. Get another quote about 10 days before your new car is due to you.
I agree that Carvana is my best bet if anything like my previous experience. I have had to update my quote a few times, as I started this process in May! The quote went down, but went back up a few weeks ago; I think it depends on available stock for them to sell. Hoping it stays were it is, or close when the time comes.
The reviews on Driveway seem to show payment can take a week; I am not giving them my car and then hoping a check shows up! It also is a bit suspicious that their quote is so much high; I would worry that they decide the car is not the condition I entered and then change the price to lower that Carvana and CarMax. When the woman came from Carvana, she verified the VIN, mileage, and did a brief walk around the car. I signed the Title, she handed me a check, and say the car would get picked up within 72 hours. They ended up coming that evening, after I deposited the check. It couldn’t have been easier.
I could also go to CarMax as there is one around the corner from me and get a quote in person, which I would assume would be lower than their online quote. I might do that when I know my car has shipped, assuming the Carvana quote is still decent.
My daughter was looking for a particular car so was waiting. Had an offer from carmax, which expired the day before the dealer found a car she was willing to buy. Since the original quote expired, the next quote was less. So she unhappily accepted it.
Be careful about the quote and the expiration date
Don’t jump the gun on selling your car based on predicted build dates for your new car. Some manufacturers are cagey about delivery dates for new cars, and might even report a vehicle is “in transit” when it has not even been scheduled for production (I’m looking at you, GM). I would not pull the trigger on selling your old car until the new one arrived at your dealer.
Oh, I will not sell until my car is on the ground at the dealership. I actually still have a deposit at another local dealer and still on their list if what I want comes in. As I told him, I won’t believe the other car is mine until I sign the paperwork! A 3rd dealership, out of town, also has what I want coming in, with a 2 week later build week. I told him if the one here doesn’t pan out, and his has not been assigned to someone else, I would come get it. Of the 3 sales people, he was my favorite; I would have been happy to buy from him.
Once the quotes expire, you can get another one. As I said up thread, my car price actually went up when I updated my mileage, after it had gone down previously.