Trade-in to dealer or sell to a car-buying company?

[n0maverick]

carvanna took all of about 3 minutes. why ever bother with a dealer. $3k more than dealer, vroom, and carmax.

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[Jimmy P]

In July/August I shopped around my 2015 Chrysler 300 that I bought used 2 1/2 years before. Carvana gave me the highest offer, more than I paid for it, more than CarMax or Vroom or the others offered. Super easy, they came right to my house with a check in hand, drove it about five minutes, put it on their iconic transporter, I signed papers and gave them the title, no issues with the check clearing. I'd do it again.

 

[sseiler]

In July/August I shopped around my 2015 Chrysler 300 that I bought used 2 1/2 years before. Carvana gave me the highest offer, more than I paid for it, more than CarMax or Vroom or the others offered. Super easy, they came right to my house with a check in hand, drove it about five minutes, put it on their iconic transporter, I signed papers and gave them the title, no issues with the check clearing. I'd do it again.

Great to hear so many have had such good experiences with these places. Definitely not trading in at Ford, that’s for sure.

 

[fordny]

I sell privately...which can be a head ache, but I always get the price I want.

 

[pnorwood54]

Carmax
2020 Kia Niro LXS
$22000 in July, $23000 in November, $24600 in December. $25800 in Jan.
1/5/22 dealer offered $24000. i accepted, "lost" $112 tax difference but avoided Uber.
i showed carmax offer to my salesman

 

[bpcooper14]

Yeah, good point! I’ll have to check on how that works in TN. I just don’t remember for sure how that worked on previous cars I bought. It’s been a quite a few years.

Did you ever look into details for TN? I live in TN too and am trying to figure out what the best deal is for me.

 

[sseiler]

Did you ever look into details for TN? I live in TN too and am trying to figure out what the best deal is for me.

Yes, here’s what I found:
https://www.knoxcounty.org/clerk/motorvehicle/sales_calculator.php (ignore the Knox part; the state info is further down)

Looks like we need to consider the additional sells tax on the purchase price at the dealer when we sell elsewhere. Based on all the posts, I’m convinced trade in is a bad idea. I’ll probably be posting mine to Facebook Marketplace for a few days at a price higher than the highest quote at Carvana and CarMax. If it doesn’t sell quick on FB, I’ll just sell to one of them.

 

[Taco]

In preparation for purchasing my truck, I’m trying to decide how to sell my current car. I could, of course, trade it at the dealer. However, they already gave me a low-ball offer. Since they don’t care if I walk, they have no incentive to give me any more on the trade.

I’m thinking about selling to Carvana, CarMax, or CarGuru once my truck arrives. I’ve never bought or sold from any of them. I was wondering if you all have had any experience with selling to these companies. The quotes I’ve received were around $3k-$4k more than what the Ford said they’d give me. What are your thoughts? Any advantages/disadvantages to selling this way? Any recommendations?

I had the same experience through my Ford dealership.. Even the car salesman told me to try carvana for the best deal.. He said his dad did and it worked out for him...

I plan on taking my car into a Carvana site in Fort Wayne Indiana on 1/17 to sell.. I will get back to you on my experience but they were almost 3k more over the dealer offer.. I also have to drive 100 to make the deal. But my offers with the other companies range from 1k-3k over dealership.. The local Kia dealer was buying cars too I heard on the radio..

Rumor is prices for used cars are going down by 10%.. But normally over tax season people have money and prices go up with the cash influx. Good luck.

 

[KansasFatMan]

In preparation for purchasing my truck, I’m trying to decide how to sell my current car. I could, of course, trade it at the dealer. However, they already gave me a low-ball offer. Since they don’t care if I walk, they have no incentive to give me any more on the trade.

I’m thinking about selling to Carvana, CarMax, or CarGuru once my truck arrives. I’ve never bought or sold from any of them. I was wondering if you all have had any experience with selling to these companies. The quotes I’ve received were around $3k-$4k more than what the Ford said they’d give me. What are your thoughts? Any advantages/disadvantages to selling this way? Any recommendations?

I got $5,000.00 more from CarMax than from my Ford dealer, I will pay $3,000.00 in sales tax and profit $2,000.00. Easy math for me.

 

[SlappaDaBass]

When you sell to CARMAX you leave with a check. One thing to keep in mind with all of them is their first quote is their best, the offer goes down on following quotes.

Not true. I let my offer expire with Carvana and it went up $800 the next month.

 

[bpcooper14]

Yes, here’s what I found:
https://www.knoxcounty.org/clerk/motorvehicle/sales_calculator.php (ignore the Knox part; the state info is further down)

Looks like we need to consider the additional sells tax on the purchase price at the dealer when we sell elsewhere. Based on all the posts, I’m convinced trade in is a bad idea. I’ll probably be posting mine to Facebook Marketplace for a few days at a price higher than the highest quote at Carvana and CarMax. If it doesn’t sell quick on FB, I’ll just sell to one of them.

Thanks for the link. Just doing a quick calculation on that link. For a $27K sale and a $5K trade in, it looks to be roughly a savings of about $300 on taxes. So, if I'm getting an offer of 5K from somewhere and the dealership is offering me anything less than $4700, it's better for me to take another offer and pay the slightly higher taxes. (roughly)

 

[sseiler]

Thanks for the link. Just doing a quick calculation on that link. For a $27K sale and a $5K trade in, it looks to be roughly a savings of about $300 on taxes. So, if I'm getting an offer of 5K from somewhere and the dealership is offering me anything less than $4700, it's better for me to take another offer and pay the slightly higher taxes. (roughly)

Yeah, just don’t forget the 2.25% local tax requirement. I think it’d tack on an additional approx. $80. Something like that.

Anyway, your calculation sounds about right.

 

[II Kings 9:20]

I got a quote from Carmax that was $1k more than what I paid for my truck two years prior. I walked in, walked out with a check two hours later, painless.

Nice win. At Carmax, I got $500 less than I paid 4 years and 8 months ago. Problem is now I have to pay full MSRP and when I bought my Pacifica I got 9K off. Not because I am a brilliant negotiator (I am pretty good) but that was the advertised price. My local dealer couldn't come close so I drove up near Akron with a One way Enterprise rental. To top it off, the dealership was an Enterprise drop off pot so all I had to do was leave the keys. Win -Win-Win

 

[999]

My experience was similar. My first 2 offers were from car buying places, in the 11k to 12k range. Then my Maverick ETA got pushed back. One of the original places jumped from 12k to 15kish. Then Carvana came in at 17.7k.

I'd guess this was caused mostly by the market for used cars getting even crazier?

Tried to see if the Ford dealer wanted it, but they didn't seem interested.

Carvana will be here tomorrow. As far as payment goes, we set up a wire transfer.

That's is not entirely true. I got my first Carvana offer on my 2014 Ford Fusion Titanium w 60k miles at $13,500 in November. I am selling to buy maverick. As of today my current offer is $16,237. I've renewed it twice and will continue doing so until my maverick is ready for pickup. Really depends on your make, model, year, mpg, condition, and features.

 

[999]

Ok. So Carvana showed up on time. The kid looked over the car, we signed some papers and he drove it around the block. He showed up in a Nissan, not a flatbed.

I gave him the keys, he gave me a signed bill of sale for $17776. I received an email that the sale was official and another email that my wire transfer had been pushed within an hour.

He said they would pick it up in an hour or so. For some reason, they actually picked it up at 3 am. I'm guessing they are short handed.

Money was in my bank this morning.

Awesome! Definitely let me know how that goes, if you don’t mind!

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