Just sold my car

[MissB]

I had it for 3 years. When I bought it, it was fun to have but we’ve added two dogs in the past two years (one is 90 lbs) and a 2 door coupe just wasn’t the right car for taking the pups.

I paid half of the retail cost of the car (I was the second owner, got the original invoice with the car) and it had 5500 miles on it. I’ve added 19k miles over the three years.

Carmax paid me 90% of what I paid, which I found very reasonable. Super simple process. They didn’t ding me anything off what the online offer was, and it was $2100 more than what the dealership would give me (am buying another car, slightly bigger!)

[Deuxcents]

1. Hmmmm

Interesting as I’ve been thinking about my car and what I should do..glad you made a good deal.

[MerryHolidays]

2. Wow....I'll hire you for my next car deal!

Well done.

I understand that the demand for cars is sky-high now. Getting 90% of what you paid for 3 years and 19K miles ago, is amazing. Either you drove a great bargain 3 years ago, or with Carmax now, or both.

Either way, that is AMAZING.

[MissB]

13. It was a helluva deal 3 years ago

I’m sure the market for coupes isn’t that huge and that could be why it was a good deal. Literally half the original sales price, and had lots of bells and whistles (it was a luxury car brand).

Carmax just tells you what they’ll give you when you enter the stuff online. You bring the car to their store and their appraiser looks at it and confirms the offer or they presumably bump it down. In this case, they gave me the same amount as their online offer says.

I’m guessing they’ll turn around and sell it for the same price I bought it for 3 years back.

[underpants]

3. Cool!

Stock owners in Carmax. We bought both our cars there too but really just because we found what we wanted and it was nice and simple.

[MissB]

14. I was impressed!

I would have no qualms about buying some there, but the one I’m getting is fresh off the boat and isn’t on the used market yet.

[lapfog_1]

4. I have a friend who is snapping up

recent high end used pickups... which are leased.
he pays off the "residual" on the lease from like 2 years ago
turns around and sells the vehicle for waaay more than that to car max or similar

so far he has flipped like 5 vehicles this way and made over $50K profit.

the used car market has gone nuts.

[keithbvadu2]

5. Trade-in scam for truck

[Tomconroy]

6. I bought my present car at CarMax.

My impression was that they are a very good company to deal with.

[MissB]

15. Yes!

I wish I’d used them a couple of years ago when I bought a used car for my kid.

[Joinfortmill]

7. Wow, very cool.

[soothsayer]

8. Really like carmax. If you want to buy a friend's car and give them a fair deal just have them get

...the carmax price. It’s free. That way no one feels ripped off.

[Aussie105]

9. Twins!

Here I am, on the other side of the world, with the kangaroos and wombats and scary spiders, and same-same!

Used cars way up in price.
House prices going up in the rural areas.
Employers complaining about a lack of interested job applicants.

Twins separated at birth? Or just a 'you only live once' human reaction to the virus?

[MissB]

16. Ha!

[BobTheSubgenius]

10. Nice work!!!

Be sure to try to get the purchase price down. Dealerships like to not have to deal with a trade-in (even though yours sounded pretty premium), so you should benefit from that.

Best of luck!

[Mosby]

11. Dealers don't pay anything close to retail for used cars.

Why would they honestly. They are in the business to make money.

My approach is to sell my car myself, and use the money for a down payment.

Dealers like to play games with trade in value, and monthly payments. Its more simple when you take away their negotiating tactics. They might not like it but who fucking cares. The last thing they want to hear is "what is your best price for the car/truck". Without trade in bullshit they have to deal with that.

[BobTheSubgenius]

20. No, of course they don't want to cut a customer a really good deal.

Every dollar they let you wrest from them is a dollar they don't get to spend on....well, whatever they like to spend money on.

One approach I've always want to try again, because it worked really well the only time I bought a car from a dealer. "Give me your best price, first time. I've got the very top of my range written on this piece of paper (brandish folded paper) and if you hit this number or below, I'm driving out of here in that car."

Clearly, you have to be ready to walk away from it, but at least you might have had some fun.

[MissB]

12. The car I'm buying

Isn’t exactly negotiable. Yes, everything is technically negotiable but this car has a wait list, so not much room for negotiations.

Stimulating the economy but not the gas industry.

[BobTheSubgenius]

21. I hate seller's markets.

I rarely, if ever, sell anything. As that leaves me almost always buying, I don't like it when the seller has the whip hand.

[Quemado]

17. We sold a car to Carvana three months ago.

Carvana's offer was the highest compared to CarMax and Vroom.

[MissB]

18. Sadly they aren't in our market yet

I’d have to add some serious miles to get it to their closest area.

[bamagal62]

19. I was just reading an article

Someone posted here on DU about the used car market and how it’s red hot.

https://www.latimes.com/business/autos/story/2021-05-04/la-used-car-boom