For those who have sold cars privately...how have your experiences been?
 

I'm thinking to sell both cars and get a smaller truck like a Tacoma or a Colorado.

My 5.0 Mustang 6-speed manual is the one I am loathing selling because I can already anticipate the tire-kickers, test pilots and whatnot. I only sold one car privately over a decade ago, and the experience of people calling or e-mailing or wanting to know about the car, lowballing like crazy despite no actual commitment to buy, etc. still sours me to this day. Hell, trying to sell something for 80 bucks tends to bring on bizarre timewasters with no intention to buy.

But I fear I will leave thousands on the table if I trade it into the dealer so I gotta do it.

Curious how others experiences have been?

Any tips to make things go more smoothly?

Craigslist. No problems sold a car in 24 hours. Put up good pictures, accurate car info, accidents etc. You’ll weed out a lot of people. If it’s priced higher that’s others, prove why in your ad and then just tell fuck off if they don’t like it.

^ The other good thing about a detailed ad is you can figure out who's an idiot or not if they're asking you questions that are answered in the ad.

For me the biggest thing is just being able to tell who's serious and who's a time waster. I won't meet anyone anywhere and they can come to me when it's convenient for me.

Another recommendation would be to get an inspection done by Ford and a Carfax. That way they will know its mechanically sound and a test drive would just be a formality

Price it fairly.

Think of all the questions potential buyers will have and put all of the answers in your ad. I hate Craigslist ads that just list the kms and say that the car is well maintained.

Also, try to use good photos.

I've buy and sell car on Craigslist and Auto Trader before.

People seems to be more reasonable from Auto Trader. Best to do is create an Gmail account just for this purpose. DO NOT leave your phone number on CL, people doesn't give a damn on what time of the day is, they can call you at mid night just to ask if your car is still for sale. Low-ballers will be expected.

List as much info as you can in the ad, major maintenance, accident info, mileage etc. Carproof / ICBC report helps too. If you worry about tire-kicker you can list at NO Test Pilot, when meet up with potential buyer you can let him / her sit and you be the driver. If they are serious they don't mind with that.

that's the experience I have from previous buy / sell, hope this help

I’ve sold a number of cars privately and never had too much of a headache. Be detailed in your ad and upfront, post lots of pictures, and research other ads to establish a fair price. Meet up at a public place that is convenient for you and only let them test drive, if you feel they’re serious.

Expect at least half of people who want to see the car to not show up, so don’t plan your day around showing it unless you have many appointments lined up.

First time I sold a car to a member here (I believe he was a used car dealer), and knowing I was leaving the country, he lowballed me at the last minute when we met up, and I had no choice but to accept it since I had to let the car go. The price was already VERY good for the condition.

Second time was a lease takeover on Craigslist for my RSX, and everything was smooth. Dude contacted me within 10 mins of posting, met the next morning at 8am and took the car that afternoon.

Overall it's been fine, just try not to let yourself get into a desperate situation, or cheap scuzzballs WILL take advantage of you. For instance, don't let them know if you're on a tight schedule to let the car go.

Be ready for people to show up with $3500 even if you say $5k firm expecting you to accept it :fullofwin:

Food for thought, I've had very good luck selling on Seattle Craigslist and gotten significantly more money for cars I've sold there than I would have if I sold it in Canada.

I've got so many hilarious stories I don't even know where to start, but I've mostly sold low-priced vehicles so that always attracts the best of society.

The one I will leave here is the Australian guy high on something who showed up to look at my Lexus ES300, didn't know anything about cars, I test drove it for him because I could tell something was wrong with him, he asked me to pop the hood right after the drive and tells me the header/exhaust manifold doesn't look factory (??? who changes this on an ES300???) and then he reaches in and wraps his hand around it, completely melting all the skin on his hand (the air filled with burning flesh smell) and wouldn't let it go, I grabbed him and basically pulled him off it and threw him on the ground, he's screaming while his gf is running around tripping balls screaming her face off, then he suddenly just got all calm and matter of fact, asks me quietly if he can use my washroom to run his hand under water... there's skin hanging off and it's bleeding/sizzling away... I told him he's going to need a lot more than cold water, ended up driving him to emergency and dropping him off. No idea whatever happened to him, but he did text me to tell me he didn't trust my car because it had hurt him and that he would not be buying it.

What in the fucking fuck? WutFace

Also for selling to Americans, they have to come across the border to get the car... you would be amazed how many Americans have felonies and don't have a passport/can't cross the border! I've had so many brothers or wives or pregnants GFs come over with wads of cash and taken my now unlicensed car and drove away to cross back over because the buyer couldn't even come look at it hahahaha I love Americans! Once you have the cash though... its their problem! Just have to report the sale to ICBC and cancel your plates.

LMAOOOOO

Thanks for the tip re: seattle craigslist. I'll be selling my car in the next month or two and was surprised to see them listed there for about 10-20% more than up here.

Have you told this story on rs before? It sounds very familiar, I can't imagine anyone else has had a similar experience

I believe so, it felt familiar coming off my fingertips lol

Have sold a number of cars and motorcycles on CL, and the experience with selling cars have generally been at least somewhat poor. Bikes, on the other hand, were mostly positive. Well... 2 out of 3 were positive, and the other was a dickwad.

I've always had super detailed service records with all my cars, and that definitely helped with the selling. Still, at the end of the day, the CL buyers were aggressive on price. With most of my cars, I still got a bit more money by selling privately compared to trading it in. But IMO, it is questionable whether the extra $$$ amount was worth the gobs of time spent and tire kickers. With one car in particular, I actually got a better offer from the dealership than I did with the private offers, so I just traded that one in.

If you are in no particular hurry to sell, and wouldn't mind meeting some "interesting" characters, private selling is quite an interesting experience. But right now... I really wouldn't bother unless the buyer is someone I know.

Something to consider that most seem to forget, trading in gives you a tax credit. OP mentioned thousands extra by selling privately. Depending on how new the car is that OP is selling could easily mean he also has to pay thousands more in tax when he goes back to the dealer.

Just an example, say the car is worth $30k on trade. OP lists car for $36k ends up taking $35k to get his car sold to a private individual. He then goes back to the dealer thinking he made $5k more but in reality he has to cough up $3600 of taxes for the new car that he wouldn't have had to if he simply traded the car in. All that work was for $1400. Was the time, effort and headaches of a private sale worth that $1400?

How long does it take you to sell a car? Assuming you make $30/hr, that's 47hrs. Even if you deal with a bunch of timewasters and lowballers it's not going to eat up that much of your time.

Earlier posters have pretty much covered all of the key points: take good pictures (exterior and interior), provide relevant details, and so on.

I've found that for the most part, you'll get a mix of tire kickers/low ballers and then some serious folks. The potential buyer and I would email back and forth a little and then schedule a meet up. You can usually quickly get a sense of whether or not the person is serious when you see him or her in person.

ICBC has some info on their website as well, but it's pretty general: ICBC link.

I've bought and sold on Craigslist. When selling, the timing will vary--sometimes a car will sell quickly and other times it may take a little longer. Best for you is when you're not in an absolute rush and have some flexibility in terms of timing.

Lastly, when you complete the transaction, aim to accompany the buyer to his or her bank. You then watch the buyer get a bank draft/certified cheque right then and there. This is because bank drafts can be forged. Right after, we go to any Autoplan broker and complete the transfer form and I hand the buyer all the keys.

Well he said time, effort and headache, not just total hours showing the car. not everyone has weeks or months to sell something. There's always risk of some idiot crashing your car on a test drive and fucking up your insurance. Then even with due diligence there's a chance of getting scammed. Plus it's summer I don't want to waste my evenings and weekends dealing with CL flakers.

All that to make additional 5%? Not worth it at all if that's the case.

Ah now I remember you posting this on here a long time ago, I had totally forgot where I had read this story :awwyeah: