What is the process for selling a financed car??
 

Thinking about selling my car as circumstances have changed.
Its financed though so i dont know the process. Dont really have 30k liquid to pay off the car before selling.
Whats the usual process?
(Car(rav4 prime) wont have a problem selling, probably can get more than i bought it for if that matters)

They give you money, you pay off car, you give them car...

In addition to that, I recommend you to contact whoever financed your vehicle (I presume Toyota Financial Services in your situation) to tell them you want to sell the car and whoever is buying it from you will get a certificate of release upon the sale.

So say I want to sell it private, post an ad -->
Buyer comes with certified cheque, sign papers and just has to trust me to pay off the loan?

I financed through toyota which is RBC loan? The loan I can pay off anytime I think, maybe I should just meet buyer at RBC bank and pay it off once he hands me the cheque?

I assume this is easier if I sell to dealer? I wonder if the dealers are willing to give me what I paid for (msrp)...

Check with Toyota Financial Services first. It may be backed by RBC but it depends on the whole arrangement, including which bank you've been paying Toyota from.

A diligent buyer is going to ask you to provide a certificate of release to prove that you've successfully paid off and sold the car to them. Some people may not care but I hope you do the right thing. Let's say you don't pay off the loan, the lien would go against the car and the new owner, so they might come back and smash your teeth in and you might make the 6'o-clock news.

The buyer can also write the bank draft to RBC directly for the loan amount, and whatever remaining to you. The bank won't care where the money is coming from

i had a buyer pay off my loan amount directly w a draft at TD bank (financing w through TD)

it was slightly weird - they couldn't really satisfy either of us at the exact moment that the loan was paid off. Ultimately we were cool with it (we were at my business branch and the manager knew me quite well)

Does anyone know if lien checks are real time?

So I'm nearing the sale of my car. If I pay off the lien, what is the gold standard of proof that I can provide to the buyer that it is lien free and how fast after paying the lien can i get this proof.

So I ended up making a bunch of calls. Updating this thread for anyone in the future who might want to sell their lien title car.

Pay off loan at Bank and get a instant receipt that loan is paid off in full.

However, Bank needs to send a request to Personal Property Registry to get the lien cleared which could be 10 business days.

PPR receives this request and processes it on their end, at which point the title is updated and everything is cleared. PPR said this could be from 1-4weeks depending on how fast the bank sends their part.

Not that I am using CARFAX but FYI they lien checks also depend on this process and PPR.

thanks for your experience

So TLDR; easiest and most secure method for both parties would be if the buyer writes the draft directly to your loan's financial institute.

So the thing is, at an RBC branch, they cant tell you 100% that this loan account is for this VIN/car on the spot. This takes a few business days to come in the mail via loan payment receipt.

So the best that you can do is, go with the buyer to the bank and have the bank confirm that the loan started at X date, ends at X date, the payment amount etc, to make sure it matches with the loan contract paperwork you got when you bought the car, because the contract itself also doesn't have the specific loan bank account number either.

Or Do a lien check on the car, and while the amount or bank account doesnt show on a lien check, it shows the same start date, end date, whos name its under, etc and have the bank confirm the DETAILS and that its the only loan I have with RBC but they can't actually connect the VIN to the loan account.

In the future, I will never sell or buy a lien-ed car. Just easier to borrow some money from friends to clear the lien first and sell it for full price paid to me.

Suprising that after all these years on Revscene, that used to have such a huge used vehicle buy and sell market, this is still new information to a lot of us. hahah

To be fair, selling a car with a lien is a rare occurrence here on Revscene. I'm sure there are people here who have gone through this process before but haven't shared their experience.

I've helped a friend sell and buy a car that had a lien before and while it was a pain in the ass, it worked in favour (financially) for both the buyer and seller. More often than not, it's circumstantial and sometimes, you get a dick bag seller who doesn't disclose the lien.

In the 15+ Vehicles I’ve owned I’ve never bought a car with a lien or sold one.m, so yes this is relevant information. Closest thing I did was trade in my focus ST for my RS, but the trade in value was higher than the finance owing. Obvsly the dealer handles everything anyways

Oh of course, I am not saying its irrelevant, I think its very relevant, but i am just surprised it took this long for this topic to come up. And its new information to a lot of people.

Sorry, I just noticed this thread.

We frequently buy vehicles from clients with active liens. If it's a Big 5 bank, what we do is we will get the total lien payout amount. If there is equity for the seller, we will prepare two bank drafts - one for the seller's equity and another for the lien amount.

We will then go together to the big 5 bank to pay off the lien in person. As a dealer we aren't so worried about the lien getting cleared in real-time. On average it takes 5-10 business days depending on the bank.

For manufacturer liens like BMW, Honda, Toyota etc - we actually courier the draft to their Financial Services address - usually out East. We will go with the seller to the courier office together if they need that peace of mind.

Inevitably as a dealer, we also want the lien to clear as we can't re-sell the vehicle with an active lien on it.

Wish I could have helped earlier sorry! Did you end up selling your Prime? If not, feel free to reach out to me at kevin@dealershift.ca and we can come to you to appraise the vehicle!

Kev