Best way to sell a vehicle (Only related to Porsches by the slightest margin)

[Leland Pate]

Well folks, it looks like I will be getting rid of my '99 Dodge Dakota.
I've sort of run into a "deal too good to be true". The dakota has been serving as my tow vehicle for two years with only marginal success.
To make a long story short, my dad is giving me his '99 Dodge Ram 2500 Cummins Turbo for almost next to nothing (~$7000 dollar range) because he can unfortunately no longer drive.

I've never had to sell a vehicle before. Aside from the usual newspaper ads and window sign...are there any other, perhaps creative ways to sell a vehicle? I'm only looking to get out of it what I still owe on it. The only reason I come to the board for advice on this is because I know several of you have loads of experience in this realm.

The Diesel is a dream boat... extended cab, long bed...fifth wheel hitch, aftermarket turbo, intercooler, exhaust brake...all the goodies, etc. I don't think I'll ever run into another offer like this one again so I figure i'd better jump on it. Plus my dad would be happy to see me use it.

Ideas?

[wcballance]

The last two cars my wife and I sold, we sold to CarMax. We probably could have done better selling them ourselves, but it was very easy just to hand them over to someone else and take the check. At the very least, take your Dakota to them (assuming you have one nearby) and see what they will offer you for it. You can use their offer as a basis for your asking price if you decide to sell it on your own.

---
Will Ballance
'82 911SC coupe

[Jay Auskin]

Autotrader.com gets alot of traffic on both the buying and selling end from people I work with who buy and sell way to many cars.

Good to hear you'll be driving a diesel. Although it is unfortunate you'll be stuck with a Cummins/Dodge engine and vehicle. The Ford PowerStroke has a far superior engine...

...OK, I give up...I work for International (Navistar). We design, build, and sell the PowerStroke diesel to Ford. I guess I'm biased.

Anyhow---Autotrader.com would be my choice for a vehicle sale.

[Jeff]

Leland,

I've always had luck selling my cars thru the "Auto Trader" magazine. They will come to you and take a picture of your truck and even post it on their web site. For a starting point in price I go to kellybluebook.com and then cross reference "Auto Trader" to make sure my asking price is fair. Hope this helps.

[Trent P.]

CarMax will not give you even close to what you think it is worth. I've had some success with autotrader, and none with the local paper.

The fastest way I sold my last car was to put a "For Sale" sign in the window and park it next to the entrance to Wal-Mart. Talk about maximum exposure! Sold it in 3 days. Caveat: some property managers may not like you doing that, some don't care. Try it, and if they don't like it they will call you and ask you to move your car.

I used the Kelley Blue Book to get an estimate on what I should ask for it (kbb.com). Cars.com is another source for some base pricing.

Good luck!

[steve911]

I've sold two cars using Yahoo's classifieds (admittedly it was before they started charging for ads, so it was a no-brainer but it generated a lot of interest).

Advise that you take a bunch of pictures, especially if someone isn't local. It really helps someone to get an idea of what the vehicle is rather than 3 lines in the local paper.

there's also ebay motors which as we know from around here gets a lot of air time as well.

the other advice you've gotten here is sound - get a sense from kbb.com as to what the going rate for your car/truck is and price accordingly.

FWIW, I've always priced somewhere north of the midpoint between dealer trade-in (low) and retail sale (top dollar). My main interest has been to get a fair price for my car(s) but not have to spend weeks/months entertaining every tire kicker that comes around (or says they're coming to see it and never show, while you've wasted the time waiting for them).

just my .02

good luck!

[Don Plumley]

The best way to sell a car is to price it appropriately.

Now with the obvious over, I've had limited success with autotrader and classified ads - partially because I'm in SoCal where there are more cars than trees and partially because I had cars that were in better condition than average and I wanted a premium for that condition.

FWIW, Twice, I had cars that I didn't feel right handing the keys to a buyer and looking them in the eyes - I knew in my gut there were mechanical problems waiting to erupt. So I gave them to the dealer. It was a small price to pay to sleep well at night.
{/podium mode}

Anyway, I had great success with an organization called CarFaire. Basically they set up a lot of private party cars at a local college and charge sellers $50 to show the car (for as long as it takes). It brings interested buyers into one place where there are cars for sale. You leave the car there for the weekend, and if a buyer is interested, they call you up, you come down to the college for a test drive, etc.

I like this because it's a pain scheduling time for tire-kickers come to your house, drive your car, etc. I also like the idea of meeting in a neutral/public place rather than my home. This is probably less of a problem out in Idaho than in SoCal, but I heard more than one story about a guy advertising his Mercedes, etc. and having a "buyer" come by to take a look, and instead of buying the car, whacking the guy, robbing his house, and taking the car. Yeesh.

When I used CarFaire I sold the car the first weekend I showed it (it was in the kind of condition that it needed to be seen to be appreciated). I provided comparative pricing information (e.g. from edmunds.com) and other marketing materials to help sell the car. Expand on this point: Assume the buyer knows nothing about your make/model of vehicle. Especially true with non-specialty cars. If you have the window sticker or equivalent, list every feature, major spec, and driver/passenger benefits, etc: "The cloth seats are perfect for the warm summers and cold winters" - "Leather seats are durable and easily wipe clean." ; "The V6 is an efficient engine, balancing power with good gas mileage" - "The V8 is a stump pulling motor with gobs of low-end torque"

Maybe there is something similar to CarFaire up in your neck of the woods. Sorry for the length of this, hopefully it was helpful.

Don

[Moses]

Lee,

My dad has that EXACT same truck. What a great truck. You can tow ANYTHING with that rig. (Including broken down Fords).

[Leland Pate]

Thanks for the responses guys... I'll have to look around for some of these "carfair" type places... now that you all mention it... it seems like there is a lot in Boise that allows people to park their car on and charge a commission or something. I'll have to look into it.
The bad part about all this is that I owe ecactly $16K on the truck and it is only worth just under $15K according to KBB. I still can't see why a manual tranny in a truck is LESS desirable than an auto. ...in a truck!
My only saving grace is that even though I really don't want to lose money selling the Dakota... I'm still making out real well on the Ram.

But that is sort of twisted logic.

At any rate, thanks very much for the replies guys,

[Adam]

Sounds like a really neat truck, Lee. You'll have to post a few photos for us.

What's the towing capacity on that bad boy?

[pwd72s]

Lee? Whatever advertising medium you choose, during the "for sale" period? Keep that little truck as clean as you keep your SC. "Clean" sells!

[nostatic]

I think you'll get more accurate pricing information from Edmunds (www.edmunds.com). Between the numbers you get from them and a scan of autotrader, you should get a good feel for price. I've never found kbb to be on target.