If you were to sell a car, what's your preferred method? DIY or take it to a dealer or CarMax and take the price hit?

 

DIY - craigslist.com, autotrader.com, cars.com.

 

I've sold a couple using e-bay. I have not completed the sale there, just found the buyers.

 

autotrader.com

 

Typically I trade my cars in for a few reasons, the most significant being that I am usually buying another car and get a tax credit on the trade value of 7%. I shop dealers toget a good feel of the trade price. Usually there is a significant spread between the trade numbers which I try to use to my advantage when I find the new car I want.

The one car I sold privately was a 2003 M5 which was an easy sell on the M5board. The car was black/black in great shape and sold in two days at a fair price.

In addition to the places mentioned in the above posts, I would also throw up a FS add on the respective internet forums.

GL with the sale.

 

Thanks for the responses. I had completely forgotten about autotrader! Recently, we've always done the trade scenario for tax purposes as well. It's been awhile since I've had the opportunity to sell one outright.

 

Carmax is only going to give you a kind of fair price if its a regular car in the price range of 15 to 30k. More expensive cars (like 911 porsche) they have very little interest in and will give you bottom dollar since it will sit on their lot for a long time compared to a toyota sedan.

 

craigslist first, ebay 2nd.

 

I'm keeping the Porsche. I'm selling the Caddy sedan so might actually consider taking it to CarMax just to see if they get within range of my convenience factor. I'm trying to figure out how much I'm willing to sacrifice on price for not having to deal with the typical scammers.

 

I shop the dealers. If you're patient you'll get a good price. Plus you don't have to go through the headache of people wanting to test drive your car.

 

I just sold my Cayman, and from all the places to list on, here are the list from most useful (most number of interested buyers contacting me which eventually led to a sale):

1. Cars.com
2. Autotrader.com
3. Ebay (don't bother auctioning--just list it on motors for free)

Stuff that was pretty much useless:
Automotive forums

Places I didn't bother with because it was just a bunch of tire kickers the last time:
Craigslist

 

Oh, but one more thing--on cars.com and autotrader, you get a bunch of BS calls from car resellers who offer to do consignment sales, as well as guys who promise to put your car on their website for a fee that'll help sell the car. It gets a bit annoying after a while, but just put a realistic price on the car and it should sell quickly (I sold my car in two weeks).

 

Sold my C4S on autotrader. Craigslist attracted a fair number of sketchy inquiries