Why you should sell your car privately

If you're wondering why private sale is the way to go with your old car, let me break it down for you. No matter how meticulously clean and well cared for you keep your car, no dealership is going to give you anywhere close to retail value for your car. Your sales person, or the manager at the dealership you're involved with doesn't care that you service your car regularly, nor does he care that the oil was changed every 3000 miles. All he cares about is what the car is worth in a wholesale cash number (Also referred to as ACV - actual cash value). He's going to make some calls to several wholesalers, or perhaps someone who may be interested in your car for their lot, or even put a figure on it to re-list on his own lot. This ACV figure you are getting could be thousands less than what you may be able to get by using one of many resources to sell the vehicle yourself through private sale.

The downside to this, of course, is you may end up short a vehicle for awhile. You need to decide whether the inconvenience is worth the savings to your checking account balance. You can probably find some good leads before you list your vehicle. But if you have a particular car in mind, it may be gone by the time you sell your vehicle. Perhaps you can carpool for awhile, or borrow an extra car from a family member. Whatever you can do could save big bucks.

Below is an example of how it happens every day in the car business.

Say the car your interested in is on the lot for $12,995

You've got a 12-year-old car with 140k miles on it. It runs well for its age so they offer you! $2000 for it. Sounds fair right?

$10,995 ends up being the bottom line.

But are they actually giving you $2000 for your car? NO!

For the average car I mentioned at the top of the example, the ACV would probably be somewhere in the $200-$700 range at best, so lets use $500. That's a pretty strong figure for ACV on a car that old with that many miles.

So they've actually discounted their car $1500.00 to make the difference and show you a figure you could live with for your old car. This is how it works. Trust me; I've worked for many dealerships throughout my life.

Lets review

$12,995 car price
- $ 1500 discount
- $ 500 ACV for your trade in
______
$10,995 ends up being your bottom line price

or....

$12,995 car price
- $ 1500 discount
- $ 1900 cash you got from selling your car privately
______
$9595 your bottom line now that you've sold your car privately!

This is an example of a very real scenario, and sometimes all it takes is a day and a can of shoe polish. We'll talk more about getting it sold next time.

YourCarBuddy