A wakeup call on trade-in value

[CommodoreAmiga]

I experienced the same with Carvana, lowest offer out of all that I researched.

You have to run quotes will all of them -- they're not consistent on who has the best offer.

In January I sold a vehicle to Carvana. Ran quotes with all the major players, and Carvana was the second highest offer -- beaten only by Vroom. I chose Carvana over Vroom because they'd pay me on the spot. Vroom wanted to take my vehicle and mail me a check 2 weeks later; and their terms said they could unilaterally adjust their offer after taking my vehicle and I had no say in the matter. Um, no. I was happy with the Carvana experience.

I've tried selling vehicles to CarMax, in the past, and it's always been awful. Perhaps that's a problem with my local CarMax location, however, as I hear so many other "I love CarMax" stories.

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[azuano3654]

Has anyone ever used escrow.com for a car sale/purchase? Before I traded in my Subaru for my MME I was going to try it if I had found a private buyer.

 

[Taycanfrank]

I've tried selling vehicles to CarMax, in the past, and it's always been awful. Perhaps that's a problem with my local CarMax location, however, as I hear so many other "I love CarMax" stories.

Same. I took two cars in to CarMax and both times waited several hours to get an absolutely dreadful quote. Maybe it's just certain cars they do well with.

 

[trez63]

Same. I took two cars in to CarMax and both times waited several hours to get an absolutely dreadful quote. Maybe it's just certain cars they do well with.

I look at Carmax as a great service, not a place to sell my car to. I usually get the quote done, then take the paper with me to get a higher price at another local dealer. It's like a bottom line appraisal which is really nice to have in your hand.

 

[Forager]

The amount of paranoia in this thread makes my MIL look like the model of good mental health…

Yes, pretty much every method of doing a business transaction can be scammed, or so the movies and evening news would lead you to believe.

When I’m ready to sell my vehicles, I’ll be doing private sale. The $5k+ premium offered over dealers and alternate buyers (Vroom, Carvanna, etc) is over half of their value. I’ll “trust my gut” on whether a buyer seems trustworthy, and then I’ll be depositing their cashiers check at my bank before signing over the title. Short of establishing an escrow account, this is the safest method. And no one is going to want to fuss with me as a seller if I make them go through escrow for a $13k truck! ?

 

[NY_Rob]

But not once they (wire transfers) are "accepted" by the receiving bank.

Right... unless the bank discovers fraud has been involved (i.e. someone sending the funds from a hacked bank account).

Someone hacks a bank account then buys a vehicle via wire transfer. A week later paying Bank discovers the paying account was hacked. They will have the funds reversed back into the hacked account. No way will they let you keep the funds from a hack account. You are out the $$$ and your car. I'm sure it's happened, scammers scam... that's what they do.

 

[stynes]

Meet buyer at your bank with their cashier's check. Once it clears your bank, which takes moments, hand over the keys.

You can now afford to take an Uber home since you didn't leave so much money on the table by selling it to Vroom or Carmax.

That's what I've done in the past - just met at the bank. Cashiers check was deposited into my account as we signed title.

 

[Ralph]

Y

Right... unless the bank discovers fraud has been involved (i.e. someone sending the funds from a hacked bank account).

Someone hacks a bank account then buys a vehicle via wire transfer. A week later paying Bank discovers the paying account was hacked. They will have the funds reversed back into the hacked account. No way will they let you keep the funds from a hack account. You are out the $$$ and your car. I'm sure it's happened, scammers scam... that's what they do.

Avoiding fraud is a risk management exercise. That requires understanding of the probability and ease of the scenarios involved.

You apparently evaluate the risk different than I do based on the facts as you understand them.

I'd be very interested in any research you can provide that indicates any success in wire reversal of funds that have been accepted by the receiving bank. Accepted is the key word/concept and why all the links you will find re: wire reversal state that although you normally cannot reverse a wire transfer, the sender MIGHT be successful if the act VERY quickly (before acceptance* by the receiving bank).

Having said that, no one should do anything they are not comfortable with and/or do not understand (ACH, pay by check, wire, bank to bank transfer, etc.).

* edited from receipt to acceptance for clarity

 

[Andystroh]

We sold a crosstrek to carmax in feb, it was easy and our best offer by a long shot. But here in CO every second car is a crosstrek so that may help. It took 20 mins for them to inspect and I had a final offer; one week to redeem. Redemption took about a half hour.

 

[AxelR]

If the war in Ukraine is see up or stops, oil prices might drop and values will go back up. Everything has been moving extremely fast in the past couple years and it seems like it’s the new trend.

 

[Rousie13]

The amount of paranoia in this thread makes my MIL look like the model of good mental health…

Yes, pretty much every method of doing a business transaction can be scammed, or so the movies and evening news would lead you to believe.

When I’m ready to sell my vehicles, I’ll be doing private sale. The $5k+ premium offered over dealers and alternate buyers (Vroom, Carvanna, etc) is over half of their value. I’ll “trust my gut” on whether a buyer seems trustworthy, and then I’ll be depositing their cashiers check at my bank before signing over the title. Short of establishing an escrow account, this is the safest method. And no one is going to want to fuss with me as a seller if I make them go through escrow for a $13k truck! ?

I have sold many $5-20k items and my paranoia/skepticism are greatly reduced compared to me selling a $50k+ vehicle private party. I didn’t even think about selling my Tesla private party and just traded it in at the Volvo dealer…we get tax savings as well, so that also is a huge plus to trading in instead of selling.

 

[Lobstahz]

And all of this risk management is worth something. Some think its worth it to take some money off the theoretical value of their car and just not bother. For many this whole risk management hassle is not worth it.

Anyways, have you tried pricing this out with CarGurus? https://www.cargurus.com/sell-car/

 

[omamatt]

Rivian/Cox wasn't the highest value, but when I factored in tax savings, they knocked it out of the park!

 

[ironpig]

You have to run quotes will all of them -- they're not consistent on who has the best offer.

In January I sold a vehicle to Carvana. Ran quotes with all the major players, and Carvana was the second highest offer -- beaten only by Vroom. I chose Carvana over Vroom because they'd pay me on the spot. Vroom wanted to take my vehicle and mail me a check 2 weeks later; and their terms said they could unilaterally adjust their offer after taking my vehicle and I had no say in the matter. Um, no. I was happy with the Carvana experience.

I've tried selling vehicles to CarMax, in the past, and it's always been awful. Perhaps that's a problem with my local CarMax location, however, as I hear so many other "I love CarMax" stories.

yeah I filled out a vroom appraisal the other day out of curiosity and then saw the - "we Mail you a check" and laughed. What a racket.

 

[ironpig]

I look at Carmax as a great service, not a place to sell my car to. I usually get the quote done, then take the paper with me to get a higher price at another local dealer. It's like a bottom line appraisal which is really nice to have in your hand.

Yeah in Los Angeles there is another car buying service set up across the street from CarMax who has a giant banner that they will beat Carmax price. So you go to CarMax, get the quote and then walk it over. We had a Prius we needed to sell years ago and I didn't want to deal with private party because it was a sub 10k car. I sold it to the place across the street from CarMax for $1000 over what CarMax offered.

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