Toyota GR86, 86, FR-S and Subaru BRZ Forum & Owners Community - FT86CLUB - View Single Post - First Post: Want to sell my 2014 Scion FRS. How to get the most for my car?

soundman98 · 01-30-2022, 08:13 PM

the worst thing about private sales is the people.

you're pretty much HAVE to use facebook to sell anything anymore. craigslist is dead because of their $1 listing fee.

according to kelly blue book*at least using my zip code):
https://www.kbb.com/scion/fr-s/2014/...hicleid=393276

'very good' bottoms out around $20k as a trade-in, and 'factory perfect/excellent' tops out at just over $24k at $24,141 for private party.

the question you really need to ask yourself is if any an amount somewhere near $2k(the likely difference between private party and dealer trade-in) is worth 2-4 weeks of constant hassle dealing with hundreds of responses like "is this still available", "i can meet in 2 hours(never shows)", "i've got a broken jet ski and some old toothpaste tubes, are you interested in a trade?" or my favorite "i don't have all the money right now, but can pay you $100 every few weeks, when can i get the car?"

a good first step is to make a move to decide what you want to replace it with, and give that dealer a chance to make you an offer as a trade-in, or at least get a free appraisal at carmax for the car-- a lot of times our opinion of our cars condition is greatly inflated, and i like to use the carmax estimation for a re-evaluation of my expectations and condition of the car i want to get out of.

from there, decide how much cost gain you stand to make private party, and if that amount is worth the extra effort/time/frustration that it will demand.

carvana is becoming more established, so last i checked, i'm seeing their purchase price estimations fall more in-line with standard kbb trade-in values. the only real gain in this scenario is to physically separate the trade-in from the new vehicle purchase so if the replacement vehicle dealer ****s you around on numbers games, you 'stiff' them on the trade, and make the numbers of the new vehicle easier to digest. this is really no different than trading the car in to carmax as well. personally, i like this method of selling/trading off the 'old' car first. it makes it easier for me to count the cash i got from that transaction, makes me feel safer that i can officially close that 'chapter' of vehicles. it also makes it easier for me to move into the new vehicle as a brand new and separate transaction with the straight cash from the old car instead of playing paper number games that only a skilled magician has training to deal with.

as far as if you choose to go private party to get the most money back out of the car, i've always insisted on cash. no payments, no 'later', come prepared to buy for the test drive, i'm not holding it for you or anyone else until i see the entire amount. it's a first-come-first-get's-it deal. but i've also never sold a vehicle over $6k.

given that there's a possibility that they might have financing of some sort, many guy's say to refuse cashiers checks, as they can be cancelled(YMMV), and insist that the best method is to do any of the transfer paperwork at the issuing bank, so the seller can leave with the banks check, or even better straight cash, handed over by a reputable bank employee, instead of a random strangers scribbled piece of scratch paper that happens to look like a valid check...

just for an idea for you, i just sold a ford ranger early on in the spring this year, private party, through facebook. carmax's offer on that truck was $2500. slightly different, as the old rangers are unobtainable new, many people are unhappy with the new ranger size, which drives up interest and prices in the old model. i had paid $5k for it 3 years ago(put nearly $8k into it in maintenance though), but the market pushed it up to $5,250 valuation. i asked $6.5k, fully anticipating that they would barter me down to $5.5k. i sold it after 2 weeks at that $5.5k.

i had close to 200 "is this still available?" requests, 4 people flagged me down in traffic with the signs, extremely interested, never heard from any of them. had 15 people that would show extreme interest for a number of back-and-forth responses, and then go suddenly dark around the time i would attempt to nail down a time to meet. there were about 4 people that scheduled a time to look at it, but never show. there were about 12 offers for trades of varying qualities. 1 was actually a broken jet ski.

3 people that actually showed up to look it over. 2 were unhappy with how much rust an 18 year old snow belt truck had(go figure), but were at least honest enough that didn't bother trying to barter. it significantly helped in this scenario that i never had less than 2 people showing interest at a time on it.

i did it specifically at the time because i had the new truck picked out, and wanted to maximize the money i was getting back out of the 'pit' from re-building so much of it. all that money was going into the down payment on the new truck, and nearly $2k over trade-in was worthwhile for me in that time.

01-30-2022, 08:13 PM	#2
soundman98 ProCrastinationConsultant Join Date: Sep 2013 Drives: '14 Ranger, '18 Tacoma 4Dr LB Location: chicago-ish Posts: 11,330 Thanks: 35,240 Thanked 13,675 Times in 6,782 Posts Mentioned: 98 Post(s) Tagged: 0 Thread(s)	the worst thing about private sales is the people. you're pretty much HAVE to use facebook to sell anything anymore. craigslist is dead because of their $1 listing fee. according to kelly blue bookat least using my zip code): https://www.kbb.com/scion/fr-s/2014/...hicleid=393276 'very good' bottoms out around $20k as a trade-in, and 'factory perfect/excellent' tops out at just over $24k at $24,141 for private party. the question you really need to ask yourself is if any an amount somewhere near $2k(the likely difference between private party and dealer trade-in) is worth 2-4 weeks of constant hassle dealing with hundreds of responses like "is this still available", "i can meet in 2 hours(never shows)", "i've got a broken jet ski and some old toothpaste tubes, are you interested in a trade?" or my favorite "i don't have all the money right now, but can pay you $100 every few weeks, when can i get the car?" a good first step is to make a move to decide what you want to replace it with, and give that dealer a chance to make you an offer as a trade-in, or at least get a free appraisal at carmax for the car-- a lot of times our opinion of our cars condition is greatly inflated, and i like to use the carmax estimation for a re-evaluation of my expectations and condition of the car i want to get out of. from there, decide how much cost gain you stand to make private party, and if that amount is worth the extra effort/time/frustration that it will demand. carvana is becoming more established, so last i checked, i'm seeing their purchase price estimations fall more in-line with standard kbb trade-in values. the only real gain in this scenario is to physically separate the trade-in from the new vehicle purchase so if the replacement vehicle dealer ***s you around on numbers games, you 'stiff' them on the trade, and make the numbers of the new vehicle easier to digest. this is really no different than trading the car in to carmax as well. personally, i like this method of selling/trading off the 'old' car first. it makes it easier for me to count the cash i got from that transaction, makes me feel safer that i can officially close that 'chapter' of vehicles. it also makes it easier for me to move into the new vehicle as a brand new and separate transaction with the straight cash from the old car instead of playing paper number games that only a skilled magician has training to deal with. as far as if you choose to go private party to get the most money back out of the car, i've always insisted on cash. no payments, no 'later', come prepared to buy for the test drive, i'm not holding it for you or anyone else until i see the entire amount. it's a first-come-first-get's-it deal. but i've also never sold a vehicle over $6k. given that there's a possibility that they might have financing of some sort, many guy's say to refuse cashiers checks, as they can be cancelled(YMMV), and insist that the best method is to do any of the transfer paperwork at the issuing bank, so the seller can leave with the banks check, or even better straight cash, handed over by a reputable bank employee, instead of a random strangers scribbled piece of scratch paper that happens to look like a valid check... just for an idea for you, i just sold a ford ranger early on in the spring this year, private party, through facebook. carmax's offer on that truck was $2500. slightly different, as the old rangers are unobtainable new, many people are unhappy with the new ranger size, which drives up interest and prices in the old model. i had paid $5k for it 3 years ago(put nearly $8k into it in maintenance though), but the market pushed it up to $5,250 valuation. i asked $6.5k, fully anticipating that they would barter me down to $5.5k. i sold it after 2 weeks at that $5.5k. i had close to 200 "is this still available?" requests, 4 people flagged me down in traffic with the signs, extremely interested, never heard from any of them. had 15 people that would show extreme interest for a number of back-and-forth responses, and then go suddenly dark around the time i would attempt to nail down a time to meet. there were about 4 people that scheduled a time to look at it, but never show. there were about 12 offers for trades of varying qualities. 1 was actually a broken jet ski. 3 people that actually showed up to look it over. 2 were unhappy with how much rust an 18 year old snow belt truck had(go figure), but were at least honest enough that didn't bother trying to barter. it significantly helped in this scenario that i never had less than 2 people showing interest at a time on it. i did it specifically at the time because i had the new truck picked out, and wanted to maximize the money i was getting back out of the 'pit' from re-building so much of it. all that money was going into the down payment on the new truck, and nearly $2k over trade-in was worthwhile for me in that time. __________________ "The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time"