Selling cars privately & the most sentimental car you have owned?

[Greenhorn2]

5 hours ago, El Presidente said:

Great build! Your sisters husband did a great job.  

Sold and settled my I30 N and Merc A45S this week. 

Selling privately is a fair bit of work but the additional $'s over dealer amounted to $30,000 across the two cars. I have one more car to sell but I will leave it a week before I head back into the private sale madness 

You made your money and the dealers money too. Good deal. 

[joeypots]

In the early nineties I sold my well used Toyota truck for something like a grand. Massachusetts law says cost of  repairs needed to get a new inspection sticker is paid by the seller. 

I got @#$%^& on that deal. 

[Chibearsv]

8 hours ago, joeypots said:

In the early nineties I sold my well used Toyota truck for something like a grand. Massachusetts law says cost of  repairs needed to get a new inspection sticker is paid by the seller. 

I got @#$%^& on that deal. 

Ouch!  How do they collect from the seller?  Is it on you to get title transferred as well?  Here you sign the back of title, take the cash and everything from then on is on the buyer. We don’t do inspection stickers here except for current emissions test which is required to update plates. In Illinois, if it rolls, it’s okey dokey to drive.

[joeypots]

12 hours ago, Chibearsv said:

Ouch!  How do they collect from the seller?  Is it on you to get title transferred as well?  Here you sign the back of title, take the cash and everything from then on is on the buyer. We don’t do inspection stickers here except for current emissions test which is required to update plates. In Illinois, if it rolls, it’s okey dokey to drive.

It was a 35 years ago or something like that. Mass has a stricter inspection requirement and I'm not sure how the money would be collected by the buyer. 

[Dlowil]

Sold my 2003 Lexus LS430 last week. This was my first luxury vehicle. The smoothest ride. Road trips to the Las Vegas, Rocky Mountains and Midwest. Put 216k miles on it and it was still riding as elegant as ever. Will miss this ride dearly!

[BrightonCorgi]

13 hours ago, Dlowil said:

Sold my 2003 Lexus LS430 last week. This was my first luxury vehicle. The smoothest ride. Road trips to the Las Vegas, Rocky Mountains and Midwest. Put 216k miles on it and it was still riding as elegant as ever. Will miss this ride dearly!

A benchmark for quality in its segment and price point. Great car.

[BrightonCorgi]

On 6/21/2025 at 9:18 AM, Chibearsv said:

Ouch!  How do they collect from the seller?  Is it on you to get title transferred as well?  Here you sign the back of title, take the cash and everything from then on is on the buyer. We don’t do inspection stickers here except for current emissions test which is required to update plates. In Illinois, if it rolls, it’s okey dokey to drive.

The buyer can return the car for their money back in so many days. The lemon laws really propelled the used car business in our state. Who wants to roll the dice when they can just trade it in.

[Rhinoww]

Just sold a 2010 Lexus rx350 with 89k miles to Carvana.

Their first offer was on par but we were not yet sure if my kids would want the car or not so that offer expired. Next offer was 3k less and stayed there for a number of weeks on a “refresh to see” email with a likely price.

Recently went through the process again of evaluating the car for them- now two months off from original offer and got same crappy 7k offer that had been their follow up offer. I let that expire. Two days after it expired an offer rolls in at 9400. $600 less than my first offer and I’m ready to sell so yes, they just picked it up. 

Lesson with Carvana, at least for me, is their offers have a lot of variability. I didn’t need to sell, and didn’t have the time to sell privately so I would periodically respond to a “refresh your price” email. Eventually they wanted that car. 

Carmax all along was at 7k. They never followed up w an email, but at the same time I didn’t take a ha d look at some of their barely used cars like I did w carmax. Glad it’s over. 

[chasy]

I helped my father in law sell his 67 corvette on Bring A Trailer. Really liked that process.

[El Presidente]

This Friday, I hand over the keys to the 3rd car I have sold privately over the past six months. 

Selling cars privately reminds me so much of the ACDC song, "Highway to Hell". 

Grifters/hustlers/dealers impersonating/time wasters/liars/thieves...persevere through those and you just might come out the other side with your sanity in place!

That is the last car to offload. My fleet is back to a respectable four. Hardly the minimalist...but I am getting there 

[JDoughty]

My first car was a used, beat up old Pontiac Firebird. I think my dad had hopes that I would share his interest in restoring old cars. He had a Model A that he restored himself as a hobby. Either that or he knew I'd beat it up even worse. Which is exactly what I did, taking it on camping and hunting trips and over rough terrain it was not well suited for. I liked that car but I beat it completely to death. It was salvage scrap by the time I was done with it, nothing left worth selling. If I can't throw a dead deer in the back and drive through thick brush on a dirt road, I don't want it. Too much fuss to own a car I have to be picky with instead of it actually serving me. My dad rightfully never let me near his Model A. 😆

[BrightonCorgi]

16 hours ago, JDoughty said:

My first car was a used, beat up old Pontiac Firebird. I think my dad had hopes that I would share his interest in restoring old cars. He had a Model A that he restored himself as a hobby. Either that or he knew I'd beat it up even worse. Which is exactly what I did, taking it on camping and hunting trips and over rough terrain it was not well suited for. I liked that car but I beat it completely to death. It was salvage scrap by the time I was done with it, nothing left worth selling. If I can't throw a dead deer in the back and drive through thick brush on a dirt road, I don't want it. Too much fuss to own a car I have to be picky with instead of it actually serving me. My dad rightfully never let me near his Model A. 😆

The cars I had or were given early in my driving days already had one foot in the grave. I made sure to bang that final nail in short order.

[JDoughty]

15 hours ago, BrightonCorgi said:

The cars I had or were given early in my driving days already had one foot in the grave. I made sure to bang that final nail in short order.

I've just kept right on buying cars I could bang on. And occasionally in. 😆