Selling a car

[Chrisada]

Has anyone sold a car? We would like to sell DH's car and lease a new one. We want to do a private sell and were looking for any tips from someone who has done this. DH's brother sold a car and later found out the money was counterfeit! On the other hand I had a neighbor who sold a car with no problem. Any advice?

[oceanchild]

We (somewhat miraculously) sold our last car on craigslist. I reposted it once a week or so, and it took about a month. We required cash. Obviously that won't solve counterfeiting, but I definitely wouldn't take a check. If it hadn't sold when it did, I was looking at paying a little bit to list it on eBay as well.

My parents have several times successfully sold cars by parking them at a visible corner with a for sale sign on them. Around here, that'd probably get the car towed, but it hasn't been an issue in my hometown. If you're still driving it around, you could put for sale signs on it, too.

[ides]

We sold our golf about 5 years ago. We posted it on craigslist and cars.com. We took a cashiers check (essentially cash). The person who bought it saw it from cars.com. We included photos too.

We turned dhs car into car max. They will give you a price for it on the spot. May be slightly lower than a private sale, but no worries, no work, no waiting, would definitely do it again.

[Michele]

What kind of car is it? Does it have a niche market? For example, we are going to sell the wagon in a year or so. It isn't made anymore and from Russ' time on car forums he knows that there are people who would want it even if they were in another state. I mean, after all, we drove 5 h each way to buy the CrapRX. Eyeroll. So we will probably list it on craigslist and one or two of his car forums.

[Chrisada]

Thanks guys! It's a 1999 loaded BMW 5-series.

[SoonerTexan]

I bought mine off Craigslsit and paid cash. My parents have sold multiple through CL and the classifieds. Just don't do a trade in. You will get considerably less.

[peggyfromwastate]

We sold our last car thru craigslist. It was very easy. We took cash but I think it's ok to ask for a cashiers check. I would if course never accept a personal check.

[Michele]

Russ also recommended autotrader. There is a listing fee I think.

[Chrisada]

Now I am getting anxiety about leasing a car. I hate hate hate going into car dealerships. I wish we could just keep DH's car, but it has $182,000 damn miles on it and it's a BMW. Not a good combination. Maybe we can keep it longer if he only drives it to the hospital, which is only a few miles away. UGH

[SuzySunshine]

We sold DH's car on Craigslist - we met prospects in a parking lot close to our house so they could test it and we only accepted cash. The first guy that looked at it bought it. I think we sold it for $2K in less then a week.

Craigslist is so that way to go, its quick, easy, and the price I sell things for is actually better than otherwise.

[Meenah]

Hi bb35, welcome to our site. We look forward to "meeting you". Please go to the Introduction forum and "introduce" yourself.

We have sold a motorcycle and a car on craigslist and both times it worked seemlessly. The folks that bought my motorcycle lived a few hours away so we emailed extensively before they made the drive up to see/purchase it. With the car my husband initially met the buyers at a local grocery store and then after thinking it over for the afternoon they came and picked it up at the house. I don't worry too much about people seeing the house, my dogs tend to scare people enough that if they were even thinking of casing the joint they quickly change their minds. Both times the buyers paid cash, we had a pre-printed sale agreement and receipt of sale ready for both parties to sign. It really worked out well. I suppose you could go buy one of those counterfeit pen detector things they use at the grocery store if you were really concerned about counterfeit bills, I can't imagine that happens all that often (although it sucks it happens at all.)

[Mrs. MD, Esq.]

I would be careful about cashier's checks as those can be faked (and are on Craigslist). Often a bank will actually deposit the funds and then withdraw them when it's discovered it's a fake. I think cash is probably the way to go if you're going to use Craigslist...