Great quality!
Dan

http://www.vehiclesinc.com

Or, call us at 610-799-6000 and ask Lou.

i sold my subaru last year at a good price to a motivated buyer. i repeatedly told him that, mechanically, the car had been sound but that we should take it to a mechanic of his choosing. he was satisfied with my service records and didn’t want to take the time to get the car checked out. i should have insisted because the head-gasket failed a month or so after he took the car. the ensuing verbal/written battle was unpleasant. a written bill of sale would have helped…

“Permit buyers to take the car to their mechanic, even if you’ve already taken it to yours.”

really ought to read “Offer to take the car to the mechanic of your buyers’ choice”. Don’t permit potential buyers to do anything to the car that doesn’t involve you sitting in it, lest it not come back!

I would take minor issue with not selling a car with defects. As long as you’re disclosing the defects–and if it’s something serious, repeatedly, so that you know the message is getting across–there’s no reason you shouldn’t sell the car. If it’s safety related, don’t allow a test drive and don’t allow the buyer to drive away, but otherwise, allow the buyer to decide whether they can live with it. Unless you truly know what the problem is, do not diagnose it yourself, either. Just present the issue (”the engine knocks when warm, you can hear it”) and if you’ve had the car professionally checked out, tell them what you learned (”Jim at Performance Motors thinks it is a con-rod bearing, but can’t know for certain until it’s taken apart. That was going to cost a minimum of $1,000″).

For some, a knocking engine would be a hopeless situation, but for a decent shade-tree mechanic, it could be a way of getting an otherwise nice car for much less money than she otherwise could find one. If you do have a car with a serious problem (either aesthetic or mechanical), remember that your price is going to have to reflect that…the cost of the repair plus a hassle factor, in all likelihood.

Some more “hints:”

Be honest about your car’s condition when setting the price. Have a friend or coworker take a look and tell you what they think of the paint and interior so you can see it with “fresh eyes.”

Decide what your time is worth. Selling a car is a hassle, and only you know whether it’s worth it to you to entertain 10 different shoppers in an effort to get an extra few hundred or whether to have the sharpest price and sell it to the first person who sees it.

Your buyer isn’t going to care at all how much you have remaining on your loan. Many buyers will not care at all that you spent lots of money on wheels, accessories or the like. They will in all likelihood view those as “throw ins” that won’t factor in to whether they buy your car. Factory stock is the easiest condition to sell a car in. If you have valuable wheels, take them off and sell separately, or accept that most people won’t care or may even view them negatively.

A clean, well-cared for car priced aggressively will sell immediately, in my experience. Most buyers have seen several cars, a lot of them junk, and will know right away that you’re offering a good deal.

Finally, don’t spam if you use an online ad. It doesn’t attract new buyers and irritates a lot of people. If you’re selling a Toyota the buyers of Lexus and Acuras aren’t going to magically decide your car is one when you put “not Acura, Lexus, etc.” in your ad. I mark all such ads as spam on craigslist and know many others who do the same.

Selling a car with problems to someone who doesn’t mind *buying* a car with problems is a great way to get rid of a problem car. There’s always someone out there that wants to buy a winter beater they can drive for four months and then junk, or a preassembled box of parts for a car they already have, or a platform for their latest project, or whatever. Be honest with buyers, but not too honest — and specifically, be honest about the stuff you don’t know. “It won’t turn over on odd-numbered days, I haven’t had it checked out” is fine; “… I think it’s the veeblefitzer, but I’m not sure” is asking for a buyer that comes back and says it wasn’t the veeblefitzer, it was something that cost 10x as much.

The dealer on the other hand wants nothing to do with your lemon unless you’re buying a car from them, in which case they’ll give you a price for it, increase their bargaining point on the car you’re buying to make up for that price, and trailer it to the junkyard at the end of the day. If the car’s not in condition to put back on the lot or to sell at a dealer auction it’s a liability to a dealer.

If your car is really in such rough shape that you wouldn’t even wish it on a guy ready to take it away on a trailer, then the way to get what you can on it is to take it to a junkyard. (Then again, the junkyard wants it because they can turn around and part it out — which means they think the guy looking for it is out there somewhere!).

One other option if you’re not desperate for the money even a junkyard would produce: donate it to charity. Charities that take cars don’t care if they run, most of the time; they’re happy to have someone donate their time to pick up your donated car and take it to the junkyard themselves, and put the proceeds back into the charity.

I’ve heard similar horror stories, but all of my bad experiences have actually been on the *buying* end of used car transactions. Those were when I was young, insecure, and foolish, and I like to think I’d do things differently now, but who knows. It’s because of these early bad car-buying experiences that I’ve bought my last two cars new…

“This vehicle is sold as-is. Buyer assumes all liability and guarantees the vehicle will be registered in their name immediately.”

I know people who sold cars, then the buyer never registered it in their name, then they drove it for months, racked up parking tickets and crashed the car, leaving the previous owner with legal liability for damages from the crash and the tickets. It would really be best to go with the buyer to the DMV and watch them register the car in their name.