Is it better to sell or trade my car?

All states are a bit different, but all of the ones I lived in are pretty simple. Selling a car requires the following; a title, a signature on the title, and that's it. Someone hands you payment, you hand them keys, the car, and the signed title. Registration fees are their responsibility. In states that require smog (like CA) the seller is supposed to have had a successful smog check within the last 90 days. You can get around that by agreeing for the buyer to be responsible for smog and you just post-date the title. Its not legal, nor is it common since buyers don't want to get stuck with a polluter.

If you sell it yourself, you'll almost always do better. Dealers use KBB and NADA as guides, but they'll undercut you big time if they get the chance. If your current car shows up with a trade-in value of 5000, don't be surprised if they offer you 2000 to try and dash your hopes. You'll quote NADA and then they'll go out and "devalue the trade" which is a walkaround where they point out every single flaw on the trade.

If you have the time to sell your own car, do it. Skip the crap at the dealer. If you know what you're doing and can spot a rotten deal then it can't hurt to see what their offer is, but they don't make money by offering fair deals. They make money by giving you less than your trade is worth so they can sell it for a profit.

Depending on your skill; you should usually expect to be able to split the difference between the KBB trade in value and retail value selling it yourself. The dealer has a massive overhead that you do not, so he has little choice but to pay less and sell for more. Check past sales on EBAY before you do anything, as that may prove to be a simple solution. Also; it's a good idea to draw up a bill of sale that states "as is", with mileage, make, model, the Driver's License number and signature of whomever you sell it to along with the date and time. This way; if he should do anything bad (like cause an accident prior to getting his own title), you have proof that you aren't responsible. Do the same when buying a car.

selling a car is a pain in the ass. You always have a bunch of weasel eatin lowlifes who now can find yer house and make you part of their cadre of contacts. I have sold a few old cars and always use a free-lance dealer to list it along with his others, then I pay him a commission and Im out of the whole thing entirely.
Im not a really motivated car salesman, Im not friendly and smiley. In fact Im quite judgemental, and if Id see someone who wouldnt honor my cars , then that person can just take a hike.

Selling a car on your own can be a huge pain in the ass. People buying from a private seller are going to want a deal, not pay what they can pay at a dealership and get a warranty attached.

And Kelly Blue Book may not mean sh!t to what your car is actually worth. The trick is finding out what the real market is on it. You could take it to a few used car dealerships, and ask how much they would straight out buy it from you for. They're probably going to list it for about $3-4K more and make at least a $1500 profit on a minimum deal re-selling it.

If you know how to do your homework, you can probably sell it on your own for $1000 more than what you could sell/trade at a dealer for. But it could take months...unless it's a high demand vehicle, something like a minivan people can find dozens in their immediate area.

Also, if you go to trade a vehicle, they will most likely inflate the number they're giving you on trade in lieu of a discount on the car you're buying. If you plan on trading, don't even bring up a trade until after you negotiate the price of the car you're buying. If not you'll confuse yourself.

Ebay is also a good idea, but look at "sold" items, not what people are listing for them.

I was just wondering about this.

The good part about a trade is immediate sale. It's gone you get the cash or the trade in money toward the new car. The bad part is you don't get the full value of the car, as everyone else has stated.

The good part about selling is you can probably get more money for it. The bad part is it could take months to sell, you have to advertise and you have to be willing to put in the time to show it to people and all that crap.

I think trade in is better just in the interest of time.

However, say the Kelly estimator says my trade in is in "Good" condition and give me a value of $3200. What is the best guess of what a dealership will give me on it?

I got another question about selling my car.

I lost my pink slip. Do I need the pink slip to sell the car? If so, can I get another one from the DMV? Or from my dealership where I bought the car 11 years ago?

The dealer will have nothing for you. Go to your DMV and request that they issue you a replacemnet title. They may (probably will) charge you a nominal fee for it. And yes, you do need it. Some states will allow you to sell a car without the title but someone is going to run into problems in the future so it's best to just avoid the whole hassle, get one and transfer it. In other states the title transfer is a mandatory part of selling the car so you have no choice.

I'm not sure what you mean by pink slip, although i assume you mean the title (as in "racing for pink slips.) If you mean the title to the vehicle, then yes, go to DMV (or whatever it is called in your state). They can do a title search. For that you will need your identification and the Vehicle Identification Number and a current registration, to prove that you are the person who has currently registered the vehicle. Warning, you have to pay for a title search, and the price varies. In some states, a title search ain't cheap.

Just wanted to interject...

Dealer offered us $2500 for our used car.
Craigslist got it sold in 1 day for $4400.

Try selling it first.

Re: Is it better to sell or trade my car?


Much better to sell it yourself if at all possible.

What happens to my car insurance? Is the new owner going to be covered by my insurance if heaven forbid he gets into an accident?

You sell your car to someone...you take your insurance off of it as well as the plates.

Go immediately to the DMV and establish the car as sold. That protects you if the person is a total flake. At least it used to, in California.

If you're selling something that people are going to want (like slappy said), it's very worth it to sell it yourself. We asked about $2K more than we were willing to take on our Civic hatchback a couple of years ago (when they didn't make the hatch anymore, only the useless coupe) and sold it to the first kid who called for about $200 less than we asked. We probably could have done better if we held out, but he seemed like a good kid and I HATE selling cars.

However, I'm of the opinion that if you're car is in decent running order, you'll probably be able to sell it for at least what you'd get in trade inside a week. It may be less than you want, but if you hate the car-selling process, you can go cut-rate and still come out ahead of trade-in without too much effort.

A tip, if you're going to sell it: be honest on the phone about any problems the car has. It's a pain in everybody's ass to have them come out and look at it and then find out it's an oil-burner or whatever.

You mean don't leave out the part about the car having a replaced engine that has about 30K more miles than the car itself, and that replaced engine's seals are leaking oil, making it produce blue smoke from the exhaust, that you can't see because I, er, I mean, someone put "smokeless oil" in it?

Smokeless oil, huh? I just run it really hot for a couple hours until I crack the head, and then figure that the white from the burning coolant mixes with the oil smoke to make a more natural exhaust color.

You're the expert, though.

I agree 100%.

You seem more trustworthy when they actually do see the car and notice that you scrutinized the details and pulled your price with those factors considered.

At least that's what the guy who bought our car pretty much said. The first words out of his mouth were "Your husbands a real straight shooter." And the second words were offering us a price higher than what he had stated on the phone. I can only assume that he assumed what he'd find when he saw the car was what he'd offered over the phone. When that didn't turn out to be the case, he came back with a higher bid.

Okay...I have a buyer who is also my co-worker. After she gives me a check, do I leave my car registration in the car or do I take it with me?

Take it.

The car isn't registered to you any more.