Selling high-end vehicles?
 

Anybody here have experience selling high-end automobiles? I'm bidding on a 2011 car at auction that i can get for about 70% of kelley blue book value. Any tips on selling it? I thought about craigslist and ebay or maybe even visiting dealerships to see what they'd offer. :thumbsup

nothing..???:helpme

Generally speaking, you never win on cars. If this vehicle is going for a substantially different price than KBB says it should cost, chances are very good that other prospective buyers aren't rating its condition as highly as you are. If you do manage to get a very good deal, CL is an OK place to post it but make sure to price it 10% higher than what you really expect to sell it for, CL buyers inn my experience tend to talk price before they even see the vehicle.

Excellent advice - thanks very much, dude! I think i've offered just higher than what dealers offered for this car. It only has 800 miles on it, so it's like BRAND NEW. If i can flip it and make 5-8 grand i'll be very happy. KBB is $42,000 and i'm getting it for $28,000

What kind of car is it?

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That seems like a really good deal if there isn't something you're not seeing. Have you checked the vehicle's Carfax report? KBB is a reliable source for price info and the dealer buyers I know will go up to about 80% of KBB at an auction. If things are as good as you make them sound, you might be the exception to the rule.

is it a classic?

Can you read? :1orglaugh

if it can be flipped for 5-8k, then they'd be selling it for 5-8k more.

Selling cars is a tough market, but buying at auctions and selling is one of the things that used dealers do, so there is money to be made there.

Worthless asking for advise without naming type of car.

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I have a buddy who makes a living doing this, buying cars at auction, selling them on ebay and so on, there's only a few types of cars he will ever buy, normally family run arounds as there is always a market, he never makes that kind of profit on one deal, there's a catch in there somewhere

DupontRegistey.com

When selling my old car, I created a web page for it, but got some decent traffic from sites like autotrader. Came down to listing it on an Audi forum

$42,000 isn't high-end. $420,000 is. You bought a low to mid wholesale. If you decide to try this out for extra cash you will need to check into your state laws as to how many cars you are able to sell in a year without a dealer license. That's right. They figure normal people don't buy and sell cars like I do so they put limits. 5 in my state. In reality it's to cut down on competition by the dealer associations as with any other license (the right to do something considered illegal by your masters). I trade on average once every month or two between multiple vehicles. Pretty much because I get bored easily with them. Anyway the only way around this is open titles and risking getting caught with wrong tags. Otherwise you will have to setup as a dealer or buy into a dealer license. There are ways of doing that.

And normal insurance only covers cars registered in your name. Registering requires sales tax unless you have a dealers license. So there goes around 6 % in most cases.

Still haven't told us type of car ...

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True, true you can have non-owner insurance which would cover anything you drive but you can't have anything titled in your name.

On what fucking planet is a $42k car considered "high end"? High end doesn't even start until $100k...

wow - thanks to all of you for all of this great info!

Here's more information about the car:

It's a 2011 Ford Challenger. It has 800 miles on it, so i presume a manager at a dealership drove it around for a few weeks, or it was used for test drives, or someone bought it and returned it (there's a law allowing this in california - the state i'm in.)

It's spotless inside and out, and has no damage listed. It's at auction and i have the highest bid, the auction closes tomorrow.

I just picked up a '97 Mercedes eclass for $2,900 from the same auction company. The KBB on that car is $5,200 so i think it should do ok so long as it doesn't need any work, or just needs minor repair.

Again, thanks a lot, fellas!!

:)

You mean dodge challenger?

Yeah, "Ford" Challenger????? I would really be checking the paper work on that one :).

Shit! yeah, i responded too quickly because i felt bad about not listing the make/model and then i get it wrong! Sorry about that..

Correction - it's a 2011 Dodge Challenger. Thx K0nr4d :thumbsup

cheap for a reason

2011 :thumbsup 2013's will be rolling out soon.

DO NOT BUY IT before you check what people are listing similar cars for on car forums for that brand/model.

You will have a tough time selling it even if you list it at trade-in value as the SALE price. KBB price is worthless now a days, it means nothing.

If you can back out, do so NOW. You will end up losing money more than likely.

Trust me, I know about buying/selling cars -- I'm on my 25th car within 10 years.

Can you give more specifics? For example, if it's a V6 the high book on it is about 27K

I have bought and sold many cars in my time and worked at several car dealerships and currently have a wholesale license to buy and sell so I can look on Manheim auction site and tell you what they have sold for recently.

Is it ....
Challenger-V6
Coupe 2D SE

CHALLENGER-V8
Coupe 2D R/T
Coupe 2D SRT-8

What options does it have? NAV, Leather, Boston Acoustic speakers?

Thanks a lot, Krosh!

It's not the V6, it's the V8 (hemi) but i don't know whether it's R/T or SRT-8. Also don't know about options but i can see the interior is definitely leather. I could email pics if that would help answer any of the other questions.

Here's the info i have:

Year: 2011
Make: DODGE
Model Detail: CHALLENGER
Color: ORANGE
Body Style: COUPE
Engine: 6.4L 8
Blue Book Value: $43,973.00 USD

Has leather interior and nav. :thumbsup

Ford is garbage lol

i found out its:

Model: Challenger SRT8

Well it's the srt-8 since it has a 6.4L Hemi in it.

You should be able to sell that car for 35-37K without a problem. This is all assuming the car has a clean car fax and the mileage is true, then you are getting a hell of a deal.

Are you buying off copart?

Ding Ding Ding :)

The car is an SRT-8 but the 800 miles are not actual miles. The Carfax has 7 records in history

I would buy a report for $35 and find out why they are selling the car so cheap and why a 2011 is not under warranty :2 cents:

This is a Salvage Title

no it says clear title. but the odometer has an issue. i bought the report - can i email it to you? I've been trying to hit you up on icq but i guess you're offline. no accidents reported.

i bought the autocheck vehicle history and it doesn't list as salvage... :helpme

1 Problem(s) Reported: 15 Title/Problem areas checked:
No abandoned title record
No damaged title or major damage incident record
No fire damaged title record
No grey market title record
No hail damage title record
No insurance loss title or probable total loss record
No junk or scrapped title record
No manufacturer buyback/lemon title record
--- Odometer problem title record(s) :helpme
No rebuilt/rebuildable title record
No salvage title or salvage auction record :thumbsup
No water damaged title record
No NHTSA crash test record
No frame/unibody damage record
No recycling facility record

Here's the info from auto check:

--------
Odometer Problem Title and ProblemCheck

The vehicle has odometer-related problems. These may include discrepancies such as not actual miles, a broken odometer, exceeding a vehicle?s mechanical limits, a mileage discrepancy, or suspect miles.
--------

I don't know if/how this affects warranty eligibility and insurance eligibility...:(

If you can't afford a Dodge, dodge a Ford.

Good luck :) lol

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

My dad is the auctioneer at those shindigs so you likely bought it from him if you live in California... however, Blue Book is WAY WAY WAY off and is no longer a reliable measure of resale prices.

Always try to get the CarFax FIRST before you buy.

In general, American cars have TERRIBLE resale rates right now. Some of that is quality. Some of that is consumer fear. Some of that is because they are so darn expensive.

Are you able to offer loan terms to someone? That often makes the big difference between someone interested in your car and someone being able to BUY said car. Very few people have that kind of cash on hand... and most dealerships are offering 0% down 0% interest so loans look friendly on a new car instead of "saving money" that you don't have by buying a used car for a lot.

Craigslist and Ebay Motors are where I've resold most of my auction cars, but it is getting crunchier and crunchier out there. These days I mostly sell only motorcycles since they are a product I know much more intimately and they are less volatile then cars.

PS, Hondas hold resale value better then all other car brands combined. Can't go wrong buying a Honda for reselling. :)

Yea best of luck selling an SRT8 when gas is climbing the way it has, privately none the less. Seems super shady too, 2011 with 800 miles, doubtful. If its too good to be true...

Keep in mind a buyer with cash is rare. Also keep in mind financing a new car can be less than a 1-2 year old of the same type because of manufacturer finance rates. Good chance you won't be able to flip it.

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I agree an SRT8 with odometer "issues" definitely doesn't sound on the up and up. If it's at auction then the dealer couldn't sell it on the lot for much more than they are sending it to auction for. Every once in awhile you can get a steal like I did on my Cadillac SRX that was waiting to be loaded to go to auction. It had an issue with a wheel bearing, the CD player was not working and had a broken shock and a few odds and ends. We bought it and they didn't disclose any of these issues so they ended up spending about $4k to fix everything at cost. The SRX kbb'd for about $21k and they had it going to auction at $14k so that's what we paid including extended GMPP warranty, Window Tint, Lifetime Detailing(12/year) and I even made them fill it up with gas.

Good Luck with the SRT8 and let us know if you do end up taking the plunge.

Will be interesting to see what happens on this. If you get it and can't flip it, you definitely will have fun driving it. A great car to drive :)

100800 miles and clocked to buggery.

I love this fucking site! Thanks very much to all of you - there's clearly GREAT advice in this thread.

The car ended up getting bid up higher at the last minute, all the way to $30,000 and that's just the online bidding - it may have gone even higher if folks physically at the auction bid even more...

I stopped increasing my bid at $27,500 - and reading all of your input i'm really glad i did!

Thanks everyone!

This thread, like the car, is a classic.

That's cool about yr dad!

I was also wondering about financing.. can i just refer ppl to auto loan providers? Or would i need a 'brokers' license of some sort to do that? When i financed a car a couple years back i got the best rate from Citi.. I'd be happy to take ppl's name, social, etc. and find them the best rate - especially if it helped move more expensive cars. Last week i picked up a 1993 BMW 525i for $2000 at auction and sold it for a $1500 profit. Not bad, but i'd rather focus on more expensive vehicles with (...potentially) higher margins.

Thx again for all the great pointers, suggestions and (especially) cautionary advice!

gfy:321GFY

its just a car. it will cost you money not make you money. you will lose. try to have fun and enjoy it. but you will still lose.