Is the used car market dead right now?(2017)

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Seems like it's impossible to sell any car these days through private party.

I listed my 2006 BMW 330XI on Craigslist for nearly a month now. 103,000 miles. Great shape and whatnot, I mean it's 11 years old so it isn't a garage queen, that being said it's still in pretty good shape. KBB was 6100-7000 depending on condition and NADA valued it at 6500. I listed for 6500 with room to negotiate. I offered another set of BMW wheels along with the deal($750) and a cold air intake($250).

Got little interest in the car. Dude called and offered 5700. Not sure where he got that number from. Something like this off a dealer is 7500-9000. I also parked it next to a busy road and still no interest.

Am I asking too much or is the used market just dead now? Anybody else running into the same issue?I know book value is just an estimate but looking at the overall market low to mid 6's is a fair range.

Same junk happened years ago when I told my Silverado and later on my Outback. I was able to sell the Silverado because it was like $4000 under book value(I got it from a dealer auction, found out it was trashed, so I sold it for the same price I paid 6 months later). A friend of mine, who is a dealer, has no trouble selling 3-4k cars at a couple hundred below book value. He doesn't offer financing or warranty.
 
You listed it for 6500 with some haggling room, and your were offered 5700. Sounds like a good starting point for some haggling.

KBB is always wrong in my area. NADA is usually on the money.
 
You probably have to branch out to a few other sites like cars.com or autotrader.com. Plus maybe you need more pictures.
 
Where are you located? Maybe it's the wrong car for rural Arkansas clientele?

Wait a bit and drop the price. Something is only worth what someone will pay for it. I just sold a 2001 Buick LeSabre. In the pictures it looked like a brand new car, listed for $1,500. Had very little interest for over a month. Dropped price to $1,300 and within 16 hours or so I had 8 people wanting the car, it was so weird.
 
It could also have to do with the time of year. It is the middle of winter and most people don't have their tax refunds yet. I'll bet if you relist in May you'll get more interest.

Also, I think $5700 was a fair start for negotiation. Did you try to counter-offer?
 
Advertise it in SF Bay Area CL. Offer to ship if you can reach a deal. It'll be gone in a week
smile.gif
 
Originally Posted By: SF0059
It could also have to do with the time of year. It is the middle of winter and most people don't have their tax refunds yet. I'll bet if you relist in May you'll get more interest.

Also, I think $5700 was a fair start for negotiation. Did you try to counter-offer?

Agree. I'd tell him $6k and see if he bites. If he does, SOLD!
People are gonna offer you what they think is the minimum they can get away with because they want to feel like they got a deal.
 
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The car is located in central New York and listed there, so it's there's def a decent market for luxury cars.

I was offered 5700 by a guy who had a "take it or leave it" attitude. I told him 6000 but he wasn't willing to budge.

LOL i was offered $4500 on trade in for the car here in Arkansas. I drove it back to NY thinking it could yield atleast 6000 making it worth the hassle. Had I known it'd be such a pain to sell I would have traded it in and took a ~$1000 loss.

I was thinking maybe it's just because it's a old luxury car, but I had the same issue with other cars I have sold over the years. My 04 Outback took months to sell, asked 2200 since it had 250k miles but everything worked(values were about 3500). Ended up selling it for $1000. Kind of makes me think there really isn't a market for used cars anymore due to all of the horror stories people talk about. Like buying a complete lemon or issues with titling and such.
 
The type of vehicle it is matters most. Many out there are slow sellers because it's wasn't a popular car to begin with when new, let alone when it's an old rust bucket.

Also, people these days seem to believe auto review sites and even average Joe's who post YouTube videos of used car reviews after X amount of miles more and more. If someone even ONCE mentioned that this model has notorious problems and advices to stay away from it... good luck trying to sell it.

I actually feel the opposite of what you're saying. There's so many EPIC deals on luxury used cars that are 10 years old that it baffles my mind that I can pickup a MINT condition Jag for $2,500 that is loaded with everything while others are buying an old average Honda Accord for the same price. Lol.
 
List your car on a local BMW FB group or on a site like Bimmerfest or Bimmerforums. You need to expose the people that want your car, to your car.

At the same time, if it's just a vanilla automatic 330xi, I can see why you're having trouble.

330i's get straight fought over at 10k+ if they're sport package + manual.
 
In Texas it made more sense for me to trade in our last three vehicles.

You pay no sales tax on the value of the trade. When I lived in NY you paid tax no matter what, so it didn't make sense there.

My last deal, I traded a 99k mile RAV4 for a 39k mile sonata. Trade value was 10k, sonata cost $10,250.

Essentially paid sales tax of 6% on $250, which was like $15 when I bought the car from a dealer.

If I didn't trade in my RAV4 I likely would have gotten less for it, and paid $615 in Taxes on the new purchase.
 
Originally Posted By: rooflessVW
You need to expose the people that want your car, to your car.


This. Especially with a boutique or special interest/high performance car.

I almost always get extreme premium prices for my used cars and trucks. Clean, straight, and needs nothing sells like hotcakes around here in Fl....
 
Originally Posted By: avacado11
I listed my 2006 BMW 330XI on Craigslist

You're trying to sell a BMW on Craigslist? Maybe it's different in your area, but around here Craigslist is where people go when they need a cheap beater, not a quality vehicle.
You have a vehicle that has an extremely limited market, even more so when it's 10+ years old with over 100,000 miles on it. Unless it's dirt cheap, Craigslist isn't the place to sell a BMW.
 
It's harder to sell a $6K vehicle as a private individual since most people finance something in that price range. Most people wanna go to a dealer and get easy financing. People want easy. It's easy to sell an old car cheap like say an old Honda Civic or Chevy Cobalt.
 
Originally Posted By: skyactiv
It's harder to sell a $6K vehicle as a private individual since most people finance something in that price range. Most people wanna go to a dealer and get easy financing. People want easy. It's easy to sell an old car cheap like say an old Honda Civic or Chevy Cobalt.


I was gonna say this.

Mr $5700 was rude but the time he invested was 30 seconds. So if he has 1/10 successes he still wasted less time than driving across town and making an offer in person. When I get lowballed I just say give me your number and if it doesn't sell in two weeks I'll give you a holler. That gives the "buyer" pause-- if he NEEDS a car he'll counter higher. If he just wants to screw around he'll wait. It also reinforces the idea that "first with a reasonable amount of cash, gets, not saving for anyone."

IMO the economy is hot-hot-hot and people who normally buy used are buying new. Stuff that used to be untouchable is now reasonable-- I got a serviceable camry for $400! Used to be if someone said "toyota" that was an instant $2500.
 
OEM's have been cranking out new cars for a few years now. I'd think used has got to be dropping in value.

And that's true, if one has $5k in cash to buy a car with, it's awfully tempting to use it as a downpayment and get something that doesn't need anything (other than regular payments).
 
You are so right about that. An Accord or Camry would be gone at that price/age/miles in a day or two.
There are some compelling deals on new cars out there, which drives down used car values.
Plus, the typical new car buyer is already driving something, so all of those units come into the used car market, increasing supply and further driving down prices.
Also, leasing returned in a big way several years ago, so there are plenty of late model, low mileage used cars coming off lease out there with low new car prices capping their value.
Used car supply is sufficient to keep used car prices lower than they were just a few years ago.
In the OP's case, he's priced his car just above the dividing line between beater and nice car.
Many of the rubes are frightened at the idea of buying an old BMW, since they're thought of fairly or not as money pits. Many will dismiss the thought of a nice old three series out of hand and not bother to do any research on the model's overall reliability as well as what breaks and how much it costs to fix.
Lots of people can reach into their back pockets, so to speak, and come up with $5-6K and an old BMW is certainly a more entertaining and satisfying car to drive for that money than is a good Camry or Accord of similar age and miles. Much nicer seats and interior trim as well along with much better paint quality.
An older BMW or Benz can be a real bargain although a prospective buyer should do his homework.
 
Originally Posted By: eljefino


Mr $5700 was rude but the time he invested was 30 seconds. So if he has 1/10 successes he still wasted less time than driving across town and making an offer in person. When I get lowballed I just say give me your number and if it doesn't sell in two weeks I'll give you a holler.

OP listed the car for $6500 or best offer
Guy offered $5700 (87% of his asking price)

How is that rude or a lowball offer? Lowball to me would've been like "hey man I'll give you 1500 CASH"


Also, OP mentions that KBB pricing was around 6100. I'd say 5700 is a pretty fair offer! I don't consider NADA values because that is dealer pricing.
 
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