Best Way to Sell Your Used Car

The colors and options can also make an impact on the value of your trade-in. The other time you want to sell it yourself is if the vehicle has been in a major accident.

Is CarMax Legitimate?

Most franchised dealers won’t even sell the cars themselves, but rather wholesale them to other independent dealers or get rid of them at auction. To the buyer, and if your title is held by a bank you’ll need the buyer to work with the lending institution to pay off the loan before the title is released. CarMax pays by bank draft immediately when you sign the papers to sell your car. This is a type of certified check that needs to be deposited into a bank account — not cashed elsewhere. We found CarMax gave the best offers out of all the companies we compared for selling.

What’s the best way to sell a car?

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Check to make sure your auto insurance covers any test drive, and ask to see the potential buyer’s driver’s license before handing over your keys. Take a picture of the license, just in case anything happens.

When selling through a dealership, the paperwork is handled for you. You must keep track of the paperwork when you sell to an individual.

In fact, it gave offers slightly above the Kelley Blue Book trade-in value. However, when it came to buying a car, their prices were more expensive than average — and they had some of the highest on the market. The last step is purchasing the vehicle and choosing a payment option. There are multiple payment options available, including cash, financing through an outside lender and their in-house financing. Once you choose a payment method, you’ll be able to either pick up your new car or have it delivered to your home. Daniel is a MarketWatch Guides team authority on auto insurance, loans, warranty options, auto services and more.

It’s very rare for a used car to qualify for an “Excellent” rating – only those stored in a garage and never driven will pass the test. In general, there are four factors that affect the value of your used car to a dealer. Selling the vehicle yourself will minimize this diminished value. You still won’t get the same amount compared to if the car had never been in an accident, but you’ll still be much better off.